Calendar of Events

NOVEMBER 1998		DECEMBER 1998
1-5	1998 PeopleSoft Conference, San Francisco, CA	7-10	Object World East, New York, New York
2-4	Visual C++ Developers Conference, Palm Springs, CA	7	Best 1 Annual Users Group, Anaheim, CA
4	TECHEXPO ’98, Sheraton, New York, New York	7-11	CMG International Conference, Anaheim, CA
5	TECHEXPO ’98, Sheraton, Hartford, Connecticut	7-10	Java Business Expo, NY ’98, New York, New York
8–12	Oracle OpenWorld ’98, San Francisco, California	8-11	Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Communications Networking, Los Angeles, CA
10	TECHEXPO ’98, Stamford, Connecticut	7-11	Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, Scottsdale, Arizona
12	TECHEXPO ’98, Melville, New York	16-17	Accelerated Perl Programming Training, San Francisco, CA
16-20	COMDEX Las Vegas ’98, Las Vegas, Nevada
18	Windows NT 5.0 Program Kick-off, Washington, D.C.

JANUARY 1999		FEBRUARY 1999
19-23	POPL+99: Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages 1999	1-4	Call Center U.S., Dallas, Texas
17-21	Lotusphere ’99, Orlando, Florida	2-5	Internet World Canada ’99, Toronto, Canada
19-21	Conference on Emerging Technologies, Dallas, Texas	2-5	ISPCON Toronto ’99, Toronto, Canada
25-28	COMNET, Washington, D.C.	8-11	Wireless ’99, New Orleans, LA
		11-12	ITCC, Chicago, Illinois

 

1998 PATROL Technical Symposium
BMC Software's PATROL 1999 Technical Symposium is March 7 - 11, 1999. The symposium will be held at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Houston, Texas. Last years Technical Symposium was nothing less than spectacular so mark your calendars and start making your arrangements today! BMC Education and Services did such a great job. I’m sure this year will be even better – if it’s possible to beat perfection.	You can learn everything from PATROL Scripting Language (PSL) programming to Enterprise wide implementation techniques. You can still obtain a copy of last year’s technical symposium CD, free of charge, by calling Genie Edgerly at 800-841-2031 x4115. I find this to be a great resource. I don’t leave home without it. I urge you to get yours today.	For more information about the PATROL Symposium, visit the BMC Software website at: www.bmc.com/education or www.bmc.com/events If you have an questions please feel free to call me at (207)963-2047, visit our web site at www.kirkpatrickconsulting.com/erpug/erpug.htm, or send email to snmp4u@kirkpatrickconsulting.com
EASTERN REGIONAL PATROL USERS GROUP MEETING Wednesday, November 4, 1998 Ritz Carlton - Tysons Corner 1700 Tysons Blvd. Tysons Corner, VA A G E N D A
8:30 - 9:00 Registration (Continental Breakfast Provided) 9:00 - 9:45 Integrating PATROL with HP/ITO 10:00 – 10:45 NT Development Secrets Revealed 11:00 - 12:00 History Loader KM 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch (Provided) 1:00 – 1:45 Integrating PATROL with HP OpenView 2:00 – 2:45 BMC Update on Microsoft, WBEM and Compaq 3:00 – 3:45 BMC Update on NT 5.0 and MQ Series 4:00 – 4:30 Open Discussion
Integration of PATROL with HP/ITO Presented by David Voegele, Predictive Systems Dave Voegele has over 10 years of experience with the HP Enterprise Management line of products. He just recently integrated PATROL with HP/ITO and is going to share with us tips for installing PATROLView for HP/ITO.
NT Development Secrets Revealed Presented by Brenda Kirkpatrick, Starbound Software Solutions, Inc. Brenda wants to share some of her NT KM development tricks and tips with you. Even UNIX KM developers and non-KM developers can benefit from attending this presentation.
History Loader KM Presented by Brenda Kirkpatrick, Starbound Software Solutions, Inc. The History Loader KM is a key component in any installation whenever there are more than a few servers in the configuration. Being able to load the history information collected by PATROL agents into a common repository and to filter the information is a valuable addition to the core PATROL product line. Join us for this "how to" presentation on the History Loader KM.
Integration of PATROL with HP/OpenView Presented by Chris Perry, ORBCOM ORBCOMM is renowned for their work with network communications. Chris is a Senior Network Engineer with ORBCOMM. He and his team of engineers have implemented PATROL and integrated it with HP OpenView. Chris has offered, and we quickly accepted, to provide us with a brief showing us the "how to's" and the behind the scenes implementation using PATROLView. The ERPUG thanks you, Chris, for all your help!
Update on Microsoft, WBEM and Compaq Presented by a BMC Software Consultant BMC is going to give us a sneak preview of their strengthened relationship with Microsoft and Compaq. BMC will also discuss their future direction on Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM). This will be an exciting 45 minutes!
NT 5.0 and MQ Series Management Solutions Presented by a BMC Software Consultant What is next for NT and the MQ Series? BMC Software is going to give us a view into the future on these emerging technologies.
Open Discussions We created the Eastern Regional PATROL Users Group in order to provide a forum to exchange ideas and talk about woes and successes. Let’s take this 45-minute slot to do exactly that. I am hoping that you will come with questions or success stories in mind. Our group is chalked full of innovative people and real fast thinkers so we always have lively discussions. BMC representatives, knowledgeable ERPUG members and myself will try nd make sure that you receive answers to all your questions.

 

 

 

A Message from ERPUG President… Brenda Kirkpatrick
We have had great turnouts for our Eastern Regional PATROL Users Group (ERPUG) meetings! BMC Software is committed to having someone from BMC Education and Services and/or BMC Software Consultant group at all the meetings. This is great for us because we receive exceptional education at a substantially discounted rate. I believe we learned a lot from our presenters over the past year and a half. We shared antidotes, woes, and success stories, which is the purpose of the ERPUG. I couldn't be more pleased with the group. I receive requests for ERPUG membership on a daily basis, which tells me that we really needed this kind of forum. For the members who have been in the ERPUG in Nov 1997, yearly membership dues are due on or by November 4, 1998. We would like to include PATROL-related articles in the newsletter from users like you. Please send articles electronically to: snmp4u@kirkpatrickconsulting.com	or by US mail to Brenda Kirkpatrick, ERPUG, PO Box 548, Winter Harbor, ME 04693. Articles will, for the most part, be printed unedited; therefore, they should be copy-ready. If you need any help with writing an article, just ask. We have extend the PATROL umbrella to include integrated products such as Remedy, CuraMessage, Network Node Manager, Spectrum, PeopleSoft, SAP R/3, HP/ITO, so articles on these products are equally as welcome. Keep in mind that the presentation agendas are strictly based on comments from members like you. We count the number of requests for each topic and create the agenda based on the requests. If you want to see a presentation then vote either at the meeting, via email, via US mail or by calling the ERPUG. Please send questions for a "Dear ERPUG" column. Responses will be both e-mailed to you and included in the ERPUG Newsletter. If you have an answer for a commonly asked question, please send both question and answer to "Dear ERPUG".	If you have any ideas for regular columns, please send ideas and/or columns to me. If you have an idea, but don't wish to author a column, or vice versa, please contact me at (207) 963-2047 and maybe we can find a solution. The ERPUG Newsletter is picture-friendly. I encourage any and all pictures that can be made available, from pictures of authors to spectacular consoles. Pictures in .tif format are best for me, but we'll use anything from electronic to hardcopy. ERPUG dates and meeting agendas can be located on our web pages. Old newsletters are also available for download from: www.kirkpatrickconsulting.com/erpug/erpug.htm and www.bmc.com under events. I hope to see all of you on Nov 4th!!

"Dear ERPUG" Brenda Kirkpatrick, Starbound Software Solutions, Inc.

We had a lot of Best 1/ASA Essential questions after our last meeting. This "Dear ERPUG" is devoted to answer Best 1/ASA Essential questions. All of the answers were provided by the Best 1/PATROL Agent Director of Product Integration. The ERPUG wants to say "thanks for providing this insight".

Q: Are there any platforms which are supported by PATROL that aren’t supported by Best 1?

A: Yes, OS2 is not support by Best 1. Both OpenVMS and MVS OS 390 are supported as well as many flavors of UNIX and NT 4.0.

Q Will there ever be a single console for PATROL and Best 1?

A: Yes, from a single Visualizer console you can look at all of the data.

Q: When will there be a native NT console for Best 1?

A: The native NT console for Best 1 will be out in the Spring of 1999.

Q: Will there be a common repository for Best 1 and the PATROL agent?

A: The long term goal is to have 1 repository. The stance is to have 1 collector, repository, and console by the Q4 1999.

Q: How can we utilize the Best 1 agent at the PATROL console?

A: You can’t.

Q: How does the licensing work for PATROL and Best 1?

A: The 2 products are licensed separately.

Q: How can we get pricing information?

A: Speak to you BMC sales representative. All of the pricing details have been worked out and are available through your rep.

Q: We think the Visualizer is great and want to start using it to view the PATROL data today.

A: Today you would need to run 2 separate agents but the additional overhead is minimal. The estimated additional overhead is 1 – 2% for Best 1. This is due to Best 1 having fewer sampling rates and providing summarized and formatted data.

Q: We heard that we can’t use the History Loader with our Best 1 agent. Are there any plans to make it possible to use the History Loader with the Best 1 agent?

A: Best 1 has a manual propagator component. BMC will look into making sure that an automated propagation component will be available in the market as soon as possible.

Q: We are BMC Software Resellers and would like to access Best 1 pricing from the web. Do you know when the Best 1 pricing information will be available via the BMC web pages?

A: BMC web masters are working on that even as you read this newsletter so we assume the information will be available soon.

Well there are so many good questions that I’m afraid I will have to wait until the next newsletter to answer them all. I apologize to anyone who was hoping for an answer to his or her question in this newsletter. Please feel free to call and I will speak to you 1 on 1. Keep those questions coming and I’ll keep working on the answers. Thanks, Dear ERPUG.

PATROL Event Translator Dave Voegele, Predictive Systems

PATROLView BMC product line which translates PATROL event to Enterprise Management System (EMS) allowing PATROL information to be viewed by an EMS such as Spectrum, Network Node Manager (NNM), Tivoli, CA-Unicenter, and HP IT/O. The PATROLView configuration file is key to the translation of events from the PATROL format to the EMS format. Here are some helpful hints on tuning PATROLView.

Inside the PATROLView 3.2 Configuration File

The PATROLView configuration file is called config.pet. The PATROL Event Translator (PET) when establishing a connection with PATROL Agents uses the config.pet file. Each host defined in config.pet contains configuration settings that determine connection attributes used for communicating with the PATROL Agents. There are global keywords in the config.pet file, with prefixes of either "PET_" or "HOST_CONFIG". The following are short descriptions of the keywords for the config.pet file. For more detailed information please consult your PATROLView 3.2 manual. All entries which have a ‘*’ may be tuned in order to get better performance during the translation phase.

Keyword Descriptions:

HOST_CONFIG - identifies the hosts that have a PATROL Agent with which the PET should establish a connection. There is one HOST_CONFIG keyword per host. This is the only keyword in the configuration file that can be used more than once.

PET_CONNECTION_MODE - is the transport protocol that the PET should use to connect to PATROL Agents (TCP/IP or UDP/IP). TCP/IP is not supported in the current release of PATROL.

* PET_TIMEOUT - is the timeout period for the PET to use when attempting to communicate with the PATROL Agents. This is a key variable to tune in order to achieve improved performance from PATROLVIEW. The range is 1-180 seconds with a default value of 35 seconds. You can tune this down to, for example, 6 seconds to decrease the time the PET will wait for a failed communications attempt.

* PET_HEARTBEAT - is the period for the PATROL Agent heartbeat polling. Tuning this variable can have a negative affect on the data you are trying to collect. If you lengthen the heartbeat-polling interval then you are trading more accurate data for performance. The default is 90 seconds.

* PET_RETRIES - is the number of times the PET will retry a request for data. I would change this to 3. The default is 4 but NNM uses 3 as default for all of its polling. This combined with the PET_TIMEOUT keyword can add up to time that PET sits and waits.

PET_RECONNECT_INTERVAL - is the frequency, in seconds, in which the PET will attempt to reconnect to disconnected PATROL Agents.

PET_DEBUG_LEVEL - is used to enable/disable the PATROLVIEW debug feature. This can be very useful if you are having trouble understanding any integration problems you are experiencing.

PET_LOGFILE - is the name of a log file in which to write PET diagnostic output. The default is /tmp/pet.log.

PET_DEFAULT_USERNAME - is the user name used by the PET to log on to hosts to automatically discover PATROL Agents.

PET_DEFAULT_PASSWORD - is the password used by the PET to log on to hosts to automatically discover PATROL Agents.

PET_DEFAULT_PORT_RANGE - is the port range used by the PET to log on to hosts to automatically discover PATROL.

PET_FRAMEWORK - is a parsing string for any framework-specific configuration lines. Once this line is read, the configuration module will know to send any framework-specific configuration information to the defined framework. This keyword is reserved for future releases of PATROLVIEW. The purpose of this configuration keyword is to support future PET compatibility with additional frameworks.

NNM_MANAGER - determines where PATROLVIEW will send information forwarded from PATROL Agents.

NNM_HOST_ICON - notifies PATROLVIEW whether to change the appearance of a host icon in the Network Node Manager or OpenView Graphical User Interface to indicate the presence of a PATROL Agent. If the value is set to one (1) and the presence of a PATROL Agent is discovered, then the host icon on the OpenView (ovw) submap will change to the PATROL symbol.

* NNM_GRAPH_TIMER - sets the interval (in seconds) between parameter graph updates. Graph update polling occurs only when the graph is being viewed. This helps to minimize network overhead. Tuning this keyword can have a negative impact since you are trading up to date information for performance. You should consider your environment and system requirements before changing this variable. The default is 12 seconds.

* NNM_NODE_INTERVAL - determines the initial data retrieval interval used by PATROLVIEW. This keyword can be tuned to make PATROLVIEW allocate more time for its initial data retrieval. The default is 6 seconds but 12 seconds will help improve the performance of PATROLVIEW.

PATROLVIEW Configuration File Example

HOST_CONFIG localhost 1987 patrol "<specify a password here>" S E W A

PET_CONNECTION_MODE UDP

PET_TIMEOUT 6

PET_HEARTBEAT 150

PET_RETRIES 3

PET_RECONNECT_INTERVAL 30

PET_DEBUG_LEVEL 0

PET_LOGFILE /tmp/pet.log

PET_DEFAULT_USERNAME patrol

PET_DEFAULT_PASSWORD <specify a password here>

PET_DEFAULT_PORT_RANGE 1987 2000

PET_FRAMEWORK NNM "PATROLVIEW for NNM" /usr/OV/bin

NNM_MANAGER localhost

NNM_HOST_ICON 1

NNM_GRAPH_TIMER 20

NNM_NODE_INTERVAL 12

Empirical Director Empirical Software

Empirical Director-Powerful solution for measuring and predicting service levels - Empirical Director provides IT organizations with the ability to proactively measure the existing service levels of business-critical applications, initiate recommendations and actions to resolve problems, and predict potential non-compliance issues with service level agreements. Empirical Director uses applied intelligence to diagnose service level problems and generate detailed recommendations for resolving application performance and reliability issues. Empirical Director currently provides integration with BMC's PATROL and Tivoli TME 10. In addition, the product distributes notifications and recommended courses of action via email or through the Tivoli TME frameworks as SLA violations occur. Integration with Hewlett Packard's OpenView is currently in process.

Update on BEST/1 (ASA Essentials) BMC Software

BEST/1 for Distributed Systems, Release 6.1 began shipping on September 28, 1998. The new release of this performance management solution suite adds NT modeling and support for Informix.

Users with applications spanning UNIX and NT can use BEST/1 for Distributed Systems to size systems for application rollout or growth, test drive solutions to performance problems, and plan future capacity requirements. A single model can predict performance of UNIX, NT or both with an application and response time focus. This is an industry first.

BEST/1 for Distributed Systems provides the ability to analyze, predict and report on performance issues of applications, systems and users. It builds on the BEST/1 components in ASA Essentials, and provides a valuable addition to the application availability management capabilities of PATROL. It is available now!

 

File Naming Registry for PDN Members BMC Software

All PDN members developing PATROL Knowledge Module (KM) products need to use the KM File Naming Registry, ideally before beginning development. BMC Software provides this service to help PATROL KM developers avoid naming conflicts with other BMC Software or PDN member Knowledge Modules.

PATROL currently does not have separate directories for different KMs. Therefore it’s extremely important that PATROL filenames are unique. If they’re not, you or one of your customers will eventually overwrite a PATROL file, during installation.

However, it’s an easy problem to avoid. Simply register your unique filename codes for your PATROL KMs through the KM File Naming Registry.

Before you begin development is the best time to register your prefixes! While you can always edit PATROL filenames using a text editor at a later stage in development, it is obviously easier to make sure the filenames will be okay before you start your development work.

To register a prefix you may choose to either:

1.Use a common prefix for every filename for your KM followed by the underscore ("_") symbol

(which will be followed by the rest of the filename).

2.Use a common prefix for every filename for your KM (e.g. all .psl files) except for application

class filenames which you register separately in Section B of the KM File Naming Registry.

Option 2 is provided for the following scenario: application class filenames (usually .km and .kml files) are often visible to the end-user, for example, as labels under icons on the PATROL Console and when loading KMs. If you feel that using your prefix in these situations is not ideal for the end-user (it may look a little to long, for example: "GURU_DISKSYSTEM"); you may wish to separately register your application class filenames in the Application Class Filenames section of the KM File Naming Registry. If the filename is not already taken, you could register and use "DISKSYSTEM". Choose something meaningful for your application class filenames and enter the names through the input form provided.

One naming conventions is that you must end all filename prefixes with an underscore symbol, e.g., "BMC_". We recommend that you use your company or KM name (or part of it) or any other unique characters as the filename prefix. To ensure consistency among KM developers, use all uppercase letters for your prefixes. For .psl and .lib files, the standard PATROL convention is to use mixed case for the rest of your filename. For example, GURU_PacketErrors.psl (where GURU_ is the prefix for all files and PacketErrors.psl is a particular file. Check the documentation for more information. If you make a mistake (e.g., a typo), enter the name again. You can enter multiple prefixes if you have multiple KMs and do not wish to use the same prefix for all of your KMs. If you choose to use the Application Class File Naming Registry section, you will probably enter multiple names. To ensure consistency from a customer perspective, if you separately register your Application Class Filenames, use all uppercase letters (and numbers etc.). Letters and numbers are permitted. All other characters are not. For example:

A Company called "GURU" is about to begin developing a Knowledge Module for their "GURU" product. Their first step is to go to the KM File Naming Registry and register the characters "GURU_" as the prefix for all their KM files.

During development, all of the KM files they create should use the characters "GURU_" as the prefix for all KM files. For example: GURU_NumBlockedProcs.psl, GURU_PacketErrs.psl, GURU_SuspectFiles.lib, and GURU_LOGS.km.

For the .km files, the company could have chosen to register "LOGS" and "USERS" as application class filenames instead of "GURU_LOGS" and "GURU_USERS." The filename prefix registry program will notify registrants if a name is available.

 

 

	The 1998 PATROL Technical Symposium was a great success! In response to the overwhelming request for access to ALL conference proceedings and presentations, a CD-ROM is available for free.
Features of the CD-ROM include: Over 42 presentations in PDF Format Updated Note pages for each presentation Implementation guides and tools Information on training opportunities for users & partners To request your copy of the 1998 PATROL Technical Symposium CD-ROM, please call Genie Edgerly at 800-841-2031 x4115.

 

 

 

Membership Enrollment

An annual membership fee of $75.00 includes (4) quarterly meetings, a membership gift, and a lot of education, placement on the ERPUG mailing list, membership voting rights, and access to any promotional materials available through the organization. In lieu of "corporate" memberships, we offer any member the opportunity to send a substitute to any meeting. We ask only that substitution information be provided when pre-registering. All members are requested to pre-register for meetings by emailing the ERPUG President at snmp4u@erols.com or US mail using the form below. If you have any questions, please call Brenda Kirkpatrick at (207) 963-2047.