Sending SNMP traps from OMEGAMON agents

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) traps are a commonly used technique to forward alerts to alert management monitors.  There are a variety of methods to send SNMP traps from OMEGAMON running on z/OS to an SNMP alert reciever.  One common way is to use the SNMP alert emitter option that comes as part of ITM policy automation.  Another technique is to have OMEGAMON send messages to z/OS console automation, and then in turn use console automation (usually via REXX code)  to send the alert in the form of an SNMP trap.

But, there's another way you may not be aware of.  With ITM 6.22, IBM Tivoli Monitoring introduced the capability of agent autonomy.  With this support, you can create a trap configuration XML file that enables an agent to emit SNMP alerts directly to the event receiver with no routing through the monitoring server (meaning the TEMS).  To do this you need to place an SNMP trap configuration member, in the form of XML, in the RKANDATV library.

Above is an example.  In this example, we are sending alerts from the OMEGAMON DB2 agent.  So we added a member, KDPTRAPS (note - each agent type such as z/OS, CICS, etc will have it's own XML member).  Within the member we specified the address and port number for the SNMP receiver.  We then add the situation that will generate a trap, in this example DB2_Demo_Alert.  So in this example, if DB2_Demo_Alert is true, then agent will send an SNMP trap directly to the SNMP reciever.  If you want to add this for additional situations, you add additonal lines for situation name and target.

If you want more information on this, here is a link to the documentation:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21422088

Also, here's a link to another good blog post that describes the function:
http://davideellis.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/snmp-traps-from-ibm-tivoli-monitoring-itm/