IZ74848: LINUX OS AGENT TAKES HOURS TO START AND CONNECT

IBM Tivoli Monitoring: Linux(R) OS Agent 6.2.2.1-TIV-ITM_LINUX-IF0003
IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.2.2 Fix Pack 8 (6.2.2-TIV-ITM-FP0008)
IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.2.2 Fix Pack 9 (6.2.2-TIV-ITM-FP0009)
IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.2.2 Fix Pack 6 (6.2.2-TIV-ITM-FP0006)

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• Problem Description:
  
    When starting the agent, it appears to start correctly,
    however it can take several hours for the agent to actually
    connect to the management server and display data.
  
  
  
    The watchdog code that is part of the OS Agent issues a "find"
    command to locate the /etc/SuSE-release or /etc/redhat-release
    file.  In the customer environment the /etc directory is NFS
    mounted and very large, so the find command can take hours to
    complete.
  
  
  Detailed Recreation Procedure:
    - If the /etc directory is large and slow to access, after
      starting
      the OS Agent, you can iIssue a ps command to see the the
      command is running and continues to run.
  
       "ps auxww |grep find"
        root     12882  0.4  0.0   3464  1196 ?        S    13:04
  0:01
    find /etc -type f -iregex /etc/\(redhat\|suse\)-release -exec
  cat {} ;
  

Local fix

• The watchdog monitoring can be temporarily disabled by doing
  the follwing steps.  This will allow the agent to start-up
  without issuing the "find" command and it will connect in a
  reasonable timeframe.
  
  
  The steps disable:
  
   - Edit the <lz>.ini and comment out the line that starts with
     KCA_CAP_DIR
      # KCA_CAP_DIR=$CANDLEHOME$/$BINARCH$/$PRODUCTCODE$/bin/CAP
     and add a line with the following:
        KCA_CAP_DIR=
    - Stop and restart the OS Agent
  

Problem summary

• When starting the Linux OS agent, it appears to start
  correctly, however it can take several hours for the agent to
  actually connect to the management server and display data.
  

Problem conclusion

• The watchdog code that is part of the OS Agent issues a "find"
  command to locate the /etc/SuSE-release or /etc/redhat-release
  file.  In the customer environment the /etc directory is NFS
  mounted and very large, so the find command can take hours to
  complete.  The code has been modified to check for the
  /etc/SuSE-release or /etc/redhat-release file directly instead
  of using the find command.
  
  
  The fix for this APAR is included in the following maintenance
  vehicle:
      | fix pack | 6.2.1-TIV-ITM-FP0003
      | interim fix | 6.2.2.1-TIV-ITM_LINUX-IF0003
      | interim fix | 6.2.2.2-TIV-ITM_LINUX-IF0001
      | fix pack | 6.2.2-TIV-ITM-FP0003
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  ITM AGENT LINUX

• Fixed component ID

  5724C04LN

Applicable component levels

• R621 PSY

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