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Halcyon PrimeAlert (R) for Sybase
Version 2.2.0
Release Notes
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Copyright (c) 1998-2007 Halcyon Monitoring Solutions, Inc.
Note: For the latest information on this product, go to the
web site at http://www.HalcyonInc.com
Refer to the README file(s) for all other information.
Versions Documented Below: 2.2.0 2.1.0 2.0.0a, 2.0.0, 1.1.3, 1.1.2
======================================================================
VERSION/DATE: 2.2.0/2007-12-19
ENHANCEMENTS
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- Added support for Sybase ASE 15.
- Added support for Solaris 10 zones.
- Added support for Sun MC 4.0
- Added support for PrimeAlert Neuron.
- Added support for Sun MC AgentUpdate installation method.
- Added capability to selectively disable sections of the module.
- Added a table in the 'Long Running Transactions' node to separate
those created by Sybase Replication Server and Sybase ASE
user/sytem transactions; preventing Replication Server
transactions from generating unnecessary alarms and blocking user
transactions from displaying in the module.
BUG FIXES
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- None.
KNOWN PROBLEMS
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- The authorized user must have a non-blank Sybase password. PrimeAlert
for Sybase does not support a blank password for the authorized user.
- For offline databases, the following values in the "Databases"
section may not be accurate:
- "Data" and "Percent Full" in the Database Sizes table are estimates
- "Indexes" in the Database Sizes section will report a value of 0
- "Data" and "Percent Full" in the Transaction Logs table are
estimates
- The remote monitoring of a Sybase dataserver has not been fully
implemented. When a Sybase dataserver is monitored by an agent on a
remote host, PrimeAlert for Sybase is not able to track Sybase
processes and log files.
- When a Sybase dataserver is remotely monitored by an agent on a
remote host, the "Server Host" field of the Identification table
shows the name of the agent host, not the host upon which the Sybase
dataserver is running.
- For the script $ESROOT/modules/sbin/HALDBMSAlertSybase-user.sh, the
specified Sybase user password cannot contain the "*" character.
UPGRADE STRATEGY
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- Previous versions of the PrimeAlert for Sybase module represent
the '% Locks Used' and '% Connections Used' values of the
'Resources' node, using float values. This is misleading as the
data collection mechanism returns integer values, providing results
which are slightly inaccurate.
This has been corrected in the current release, however, non-default
alarm limits are not compatible with the current version -- because
they are stored as float values -- and will generate data
acquisition errors within the module.
In order to correct these errors, open the 'Attribute Editor' and
edit the alarm thresholds for the fields mentioned above. Remove the
decimal portion and commit the changes. The data acquisition alarm
clears and the module status returns to normal.
======================================================================
VERSION/DATE: 2.0.0a/2004-2005
ENHANCEMENTS
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none
BUG FIXES
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- Sybase occasionally reports database devices as having more space
free than is reported to be allocated to that device. This results
in a negative percentage when the 'Percent Full' column of the 'Devices'
table is calculated. Negative percentages are now captured and
displayed with a zero value.
UPGRADE STRATEGY
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- None. This release is compatible with the previous version 2.0.0.
NOTES
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- The ReleaseNotes have only been updated in the root of the tarball
and in the /var/opt/SUNWsymon/install/HALDBMSAlertSybase/ directory.
======================================================================
VERSION/DATE: 2.0.0/2003-07-03
ENHANCEMENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Support for Sun MC 3.5
- Support for Solaris 9 (2.9)
- Support for Sun Management Center Performance Reporting Manager.
- Support for Sun Management Center Group Operations.
- User Activity information is now filtered per database.
- Can now monitor Sybase ASE from a remote agent.
- Removed default alartm limit for Resources/Locks/LockCount.
No longer triggers alarm on 5000 object locks by default,
allowing users to set custom alarm limits.
BUG FIXES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Documentation upgrades.
NOTES
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- Removed Solaris 2.5.1 support.
- Removed Sun Management Center 2.x support.
UPGRADE STRATEGY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- None. This release is compatible with the previous version 1.1.3.
======================================================================
VERSION/DATE: 1.1.3/2001-09-17
BUG FIXES:
- Rows added/deleted from the Online Engines section are now persistent.
ENHANCEMENTS:
- Now supports Sybase 12.5
- Added new default alarm limits for:
a) Online Engines / Processes / % CPU (Critical 80, Alert 60)
b) Resources / Locks / Lock Count (Critical 5000, Alert 3750)
- A number of new items are now being monitored for a Sybase database
server: devices, mirrored devices, data segments, internal Sybase
processes, blocked tables, long running transactions, and the growth
rate of tracked tables. Details are provided below.
- For the 'Database Objects (tracked)' table in the folder of the same
name, two new columns have been added, 'Number of Rows' and 'Growth
Rate (Rows/Min)'.
- A new folder has been created, Space Management, that contains two
sub-folders, Devices and Segments.
The Devices folder contains two tables, 'Devices' and 'Mirrored
Devices'. The Devices table shows the details of all Sybase data and
log devices, and contains the following columns:
a) Device Name
b) Physical Device Name
c) Total Size (KB) [alarmable]
d) Allocated Space (KB) [alarmable]
e) Free Allocated Space (KB) [alarmable]
f) Percent Full (Of Allocated Space) [alarmable]
The Mirrored Devices table shows the details of all mirror devices,
and contains the following columns:
a) Device Name
b) Physical Device Name
c) Mirror Name
d) Status [alarmable]
The Segments folder contains a single table, Segments, which shows
the details all of data segments for all monitored databases. The
Segments table contains the following columns:
a) Database
b) Segment
c) Space Allocated (KB) [alarmable]
d) Space Available (KB) [alarmable]
e) Percent Full [alarmable]
- A new folder has been created, User Activity, that contains three
sub-folders, 'Sybase Processes', 'Blocked Tables', and 'Long Running
Transactions'.
The Sybase Processes folder contains a single table, Sybase
Processes, which shows the details all of Sybase internal processes
running within the dataserver. The Sybase Processes table contains
the following columns:
a) SPID
b) DB User
c) Host
d) Status [alarmable]
e) CPU Total [alarmable]
f) Disk I/O Total [alarmable]
g) Database
h) CmdType
i) Locks [alarmable]
j) Blocked By
k) Time Blocked (Sec) [alarmable]
l) Transaction Name
The Blocked Tables folder contains a single table, Blocked Tables,
which shows the details all of Sybase tables that are currently
blocked by a Sybase process. The Blocked Tables table contains the
following columns:
a) Database
b) Blocked Object
c) SPID Responsible
d) Transaction Name
e) Command
f) Program Name
g) User ID
h) Host Name
i) Host Process ID
j) Time Blocked (sec) [alarmable]
The Long Running Transactions folder contains a single table, Long
Running Transactions, which shows the details of the longest running
transaction for each monitored database. The Long Running
Transactions table contains the following columns:
a) SPID
b) Database Name
c) Transaction Name
d) Start Date
e) Start Time
f) Running Time (Min) [alarmable]
- PrimeAlert for Sybase now includes a preconfigured list of objects
for use with PrimeAlert Reporter.
- Improved the alarm status messages for:
a) Percentage of database full, and
b) Percentage of database log full.
KNOWN PROBLEMS:
- When loading the module, if an incorrect parameter is given for the
Error Log field, the module will come up in a down state. Everything
will work except the Error Log object. To fix this problem, typically
you would simply perform an edit on the module and enter the
appropriate location, however in this version you are required to
unload and reload the module with a different instance name.
- For the included module(s), certain tables with more than 50 rows of
data may no longer display properly when using a Sun MC 2.1.1 console.
This problem does not occur when using a Sun MC 2.1 or 3.x console. If
you are still using the Sun MC 2.1.1 console, and you are experiencing
the table display problem, then please contact Halcyon for a patch
(info@HalcyonInc.com).
- Assume that a user installs Sun Management Center in the /opt
directory, and then decides to relocate some of the installed
directories (located below /var/opt/SUNWsymon or below
/opt/SUNWsymon) after Sun MC is installed. For example, assume that
the directory /opt/SUNWsymon/modules is moved to /export1/SUNWsymon,
and then a symbolic link is created to link /opt/SUNWsymon/modules to
/export1/SUNWsymon/modules. In this case, if the current distribution
attempts to install any files in or below the directory
/opt/SUNWsymon/modules, the symbolic link will be replaced by a real
directory. This problem does not occur under Solaris 2.5.1.
- Some special characters may appear incorrectly in the Sun MC
console Help window for some window managers, including Windows NT.
- When a user attempts to view the module help from an NT console, and
a Web browser cannot be found, an error message is logged. The user
should also receive visual feedback indicating how to correct the
problem.
- The authorized user must have a non-blank Sybase password. PrimeAlert
for Sybase does not support a blank password for the authorized user.
- For offline databases, the following values in the "Databases"
section may not be accurate:
- "Data" and "Percent Full" in the Database Sizes table are estimates
- "Indexes" in the Database Sizes section will report a value of 0
- "Data" and "Percent Full" in the Transaction Logs table are
estimates
- The remote monitoring of a Sybase dataserver has not been fully
implemented. When a Sybase dataserver is monitored by an agent on a
remote host, PrimeAlert for Sybase is not able to track Sybase
processes and log files.
- When a Sybase dataserver is remotely monitored by an agent on a
remote host, the "Server Host" field of the Identification table
shows the name of the agent host, not the host upon which the Sybase
dataserver is running.
- The attribute editor launched from the Error Log folder has two extra
tabs, Security and Schedule. In the Schedule tab, the module schedule
field should not be editable.
- When an alarm status message is generated by a sub-module of
PrimeAlert for Sybase (LogFileMonitor or ProcessMonitor), the status
message may reference the sub-module instead of PrimeAlert for Sybase.
- For the Error Log table, rows cannot be added from the table header.
- For the script $ESROOT/modules/sbin/HALDBMSAlertSybase-user.sh, the
specified Sybase user password cannot contain the "*" character.
UPGRADE STRATEGY:
- A number of *.dat files in /var/opt/SUNWsymon/cfg may be updated so
that they work properly with Sun Management Center 3.0. Prior to the
update, the affected *.dat files will be copied to a backup*
sub-directory in /var/opt/SUNWsymon/cfg.
- If the user is currently using (or plans to use) PrimeAlert Reporter,
and the user wishes to use PrimeAlert Reporter to track objects that
were loaded within a pre-1.1.2 PrimeAlert for Sybase module, then
the user may experience minor compatibility issues when using
Reporter to track the pre-1.1.2 Sybase objects. These minor
compatibility issues can be resolved by:
- installing PrimeAlert for Sybase version 1.1.2 or higher;
- then, restarting the agent on the host where PrimeAlert for
Sybase was upgraded;
- then, unloading and reloading all PrimeAlert for Sybase instances
on the upgraded agent host. Note that reloading an instance of
PrimeAlert for Sybase will cause all user-entered data to be
lost (e.g. custom alarm limits, pattern-matching regular
expressions, and so on).
- This version of PrimeAlert for Sybase no longer supports Sun
Enterprise SyMON 2.0.x; only Sun Management Center 2.1 or higher is
supported.
- In order to obtain the full benefit of the new features included in
this version of PrimeAlert for Sybase, PrimeAlert for Sybase packages
should be upgraded for all Sun MC layers (server, agent and console).
- PrimeAlert for Sybase packages on the Sun MC server host should be
upgraded first. Then, agent hosts can be upgraded according to any
user defined schedule. Note that after the server host is upgraded,
the three included modules (PrimeAlert for Sybase, LogFileMonitor,
and ProcessMonitor) should continue to operate properly for all
agent hosts, regardless of the versions of the modules that are
installed on an agent host. Finally, after all server and agent hosts
have been upgraded, the console hosts should be upgraded to ensure
that the module help documentation is up-to-date.
- CAVEAT: After the server host has been upgraded, agent hosts that
contain older versions of PrimeAlert for Sybase may not have all of
the functionality of the newest module until the agent hosts have
also been upgraded to the same level as the server host.
======================================================================
VERSION/DATE: 1.1.2/2001-02-21
BUG FIXES:
- Module instance customizations are no longer lost after the module
is reloaded (see KNOWN PROBLEMS section below for exceptions).
- All monitored objects within PrimeAlert for Sybase have a unique
instance name now, so PrimeAlert Reporter is optimally supported.
- When PrimeAlert for Sybase is installed on a Solaris 2.8 host,
symbolically linked directories will no longer be clobbered along
the various file installation paths (see additional item in the KNOWN
PROBLEMS section below).
- Fixed a problem that was causing a memory leak in the Sun Management
Center agent process.
- The module can now read tcp-formatted entries in the interfaces file;
formerly, only tli-tcp-formatted entries were supported.
- The script HALDBMSAlertSybase-check.sh should now work for all
supported versions of Sybase.
ENHANCEMENTS:
- PrimeAlert for Sybase is now interoperable with Sun Management
Center 3.0.
- As documented in the README file for this distribution, all text
documentation files for this distribution are now archived to a
standard location on any installation host.
- This distribution includes a new UNIX uninstallation script; see
the README.install file for details.
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