Deployment Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2

348 Deployment Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2

6.1 Agent Builder overview

IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent Builder is a set of tools used for creating agents,

installation packages for the created agents and value-add solutions for existing

agents. Using the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent Builder, you can quickly create,

modify, and test an agent. Agents collect and analyze data about the state and

performance of different resources, such as disks, memory, CPU, or applications.

Agent Builder is based on Eclipse and runs on Windows, AIX, and Linux

platforms.

Agent Builder creates stand-alone agents that can run on Windows, AIX, Linux,

Solaris, and HP platforms. It can incorporate queries, situations and workspaces

with the agent. Agent Builder creates local or remotely installed images at the

end of the customization process.

The Agent Builder creates agents that have encapsulated data providers, unlike

the Universal Agent, where all the data providers are exposed. The Agent Builder

creates a number of XML files that are used to direct the built-in data providers.

The deployed agents are fully integrated into the Enterprise Information Base

(EIB). The EIB is the infrastructure of all collected data by the IBM Tivoli

Monitoring product. Since data provided by the Agent Builder built agents is

integrated into the EIB, it provides seamless integration into the Tivoli Portal real

time and historical query interface. It also allows administrators to create

monitoring situations for the Agent Builder data providers. Finally, it also provides

a common portal interface to turn data warehousing on.

Note: The IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent Builder is a plug-in for the Eclipse 3.2

platform, an open source framework for the construction of powerful software

development tools and rich desktop applications. Leveraging the Eclipse

plug-in framework to integrate technology on the desktop can save technology

providers time and money for focusing effort on delivering differentiation and

value for their offerings. Eclipse is a multi-language, multi-platform, and

multivendor supported environment that an open source community of

developers built and provided royalty-free through the Eclipse Foundation.

Written in the Java language, Eclipse includes extensive plug-in construction

toolkits and examples, and can be extended and run on a range of desktop

operating systems, including Windows, Linux, QNX, and Macintosh OS X. To

see the full details about Eclipse and the Eclipse Foundation, go to

http://www.eclipse.org.