Managing collection profiles

The Collection Profiles tab allows you to configure data collector templates that can simplify the process of data collection. A collection profile allows administrators to capture the input parameters necessary for creating a data collector and then reuse it for future configurations. You can create a collection profile by adding a new data collector or using an existing data collector. Once you have created the collection profile, you can associate it with the appropriate host. As soon as you associate the collection profile with the host, in a short period of time, data collectors are automatically added under the Data Collectors tab.

You can also associate a collection profile while configuring the BMC PATROL Knowledge Module (KM) for IT Data Analytics, in one of the following ways:

By using PATROL Configuration Manager (PCM)
By using BMC ProactiveNet Central Monitoring Administration Console

It is important that the collection profile you want to associate already has groups access permissions defined. Without this, all the app admin users can see the data collectors created through such collection profiles.

For more information, see Configuring-after-installation.

Note

Creation of collection profiles depends on the number of hosts. You can create one collection profile per host or many collection profiles per host. In a single server environment, where all the components of your application are deployed on the same server, you can create one collection profile with data collector templates for each of the components. After this is done, associate that collection profile with the single host.

This topic contains the following information:

Advantages of using a collection profile

A collection profile has the following advantages:

Reduces the amount of manual work and time for configuring data collectors.
Reduces errors introduced during manual configuration.
Ensures consistent collection configuration across respective environments.
Helps automate the collection configuration of hosts and allow it to be driven from the BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management (or the BMC PATROL KM for IT Data Analytics) configuration.

Use case for using a collection profile

Collection profiles can be useful in a scenario where you have multitier applications existing on multiple hosts. The following use case describes such a scenario:

Example

Base Scenario: Suppose you are an administrator responsible for collecting data. In this role, you will first identify the various hosts in your environment from which you want to collect data. Suppose that in your environment, you have two applications with two tiers and each tier lies on a different host.

Environment: Application A is made up of Apache Tomcat with an Oracle database on the back end (that resides on a separate host). Application B is made up of Apache Tomcat with a Microsoft SQL Server on the back end (that resides on a separate host). While Application A runs on both Windows and Linux, Application B runs on Windows only. Oracle runs on Linux, while Microsoft SQL Server runs on Windows. Multiple instances of Applications A and B are spread across multiple hosts.

Usage: As an administrator, you can proceed as follows:

Identify the common profiles that exist across the various hosts supporting the two applications:
- Oracle database log files on Linux
- Microsoft SQL Server database log files on Windows
- Apache Tomcat generic log files on Windows and Linux
- Application-specific log files for Application A on Windows and Linux
- Application-specific log files for Application B on Linux
Identify the log file paths for each of the profiles identified in step 1. Navigate to Administration > Collection Profiles and configure a collection profile for a specific host, adding separate data collector templates for each of the profiles. While adding a data collector template, you can specify the input parameters required for the data collection, the tags, and the group access permissions that will be passed on to the data collector.
Navigate to Administration > Hosts, and associate the collection profile with each of the hosts relevant to the various profiles.
Within a short period of time, the data collectors for each of the profiles are automatically created and data collection starts.

Viewing and searching configured collection profiles

The Collection Profiles tab allows you to manage collection profiles. To access this tab, navigate to Administration > Collection Profiles. From here, you can perform the following actions:

The Collection Profiles tab provides the following information:

Field	Description
Name	Name of the collection profile configured.
Description	Description of the collection profile configured.

Creating a collection profile

Navigate to Administration > Collection Profiles.
Click Add Collection Profile
In the Name field, provide an appropriate name to identify the collection profile.
(Optional) In the Description field, provide additional information about the collection profile.
Click Create Data Collector Template to add data collector templates in one of the following ways:
Click Create.

Where to go from here

Associate the collection profile with the appropriate hosts. For more information, see Managing hosts.