Certification guide series ibm tivoli provisioning manager v5.1 sg247262

Front cover

Certification Guide Series
IBM Tivoli Provisioning
Manager V5.1
Helps you become a certified Tivoli
Provisioning Manager V5.1

Explains the certification path
and prerequisites you require

Includes best practices
for Software Distribution

Vasfi Gucer
David Campbell
Martin Caesar
Markus Helbig
Fabrizio Salustri
Petra Unglaub

ibm.com/redbooks

International Technical Support Organization

Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning
Manager V5.1

January 2007

SG24-7262-00

Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in
“Notices” on page xv.

First Edition (January 2007)

This edition applies to IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1.

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.
Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP
Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

Contents

Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
The team that wrote this redbook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Chapter 1. Certification overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 IBM Professional Certification Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.1 Benefits of certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Tivoli Software Professional Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 Implementation certification . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.1 Test 898 objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2.2 How to get your 15% discount on the Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1
certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Recommended resources for study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.1 Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.2 Publications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2. Planning and architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.1 Scalable Distribution Infrastructure for Tivoli
Provisioning Manager v.5.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3 Supported Platforms for Tivoli Provisioning Manager version 5.1. . . . . . . 21
2.4 Infrastructure deployment considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4.1 Demo installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4.2 Small Data Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4.3 Small branch office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4.4 Large data center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4.5 Large branch office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.6 System management across firewalls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. iii

2.4.7 Ports used by Scalable Distribution Infrastructure components . . . . 26

Chapter 3. Installing Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1 Installation methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.1 Regular installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.2 Silent installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.1.3 Fast Start installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2 Topology Installer Launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.3 Supported installation topologies and operating system versions. . . . . . . 31
3.3.1 AIX and Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.2 Solaris (Sun SPARC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.3 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4 Account required by the installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.5 Preinstallation checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.5.1 Topology Installer Launcher requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.5.2 Tivoli Provisioning Manager server requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.5.3 Additional software requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.5.4 Prerequisite software versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.6 Installing behind a firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.7 Overview of the installation flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.7.1 Invoking the installer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.7.2 Installation phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.8 Installation log files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.8.1 Installer logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.8.2 Tivoli common directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.8.3 Directory containing output from the installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.9 Post installation steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.9.1 Changing default passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.9.2 Importing sample data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.10 Automation Package Developer Environment (APDE) installation . . . . . 50
3.10.1 Automation Package Developer Environment
installation requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.10.2 Installing the Automation Package Developer Environment . . . . . . 52
3.10.3 Configuring database connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.10.4 Configuring deployment engine connectivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.10.5 Starting the Automation Package Developer Environment . . . . . . . 59
3.10.6 Configuring Automation Package Developer
Environment preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.10.7 Automation Package Developer Environment views . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Chapter 4. Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.1 Discovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.1.1 Discovery scan types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

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4.1.2 Tivoli Provisioning Manager Inventory Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.1.3 Network discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.1.4 IBM discovery library reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.1.5 Microsoft Active Directory discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.1.6 Run a discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2 Service access points (SAP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3 Credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.4 Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.4.1 Creating a static group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.4.2 Creating a dynamic group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.5 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.5.1 Creating a customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.5.2 Creating a resource pool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.5.3 Creating an administrative domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.5.4 Creating a cluster domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.6 Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.7 Automation packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.7.1 Install an automation package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.7.2 Updating an automation package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.7.3 Creating an automation package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.7.4 Creating a workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.8 Software Package Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Chapter 5. Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.1 Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.1.1 Recording the symptoms of the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.1.2 Recreating the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.1.3 Eliminating possible causes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.2 Directory structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.3 Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.3.1 Log file types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.2 Subsystem messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.3 Setting log level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.4 Workflow troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.4.1 Setting log level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.4.2 Workflow execution logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.5 Agent installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.5.1 Time drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.5.2 RXA problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.5.3 Service access point (SAP) problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.5.4 Communication issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.6 Depot issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.7 Performance tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Contents v

5.7.1 Configuring maximum number of concurrent jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.7.2 Workflow performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.7.3 Software Package Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Chapter 6. Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6.1 Accessing the console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.2 Managing security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6.2.1 Creating a security role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.2.2 Creating an access group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.2.3 Creating a permission group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.2.4 Associate objects to an access group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.2.5 Adding a new user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.2.6 Assigning a security role to a user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.2.7 Associating access and permission groups to a user . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6.2.8 Enabling access control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.3 Network discovery and agent distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.3.1 Preparing network discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.3.2 Discovery policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
6.3.3 Performing the discovery task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6.3.4 Installing Tivoli Common Agent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6.4 Software Package Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.4.1 Using the Software Package Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.4.2 Saving a software package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6.5 Compliance management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.5.1 Adding software compliance check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.5.2 Adding security compliance check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.5.3 Running inventory scan and compliance check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
6.5.4 Handle recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.5.5 Verifying changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.6 Software Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.6.1 Software stack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.6.2 Software Catalog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6.7 Virtual servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.7.1 Installing tcdriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.7.2 Creating host platform server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.7.3 Adding resource to host platform server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.7.4 Creating virtual server template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.7.5 Adding resource requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
6.7.6 Allocating the virtual server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.8 Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.8.1 Installing a boot server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.8.2 Capturing an image with Rembo Boot Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.8.3 Deploying an image with Rembo Boot Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

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6.9 Software distribution and installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6.9.1 Software distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6.9.2 Software installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6.9.3 Requirements on target endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.9.4 User role for software distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.10 Web services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.10.1 Extensible Markup Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.10.2 Simple Object Access Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.10.3 Web services description language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.10.4 Web Services Resource Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.11 Using Automation Package Development Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.11.1 Creating automation packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.11.2 Creating new workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.11.3 Working with Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
6.11.4 Modify existing automation packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
6.11.5 Workflow syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
6.11.6 Exporting created or modified workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter 7. Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.1 The Data Center Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.1.1 What is Data Center Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.1.2 Data Center Model objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.1.3 Customer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.1.4 Application tier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.1.5 Resource pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.1.6 Management operations and Logical Device Operations . . . . . . . . 177
7.1.7 Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.1.8 Device drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.2 Scalable Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.2.1 File repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.2.2 Software Catalog, Software Products and Software Installables . . 179
7.2.3 Software stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.2.4 The dynamic content delivery service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.2.5 The dynamic content delivery service Management Center . . . . . . 181
7.2.6 Depot server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
7.2.7 Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.2.8 Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.2.9 Device Management Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
7.2.10 Peer-to-peer file sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.2.11 Publishing to depots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.2.12 Inside the distribution process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.3 Tivoli Common Agent Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7.3.1 Agent Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Contents vii

7.3.2 Resource manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
7.3.3 Tivoli Common Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
7.4 Software Life Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.5 Security model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.5.1 User authentication and accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.5.2 User authorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.5.3 User roles and accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.5.4 Access groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
7.5.5 Permission groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
7.5.6 Access Permission group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Chapter 8. Sample questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
8.1 Sample questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
8.2 Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
How to get IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

viii Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

Figures

2-1 Tivoli Provisioning Manager architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2-2 Tivoli Provisioning Manager Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3-1 One-node AIX topology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3-2 Solaris 9 one-node topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3-3 Solaris 9 or Solaris 10 two-node topology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3-4 Windows one-node topology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3-5 Windows two-node topology with Microsoft Active Directory . . . . . . . . . . 37
3-6 Windows two-node topology with Tivoli Directory Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3-7 APDE architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3-8 Automation Package view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4-1 Add service access point dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4-2 Add credentials to service access point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4-3 Service access point (SAP) configured for common agent . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4-4 Add static group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4-5 Add dynamic group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4-6 Web interface in Tivoli Provisioning Manager and Tivoli Provisioning
Manager for Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4-7 Open Software Package Editor in Eclipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4-8 Software Package Editor settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4-9 Select file repository for software package block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5-1 Stop workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5-2 Workflow log details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5-3 Workflow log timedrift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5-4 Disable simple file sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5-5 SAP definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5-6 Tivoli common agent install credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5-7 RXA credentials for UNIX Tivoli common agent installation . . . . . . . . . . 109
6-1 Digital certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6-2 Login screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6-3 Add a new security role. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6-4 Add new access group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6-5 Add new permission group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6-6 New user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6-7 Assign user roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6-8 Discovery policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6-9 Software Package Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6-10 Check Disk Space Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6-11 Example software package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. ix

6-12 Add external software catalog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6-13 Add Boot Server Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6-14 Starting the Rembo Toolkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6-15 Rembo Toolkit renamed to Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS
Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6-16 Image capture on source computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6-17 Workflow related components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
6-18 Import workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7-1 Distribution process: high level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7-2 Managed system life cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

x Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

Tables

2-1 Supported platforms for Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 and Tivoli
common agent V1.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2-2 Ports used by Scalable Distribution Infrastructure components . . . . . . . . 26
3-1 Supported topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3-2 Hardware and software requirements for the Topology Installer . . . . . . . 39
3-3 Prerequisite software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3-4 Communication port used by Tivoli Provisioning Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3-5 Default user names and passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4-1 Available report views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5-1 Tivoli Provisioning Manager directory structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5-2 Logfile locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5-3 Subsystem codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5-4 Tivoli common agent port requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6-1 Rembo product integrated into IBM Tivoli software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. xi

xii Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

Examples

3-1 Installation log files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3-2 Registering the node and the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3-3 .jar file location update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3-4 .jar file location update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4-1 Command listing automation packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4-2 Workflow deletes target deviceID from data center model . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4-3 Import server certificate to java keystore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5-1 log4j.prop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5-2 TImedrift error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5-3 Failing RXA access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5-4 Missing SAP definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5-5 eclipse.ini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6-1 soapclient.cmd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. xiii

xiv Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

Notices

This information was developed for products and services offered in the U.S.A.

IBM may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult
your local IBM representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area.
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The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license
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This information contains sample application programs in source language, which illustrate programming
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therefore, cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. xv

Trademarks
The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,
other countries, or both:

Redbooks (logo) ™ AIX® PowerPC®
ibm.com® Cloudscape™ Redbooks™
pSeries® DB2 Universal Database™ Tivoli®
xSeries® DB2® WebSphere®
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The following terms are trademarks of other companies:

Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates.

SAP, and SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other
countries.

and Oracle are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

Snapshot, and the Network Appliance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Network Appliance,
Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.

ITIL is a registered trademark, and a registered community trademark of the Office of Government
Commerce, and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Java, JDBC, JRE, JVM, J2EE, Solaris, Sun, and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.

Active Directory, Excel, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Windows Server, Windows, and the Windows logo are
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Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

xvi Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

Preface

IBM® Tivoli® Provisioning Manager, built on a service-oriented architecture
(SOA), enhances usability for executing changes while keeping server and
desktop software compliant. Tivoli Provisioning Manager helps organizations
with provisioning, configuration and maintenance of servers and virtual servers,
operating systems, middleware, applications, storage and network devices
acting as routers, switches, firewalls, and load balancers. This IBM Redbook is a
study guide for IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 and is aimed at the people
who want to get an IBM Professional Certification for this product.

The IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 Certification, offered through the
Professional Certification Program from IBM, is designed to validate the skills
required of technical professionals who work in the implementation of the IBM
Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 product.

This book provides a combination of theory and practical experience needed for
a general understanding of the subject matter. It also provides sample questions
that will help in the evaluation of personal progress and provide familiarity with
the types of questions that will be encountered in the exam. This publication
does not replace practical experience, nor is it designed to be a stand-alone
guide for any subject. Instead, it is an effective tool that, when combined with
education activities and experience, can be a very useful preparation guide for
the exam.

For your convenience, we structure the chapters based on the sections of the
Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 Implementation Certification test, such as
Planning, Installation, Administration, and so on, so studying each chapter will
help you prepare for one section of the exam.

The team that wrote this redbook
This redbook was produced by a team of specialists from around the world
working at the International Technical Support Organization, Poughkeepsie
Center.

Vasfi Gucer is an IBM Certified Consultant IT Specialist at the ITSO Austin
Center. He has been with IBM Turkey for 10 years, and has worked at the ITSO
since January 1999. He has more than 15 years of experience in teaching and
implementing systems management, networking hardware, and distributed
platform software. He actively presents at various Tivoli Technical User

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. xvii

Conferences and User Group meetings. He has worked on various Tivoli client
projects as a Systems Architect and Consultant. Vasfi is also a Certified Tivoli
Consultant.

David Campbell is a Technical Consultant for the IBM Software Group Services
for Tivoli in the UK. He is a Senior IT Specialist and Tivoli Certified Consultant
and has worked with Tivoli software both as a customer and within IBM for
around 10 years. He has used many Tivoli products and now specializes in Tivoli
Configuration Manager. He has worked with many UK and international
customers including several of the UK's largest financial institutions.

Martin Caesar is an IT Specialist working for IBM Software Group Services for
Tivoli in Germany. He has worked with Tivoli products since 1999. He has
designed and implemented solutions in several projects based on the Tivoli
Configuration Manager product. The experience he has includes installing and
configuring the product for specific situations and requirements. He has an IBM
Certified Deployment Professional certification and is ITIL® Certified. He holds a
diploma in Physics from the Technical University Berlin.

Markus Helbig is an IBM Tivoli software support specialist since 1999. His skills
include IBM Tivoli Management Framework V 3.x & 4.x, IBM Tivoli Monitoring V
5.x, 6.x, as well as Tivoli Configuration Manager 4.x.

Fabrizio Salustri is a software support specialist working for Italy IMT in Tivoli
Customer Support within IBM Global Services. He has worked for IBM since
1996, and has extensive experience with the Tivoli products suite. Throughout
his career, Fabrizio has been involved in several projects implementing Tivoli
solutions for important clients of IBM Italy. Before joining the Tivoli Support team,
he worked as a Certified AIX® System Administrator in AIX Technical Support. In
March 2005, he got an IBM Tivoli Monitoring 5.1.1 Deployment Professional
Certification and an IBM Tivoli Monitoring 6.1 Deployment Professional
Certification in April 2006.

Petra Unglaub-Lloyd is a Level 2 Software Engineer in Austin, Texas. She has
10 years of experience in the Tivoli Support field. She holds a degree from
Hardin-Simmons University and the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Her areas
of expertise include Level 2 defect support for IBM Tivoli Framework and IBM
Tivoli Configuration Manager.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Arzu Gucer, Sarita Povaiah
International Technical Support Organization, Poughkeepsie Center

Kristin Wall Gibson, Elizabeth Purzer
IBM US

xviii Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

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Preface xix

xx Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

1

Chapter 1. Certification overview
This chapter provides an overview of the skill requirements to obtain an IBM
Advanced Technical Expert certification. We designed the following sections to
provide a comprehensive review of specific topics that are essential for obtaining
the certification:
“IBM Professional Certification Program” on page 2
“Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 Implementation certification” on page 7
“Recommended resources for study” on page 8

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. 1

1.1 IBM Professional Certification Program
Having the right skills for the job is critical in the growing global marketplace. IBM
Professional Certification, designed to validate skill and proficiency in the latest
IBM solution and product technology, can help provide that competitive edge.
The IBM Professional Certification Program is available on the Web at:
http://www.ibm.com/certify/index.shtml

The Professional Certification Program from IBM offers a business solution for
skilled technical professionals seeking to demonstrate their expertise to the
world.

This program is designed to validate your skills and demonstrate your proficiency
in the latest IBM technology and solutions. In addition, professional certification
will help you excel at your job by giving you and your employer the confidence
that your skills have been tested. You will be able to deliver higher levels of
service and technical expertise than non-certified employees and move on a
faster career track. Professional certification puts your career in your control.

The certification requirements are difficult, however, they are not overwhelming
either. It is a rigorous process that differentiates you from everyone else.

The mission of IBM Professional Certification is to:
Provide a reliable, valid, and fair method of assessing skills and knowledge.
Provide IBM with a method of building and validating the skills of individuals
and organizations.
Develop a loyal community of highly-skilled certified professionals who
recommend, sell, service, support, and use IBM products and solutions.

The Professional Certification Program from IBM has developed certification role
names to guide you in your professional development. The certification role
names include IBM Certified Specialist, IBM Certified Solutions/Systems Expert,
and IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert for technical professionals who
sell, service, and support IBM solutions. For technical professionals in
application development, the certification roles include IBM Certified Developer
Associate and IBM Certified Developer. An IBM Certified Instructor certifies the
professional instructor.

The Professional Certification Program from IBM provides you with a structured
program leading to an internationally recognized qualification. The program is
designed for flexibility by allowing you to select your role, prepare for and take
tests at your own pace, and, in some cases, select from a choice of elective tests
best suited to your abilities and needs. Some roles also offer a shortcut by giving
credit for a certification obtained in other industry certification programs.

2 Certification Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1

You can be a network administrator, systems integrator, network integrator,
solution architect, solution developer, value-added reseller, technical coordinator,
sales representative, or educational trainer. Regardless of your role, you can
start charting your course through the Professional Certification Program from
IBM today.

1.1.1 Benefits of certification
Certification is a tool to help objectively measure the performance of a
professional on a given job at a defined skill level. Therefore, it is beneficial for
individuals who want to validate their own skills and performance levels, their
employees, or both. For optimum benefit, the certification tests must reflect the
critical tasks required for a job, the skill levels of each task, and the frequency by
which a task needs to be performed. IBM prides itself in designing
comprehensive, documented processes that ensure that IBM certification tests
remain relevant to the work environment of potential certification candidates.

In addition to assessing job skills and performance levels, professional
certification can also provide such benefits as:
For employees:
– Promotes recognition as an IBM certified professional
– Helps to create advantages in interviews
– Assists in salary increases, corporate advancement, or both
– Increases self-esteem
– Provides continuing professional benefits
For employers:
– Measures the effectiveness of training
– Reduces course redundancy and unnecessary expenses
– Provides objective benchmarks for validating skills
– Makes long-range planning easier
– Helps to manage professional development
– Aids as a hiring tool
– Contributes to competitive advantage
– Increases productivity
– Increases morale and loyalty
For IBM Business Partners and consultants:
– Provides independent validation of technical skills
– Creates competitive advantage and business opportunities
– Enhances prestige of the team
– Contributes to IBM requirements for various IBM Business Partner
programs

Chapter 1. Certification overview 3

Specific benefits can vary by country (region) and role. In general, after you
become certified, you should receive the following benefits:
Industry recognition
Certification may accelerate your career potential by validating your
professional competency and increasing your ability to provide solid, capable
technical support.
Program credentials
As a certified professional, you receive your certificate of completion and the
certification mark associated with your role for use in advertisements and
business literature through e-mail. You can also request a hardcopy
certificate, which includes a wallet-size certificate.
The Professional Certification Program from IBM acknowledges the individual
as a technical professional. The certification mark is for the exclusive use of
the certified individual.
Ongoing technical vitality
IBM Certified professionals are included in mailings from the Professional
Certification Program from IBM.

1.1.2 Tivoli Software Professional Certification
The IBM Tivoli Professional Certification program offers certification testing that
sets the standard for qualified product consultants, administrators, architects,
and partners.

The program also offers an internationally recognized qualification for technical
professionals seeking to apply their expertise in today's complex business
environment. The program is designed for those who implement, buy, sell,
service, and support IBM Tivoli solutions and want to deliver higher levels of
service and technical expertise.

Whether you are a Tivoli customer, partner, or technical professional wanting to
put your career on the fast track, you can start on the road to becoming a Tivoli
Certified Professional today.

Benefits of Tivoli certification
Tivoli certification provides the following benefits:
For the individual:
– IBM Certified certificate and use of logos on business cards


Note: Certificates are sent by e-mail. However, a paper copy of the
certificate along with a laminated wallet card can also be requested by
sending an e-mail to the following address:

mailto:certify@us.ibm.com

– Recognition of your technical skills by your peers and management
– Enhanced career opportunities
– Focus for your professional development
For the IBM Business Partner:
– Confidence in the skills of your employees
– Enhanced partnership benefits from the IBM Business Partner program
– Billing your employees out at higher rates
– Strengthens your proposals to customers
– Demonstrates the depth of technical skills available to prospective
customers
For the customer:
– Confidence in the services professionals handling your implementation
– Ease of hiring competent employees to manage your Tivoli environment
– Enhanced return on investment (ROI) through more thorough integration
with Tivoli and third-party products
– Ease of selecting a Tivoli Business Partner that meets your specific needs

Certification checklist
Here is the certification checklist:
1. Select the certification that you want to pursue.
2. Determine which test or tests are required by reading the certification role
description.
3. Prepare for the test, using the following resources provided:
– Test objectives
– Recommended educational resources
– Sample/assessment test
– Other reference materials
– Opportunities for experience


Note: These resources are available from each certification description
page, as well as from the Test information page.

4. Register to take a test by contacting one of our worldwide testing vendors:
– Thomson Prometric
– Pearson Virtual University Enterprises (VUE)

Note: When providing your name and address to the testing vendor, be
sure to specify your name exactly as you want it to appear on your
certificate.

5. Take the test. Be sure to keep the Examination Score Report provided upon
test completion as your record of taking the test.

Note: After taking a test, your test results and demographic data (including
name, address, e-mail, and phone number) are sent from the testing
vendor to IBM for processing (allow two to three days for transmittal and
processing). After all the tests required for a certification are passed and
received by IBM, your certificate will be issued.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until all the required tests are successfully
completed for the desired certification role. If additional requirements are
needed (such as an “other vendor” certification or exam), follow the
instructions on the certification description page to submit these requirements
to IBM.
7. After you complete your certification requirements, you will be sent an e-mail
asking you to accept the terms of the IBM Certification Agreement before
receiving the certificate.
8. Upon acceptance of the terms of the IBM Certification Agreement, an e-mail
will be sent containing the following electronic deliverables:
– A Certification Certificate in PDF format, which can be printed in either
color or black and white
– A set of graphic files of the IBM Professional Certification mark associated
with the certification achieved
– Guidelines for the use of the IBM Professional Certification mark
9. To avoid unnecessary delay in receiving your certificate, ensure that we have
your current e-mail on file by keeping your profile up-to-date. If you do not
have an e-mail address on file, your certificate will be sent through postal
mail.


After you receive a certificate by e-mail, you can also contact IBM to request that
a hardcopy certificate be sent by postal mail by contacting:

mailto:certify@us.ibm.com

Note: IBM reserves the right to change or delete any portion of the program,
including the terms and conditions of the IBM Certification Agreement, at any
time without notice. Some certification roles offered through the IBM
Professional Certification Program require recertification.

1.2 Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 Implementation
certification
We can categorize the certification process as follows:
Job role description/target audience:
A Tivoli Certified Consultant – Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 is a technical
professional responsible for planning, installation, configuration, operations,
administration, and maintenance of an Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1
solution. This individual will be expected to perform these tasks with limited
assistance from peers, product documentation, and support resources.
To attain the IBM Certified Deployment Professional - Tivoli Provisioning
Manager V5.1 Implementation certification, candidates must pass one test.
Required prerequisites:
– Strong working knowledge of Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1
infrastructure components
– Working knowledge of operating system and networking and firewall
concepts
– Basic knowledge of supported databases
– Basic knowledge of protocols, including HTTP
Core requirement:
In order to be certified, you must select Test 898 - Tivoli Provisioning
Manager V5.1 Implementation:
– Test 898 objectives
– Test 898 sample test
– Test 898 recommended educational resources
– Number of questions: 84


– Duration in minutes: 105
– Format: Multiple choice
– Required passing score: 55%

1.2.1 Test 898 objectives
For the most updated objectives of the Tivoli Provisioning Manager
V5.1Implementation certification test, go to the Tivoli Certification Web site and
select the Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 Implementation certification test link:
http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/obj898.shtml

1.2.2 How to get your 15% discount on the Tivoli Provisioning
Manager V5.1 certification
You can receive a 15% discount on the Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1
certification, if taken at any Thomson Prometric testing center. Just remember to
use the code 15T898.

1.3 Recommended resources for study
Courses and publications are offered to help you prepare for the certification
tests. The courses are recommended, but not required, before taking a
certification test. If you want to purchase Web-based training courses or are
unable to locate a Web-based course or classroom course at the time and
location you desire, contact one of our delivery management teams at:
Americas: mailto:tivamedu@us.ibm.com
EMEA: mailto:tived@uk.ibm.com
AP: mailto:tivtrainingap@au1.ibm.com

Note: Course offerings are continuously being added and updated. If you do
not see the courses listed in your geography, contact the delivery
management team.

1.3.1 Courses
Course names and course numbers vary depending on the education delivery
arm used in each geography. Refer to the Tivoli software education Web site to
find the appropriate course and education delivery vendor for each geography.

General training information is also available at IBM IT Training at:
http://ibm.com/training


1.3.2 Publications
Before taking the test 898, Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 Implementation, we
recommend that you review Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 guides and IBM
Redbooks.

For the online publications of Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1, refer to the
following link:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v13r1/index.jsp

IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 redbooks
You can refer to Deployment Guide Series: IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager
Version 5.1, SG24-7261. This book focuses on the planning and deployment of
Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 in production environments.

The target audience for this book is IT specialists who will be working on new
Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 installations.


2

Chapter 2. Planning and architecture
This chapter provides information about successfully planning a proper
architecture for Tivoli Provisioning Manager version 5.1. It will summarize how
components interact.

In this chapter, the following topics are discussed. We will explore different
scenarios based on the number of agents, network restrictions, hardware
availability and supported operating systems. It will furthermore provide advise
about the configuration that is to be chosen, depending on the size of the
environment to be managed.

This chapter includes the following sections:
“Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 components” on page 12
“Scalability” on page 15
“Supported Platforms for Tivoli Provisioning Manager version 5.1” on page 21
“Infrastructure deployment considerations” on page 22

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved. 11

2.1 Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 components
Figure 2-1 shows the architecture of a Tivoli Provisioning Manager.

Figure 2-1 Tivoli Provisioning Manager architecture

If Tivoli Provisioning Manager is configured properly, it automates complex
provisioning tasks across servers, applications, networks and storage to reduce
IT workload. It reduces human error and increases resource utilization.


Tivoli Provisioning Manager includes the following main components:
Provisioning server
The provisioning server is the server on which Tivoli Provisioning Manager is
installed. The provisioning server contains the following sub-components:
– Provisioning database
The provisioning database is the physical database for Tivoli Provisioning
Manager. It holds the data center model.
– Data center model
The data center model is a representation of all the physical and logical
assets that the Tivoli Provisioning Manager manages. It keeps track of the
data center hardware and associated allocations to applications, as well
as changes to configuration. When a workflow successfully completes a
requested change, the data center model is updated to reflect the current
data center infrastructure.
– Automation
An automation package is a collection of workflows, scripts, other
commands and tools that apply to the operation of a specific type of
software component or a physical device. The deployment engine
manages the deployment of workflows and associated components in an
automation package.
– Compliance and remediation
Compliance management allows you to examine the software and security
setup on a target computer in your managed infrastructure. If the desired
configuration does not match, noncompliance occurs and
recommendations on how to fix it are generated.
– Reporting
Reports allow you to retrieve current information about data center
inventory, activity, and system compliance. Tivoli Provisioning Manager
reporting functionality includes:
• Several predefined reports.
• A Web-based query builder, which allows you to easily customize
existing reports or create new reports.
• Easier access to information in the data model through more than 40
high-performance views.
• Easier sharing of report definitions through enhanced import and
export capabilities in the Web interface.
• Charts and graphs.

Chapter 2. Planning and architecture 13

• The ability to schedule reports to run at a later time including repeating
intervals.
• E-mail report distribution and notification.
• Integration with third-party reporting software.
– Discovery
Discovery provides automated processes that allow you to find resources,
as well as any changes to existing resources, within your managed IT
infrastructure. Tivoli Provisioning Manager provides the following
discovery technologies:
• Microsoft® Active Directory® discovery
• Tivoli Provisioning Manager Network discovery
• Tivoli Provisioning Manager Inventory discovery
• IBM Discovery library reader
– Deployment infrastructure
Tivoli Provisioning Manager supports reconfiguring and reallocation of
resources in your managed environment using two different deployment
infrastructures:
• Scalable software distribution infrastructure
The scalable software distribution infrastructure is based on
service-oriented architecture (SOA). It provides standard services for
performing software distribution and compliance activities in a scalable
two or three tiers implementation that includes branch office
management.
• Deployment engine infrastructure
The deployment engine infrastructure is responsible for automated
provisioning.
Web Services allow you to access the Tivoli Provisioning Manager data
center model directly rather than launching the Web interface. By using
the Web Services, you can access, manipulate, or change objects directly
in the data center model.

Note: The computer you are using to access the Web interface must be
on the same network as the provisioning server. You must use
Microsoft Internet Explorer® 6.0.29 or later or Firefox 1.5 or later.

The command-line interface provides access to Tivoli Provisioning
Manager features with SOAP. Administrators have the flexibility to perform
tasks such as creating scripts that run specific SOAP commands or setting
up external tools to send SOAP commands in response to an event.


Operator and administrator console
The Web-based operator and administrator console allows you to interact
with the Tivoli Provisioning Manager server. The operator and administrator
console provides a graphical representation of the data center, includes
wizards to simplify configuration, and other features such as reporting and
task status tracking that are not available from the command-line interface.
Automation Package Developer Environment
The Automation Package Developer Environment (APDE) is an
Eclipse-based plug-in environment that automation package developers can
use to customize existing automation packages or create new automation
packages.
IBM Open Process Automation Library
The IBM Open Process Automation Library (OPAL) is an IBM-managed
shared library of process automation. It is a comprehensive online catalog,
which contains over 500 IBM Tivoli and Business Partners Product
extensions including: automation packages, integration adapters, agents,
documentation, and supporting information.
User directory
Tivoli Provisioning Manager integrates with several directory servers, allowing
you to manage your user accounts and user authentication using a directory
server of your choice.

2.2 Scalability
A distributed networking infrastructure inherits scalable characteristics by design.
No single analysis of scalability and performance can determine the absolute
hard limits of a distributed product. A distributed system in theory should extend
to infinity. However, as distributed systems increase in scalability, performance
loss may increase to an unsustainable boundary. Tivoli Provisioning Manager
follows the basic scalable characteristic in this design. Adding hardware capacity
in the form of remote depots (and remote Federating Agents, when the three-tier
infrastructure for Device Management Service will be available) distributes the
load and allows more connected agents.

From a design point of view, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Dynamic Content
Delivery (providing the dynamic content delivery service component) has been
embedded into Tivoli Provisioning Manager to provide a highly scalable and
reliable infrastructure for software and patch distribution. Dynamic Content
Delivery Service component has been, in fact, proven to be able to manage large
infrastructure with optimal performance. The following features of Dynamic


Content Delivery Service component contributes efficiently to scalability and
reliability of Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 in the following ways:
The Tivoli Provisioning Manager dynamic content delivery service enables
the efficient distribution of files and bulk content to large numbers of targets
using distributed depot servers and peer-to-peer services. Clients installed as
subagents on all the managed systems or endpoints at the regional branch
request to download files from depot servers or from other clients.
Dynamic Content Delivery Service can be configured to be peer-based or
hierarchical. In most client-based scenarios, for example, retail, the customer
does not need a server-per-branch for distributions. Customers can
potentially save money on hardware as they do not need per-branch servers.
Dynamic Content Delivery Service supports a dynamic environment with
roaming endpoints. When you take your mobile computer to another location,
the dynamic content delivery service sub-agent searches for the nearest local
distribution points based on subnets and domains or user-defined regions.
There is no single point of failure if the environment is properly configured.
Even if network connectivity to the Tivoli Provisioning Manager server is lost,
distributions in process can continue.

Note: When link to Tivoli Provisioning Manager server is lost, the
distribution will be completed, but Tivoli common agent will be able to
report the status after the connection is restored.

Dynamic Content Delivery Service can handle large files. This may be
important to customers in scenarios such as upgrading entire operating
systems.
It has an adaptive bandwidth control that works. This reduces performance
problems related to network overload.
Dynamic Content Delivery Service supports checkpoint or restarts in case of
an interrupted distribution.
In Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1, the Dynamic Content Delivery Service
infrastructure can be configured to allow each endpoint to download a file
from up to four servers simultaneously. This speeds up the file transfer and
makes the process faster and easier for the user.

From a scalability standpoint, the Dynamic Content Delivery Service component
therefore plays a key role.

Device Management Service components also has some configurable
parameters that might impact the performance. For example, the polling
mechanism for new jobs between agents and Tivoli Provisioning Manager has a


random time interval that is added to the polling frequency. Therefore, job
requests coming from the agent do not all arrive at the same time. In some way
this mechanism allows the management of large software deployment and
inventory scenarios. However, you have to be careful when setting this polling
time to avoid having too much load on Device Management Service federating
agent.

As the architect of a Tivoli Provisioning Manager implementation, consider the
following factors
Number of physical systems and platform types to be managed
Location of targets and available bandwidth
Average size and frequency of packages to be distributed
Geographical topology of the environment
Network topology and firewall restrictions
Estimated number of users and consoles

2.2.1 Scalable Distribution Infrastructure for Tivoli
Provisioning Manager v.5.1
The Scalable Distribution Infrastructure for Provisioning, also known as OAMPI
(Operations, Administration, Maintenance and Provisioning Infrastructure)
provides a scalable infrastructure for implementing software distribution activities
inside Tivoli Provisioning Manager.

It includes the following main components:
Tivoli Common Agent Services
It provides an infrastructure for managing the computer systems in your
environment, enabling secure connections between managed systems and
storing information about the managed systems and the software running on
them.
Dynamic Content Delivery Service
It enables the efficient distribution of files and content to a large number of
targets through intermediate depot components and peer-to-peer
distributions between agents.
Device Management Service
It provides a solution for managing various devices by performing jobs, which
can be targeted to individual Tivoli Common Agent devices or to groups of
devices.
Each of them can perform its management activity through specific
subcomponents installed on the Tivoli Provisioning Manager server and on
the managed systems.


Device Management Service Federator
A device manager federator is installed on the provisioning server at the
enterprise and is configured to act as a federated server. The federator
implements a job distribution policy that pushes incoming jobs to all of the
regional branch office agents.

Note: Currently, a two-tiered federated environment is supported.

Clients are installed as device manager subagents on the endpoints at the branch
and are used for receiving job tasks from and returning results to the agents. It is
installed on the provisioning server and is configured to act as a federated
server. It implements a job distribution policy that pushes incoming jobs to
remote agents. Jobs are actually submitted into the Device Management Service
Federator to be sent to device manager subagents (installed on targets as a part
on the Tivoli Common Agent) via intermediate Federating Agent components.
Results are returned in the reverse direction.

Device Management Service Federating Agent
It periodically polls the federator server for jobs (default interval is 10 minutes),
and results are passed up at the same time.

Currently, only a single federating agent is implemented on the Tivoli
Provisioning Manager server, while the remote federating agent will be
supported in next releases. Federating agents are also referred to as federated
agents.

Device manager subagent
The device manager client component is implemented as a subagent of the Tivoli
Common Agent and communicates with federating agents, polling for new jobs,
with a default value of 60 minutes. They are installed on the target systems as
part of the Tivoli Common Agent.

Dynamic content delivery services management center
It is the central component of the dynamic content delivery services and provides
overall control of the other dynamic content delivery service components. In
particular, it maintains a list of files stored on each depot server and replicates
files between depots. It also authorizes clients to download files and creates
download plans.


Depot
A depot server is a system that stores files in a designated directory ready for
distribution to target systems. Depot servers can also replicate these files to
other depot servers to optimize network traffic.

Note: There must be at least one Upload Depot, which is also referred as
Preferred Upload Server, that replicates files to the other depots. Since it is
installed as a Tivoli Common Agent subagent and since Tivoli Common Agent
is not supported on Tivoli Provisioning Management server, a Tivoli
Provisioning Manager installation will always need at least two separated
systems in the central management environment, one for Tivoli Provisioning
server and the other for the preferred upload server.


Dynamic content delivery services subagent
Clients are installed as Tivoli Common Agent subagents on all the target
managed systems. They can request to download files from depot servers or
from other clients (peers). In this case, they work as miniature depot servers,
which means they can hold copies of distributed files in a cache and act as
sources for these files during downloads by their neighbors. Dynamic content
delivery services subagents are not shown in Figure 2-2 to avoid making it
unreadable. Although this subagent downloads files from depot or peers,
Figure 2-2 also shows a two-way connection between Tivoli Common Agent and
Management Center. In fact, dynamic content delivery service subagent installed
on Tivoli Common agent has to contact Management Center to request and
receive download plans and notify it when download from depot or peers is done.

Figure 2-2 Tivoli Provisioning Manager Server


Common Agent Services Agent Manager
It is installed on provisioning server and provides functions that allow clients to
get information about agents and resource managers. It also includes a
registration service, which provides authentication and authorization services
and maintains a registry of configuration information about the managed
certificates, registration, tracking of common agents, resource managers, status
collection and forwarding.

Tivoli common agent
Tivoli common agent installed on depot servers and on target systems, is a
common container for all the subagents. It provides shared system resources
and secure connectivity. Tivoli common agent subagents actually allow to use it
as an agent for several Tivoli products.

2.3 Supported Platforms for Tivoli Provisioning
Manager version 5.1
The Table 2-1 shows the supported platforms for Tivoli Provisioning Manager
V5.1 and Tivoli common agent V1.3.

Table 2-1 Supported platforms for Tivoli Provisioning Manager V5.1 and Tivoli common agent V1.3
Operating Systems Tivoli Provisioning Manager Tivoli Common Agent 1.3
server 5.1

IBM AIX 5L v5.2 64 bit ML7 5L v5.1 (32 and 64 bit)
5L v5.3 64 bit Power5 ML1 5L v5.2 (32 and 64 bit)
5L v5.3 (32 and 64 bit)

Sun™ Solaris™ 9 on Sun SPARC Server 8 (32 and 64 bit)
10 on Sun SPARC Server 9 (32 and 64 bit)
10(32 and 64 bit)

HP-UX - 11i (32 and 64 bit)

Windows® 2000 - Professional SP2
Server SP4
Advanced Server SP2

Windows XP Professional SP1(fast start only) Professional SP1
Professional SP2 (fast start only) Professional SP2

Windows Server® 2003 Standard Edition SP1 Standard Edition
Enterprise Edition SP1 Standard x64 Edition
Enterprise Edition
Enterprise x64 Edition


Operating Systems Tivoli Provisioning Manager Tivoli Common Agent 1.3
server 5.1

Linux® Intel® Family RHEL 4.0 32 bit update 3 RHEL 3.0 32 bit
SLES 9.0 32 bit SP3 RHEL 4.0 32 bit
SLES 8.0 32 bit
SLES 9.0 32 bit

Linux AMD64/EM64T - REHL 4.0 64 bit
SLES 9.0 64 bit

Linux i/p Series Family (64-bit) - RHEL 3.0
RHEL 4.0
SLES 8.0
SLES 9.0

Linux zSeries® - SLES 8.0 31 bit
SLES 9.0 64 bit

Note: Since depot is implemented as a subagent, it is supported on the same
platforms as Tivoli common agent.

2.4 Infrastructure deployment considerations
In the following section of this chapter, we will focus on implementation of this
scalable distribution infrastructure for Tivoli Provisioning Manager, which is one
of the main improvements in version 5.1 and provides powerful scalability
features.

Deployment scenarios attempt to provide realistic understanding of architecture
design. These scenarios should be used mainly for guidance to assist in the
planning and deployment strategy used for a production installation, since every
deployment strategy is unique and only proper planning can guarantee a
successful implementation.

In this paragraph, we cover five scenarios:
Demo installation
Small data center
Small branch office
Large data center
Large branch office


The next paragraph adds information about the management of some of these
scenarios when there are firewall restrictions limiting communications between
Tivoli Provisioning Manager and systems to be managed.

Tivoli Provisioning manager actually provides two different installation
infrastructures:
Fast Start installation
It installs the Light Stack Tivoli Provisioning Manager. It has the same
capabilities as the full installation, but is based on Lightweight Infrastructure
acting as the application server, an embedded database server
(Cloudscape™) and utilizes OS-based authentication.
Small footprint, about 1 GB of memory and 5 GB of diskspace is required.

Note: Lightweight Infrastructure is only supported on Windows.

Full Enterprise installation
It installs the Enterprise Stack Tivoli Provisioning Manager, based on
WebSphere® as application server, DB2® or Oracle® as database server,
and Tivoli Directory Server or Microsoft Active Directory for authentication.

2.4.1 Demo installation
For demonstration purposes, the Fast Start version of Tivoli Provisioning
Manager V5.1 server can be installed on a single machine running Windows XP.
In order to perform software deployment tasks, you will need a second system to
be used as an upload depot. To minimize the number of involved systems, this
second machine can act both as depot and as target. This should allow to
demonstrate main SOA infrastructure capabilities using only two systems.

The Light Stack Tivoli Provisioning Manager should only be used for Test and
Proof of Concept (POC) environments. It is not recommended to run production
environments on the Light Stack Tivoli Provisioning Manager.

2.4.2 Small Data Center
A small data center scenario consist of a single local area network (LAN) hosting
a limited number of servers to be managed. It implies installation of Tivoli
Provisioning Manager and Upload Depot in the same LAN where systems to be
managed are placed. Each target will download files from the upload depot. As


mentioned in previous sections, it will also need to connect to Tivoli Provisioning
Manager to perform the following activities:
Polling Device Manager Service Federating Agent for new jobs
Requesting and receiving download plans from dynamic content delivery
service management center
Notifying completion of download to dynamic content delivery service
management center

2.4.3 Small branch office
A small branch office scenario is part of a probably more complex scenario
where Tivoli Provisioning Manager has to manage a large infrastructure, with
systems spread across a geographic network. It typically applies to a company,
for instance a bank, managing desktops in several branches spread in different
towns across a country or a wider area with slow connections between the
management center and the remote offices. Depending on the specific
characteristics of the company, you may have a standard branch office
environment with dozens of desktops, or a heterogeneous configuration where
some branches are larger than others and you have to manage from one Tivoli
Provisioning Manager branch office hosting dozens of systems together with
other branch offices hosting hundreds of them.

A small branch office scenario usually involves software deployment to a very
limited number of systems (dozens of desktops instead of hundreds). In this
configuration, it does not make sense to have a depot installed in the remote
branch office, especially when you have to dedicate a system, most likely with a
large disk space, to manage less then ten systems. A peer-to-peer configuration
allows use of one of the managed systems as a peer, so that it performs the first
download from the depot and the other ones can download the files from it.

Note: Using the central depot server, and then taking advantage of
peer-to-peer sharing is the main advantage of this configuration, thus having a
single machine performing the download of large files across a slow link.

2.4.4 Large data center
A large data center environment involves managing a large number of servers
spread across different networks, which are both local and remote.

In this scenario, we suggest the installation of a Tivoli Provisioning Manager
depot in the central management LAN. Depending on the number of systems to
be managed in this local network, you can take into consideration a direct


Certification guide series ibm tivoli provisioning manager v5.1 sg247262

Certification guide series ibm tivoli provisioning manager v5.1 sg247262

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Certification guide series ibm tivoli provisioning manager v5.1 sg247262