Agent Technology › How an Agent Works › Managed Objects

Managed Objects

Each resource that an agent monitors is called 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, in most cases, controlled with the use of one or more management applications.

CA Common Services for z/OS 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 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.