Links that I have found interesting for May 5th:

• Eliminate Stealth Waste from Business Processes with Nastel AutoPilot TransactionWorks – The AutoPilot suite includes modules for monitoring/managing a wide array of infrastructure components, including IBM WebSphere MQ, WebSphere Application Server (WAS), WebSphere Business Integrator (WBI), and WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). AutoPilot is IBM-validated as SOA Ready and Tivoli ready.

  Features:

  * Continual real-time view of business transaction health and performance
  * Discover applications and system components
  * Map transaction flow (across Application servers including WAS, Applications, Middleware such as WMQ, and Database Servers)
  * Discovers transaction volume (total, failed)
  * Tracks messages exchanged between applications
  * Measure transaction volume, latency and duration (total, maximum, average)
  * Measure and quantify failed transactions and SLAs
  * Correlate transactional data, operational data and non-IT business data from sources such as RSS or news feeds to show transaction flows in the context of your business

One of the desired integration scenarios for the Tivoli Integrated Portal (TIP) is to consolidate product GUIs onto a converged platform where operations, support and administration scenarios, workflows and activities can be developed. One of the common integration scenarios is to have Netcool/WebTop, Tivoli Business Service Manager and Tivoli Network Manager consolidated into a common NGF and now TIP environment. For a broader TBSM and TIP integration scenario, visit the TBSM developerWorks wiki here.

Since Netcool/WebTop 2.2 comes as part of TBSM v4.2, installing that product is no longer required. Installing TBSM v4.2 into an existing ITNM v3.8 environment requires that TBSM v4.2 be installed before Tivoli Network Manager GA build because of DE level mismatches.

In order for the installation of TBSM V4.2 to complete successfully on a computer where ITNM V3.8 is installed, you must upgrade the version of DE used by the TBSM v4.2 installation by using the following steps.

1. Unpack the TBSM v4.2 image to a writable media
2. Locate the setup.jar file for the DE component in the ITNM installation image: DE\.data\setup.jar
3. Copy this file to the TBSM\DE\.data directory, overwriting the setup.jar found there
Copy (ITNM installation image): DE\.data\setup.jar (TBSM installation image): TBSM\DE\.data\setup.jar Note: The data directory for DE starts with a period (so it is hidden on the UNIX platforms).

After the DE has upgraded, proceed with the TBSM v4.2 installation as before.

I do not have clear guidance on how to proceed if you had an existing TBSM v4.2 system and wanted to install ITNM v3.8 into that environment. I also do not have clear guidance on installation of TBSM v4.2 into an environment with ITNM v3.8 and WebTop 2.2 already installed. Stay tuned here or consider opening a PMR for guidance.

Applying IF’s and FP’s into this converged environment should be done with great caution. Read all documentation and READMEs associated with both products first. Release and patch cycles for each core product may be different and may cause unknown issues. Consider opening a PMR for guidance if things are not clear and ask for specific information on version levels for all core product components such as TIP, DE and TCR. When in doubt, back everything (EVERYTHING) up and test, test, test in a safe environment!