What is meant by an “instance” of BMC AMI Defender for z/OS? What function does the use of instances serve? |
Each BMC AMI Defender for z/OS agent executes as a unique “instance” of the product on the LPAR. You can run up to eight instances (invocations, or separate started tasks) of BMC AMI Defender for z/OS simultaneously on a single LPAR. All instances are represented by a number from 0 through 7. Also, an instance can have a name that is unique among all running instances in the given LPAR. Instances allow you to start more than one copy of BMC AMI Defender in a single LPAR. Individual instances run completely independently from other agents. That allows customers to specify different destination SIEM collectors, collection of different SMF records, different formatting options, and so forth. Here is a brief, simplified technical view of instances and the associated, internal “vector table”. The product vector table is an internal memory structure containing an entry for each executing agent instance. Each entry is a place holder for a particular agent execution, with related storage addresses and unique instance information. The vector table provides a central location for viewing of active instance information for BMC AMI Defender for z/OS on an LPAR. Upon successful startup of a BMC AMI Defender for z/OS agent, a CZA0205I message will be written to the agent log, indicating the instance information related to the running task: CZA0205I Initialization successful as Instance n named 'instanceName'; ready to forward Syslog messages . If you attempt to start a BMC AMI Defender for z/OS agent, and your agent definition specifies the number of an instance that is already running, you will receive a CZA0229C error message. See Knowledge Article 000234847, entitled ‘Why do I receive the message 'CZA0229C zDefender for z/OS is already running as Instance i' when starting BMC AMI Defender for z/OS?’, for details. If you do not specify an instance number in your agent definition, the next available instance number will be assigned. There are a couple of ways to display information about instance allocation. If your BMC AMI Defender for z/OS agent is running, you may issue a console Modify command, to display information about the instances in use: /F agent-stcname,DISP(INSTANCES) Here is an example of the command output, written to the agent log: CZA0213I MODIFY command accepted by MTSIEM60.Agent v6.0.02.3060.01 CZA0251I Instances CZA0251I Instance 0 This instance CZA0251I INSTName (MTSIEM60.Agent) CZA0251I STC or Job AMIMT600 CZA0251I Instance 7 CZA0251I INSTName (MTSIEM.Agent) CZA0251I STC or Job AMIMT592 CZA0026I MODIFY processing completed If you do not have a running BMC AMI Defender for z/OS agent, or if you want to see a more detailed view of the products active internal “vector table”, a member is provided in the ‘hlq.CZAGENT.EXEC’ dataset, named ‘CZAVECTQ’, containing an executable REXX program to display vector table registered entries for BMC AMI Defender for z/OS agents. When you execute the CZAVECTQ member, a display similar to the following is produced: BMC Software CZAVECTQ Copyright (c) 2019 - 2019 BMC Software, BMC AMI Build Number: 3060.00 Mar 30, 2020 14.22 BMC AMI ZVector Address: 3963C690 Eyecatcher: CORRELOG ZVECTOR Length: 96 BMC AMI AVector: Instance Address Length Queue Count Revision Instance Name Jobname 0 23F7A470 19334 0 26 MTSIEM60.Agent AMIMT600 1 00000000 2 00000000 3 00000000 4 00000000 5 00000000 6 00000000 7 25B60480 19322 0 25 MTSIEM.Agent AMIMT592 * indicates inactive agent *** Most meaningful are the instance number on the left, the queued message count in the center, and the instance name and jobname on the right of each entry. |