IBM Software Group IBM Support Assistant V 4

® IBM Software Group IBM Support Assistant V 4. 0 General information about ISA v 4. 0 © IBM Corporation

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Agenda : § Introduction to IBM Support Assistant (ISA) § Getting Started - some basics. § Activity based approach to troubleshooting § Where do I find information ? § How do I analyze problem ? § Gathering information at remote site § Managing cases and share § More Information § Questions ? § Demo § Backup Slides 2

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software What is IBM Support Assistant (ISA) ? An FREE application helping customers resolve questions and problems with IBM software products. § Value: meeting client’s need to simplify self assist. 4 Q : Where can I find information I need from ibm. com? 4 Q : How do I troubleshoot a product problem? 4 Q : What logs and traces should I collect to investigate a product problem? 4 Q : What tools can I use to look at my log and trace files? 4 Q : How can I manage my service request with IBM? 4 Q : How can IBM help my own support organization? Its FREE, and crosses ALL SWG Brands ! 3

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software What’s in it for me? § Search for an answer to your question or problem in many different locations at the same time. § Run troubleshooting and diagnostic tools to identify the issue. § Gather useful information about the problem automatically and shorten the problem resolution time. § Provide one-stop access to all your problem determination needs. 4

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software ISA V 4 Basics Two parts to ISA core delivered: § ISA Serviceability Workbench 4 This is where user does most of the interaction with ISA. 4 Build on top of Lotus Expeditor. § ISA Agent/ Remote Agents. 4 Code to be installed to enable remote data collection capabilities on target machine. 4 Leverages Tivoli’s Common Agent Services (CAS) technology. 5

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Enabling more content for ISA V 4 Product specific contents: § Product add-on’s 4 Delivered by each SWG Brand. 4 Categorized by Brand for ease in locating products. . § Tool add-on’s 4 Delivered by various IBM teams. 4 JVM and Configuration tools. 6

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software “The new Face of ISA” - Activity based UI Find information & Analyze Problem: Basic activities when trouble-shooting a problem First Steps & Tutorials: Information to get you started. Open & work with service requests for IBM software & hardware 7

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Finding information: Client facing docs… § What are the resources available for this product ? Select a product from the dropdown menu to view information for that product Basic product Information – including education, system requirements, forums and download sites NEW! Product RSS Feeds incorporated! Note direct link to DCF Key Content Types! 8

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Finding Information : Has it happened before? § Do you know all the places where you can look for information ? The Basics: § IBM Support Docs (DCFs) § developer. Works § Newsgroups & Forums. § Google § Product Information Center Configure and save your common search settings under advanced search 9

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software What’s next ? Getting information. Data collectors enable consistent & automated way to gather information. There are three ways to leverage data collection 4 Local data collection - on the same machine as ISA. § Useful if ISA is already installed. 4 NEW : Collect data remotely : leverage remote agent data collection. § Deploy collector code to remote machine § When collector finished, will automatically ftp the data back. § Useful if ISA is already installed, and agents configured. 4 Easier! Collect data (local or remote) using a portable collector § Footprint : ~6 M. Can be distributed to client. § All you need is a JVM (1. 4 or higher). 10

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software So I have the data. . ? Then ? There are some tools to help you analyze the data you’ve gathered. Tools now available: Log Analysis : § Log Analyzer. Interface to help browse and analyze log files. Allows easy correlation between logs produced by multiple products. JVM related issues § IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java – Dump Analyzer. Analyzes Java Dump Files. 4 WAS modules extensions available. § Thread Analyzer. Analyzes Java Thread Dumps. Can detect issues such as deadlock § IBM Pattern Modeling and Analysis Tool for Java Garbage Collector. Garbage collector analysis, heap usage, and § Symptom Editor: Keeping track of symptoms and known issues just gotten easier !! Configuration related issues § Visual Configuration Explorer. Visualize the configuration files between WAS, portal settings. 11

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Document, Manage your data and share …. Keep track of & share your work with Case Manager Cases are containers to store related troubleshooting artifacts 4 Organize data with folders 4 Add notes & description to a case. 4 Export & Import cases to share 12

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Two things to walk away with. . § ISA - can help you! § Suggestions & input welcome by the ISA team (ibmsa@us. ibm. com). 13

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software More Information… § ISA Home : http: //www. ibm. com/software/support/isa/ § ISA IEA modules http: //publib. boulder. ibm. com/infocenter/ieduasst/v 1 r 1 m 0/topic/com. ib m. iea. isa/plugin_coverpage. html § IBM Support Assistant Demo sessions– § http: //www. ibm. com/software/support/isa/demo. html 14

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Questions ? 15

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software § DEMO 16

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Backup Slides § System Requirements & Supported Platforms § First Steps: Tutorial & Migration § IGAA integration. § Manage Service Request § ISA Remote Agents 4 System Explorer & Remote system inventory § Tools - Descriptions and Screen shots of various tools within ISA § More Information… 17

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Supported platforms and versions § ISA V 4. 0 Workbench supported platforms: § Windows: Win XP Pro SP 1 / SP 2 , Vista Business & Enterprise § Linux: RHEL 4. 0 WS with GIMP GTK – update 5, RHEL 5. 0 w/ GTK update 1, Su. SE 10. 0 FP 1 (w/ XGL) § ISA V 4. 0 Agent/ Agent Manager platforms. § Windows (Agent only): Win XP Pro SP 1, § Windows: Win Server 2003 Std, Ent, or Datacenter § Linux: RHEL AS V 4. 0 or V 5. 0 , SUSE Linux Enterprise V 9. 0 or V 10. 0 § Solaris V 10. 0 (lacks support for inventory reporting) § AIX 5 L V 5. 3 (requires APAR IY 91085) , V 6. 1. § Portable Collector (console version of auto. PD within ISA) § All above platforms. Required JDK 1. 4 or higher. § Limited i 5/OS , z/OS support. 18

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Improved First steps… § The first time you launch the workbench after installation, the customization wizard will run 4 Can also be launched later from the First Steps page § Configure network connections 4 Set up a proxy server to access the internet § Configure update notifications 4 When and where to check for updates § Search for product and tool add-ons 19

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Tutorials § Tutorials on five common user activities on ISA. § Access the tutorials from the Home page of your V 4 workbench, under Tutorial 4 Five common activities are listed. 4 Select on the tutorial that you want to learn about. 4 This will launch a browser with a flash viewlet displayed. 20

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Help user migrate! § Wizard migrates product plug-ins and tools from your V 3 workbench 4 Functionality of tools will not change § Access the migration wizard from the Home page of your V 4 workbench, under First Steps 4 Click the Migrate icon to start the wizard 4 Provide the installation location of your V 3 workbench 4 Select the product plug-ins and tools you want to migrate 4 You will be prompted to accept the plug-in migration 4 IBM Support Assistant will need to restart after migration is complete 21

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Analyze Problem activity : IGAA Integration & Tools Start the Analyze Problem activity from the Home page or the Launch Activity dropdown menu Use Collectors (system or product collectors) to gather diagnostic data locally, or create a portable Collector Use the Guided Troubleshooter to walk through the problem troubleshooting process Launch tools from add-ons that you have installed from the Tools tab 22

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Manage Service Request activity Start the Manage Service Request activity from the Home page or the Launch Activity dropdown menu Use the Guided Activity Assistant to walk through the steps you should perform before engaging IBM support Use Collectors to gather diagnostic data In the Service Requests tab, open and work with service requests for IBM software and hardware Click the bar to collapse the Guided Activity Assistant 23

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software ISA & Remote Systems (via agents) § ISA leverages the Agent Manager/Agents for: 4 Remote Data collection. 4 Exploring remote systems. § Agent manager is a lightweight server component 4 Needs to be installed on a system that is visible to remote machines, workbenches 4 There should be one agent manager in your environment 4 Provides authentication and authorization services for communication from workbench to service agents 4 Maintains a registry of configuration information about the managed systems in your environment § Agents are based on the Tivoli Common Agent runtime 4 Provide services such as data collection, software inventory, file transfer, and log filtering 4 Install the agent on any system you want to manage 4 Agents can be customized with product-specific content 24

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Remote Agent - deployment architecture IBM Support Assistant Workbench ISA Agent IBM HTTP Server ISA Agent Web. Sphere Application Server ISA Agent DB/2 Agent Manager Repository Software Problems IBM yourcompany. com 25

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Systems explorer & Software inventory § You can access the systems explorer after the workbench has registered with an agent manager § The systems explorer allows you to: 4 Create a software inventory of products installed on a remote system 4 Browse the remote file system, after authenticating with the remote operating system 4 Collect files from the remote system and add them to cases in your workbench § Open the explorer under Administration > Explore Systems 26

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Tool: Java Dump Analyzer § Java™ Virtual Machine diagnostic tool § Troubleshoot hang, crash, memory management § Automated analysis of virtual machine dump files § Leverages Diagnostic Tooling Framework for Java § Analysis results are one of the following two types: 4 Root cause and solution 4 Suggestions for continuing analysis 27

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Tool : Garbage Collection and Memory Visualizer § Java™ Virtual Machine diagnostic tool § Troubleshoot memory usage and performance § Graphic viewer of Java Verbose Garbage Collection logs 4 Raw logs 4 Tabulated data 4 Graphic views § Stores analysis results as: 4 HTML 4 JPG 4 Comma-separated values (. csv) for use in spreadsheets § Extensible to parse and plot other types of input 28

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Tool : Memory Dump Diagnostic for Java™ § Java™ Virtual Machine diagnostic tool § Troubleshoot memory leaks 4 Single heap dump analysis 4 Comparative heap dump analysis § Analysis results include: 4 4 4 Summary List of suspects Context of suspect objects Types of suspect objects Browser to view objects in the analyzed heap 29

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Tool: Thread Analyzer § Java™ Virtual Machine diagnostic tool § Troubleshoot deadlocks § Analysis results presented as: Simple bar graph summary Tabular view of all threads Tabular view of all monitors Tabular view of servlet thread pool 4 Tabular view of ORB thread pool 4 4 § Customized for Web. Sphere Application Server 30

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Tool : Log Analyzer § Diagnose cross-product problems 4 Correlate logs from different products 4 Build new log correlations 4 Browse logs § Maps proprietary log formats into the Common Base Event format § Symptom Editor extends functionality 31

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software Tool : Visual Configuration Explorer § Visually explores crossproduct configurations 4 Graphically view configurations 4 Diagnose problems with configurations 4 Search for property values 4 Compare configuration snapshots 4 Share configuration analysis results 32

IBM Software Group | Tivoli software More Information… § ISA Home : http: //www. ibm. com/software/support/isa/ § ISA IEA modules http: //publib. boulder. ibm. com/infocenter/ieduasst/v 1 r 1 m 0/topic/com. ib m. iea. isa/plugin_coverpage. html § IBM Support Assistant Demo sessions– § http: //www. ibm. com/software/support/isa/demo. html 33