Published
This document
provides an overview of the changes made to Smart Plug-in for IBM DB2 Databases (SPI for
DB2) for the B.02.10 release. It contains important information not included in
the manuals or in online help.
In
This Version
Installation Notes
Enhancements and Fixes
Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds
Documentation Errata
Local Language Support
Integration with Other OpenView
Solutions
Support
Legal Notices
· Support of DB2 UDB 8.2.
· DB2 on Windows managed nodes with German localization supported
· User's Guide now contains chapter about cluster support
· HP Self-Healing Support has been integrated
· Reports have been adapted to OV Reporter 3.6
· Output from management tools and ASCII reports can be saved to file
· DB2 Administrator data changes can now be followed in the DB2SPI configuration
· Predefined graphs are available in the OVO/Windows console as with OVPM
· A number of defects have been fixed.
Installation
requirements, as well as instructions for installing SPI for DB2, are
documented in the DB2SPI User’s
Guide provided in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)
format. The document file is included on the product's CD media as:
./paperdocs/db2_config.pdf
Not contained in
the User’s Guide are upgrade instructions from earlier versions of the
DB2SPI; these
are given next.
With B.02.10, we do
not only change the binaries and configuration items of the DB2SPI, but also
the platform. Older versions of the
DB2SPI could be executed on OVO/Windows 7.1 and 7.2, but B.02.10 is supported
on OVO/Windows 7.5 only.
B.02.08 has to be
removed before B.02.10 can be installed.
If you have changed
configurations (policies) in the old system, you need to save them prior to
running the de-installation.
All local
configurations that have been made on the managed node ("Config Setup") can be preserved with this upgrade.
Even your metric
data that have been stored on the managed nodes are preserved and data storage
can be continued.
If you have made
changes to policies, you should back them up before doing the upgrade. Details have been described above.
· Prepare Prerequisites
There
are no special, preparatory steps required except saving old configuration of
tools and user roles.
· Remove DB2SPI B.02.08
Uninstall
the old package as described in the DB2SPI User's Guide for B.02.08.
Note:
You do not need to remove the DB2 Node Groups.
· Install DB2SPI B.02.10
In
case you had deleted all DB2SPI node groups during the uninstallation
of B.02.08, you can install B.02.10 as described in the DB2SPI User's Guide.
If
you did not remove the DB2 node groups and their contents during uninstallation of B.02.08, you have to redeploy all DB2SPI
policies and instrumentation to the managed nodes contained in these groups.
Make
sure you deploy the correct policy group depending on the OS of the managed
node. The policy group “DB2SPI” contains one policy group for each
platform (Windows, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris). Please
redeploy all policies from the “Auto-Deploy” subfolder.
E.g.
for windows managed nodes you have to deploy the policy group
“DB2SPI\DB2SPI Windows\Auto-Deploy”.
After
you have installed B.02.10 as described above, you have to reapply changes made
to tools and user roles or upload those saved formerly.
Fixpack 7 of DB2 UDB 8.1
identifies itself as version 8.2 of the database. The DB2SPI has been extended to detect
this version and tested to support it.
During "Config
Setup" the DB2SPI now asks for a language of the database. Possible answers are German (de) and
English (us).
This allows the management of DB2 installed on
German localized operating systems, where all messages reported by DB2 are
given in German.
Please note, that dialogue answers –
like DB2 commands – must still be given in English where applicable
("y/n", not "j/n". for example).
The DB2SPI can be operated in DB2 cluster
environments due to the capability to enable / disable all active
policies.
The DB2SPI User's Guide contains a detailed
explanation how the integration of the DB2SPI in high availability switch-over
concepts can be achieved.
HP provides a semi-automatic data collection
for support cases, called "Self-Healing Services".
The DB2SPI is integrated into this solution
and provides scripts and tools to collect the information needed for
"Self-Healing".
Besides being called from the
"Self-Healing Agent" the DB2SPI can also execute a standalone tool
for the data collection;
the resulting data set can then be forwarded to HP via eMail, as
described in the HP Self-Healing documentation.
With OVO/Window 7.5, OV Reporter 3.6 is
supported by all SPIs.
The DB2SPI Reporter integration package
contains the same functionality as in the previous release, but is usable with
OV Reporter 3.6 now, whereas the former packages have been supporting OV
Reporter 3.05 and 3.5.
Most DB2SPI tools have been extended to
provide the option of saving the output (which normally goes to the screen)
also to a file.
In all these cases, the user is asked a
question at the very end if the output is to be saved or not. Answer "y" (yes) if you want
to store the output for later, external usage.
This function is even available if the paged
output of the tool has been canceled earlier, because the entire output has
already been buffered and therefore is available for storage.
Sometimes DB2 administrative user data
(account, password) are changed in customer environments, for example because
of strict security policies.
A new tool, "Change Admin" is
available in the console to allow adaptation of the DB2SPI configuration data
to changed account information.
DB2SPI now provides predefined graphs for a
set of DB2 metrics in the embedded graphing component. Please see the DB2SPI User's Guide for
details.
The following items
(identified by error tracking number) are fixed in the current software
release. To display details about each software fix, click the error tracking
number. To hide details, click again.
[901] Cannot use csh on Unix DB2 managed node
|
|
PROBLEM: |
DB2 instances cannot be used if instance
user does not use ksh or sh
on Unix |
|
|
CAUSE: |
The scripts used internally during the user
switching did not expect csh-like input/output |
|
|
FIX: |
With this new version of the DB2SPI the
current shell of the DB2 instance users is checked and treated correctly |
[1034] Data are not collected for newly discovered databases
|
|
PROBLEM: |
Creating
databases after the instance had been set up to be monitored should
automatically create data stores for their metric data collection, but that
does not happen |
|
|
CAUSE: |
A missing function
call prevented the DB2SPI to launch the data store definition is CODA / MWA. |
|
|
FIX: |
The function call has been added. |
[1061] Some metrics do not track their former values correctly
|
|
PROBLEM: |
Some metrics cause
alerts with unreasonably high numbers. |
|
|
CAUSE: |
Some metrics calculate the first derivative
as the value of interest ("growth rates"). Some metrics stored the original value
instead of this delta. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now stores the proper values. |
[1091] DB2 logfile path name may contain blanks
|
|
PROBLEM: |
On Windows platforms the DB2 diagnostic logfile
cannot be found sometimes. |
|
|
CAUSE: |
If the path name
contained blank(s), the name has not been parsed correctly. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now considers
that the path name may contain blanks. |
[1097] Backup management tool applies wrong syntax
|
|
PROBLEM: |
DB2 management tool "Backup Management"
terminates with a DB2 syntax error. |
|
|
CAUSE: |
The code defined for the
backup command had been wrong. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now applies
the proper code. |
[1100] Metric 0821 has no reasonable threshold
|
|
PROBLEM: |
The DB2SPI monitor for metric 0821 alerts at wrong
times. |
|
|
CAUSE: |
The threshold value for
0821 was set inappropriately. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now uses a
more reasonable value. |
[1101] Metric 0831 formula is wrong
|
|
PROBLEM: |
Metric 0831 alerts although the base values are okay. |
|
|
CAUSE: |
The formula for 0831 defined
in db2s_metrics.us.cfg has been faulty. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now uses a
corrected formula. |
[1113] Admin Logfile on Windows DB2 nodes requires event log policy
|
|
PROBLEM: |
No administration log file on Windows managed nodes could
be found and gave respective warnings. |
|
|
CAUSE: |
The administrative
log entries are written to the Windows event log rather than to files as used
in Unix environments. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now uses an event
log filter to determine the administrative log entries. |
[1151] OVPA datastore definition wrong, causing OVPM to fail for long term data
|
|
PROBLEM: |
OVPM shows ver large numbers
if the time scale is 7 days or longer, although shorter time windows work
fine. |
|
|
CAUSE: |
The definition of the
DB2SPI data stores (MWA / OVPA only) requested a summarization over a text
element rather than over a numeric.
This was not detected during the creation of the data store, but when
OVPM accessed these data, nonsense (and still no error) was reported |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now does not
define the summarization any more, since only time scale makes sense anyway. |
[1152] Missing "DB2_mwalogger_unix" policy
|
|
PROBLEM: |
OVPA (MWA) does not store any data in the standard
data stores (Unix only). |
|
|
CAUSE: |
With the introduction
of the MWA data logger script for Windows, the original one had been removed,
but no Unix-specific one had been added. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now provides a
proper schedule policy for Unix nodes. |
[1181] Metric 0933 (free tablespace monitoring) multiple container handling
|
|
PROBLEM: |
Metric 0933 (free tablespace
monitoring) gives wrong results if multiple containers are part of the SMS tablespace |
|
|
CAUSE: |
Until now the DB2SPI
only determined the container (for SMS, this is a file system) with the
smallest free space. However, the total free
space must be taken from ALL assigned file systems, because the used system
stored in the DB2 snapshot also contains the written blocks in ALL
containers. |
|
|
FIX: |
DB2SPI now
accumulates the free space of all containers before calculating the
percentage. |
We still have only restricted support of ESE / EEE editions of DB2. A specific whitepaper can be requested
from spi-support@nice.de.
The following
problems are known to us at the time of delivery of the DB2SPI B.02.10.
· db2s_make_svctree.pl fails if all databases of an instance are excluded (ID: 521)
Symptom:
The service tree does not get updated in
all databases of a monitored instance are excluded from monitoring.
Reason:
The script executing on the management
server does not receive information that there is "no database".
Workaround:
None.
· Instruction Texts missing (ID: 526)
Symptom:
For some events shown in the message
browser there are no instruction texts available
Reason:
Due to limited resources in the developer
team we have not been able to close all gaps until release.
Workaround:
None. We are
working on an update.
· Some application output (OVO tool output window, not ATOP) comes late (ID: 637)
Symptom:
For some applications started the output
is transferred to the management station very late so the user might feel that
the process hangs.
Reason:
Unknown. There is
any synchronization problem with the transfer of the output which needs to be
identified. This is based in the
OVO platform.
Workaround:
Be patient. As we learned, the tools act fine, only
their output is affected.
· Instruction text window opened only after long delay (ID: 661)
Symptom:
Requesting "Instructions
…" from the OVO message browser takes quite long sometimes.
Reason:
With a highly loaded OVO management
server the processing of the instructions repository (an XML file on the
management server) takes pretty long.
Workaround:
Be patient. We are looking for performance
improvements with the next release by splitting up this information in various
files.
· Diagnostic log files are not monitored (ID: 878)
Symptom:
The db2s_diag.pl creates error messages
in db2spi.log about missing diagnostic log file information.
Reason:
In some environments, the DATABASE
MANAGER CONFIGURATION does not provide information about the path for the
diagnostic (or administrative) log files and no error is shown during "Config Setup".
Workaround:
Enter these names manually into the
…/conf/db2s_diagfiles.cfg and …/conf/db2s_admfiles.cfg. For each instance managed, the FQDN of
the respective files must be given. [Include information about known problems,
limitations, and workarounds.]
This version of the
SPI is supported in English and German environments.
Please visit the HP
OpenView web site at: http://www.managementsoftware.hp.com/
This web site
provides contact information and details about the products, services, and
support that HP OpenView offers.
You can also go
directly to the support web site at:
http://support.openview.hp.com/
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To view release
notes and other documentation:
1.
Click using hp software--> product
manuals.
The product manuals search window opens. It is
located at:
http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv/
2.
In the select product list, click SPI
for DB2.
3.
In the select version list, click B.02.10.
4.
In the OS list, click [OS type].
5.
To start the search, click Open or Download.
NOTE: To view
files in PDF format (*.pdf), Adobe Acrobat Reader
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©Copyright 2005 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
The information
contained herein is subject to change without notice.
The only warranties
for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements
accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as
constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or
editorial errors or omissions contained herein.