Author Archives: Szabolcs Barabas

Integrating Omnibus and PRTG using SNMP probe

This guide contains instructions for configuring PRTG Network Monitor software to send SNMP traps to a Omnibus.

Prerequisites:

  • working Omnibus instance
  • SNMP probe (mttrapd) installed and configured

More info on installing and configuring mttrapd.

First step is importing the MIB file.

PRTG Network monitor comes with a MIB file called PRTG-MIB.mib this file you can find in PRTG installation directory. Open mib manager utility to do the import.

/app/IBM/tivoli/netcool/omnibus/bin/nco_mibmanager

PRTG-MIB.mib is depending on SNMPv2-SMI , RFC-1215 and SNMPv2-TC  MIB files, so make sure they are accessible. (all of them are in the default MIB set of Omnibus)

As we see , the trap OID is 0.10  (1.3.6.1.4.1.32446.0.10) , and other attributes can be defined with OIDs 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4.

SNMP traps sent by PRTG always use SNMP V1 format. The following OIDs will be included in the trap:

1.3.6.1.4.1.32446.1.1.1: MessageID (as defined by the user in the Field “Message ID”)
1.3.6.1.4.1.32446.1.1.2: An integer representing the event that triggered the notification:
0 = State ended
1 = State started
2 = Volume reached
3 = Speed not reached
4 = Speed reached
5 = Threshold not reached
6 = Threshold reached
7 = Value changed
1.3.6.1.4.1.32446.1.1.3: The state of the object:
0 = None
1 = Unknown
2 = Collecting Data
3 = Up
4 = Warning
5 = Down
6 = No Probe
7 = Paused by User
8 = Paused by Dependency
9 = Paused by Schedule
10 = Unusual
11 = Paused by License
12 = Paused until
13 = Down (Acknowledged)
14 = Down (Partial)
1.3.6.1.4.1.32446.1.1.4: The message text of the notification as defined by the user.

Select the top level enterprise OID from OID browser, click export rules file. Select location for the rules file, and choose rules file type.

Select standalone if you use this SNMP source only, or Netcool knowledge library to export master rules and include rules for more kind of sources.

Now open PRTG Enterprise Console, and navigate to Setup -> Notifications  and create a new notification type clicking “add new notification” button.

Select “Send SNMP Trap” option, and enter connection info:

  • SNMP probe hostname or IP address
  • Port
  • Community string
  • Specific Trap Code  (10)
  • Message ID (used for filtering)
  • Message (configurable using PRTG specific parameters. See PRTG Help for info )

Save the notification and test it clicking “Test” button next to Notification you just created.

Now (if you’re lucky) an event pops up on Omnibus console.

This event is not formatted, ( fe.: Summary field is empty ) so you have to create mappings between PRTG Trap OID values and Omnibus fields. You can do it by editing the rules file you generated before.

Locate the following section :

And edit the Omnibus fields ( @Agent, @Summary, etc. ) enter the information what you want to present on your console. The values of the four OIDs sent with the trap are

  • 1.1 = $paesslerPrtgTrapID
  • 1.2 = $paesslerPrtgTrapEvent
  • 1.3 = $paesslerPrtgTrapSensorstate
  • 1.4 = $paesslerPrtgTrapMessage

In our example Summary field will contain the value of paesslerPrtgTrapMessage OID, but you can customize other fields as well.

Modifications Required on Omnibus Server

Extend the size of the Summary filed in the Alerts table from 255 to at least 1024 as PRTG sends long problem descriptions and it won’t fit into the 255 character default.

modsummaryIn order to make it work with the SNMP probe modify the probe’s def file located in /opt/IBM/tivoli/netcool/omnibus/var/

Replace the value from 255 to 1024:

Identifier 2 255 1
Serial 0 4 0
Node 2 64 0
NodeAlias 2 64 0
Manager 2 64 0
Agent 2 64 0
AlertGroup 2 255 0
AlertKey 2 255 0
Severity 0 4 0
Summary 2 1024 0
StateChange 1 4 0
FirstOccurrence 1 4 0
LastOccurrence 1 4 0
InternalLast 1 4 0
Poll 0 4 0

Restart the probe.

And the final result :

prtgsummary

 

Error starting Integration Composer

SmartCloud Control Desk comes bundled with IBM Tivoli Integration Composer.  In case of SCCD version 7.5.3 , after installing ITIC it cannot be started.

If we run startFusion.sh , it stops with java.lang.ClassNotFoundException

Examining the script we see it calls init.sh, which has a property called FSNBUILD. This is the version number of SCCD – referring to the IntegrationComposer####.jar (located in the workarea directory)

In ver. 7.5.3, we have workarea/IntegrationComposer7530.jar file and in init.sh FSNBUILD=7510. Changing FSNBUILD to 7530 in init.sh script solves the problem.

Relocating SCCD database

When we install SmartCloud Control Desk in a Unix/Linux box using middleware installer, it only asks for db instance user. (If we accept the default value, it’s ctginst1)

The installer then creates the user, and places the db in it’s home directory.

In lots of cases there is a dedicated filesystem to hold business critical data, ( and usually it’s not /home)  so we have to move database to that location.

db2relocatedb is the tool to use. First, copy/move  /home/ctginst1/ctginst1 directory to the new location (for eg.: /data/ctginst1 ), then create a config file for db2relocatedb. ( Keep in mind that we have to move tablespace containers as well )

so the command is:

db2relocatedb -f relocate.cfg

relocate.cfg is :

DB_NAME=maxdb75
DB_PATH=/home/ctginst1,/data/ctginst1
INSTANCE=ctginst1
STORAGE_PATH=/home//ctginst1/,/data/ctginst1/

(don’t forget, the instance should be stopped ! )

Starting SmartCloud Control Desk one box system

If we install a Smart Cloud Control Desk 7.5.1.1 one box system, and want to restart the server we have to follow the below list to get the whole system up and running again. (Please adapt the commands to your system)

1. Start directory server database
su – idsccmdb -c db2start

2. Start directory server
/opt/ibm/ldap/V6.3/sbin/ibmslapd -I idsccmdb

3. Start Maximo database
su – ctginst1 -c db2start

4. Start Websphere Deployment Manager
/app/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/ctgDmgr01/bin/startManager.sh

5. Start Websphere Node agent
/app/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/ctgAppSrv01/bin/startNode.sh

6. Start Websphere Application Server
/app/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/ctgAppSrv01/bin/startServer.sh MXServer

7. If not starting automatically, start the web server
/app/IBM/HTTPServer/bin/apachectl start