Agent Technology › How an Agent Works › Managed Objects

Managed Objects

Each resource that an agent monitors is a managed object. A managed object can represent a physical device, such as a printer or a router, or it can represent an abstraction, such as the combination of hardware and software components that constitute a network connection between two nodes. A managed object can be monitored and, and controlled with the use of one or more management applications.

The CCS groups managed objects into classes. A class is a group of managed objects that share a common definition, and therefore share common structure and behavior. By changing the behavior of a class, you can change the behavior of the managed objects that belong to that class.

Each Agent Technology agent has an agent .dat file. A .dat file contains the definitions for the managed object classes that are based on the monitored resources. These class definitions control the type of data that the agent monitors and collects.

Note: For information about the .dat files, their syntax, and modifications you can make, see the CA NSM documentation.