Each z/OS-based monitoring server or monitoring agent address space has a process running in it called KOBAGENT, which is the enhanced 3270 user interface’s data-retrieval agent (DRA). The KOBAGENT sends your data requests to its hub monitoring server. After the address space running the TOM starts, it discovers each KOBAGENT process in the same sysplex; thus the TOM has access to multiple hub environments, since there might be multiple KOBAGENTs running in the sysplex that connect to different hub monitoring servers, and therefore different Tivoli Monitoring environments). The TOM requires only one KOBAGENT per hub, but if there are more, the TOM can determine over time which KOBAGENT has the best data throughput; it can also try alternate KOBAGENT instances if a request fails using the first KOBAGENT it selects.
When users log on to a session in the TOM, they pick the Tivoli Monitoring environment that they want to work with and start using the OMEGAMON agents running in that environment. Which agent data users can look at is determined by the hub monitoring server running in that environment.