IBM Control Center console

Use the IBM® Control Center console to monitor process activity. Administrators can perform various tasks, such as creating and maintaining users, rules, actions, service level criteria (SLCs), and email lists, and configuring servers.

Important: License management for monitored servers is deprecated in IBM Control Center V5.4.2.1 and later. IBM Sterling products stopped using license keys in 2010, but the license management functionality remains in IBM Control Center for users that have older versions of monitored servers that still have license keys. Since license keys are only available in prior versions of certain monitored servers that are no longer supported by IBM Control Center, IBM intends to discontinue supporting all license management capabilities in IBM Control Center. Use of license management capabilities in IBM Control Center is discouraged.

Node tree

The node tree displays the listing of managed servers and server groups that were added to IBM Control Center. The servers are displayed on the Server tab alphabetically by server type. The server groups you defined are displayed on the Groups tab along with the system server groups provided in IBM Control Center. When you right-click a server type, individual server, or server group, the menu of options for that selection is displayed.

Servers and Groups tabs

The Servers and Groups tabs show the servers defined in IBM Control Center.

Clicking the Servers tab lists IBM Control Center servers by server type. Within each server type, individual servers are listed in alphabetical order.

Clicking the Groups tab lists both the system server groups provided in IBM Control Center and the groups you defined.

Attention: Dynamically discovered servers, such as IBM Global High Availability Mailbox, do not appear in the Servers tab, but they do appear in the Groups tab.

Selecting menu options using mnemonics and accelerators

When you right-click a server type, individual server, or server group, a menu for that selection is displayed.

Tip: The functions that you can perform depend on the object selected and your IBM Control Center role permissions. Functions that are not available because of role restrictions appear dimmed. A function can also appear dim because it is not relevant and cannot be chosen. For example, the Pause Monitoring and Resume Monitoring options appear dim and are not available for dynamically discovered servers.

Besides mouse navigation to select a menu option, you can use two keyboard methods, mnemonics or accelerators, depending upon whether an option menu is currently displayed. Mnemonics offer a way to use the keyboard to navigate the menu hierarchy, increasing the accessibility of programs. Alternatively, accelerators offer keyboard shortcuts to bypass navigating the menu hierarchy.

A mnemonic is a key that enables you to choose a menu option that is currently visible. For example, in the previous screen sample, when you press the Alt and A keys, the Active Alerts viewer is displayed. The Servers menu has options that can be chosen by using mnemonics while the menu is visible, with or without pressing Alt. For example, pressing the A key (with or without Alt) opens the Active Alerts viewer. Generally, a mnemonic for a menu option is indicated with an underline for the first occurrence of the mnemonic character in the text of the menu option.

An accelerator is a key combination that enables you to choose a menu option, whether the pull-down menu listing the option is visible. Accelerators are displayed with the accelerator key to the right of the menu option. For example, the Active Alerts menu option on the Servers right-click menu shows the Alt-A accelerator keys. By holding down the Alt key while pressing the A key, you can select the Active Alerts option even if the right-click menu is not visible. Not all accelerator keys are used with the Alt key. Some are used in combination with the Ctrl or Shift key.

Server icons

The server icons in the node tree have different meanings. The follow list shows a representative sample of these server status icons.

Icon	Definition
	The IBM Control Center system that contains all servers listed in the node tree. You can expand or collapse the tree and perform a variety of actions by right-clicking the icon.
	An IBM Sterling Connect:Direct®, IBM Sterling Connect:Express, IBM QuickFile, or dynamically discovered server, such as IBM Global High Availability Mailbox, that IBM Control Center successfully contacted.
	An IBM Sterling Connect:Enterprise® server that IBM Control Center successfully contacted.
	An IBM Sterling B2B Integrator server that IBM Control Center successfully contacted.
	An IBM Sterling B2B Integrator node that is part of a Sterling B2B Integrator server and that IBM Control Center successfully contacted. An IBM Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent (listed under its associated Sterling Connect:Direct server) that IBM Control Center has successfully contacted.
	A managed FTP server successfully contacted by IBM Control Center.
	Indicates that there is a problem with the license for the server.
	Indicates that an alert was generated on the server.
	Indicates that IBM Control Center shunned and cannot monitor the server because of one of the following problems: IBM Control Center cannot sign on to a server due to a user ID or password problem A server is at an unsupported level For an FTP server, can also mean that the log file specified is either invalid or does not exist.
	Indicates that the server was previously contacted by IBM Control Center, but is currently offline. Important: A server name in red also indicates that the server was previously contacted by IBM Control Center but is currently offline, regardless of the icon displayed.
	Indicates that a Sterling B2B Integrator server is down.
	Indicates that at least one, but not all, of the Sterling B2B Integrator nodes in the server is down. Also might indicate Sterling Connect:Direct File Agent server is down.
	Indicates that the server was never contacted by IBM Control Center. The server might be offline, or the server IP address or port number might be incorrect in IBM Control Center.
	Indicates that the server is unavailable, but still has unprocessed alerts.
	Indicates that monitoring of the server is currently paused.
	A plus sign (+) in the upper right of Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling Connect:Direct, and IBM MQ Managed File Transfer icons indicates that the node has subnodes or subagents (depending on the type of server). This status is used only in the web console.

Filtering information

Most monitors and listing screens have different ways you can filter and display information by using the following buttons:

Button	Definition
	To copy the contents currently displayed to an Adobe PDF file, click the Export List to PDF button. A PDF is created which you can open with Adobe Reader.
	To manually refresh the current contents of the screen.
	To clear the criteria currently being used to filter information, click the Clear Filter button. The screen is refreshed and all information displayed before the filter was applied is displayed.
	To filter information in a column, click to open the Filter pop-window. Select your criteria from the Key and Operator pull-down lists. Either select an item from the Value field or type the value, and click OK. For example, to see all Sterling Connect:Direct that have Sterling Connect:Direct Secure Plus enabled, you would select Secure+ Enabled for Key and Matches for Operator. Then you would select `Yes` for Value and click OK.
	To expand the contents of the Server List View or Group View, click the Expand button. For example, if the Server Group view is displayed with all folders collapsed and you click the Expand button, all individual servers are displayed.
	To collapse the contents of the Server List View or Group View, click the Collapse button. For example, if the Server List View is expanded and you click the Collapse Button, the individual servers are collapsed and the folders representing the different server types are displayed.