IBM Tivoli Interview Preparation Guide
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IBM Tivoli frequently Asked Questions by expert members with experience in IBM Tivoli. These questions and answers will help you strengthen your technical skills, prepare for the new job test and quickly revise the concepts

46 IBM Tivoli Questions and Answers:

Table of Contents

IBM Tivoli Interview Questions and Answers
IBM Tivoli Interview Questions and Answers

1 :: Tell me what are various Connector modes in TDI?

• Iterator.
• Lookup Connector.
• Addonly
• Update.
• Delete
• Delta
• Server

2 :: State the Discovery Client Requirements to install TADDM?

• Hardware(minimum)
1. 1 x 1.0 Ghz processor.
2. 512 MB RAM.
3. 1024 x 768 resolution display.
• Hardware(minimum)
1. 1 x 2.0 Ghz processor.
2. 2 GB RAM.
3. 1280 x 1024 or higher resolution display.

• Software
1. JRE 1.5 with JAVA web start
2. IE 7.
• OS
1. OS X, Windows XP professional.

3 :: Write the command to split the ITM agents?

tacmd exportBundles -o SPD -t ux -e <full path of directory where to store the splitted image > -i <Full path to the directory where agent file after extracting>/unix

4 :: Write the command to export situation in ITM?

tacmd viewSit -s N_IGIS_Missing_MQService -e N_IGIS_Missing_MQService

5 :: Tell me how to create node in ITM and check its status?

1. Run the create node command as mentioned below-
./tacmd createnode -h 10.5.138.74 -u itmuser -w Edcv\$0987 -p SERVER=10.5.139.70 PROTOCOL=IP.PIPE PROTOCOL1=IP.SPIPE
2. Check the results as mentioned below-
bash-2.04$ ./tacmd getDeployStatus -g 1311890165524480000023807
Transaction ID : 1311890165524480000023807
Command : INSTALL
Status : SUCCESS
Retries : 0
TEMS Name : REMOTETEMS
Target Hostname: 10.5.138.74
Platform : WINNT
Product : NT
Version : 062204000
Error Message : KDY2065I: The node creation operation was a success.

6 :: Explain how to disable port 3661 on windows server in ITM?

Please perform the below mentioned steps to disable port 3661 towards security vulnerability on windows servers –
1. Log into the windows server as itmuser
2. Go to Startà Programsà IBM Tivoli Monitoringà Manage Tivoli Monitoring Services, to open ITM Agent Mangement console
3. Verify which all agents are installed as presented in the below screen ie Universal Agent /Monitoring Agent for Windows OS
Note: In all the servers Monitoring Agent for Windows OS is present,universal agent is present in some severs only.

4. Go to the directory C:\IBM\ITM\TMAITM6
5. Locate the following two files in this directory-
i)KNTENV à For Windows OS Agent
ii) KUMENVà For Universal Agent ( This file will be present only if universal agent is installed on this server)
6. Open these files in wordpad and enter the below mentioned line at the end of file.
KDC_FAMILIES=https:0
7. Open Registry Editor and expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEàSOFTWAREàCnadleàKNTàVer610àPrimaryàEnvironment
8. On the Right Hand Side window, Right click on KDC_FAMILIES and click on modify.
9. On the value data filed enter the following value.
https:0
Restart the agents running on the sever.

7 :: What are the benefits of TADDM?

The benefits of TADDM are as follows:
• TADDM provides the information about the current running application on the network.
• TADDM helps in understanding the computing environment of your organization.
• By TADDM we get to know which applications and services are deployed on the network.
• TADDM can also discover the relationships between applications and services.
• By the help of TADDM we can determine the network related problems.
• By TADDM we can determine the compliance related problem.

8 :: Give the brief overview of CMDB?

• It is a data store or logical collection of data that contains all the information about IT assets.
• It maintains the relationship between these assets, CIs and their changes.
• It can become the reliable and accurate source of information if managed properly.
• The major difference between the CMDB and any other data repository is of making the relationship between the Configuration Items.

9 :: Give the overview of TADDM Components?

• Discovery Manager: The server running the TADDM discovery processes.
• Administrative Console: It provides the server status, runtime and license information.
• Discovery Client: A java based GUI on which we can configure and run discovery processes.
• Domain Manager: A portal in the administrative console with which you can view all your configuration items and manage users.
• Anchor Servers: These are required to run the discovery in firewall zones.
• Windows Gateway Server: These are required to discover the windows systems.
• Database(CMDB): The repository to store the information collected after discovery.

10 :: State the hardware requirements to install TADDM?

• Discovery Server
1. 2 to 4 CPUs with minimum processor speed of 2Ghz per processor.
2. 4 to 8 GB of memory
3. 100 GB disk space

• Anchor Server
1. 2 CPUs with minimum processor speed of 1 GHz.
2. 2 GB Memory.
3. 5 GB disk space.

• Windows Gateway
1. 2 CPUs with minimum processor speed of 1Ghz per processor.
2. 2 GB Memory.
3. 2 GB disk space

11 :: State the OS requirements to install TADDM?

• AIX 5.2, Fix Pack 7 or later, or 5.3(current release).
• Red Hat Linux Advanced Server version 4 or 5(32 or 64 bit).
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Version 9 or 10(32 or 64 bit).
• Sun Solaris SPARC version 9 or 10.
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter, Enterprise, or Standard, SP2 or greater (32 or 64 bit).
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0.
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System, version 9.0 patch level 3 or version 10.0.

12 :: State the Database Requirements to install TADDM?

• IBM DB2 v9.1, Fix Pack 2
• AIX(64 bit)
• Solaris SPARC(64 bit)
• Linux on System(64 bit)
• Linux x86 (32 or 64 bit).
• Windows (32 or 64 bit) operating systems.

13 :: How to Checking process status by running the itnm_status command in ITNM?

On UNIX operating systems, you can check the status of IBM Tivoli
Netcool/OMNIbus, the Tivoli Integrated Portal, and Network Manager by using
the itnm_status command.? steps.
To check the status of all Network Manager components on the current server:
1. Change to the $NCHOME/precision/bin directory.
2. Type the following command: itnm_status
This command displays the status of all of the Network Manager components
that are installed on the server.

14 :: How to Setup an additional poller in ITNM?

Set up an additional poller on the Network Manager server if one poller is not
sufficient to handle your network load.
To set up an additional poller for the monitoring system, you must add a record to
the NCMonitor Poller table, which adds the record to the Monitor Policy editor.
The ncp_poller process creates the record in the poller table and then exits.
The poller is automatically installed when you install Network Manager. Complete
the following steps to register a new instance of the poller and automatically start
the poller.

1. On the system where the poller will run, register the poller by entering the
following command.
ncp_poller -domain domain_name -register -name poller_name
2. Edit the CtrlServicesDOMAIN.cfg file.
a. Locate the entry for the ncp_poller process.
b. Copy the entry and change the -name parameter to match the name you
used to register the poller.
c. Save and close the file.
3. Restart the ncp_ctrl process with the specified domain. The ncp_ctrl process
restarts all running ncp_ processes, including the new poller

15 :: What are Domain specific configuration files in ITNM?

Although in practice there are some files that you are unlikely to need to alter, in
principle all of the following types of files can be made domain-specific:
v Configuration files, that is, all files ending in .cfg
v Discovery agent files, that is, all files ending in .agnt
v Active Object Class files, that is, all files ending in .aoc
v Text-based stitcher files, that is, all files in a stitchers directory ending in .stch

16 :: How to Remove a poller in ITNM?

If a poller is not being used to monitor the network, you can remove the poller
from the monitoring system.
To remove a poller from the monitoring system, you must delete its record from
the NCMonitor Poller table, which removes the record from the Monitor Policy
editor. The ncp_poller process attempts to remove the relevant record from the
poller table and then exits.
Complete the following tasks to remove a poller from the monitoring system.
1. From the Network Manager server, issue the following command.
ncp_poller -deregister -domain [domain_name] -name [poller_name]
Note: When you issue this command, the record is deleted from the
NCMONITOR Poller table.
2. From the Monitor Policy Editor, edit each active policy to use a valid poller.

17 :: How to Assign poller for MIB graphing in ITNM?

If you have defined additional pollers, and want to assign a poller to handle MIB
graphing, edit the properties file
You must have created the poller that you want to use for MIB graphing before
you edit the file.
To assign a poller for MIB graphing:
1. Open the following file: $TIPHOME/profiles/TIPProfile/etc/tnm/
tnm.properties.
2. Change the value of the tnm.graph.poller parameter from DEFAULT_POLLER
to the name of the required poller.
3. Save and close the file

18 :: Explain how to Increase the storage limit for historical performance data in ITNM?

You can increase the storage limit for historical performance data. This enables
Performance reports to display a greater amount of historical data.
The storage limit for historical performance data is set by default to a conservative
value of 5 million database rows. You can increase this value; however, this can
lead to a degradation in the performance of the Performance reports.
To increase the storage limit for historical performance data:
1. Locate the following file:
v UNIX $NCHOME/etc/precision/NcPollerSchema.cfg
v Windows %NCHOME%\etc\precision\NcPollerSchema.cfg
2. Find the section that contains the following lines:
-- =========================================================================
-- pruning
-- =========================================================================
create table config.pruning
(
MAXPOLLDATAROWS long64 not null
);
--
-- This defines the maximum number of rows allowed in ncpolldata.polldata.
-- Once the number of rows exceeds this limit the older data will be pruned
-- until close to the limit again.
--
-- Increasing this number will result in an increase in the data storage
-- size required for historical data and may also lead to a degradation
-- in the performance of reports using this data.
--
insert into config.pruning (MAXPOLLDATAROWS) values (5000000);
3. Change the value of MAXPOLLDATAROWS..

19 :: What are the phases of Discovery in ITNM?

Now that the discovery has started, can monitor the progress of the discovery on
the Network Discovery Status page. Use the status in the Discovery Phase field to
determine how the discovery is running:
1. Until the first device is discovered, the discovery phase is Idle/Standby (0).
2. After the first device is discovered, the status changes to Discovering Network
(1). As further devices are discovered, the count in the Processed IP Addresses
field increases.
3. The discovery then runs through the following statuses:
a. Downloading ARP (2)
b. Downloading Connections (3)
c. Correlating Connectivity (-1)
4. After the discovery is completed, the status reverts back to Idle/Standby (0).

20 :: Write the steps to start TBSM?

1.Stop ngf service
2.update alerts.status set RAD_FilterIDList = '', RAD_ServiceName='', RAD_IsIntermediateFunction=0, RAD_FunctionType=''
3.delete from service_deps table in Omnibus
4.start 104 ngf service first and then start
5.106 ngf service

21 :: Give the steps To start Universal Agent : um?

bash-2.04$ ./itmcmd agent start um
Starting Universal Agent ...
Universal Agent started
bash-2.04$ ./cinfo -r

22 :: Give the steps to start the Instance of MQ agents?

Suppose we got Offline MQ agent as :

MS_Offline:QMEIBP1::MQ

Check the agent status first :

bash-2.04$ ./cinfo -r

*********** Fri Jan 28 16:59:07 IST 2011 ******************
User: itmuser Groups: mqm mqbrkrs
Host name : CNDAEAI2APZP04 Installer Lvl:06.21.03.00
CandleHome: /IBM/ITM
***********************************************************
Host Prod PID Owner Start ID ..Status
CNDAEAI2APZP04_svc1 mc 176582 CNDAEAI2APZP04
CNDAEAI2APZP04_svc1 mq 295460 BREIBP2
CNDAEAI2APZP04_svc1 mq 238186 QMEIBP2
bash-2.04$

No MQ instance for QMEIBP1 running as can see for QMEIBP2 running above.

Hence , we will try to start the QMEIBP1 instance first with below command

bash-2.04$ ./itmcmd agent -o QMEIBP1 start mq
Starting WebSphere MQ Monitoring Agent ...
WebSphere MQ Monitoring Agent started
bash-2.04$

bash-2.04$ ./cinfo -r

*********** Fri Jan 28 16:59:07 IST 2011 ******************
User: itmuser Groups: mqm mqbrkrs
Host name : CNDAEAI2APZP04 Installer Lvl:06.21.03.00
CandleHome: /IBM/ITM
***********************************************************
Host Prod PID Owner Start ID ..Status
CNDAEAI2APZP04_svc1 mc 176582 CNDAEAI2APZP04
CNDAEAI2APZP04_svc1 mq 295460 BREIBP2
CNDAEAI2APZP04_svc1 mq 238186 QMEIBP2
CNDAEAI2APZP04_svc1 mq 30450 QMEIBP1
bash-2.04$

23 :: Name the various Other ITM Agents installed on unix/linux servers?

ux Monitoring Agent for UNIX OS

um Universal Agent

yn Monitoring Agent for WebSphere

ht Monitoring Agent for Web Servers

mq WebSphere MQ Monitoring Agent

mc WebSphere MQ Configuration Agent

24 :: Give the command to Check the Agent status?

bash-2.04$ ./cinfo -r

*********** Fri Jan 28 16:22:38 ISt 2011 ******************
User: itmuser Groups: staff
Host name : CNDATADMAPZ02 Installer Lvl:06.21.03.00
CandleHome: /IBM/ITM
***********************************************************
Host Prod PID Owner Start ID ..Status
CNDATADMAPZ02 ux 114694 itmuser 16:19:59 None ...running
bash-2.04$

25 :: State the features of TADDM?

Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager features are as follows: or it gives answers to the following questions:
• What is on the network?
• Is is the network changing with time?
• If it is, what changes are occurring?
• How do the components (servers, applications, and other processes) depend on each other?
• Do all the applications installed on the nodes are as per the security standards?
• TADDM do the discovery of computers, software, and relationships in the various business services applications.