IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Version 6.3

Installing the Agent Compatibility (AC) component

To provide a runtime environment capable of supporting mixed 32- and 64-bit executables, as well as to provide backward compatibility between native 64-bit agents and existing 32-bit agents, the 32/64 Bit Agent Compatibility Package (component code AC) is used.

The AC package comprises the following pieces:

32-bit and 64-bit agent frameworks
32-bit and 64-bit versions of the IBM® Global Security Toolkit (GSKit), component KGS
The Tivoli Monitoring configuration utilities, component KGL

Note: The AC component is a Windows component only. There is no equivalent for Linux or UNIX systems.

When to install the AC component

You need to install the AC component in these situations:

When adding a native 64-bit agent into preexisting IBM Tivoli Monitoring installations comprising only 32-bit components.
When adding a 32-bit agent into preexisting Tivoli Monitoring installations comprising only 64-bit components.
The Tivoli Monitoring installer has detected a situation where proceeding without the AC component would result in incompatibility either between the 32-bit and the 64-bit agent frameworks or between the 32-bit and the 64-bit GSKit libraries.

The IBM Tivoli Monitoring installer will automatically detect any of the above situations and then stop the installation with this error:

The version ver_num or newer of the Agent Compatibility Package must be installed in order to ensure 
the correct cooperation between 32bit and 64bit components. Exiting installation.

When not to install the AC component

The AC component can be installed with any 32-bit or 64-bit agent where a mixed 32/64 bit environment is anticipated. There is no need to install the AC component if only 32-bit or only 64-bit IBM Tivoli Monitoring agents are planned for this machine.

Installing the AC component using the Windows GUI

The AC component can be found on the Agents DVD. IBM recommends you install the AC component at the same version as the Windows OS agent (component code NT). Since the AC is a standard Tivoli Monitoring component, it can be installed using the standard interactive IBM Tivoli Monitoring installer by selecting the 32/64 Bit Agent Compatibility Package feature for installation, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Installing the Agent Compatibility Package (component code AC)

This graphic shows the installer's agent-selection screen with the Agent Compatibility Package selected.

Remotely deploying the AC components

There are special considerations for deploying native 64-bit agents as well as the AC component. When deploying an agent to a Windows machine running an x86-64 CPU, checks are automatically made to verify whether the AC component is required. If the checks report the AC component is needed and it is available in the depot, it is sent automatically with no action required on your part. However, if the checks report the AC component is needed but the component is not available in the depot, an error is reported, and the deployment request fails. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you populate the deployment depot with the AC component.

Sample tacmd addBundles command to add the AC component to the deploy depot:

tacmd addBundles -i C:\ITM_Agents_Image\WINDOWS\Deploy -t ac

For more details on managing the agent depot, see Deploying monitoring agents across your environment.

Note: Once you have added the AC bundle to the remote-deployment depot, it is listed among the available packages in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal. Thus your interactive users can select it when invoking the tacmd AddSystem command for a particular 64-bit node. However, if they do this, your users will receive this error:

KFWITM291E an Agent Configuration schema not found

When it becomes necessary to invoke the remote deployment of the Agent Compatibility package, instead use the CLI.

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