I am witnessing what has to be in my mind one of the finest examples of what this emerging community driven, “community sourced” culture is all about. What is this you ask? This is the next generation of the typical “vendor user group”. This is the mailing list, forum or website “on steroids”. This is one of the greatest things that I’ve seen IBM Tivoli do for the community on top of our excellent contributions via IBM Tivoli OPAL, developerWorks Wikis, Forums and Articles and the heritage Tivloli User Group (and other user driven mailing lists).

The new TADDM Community is about to have what they call their first “Sensor Day”. What they’re attempting to do is basically offer up to the community of TADDM users the necessary FREE resources within IBM Tivoli (developers, SMEs, etc.) who will actually develop (or help you develop) a TADDM Sensor for you!!!! No PMR process! No Technical Sales or Services person on-site!! WE WILL DO THE WORK FOR YOU!!

Ultimately, the objective here is to benefit the broader TADDM community and the sensors that are developed are contributed back for all to use. The focus, while it may be small, is a HUGE MONUMENTAL STEP for any big software vendor in my opinion.

Additional details on the sensor day from the TADDM Community blog here. Join, participate in (or just lurk) the TADDM Community here.

Before I had even known about this, I have been working on establishing a similar community for TBSM. Now that I know we’re willing to make this kind of investment in the community, stand by for how we’ll follow on the coat tails of the TADDM Community!!! I envision similar community driven development days for TIP Portlets, TIP/TBSM and TCR Charts and Reports, Custom Canvas Widgets, Custom Canvas Dashboards and other core TBSM Content and/or integrations! Interested? Join the Tivoli Communities or leave comments here to voice your support for this idea!!!

TBSM developerWorks Wiki
TBSM developerWorks Forum

The ‘Default’ installation option for TBSM v42 installs a simple, default File Based Repository for user authentication. We say this is sufficient for demonstrations, POCs, etc. but not for production use.

There are no issues with taking a default installation and relying on only the File Based Repository with TBSM, it will work just fine. Scenarios involving typical event management activities within a Netcool/WebTop AEL will not work just using only the File Based Repository. You must use the OMNIBus Repository to establish an OMNIbus authenticated user with the appropriate group membership (or role assignment) to be able to use any of the AEL event management tools such as Acknowledge, Prioritize, Add to Journal, etc.

Adding the Netcool/OMNIbus Repository to the Federated Repositories for TBSM v42 can be accomplished by following this procedure. There is a similar procedure for stand alone Netcool/WebTop v2.2 and I assume ITNM v3.8 installations (not via TBSM v42).

Configuring the servers for an OMNIbus user repository

Further to this procedure, test out creating a user in TIP and verifying that it’s created in the OMNIbus repository. You can use the OMNIbus Administration client to validate this has occurred. Validate that you see both the File Based and OMNIBus Repository under “Secure Administration, Applications and Infrastructure –> Federated Repositories”.

To enable a user to have access to the traditional AEL tools for event management activities, the user needs to be a member of the ‘Normal’ group or have the appropriate OMNIbus roles assigned. At a minimum, a typical TBSM user would be a member of ‘TBSM USERS’, ‘Normal’ and ‘Public’ groups. The ‘TBSM USERS’ group is the group you’ve created with the appropriate roles assigned based on how you will be using TBSM.