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Agent "out-of-sync" monitoring

After you have upgraded the agent code for any interim fix, it is possible for an agent to become "out-of-sync" with the available kernel extension on the runtime server, and to be forced to run without a kernel extension. This happens when an agent requests a new kernel extension and the version of the agent code on the agent does not match the version of the agent code on the runtime server.

This problem impacts the agent's ability to perform license enforcement, and perform usage monitoring on AIX(R) platforms.

A full description of how this problem can occur, and the measures you can take to avoid it and to correct affected agents, is provided in IBM Tivoli License Manager: Release Notes (revised December 2003), which will be available from mid-December from the Tivoli Software Information Center Web site. The Tivoli Software Information Center is located by using the following Web address:

http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/library/

An important aspect of recovering from this problem is discovering which agents are affected. After you have installed this fix, every time a runtime server is unable to supply an agent with a kernel extension file, a flag will be set in the agent database. This information will be propagated to the administration server, in the normal way. A value of zero in this flag indicates that the agent is running with the correct kernel extension; all other values indicate that the agent does not have a kernel extension, and give an indication of the reason.

If you issue the following SQL command from the DB2(R) command line on the administration server, you will list the agents that are running without a kernel extension:

select hostname,ip_address,os_version,storage as kernel_status 
       from adm.agent where storage <> 0

This query displays a table showing the following data:

hostname
The hostname of the agent
ip_address
The IP address of the agent
os_version
The operating system name at the agent, and its version
kernel_status
The values that indicate an error that you can fix are as follows:
-1
This can be one of two causes:
  • The agent has not yet been upgraded with the contents of this interim fix. Ensure that you have upgraded the agent code on all runtime servers; that you have also upgraded the agent code in any copies, zips, tars or distribution packages that you are using to upgrade the agent code; and that you have taken the appropriate steps to upgrade the agents, as described in the original product documentation and IBM Tivoli License Manager: Release Notes (revised December 2003).
  • The tlmagent -v command has been run on the identified agent. If you know or believe this to be the case, to get the true status of the agent kernel extension you should stop and start the agent, and wait the appropriate interval for the data to be propagated to the administration server (the maximum time to wait is determined by the adminUploadPeriod parameter in the system.properties file on the runtime server). Then rerun the query.
2
This indicates that the agent is running on an unsupported platform. You should uninstall the agent, as its behaviour on an unsupported platform cannot be guaranteed, and the functions that require the kernel extension will not work.
All other possible values (1, 3, 4, 5, 6) are internal errors that should be reported to IBM Software Support.

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