The time required to install and configure an agent differs depending on the agent. Using operating system agents as a baseline, you should be able to install a monitoring agent in 10 minutes. Taking operating system agents as a baseline, then in theory for UNIX and Windows you can install them in 10 minutes. However, when planning, allow time to debug some failures. Ideally, in an 8-hour day you should be able to install 48 error-free agents. If scripts are allowed to run overnight, nearly 150 agents can be installed per day. Even so this is probably not realistic for a couple of reasons.

First, you must spend time debugging problems and due to issues with access to user IDs that have sufficient authority to perform the installation and access to the installation image. In most environments a single person can reasonably aim for 50 agents per day if user access is provided in a timely manner. Even if there are multiple agents to be installed per computer, then this is still a reasonable estimate for installing an operating system agent, a Tivoli Universal Agent, and a database agent.

If you take CICS®, DB2®, and z/OS agents as an example, in general allow one day to configure each agent, assuming one CICS region and one DB2 subsystem. For additional CICS regions, this means more CICS table changes. Additional DB2 subsystems are defined in ICAT and you can estimate one hour per subsystem.

Upgrading your environment to allow for additional LPARs is typically quicker because you can use batch mode replication. Allow one day per LPAR.

For more information search for "SMP/E installation on z/OS" or navigation code "1TW10TM3M" at the Tivoli® Open Process Automation Library (OPAL).