Configuring a probe to download remote rules files

You can configure the RulesFile property in a probe rules file to download rules files over HTTP from a central repository or file system.

Before you begin

Note: From version 8.1.0.21, the probe can download rules files over HTTPS. It can also send user name and password information in a Basic Authentication header, if specified within the URL.

Note: For security reasons, it is advisable to run probes that use the HTTP interface only in a secure private network environment.

Procedure

In the probe properties file, set the RulesFile property to the URL of the rules file. For example:

http://testhost.ibm.com:8080/ibm/console/omnibus/repository/probes/rules/simnet.rules

To specify a rules file that is stored on an IPv6 web server, use square brackets ([ ]) to delimit the server address in the URL. For example:

http://[fed0::7887:234:5edf:fe65:348]:8080/ibm/console/omnibus/repository/probes/rules/simnet.rules
From version 8.1.0.21, you can use HTTPS URLs, for example:
```
https://testhost.ibm.com:8080/ibm.console/omnibus/repository/probes/rules/simnet.rules
```
The probe makes an HTTPS connection with the host and is presented with an SSL certificate by the remote HTTPS server. The probe validates the remote certificate using the Certificate Authority (CA) and/or intermediate certificates in its repository. For a successful HTTPS connection, import the appropriate certificate into the key store. For more information, see Using SSL for client and server communications.
To specify a URL that contains user names and passwords, use the following format:
```
http://user:pass@testhost.ibm.com:8080/ibm/console/omnibus/repository/probes/rules/simnet.rules
```
User names and passwords in this format are removed from the URL and sent as a Basic Authorisation header in the HTTP request. If you want to specify user names or passwords which contain special characters, use RFC 3986 style encoding, for example, use specialcharpassw%40rd in the URL instead of specialcharpassw@rd.
Restart the probe or force a running probe to reread the rules file.

Results

The rules file is loaded from the remote file system. If the probe fails to read the rules file, a message similar to the following message is written to the probe log file:

Error: E-UNK-000-000: Failed to open Rules file: http://testhost:9080/ibm/console/omnibus/repository/probe/rules/simnet.rules

If rules file caching is enabled, the probe reverts to a cached copy of the rules file. Otherwise, the probe shuts down.

You can use the nco_http utility that is provided with Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus to find the HTTP status of the repository or file system server. Use the following command to return the HTTP status code that indicates the cause of the failure:

$OMNIHOME/bin/nco_http -uri path

Where path is the directory path or URL that the probe is attempting to use to download the include file.