Monitoring Tivoli Service Desk Processes


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Tivoli Service Desk Monitors

Tivoli Service Desk monitors scan for certain events and take the appropriate action. This help topic describes the purpose of these monitors and provides instructions for running them.

All Tivoli Service Desk monitors can do the following:

  • Run independently of Tivoli Service Desk: The Tivoli Service Desk monitors are separate programs from Tivoli Service Desk. You can start and run any Tivoli Service Desk monitor even if Tivoli Service Desk is not running.
  • Run continuously in the background: You can run any Tivoli Service Desk monitor continuously as a minimized program in the background. As a result, notifications, escalations, and other events can occur in a timely manner without your continued attention.

Alarm Monitor

Any Tivoli Problem Management user can run this utility independently of Tivoli Problem Management to scan for alarms. This utility scans for alarms addressed to the user who runs it. Once Alarm Monitor is started, it works in the background while the user works on other tasks. It notifies the user when it detects an alarm. For more information on running Alarm Monitor, see Monitoring Alarms.

ECI Monitor

The system administrator runs ECI Monitor to connect to the IBM Electronic Customer Interface. ECI Monitor can send and receive ECI calls and status updates. It sends additional comments related to calls and can receive problem resolution information from ECI. For more information on ECI, see Configuring ECI Integration.

Escalation Monitor

The system administrator runs Escalation Monitor to scan the Tivoli Problem Management database for issues that are due to be escalated according to escalation rules. Escalation rules specify the criteria for escalating calls or problems.

Escalation Monitor applies escalation rules, or the default settings if no rules are found, then escalates calls and problems, and notifies the appropriate help desk analysts and groups. It increments the issue's escalation level, then calculates the date and time at which the next escalation will occur if the issue remains unresolved. For more information on escalation, see Configuring Escalation.

Notification Monitor

The system administrator runs Notification Monitor to detect non-alarm notifications created inside Tivoli Service Desk. Notification Monitor routes non-alarm notifications to messaging systems that are not part of Tivoli Service Desk, such as e-mail systems, electronic paging systems, and so on. Notification Monitor uses these external messaging systems to pass these non-alarm notifications to the appropriate users and groups. Notification Monitor can also pass messages to contacts when the problems they report are closed. For more information on notifications, see Notifications and Alarms.

Note: In order to use notifications, the system administrator must also choose which external messaging systems to use and configure notification methods for those systems. A notification method defines the way a notification is passed from Tivoli Service Desk to an external system such as Lotus cc:Mail. See Configuring Notification Methods.

NSM Monitor

The system administrator runs NSM Monitor to communicate via the Tivoli Problem Management NSM Gateway with your NSM platform when a problem's status changes in Tivoli Problem Management. The system administrator can configure a remote command or a custom Tivoli Script subroutine that the Gateway Module executes after it updates a problem for a managed object in the Tivoli Problem Management database. For more information, see Configuring callbacks.

Service Level Monitor

The system administrator runs Service Level Monitor to scan the Tivoli Problem Management database for Service Level Agreements that are due to be breached according to previously defined agreement terms. Service Level Agreements specify the criteria for escalating calls or problems. For more information, see Configuring Service Level Agreements.

Combined monitors

The system administrator can run three of the monitors simultaneously. Escalation Monitor, Notification Monitor, and Service Level Monitor can be run through a common interface: the Monitor Display dialog box. See Starting the combined monitor.

Monitor dialog boxes

All of the Tivoli Service Desk Monitors, except the Alarm Monitor, appear in nearly identical dialog boxes. For information on the tasks you can perform in these dialog boxes, see Stopping a monitor, Setting the polling period for a monitor, Setting the polling period for the combined monitor, and Logging on to an e-mail system.

Tasks

Starting the combined monitor

The system administrator can run Escalation Monitor, Notification Monitor, and Service Level Monitor through a common interface: the Monitor Display dialog box.

To start the combined monitor:

  1. Use this table to determine your first action.

  2. If you are using... then...
    Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
    1. From the Taskbar, choose Start.
    2. Point to Programs, point to Tivoli Service Desk 6.0, choose Monitors, then choose All Monitors.
    OS/2
    1. Choose the Tivoli Service Desk folder.
    2. Choose the All Monitors icon.
    UNIX
    1. Change to the directory where the All Monitors program resides.
    2. At the command line, type monall and press Enter.
    any of the above operating systems
    1. Change to the directory where the All Monitors program resides.
    2. At the command line, type kml monitor and press Enter.


  3. In the TSD Log On dialog box, type your user ID and password, if one is required, then choose OK.
    Result: The Monitor Display dialog box appears. The combined monitor begins to scan for issues such as notifications, escalation, service level agreement breaches.
  4. You can minimize the Monitor Display dialog box.
    Result: Escalation Monitor, Notification Monitor, and Service Level Monitor continue to run in the background until you stop them. They continue to scan at regular intervals for as long as the combined monitor is run.

Starting Alarm Monitor

Any user can scan for Tivoli Problem Management alarms when not running Tivoli Service Desk by running Alarm Monitor. For information on starting and using Alarm Monitor, see Monitoring Alarms and Working with Alarms.

Starting ECI Monitor

To start ECI Monitor:
  1. Use this table to determine your first action.

  2. If you are using... then...
    Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
    1. From the Taskbar, choose Start.
    2. Point to Programs, point to Tivoli Service Desk 6.0, choose Monitors, then choose ECI Monitor.
    OS/2
    1. Choose the Tivoli Service Desk folder.
    2. Choose the ECI Monitor icon.
    UNIX
    1. Change to the directory where the ECI Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type moneci and press Enter.
    any of the above operating systems
    1. Change to the directory where the ECI Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type kml monitor -M:ECI and press Enter.


  3. In the TSD Log On dialog box, type your user ID and password, if one is required, then choose OK.
    Result: The ECI Monitor Display dialog box appears. ECI Monitor begins scanning for ECI events.
  4. You can minimize the ECI Monitor Display dialog box.
    Result: ECI Monitor continues to run in the background until you stop it. It continues to scan at regular intervals for as long as it is runs.

Starting Escalation Monitor

For best performance and stability, the system administrator should run Escalation Monitor on a computer dedicated to running monitor processes. In most cases, the system administrator should only run Escalation Monitor on a single client workstation. All the workstations in your help desk can receive escalation information from that workstation.

If necessary, the system administrator can run more than one copy of Escalation Monitor. Running multiple copies of Escalation Monitor is beneficial in these instances:

  • When escalation occurs often (escalation intervals are short) and the escalation times must be very accurate (a delay of several minutes is unacceptable)
  • When your help desk handles so many calls and problems that a single copy of Escalation Monitor cannot keep up with the escalation schedule
  • When you want to ensure that escalation continues uninterrupted. If one copy of Escalation Monitor stops running, you have a backup.

To start Escalation Monitor:

  1. Use this table to determine your first action.

  2. If you are using... then...
    Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
    1. From the Taskbar, choose Start.
    2. Point to Programs, point to Tivoli Service Desk 6.0, choose Monitors, then choose Escalation Monitor.
    OS/2
    1. Choose the Tivoli Service Desk folder.
    2. Choose the Escalation Monitor icon.
    UNIX
    1. Change to the directory where the Escalation Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type monesc and press Enter.
    any of the above operating systems
    1. Change to the directory where the Escalation Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type kml monitor -M:Escalation and press Enter.


  3. In the TSD Log On dialog box, type your user ID and password, if one is required, then choose OK.
    Result: The Escalation Monitor Display dialog box appears. Escalation Monitor begins scanning for issues to escalate.
  4. You can minimize the Escalation Monitor Display dialog box.
    Result: Escalation Monitor continues to run in the background until you stop it. It continues to scan at regular intervals for as long as it is runs.

Starting Notification Monitor

The system administrator must run Notification Monitor to pass notifications from Tivoli Service Desk to the appropriate messaging system. No other user needs to run it.

The system administrator needs to run only one copy of Notification Monitor on one workstation. For best performance and stability, you should run Notification Monitor on a computer dedicated to running monitor processes or on a computer that does not have much user activity. That way, user activities do not affect Notification Monitor and Notification Monitor does not affect user activities.

To start Notification Monitor:

  1. Use this table to determine your first action.

  2. If you are using... then...
    Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
    1. From the Taskbar, choose Start.
    2. Point to Programs, point to Tivoli Service Desk 6.0, choose Monitors, then choose Notification Monitor.
    OS/2
    1. Choose the Tivoli Service Desk folder.
    2. Choose the Notification Monitor icon.
    UNIX
    1. Change to the directory where the Notification Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type monnotfy and press Enter.
    any of the above operating systems
    1. Change to the directory where the Notification Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type kml monitor -M:Notification and press Enter.


  3. In the TSD Log On dialog box, type your user ID and password, if one is required, then choose OK.
  4. One of two things happens:
    • The Notification Monitor Display dialog box appears and the program begins to scan for non-alarm notifications created in Tivoli Problem Management. Choose E-Mail Login.
    • If there are any outstanding e-mail notifications when you start Notification Monitor, an E-Mail Log On dialog box appears (its appearance varies with the type of e-mail system).
  5. Log in to the appropriate e-mail system.
    Note: Logging on to the appropriate e-mail system enables Notification Monitor to use the e-mail system to forward the outstanding notifications. For more information, see Logging on to an e-mail system.
  6. You can minimize the Notification Monitor Display dialog box.
    Result: Notification Monitor continues to run in the background until you stop it. It continues to scan at regular intervals for new notifications for as long as it is runs.

Starting NSM Monitor

To start NSM Monitor:
  1. Use this table to determine your first action.

  2. If you are using... then...
    Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
    1. From the Taskbar, choose Start.
    2. Point to Programs, point to Tivoli Service Desk 6.0, choose Monitors, then choose NSM Monitor.
    OS/2
    1. Choose the Tivoli Service Desk folder.
    2. Choose the NSM Monitor icon.
    UNIX
    1. Change to the directory where the NSM Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type monnsm and press Enter.
    any of the above operating systems
    1. Change to the directory where the NSM Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type kml monitor -M:NSM and press Enter.


  3. In the TSD Log On dialog box, type your user ID and password, if one is required, then choose OK.
    Result: The NSM Monitor Display dialog box appears. NSM Monitor begins scanning for changes in problem status in Tivoli Problem Management.
  4. You can minimize the NSM Monitor Display dialog box.
    Result: NSM Monitor continues to run in the background until you stop it. It continues to scan at regular intervals for as long as it is runs.

Starting Service Level Monitor

To start Service Level Monitor:
  1. Use this table to determine your first action.

  2. If you are using... then...
    Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
    1. From the Taskbar, choose Start.
    2. Point to Programs, point to Tivoli Service Desk 6.0, choose Monitors, then choose Service Level Monitor.
    OS/2
    1. Choose the Tivoli Service Desk folder.
    2. Choose the Service Level Monitor icon.
    UNIX
    1. Change to the directory where the Service Level Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type monsla and press Enter.
    any of the above operating systems
    1. Change to the directory where the Service Level Monitor resides.
    2. At the command line, type kml monitor -M:SLA and press Enter.


  3. In the TSD Log On dialog box, type your user ID and password, if one is required, then choose OK.
    Result: The Service Level Monitor Display dialog box appears. Service Level Monitor begins scanning for Service Level Agreements that are due to be breached.
  4. You can minimize the Service Level Monitor Display dialog box.
    Result: Service Level Monitor continues to run in the background until you stop it. It continues to scan at regular intervals for as long as it is runs.

Stopping a monitor

You can stop any monitor without interrupting Tivoli Service Desk.

Special Considerations:

  • You must stop and restart Notification Monitor when you add new notification methods.
  • Notifications can be created when Notification Monitor is not running, but they are not delivered until Notification Monitor is running again. When Notification Monitor is restarted, it scans for any notifications created in Tivoli Service Desk while it was shut down.
  • If you do not run Escalation Monitor, escalation does not occur.

To stop a monitor:

  1. If the monitor is running in a minimized state, maximize it.
  2. In any of the monitor display dialog boxes, choose Close.
    Result: The selected monitor display dialog box closes and the program ends.

Setting the polling period for a monitor

The polling period is the frequency at which a monitor scans for an event. For example, Notification Monitor checks for notifications that need to be passed to the appropriate messaging systems as intervals determined by its polling period.

You can set the polling period for any monitor except NSM Monitor. The polling period for NSM Monitor is configured in the Network Management Configuration dialog box. See Configuring callbacks.

To set the polling period for a monitor:

  1. In any of the monitor display dialog boxes, choose Configure Polling.
  2. In the Polling Configuration dialog box, from the Polling Period list, select the appropriate scan interval.
    Result: The selected scan interval is converted to seconds and appears in the Seconds box.
  3. Choose Close.
    Result: The selected monitor immediately begins to scan for events. It continues to scan at regular intervals for as long as it runs.
  4. Minimize the selected monitor display dialog box.
    Result: The monitor continues to run in the background until you stop it.

Setting the polling period for the combined monitor

You can set different polling periods for Escalation Monitor, Notification Monitor, and Service Level Monitor in the Monitor Display dialog box.

To set the polling period for the combined monitor:

  1. In the Monitor Display dialog box, choose Configure Polling.
  2. In the Polling Configuration dialog box, under Monitor type, select a monitor.
  3. From the Polling Period list, select the appropriate scan interval. The selected scan interval is converted to seconds and appears in the Seconds box.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each monitor type.
  5. Choose Close.
    Result: The combined monitor immediately begins to scan for events.
  6. You can minimize the Monitor Display dialog box.
    Result
    : The Escalation Monitor, Notification Monitor, and Service Level Monitor continue to run in the background until you stop them.

Logging on to an e-mail system

Logging on to the appropriate e-mail system enables Notification Monitor to use the e-mail system to forward the outstanding notifications.

To logon to an e-mail system to forward notifications:

  1. In the Notification Monitor Display dialog box or the Monitor Display dialog box, choose E-Mail Login.
  2. In the E-Mail System dialog box, select an e-mail system and choose OK.
  3. In the E-Mail Login dialog box, type your e-mail system ID and password.
  4. Choose OK.
    Result: The Notification Monitor Display dialog box or the Monitor Display dialog box reappears and the program begins to scan for non-alarm notifications created in Tivoli Problem Management.