Q.  What is Blue Medora?
A.  Blue Medora is an IBM partner and developer of innovative software extensions for the market-leading IBM Tivoli Monitoring suite of products.

Q.  Where is Blue Medora located?
A.  Blue Medora is headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI USA.  Blue Medora is in the Eastern Timezone (EST).

Q.  What problems does Blue Medora solve?
A.  Blue Medora provides IBM Tivoli Monitoring solutions (ITM agents) that extend coverage beyond IBM’s existing IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) and IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager (ITCAM) product sets. Blue Medora monitoring agents provide deep, proactive monitoring and management capabilities for third-party applications and middleware.

Q.  Who are Blue Medora’s target customers?
A.  Blue Medora’s customers include enterprises running IBM Tivoli Monitoring or IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager and independent software vendors who wish to integrate their own products with IBM Tivoli Monitoring.

Q.  Can I download trial versions of Blue Medora’s products?
A.  Yes. Thirty-day evaluation copies of all Blue Medora products are available.  During the evaluation period you may install and use fully functional versions of our products without purchasing a license.  During your thirty-day evaluation, you will be able to ask our support team questions related to installation and product configuration.  At the end of the thirty-day trial period, you must either purchase the appropriate number of licenses or uninstall the product.

Q.  What does Ready for IBM Tivoli mean?
A.  "Ready for IBM Tivoli" indicates that the solution has been submitted to IBM Tivoli for technical validation and has been approved as compatible with IBM Tivoli Monitoring. Solutions validated as Ready for IBM Tivoli meet a specific set of technical requirements that ensure the solution safely co-exists with other ITM product components.

Q.  How do I purchase Blue Medora’s products?
A.  Please contact our sales staff for quote sales(@)bluemedora.com or +1 616 504 1725
Q.  How do Blue Medora’s ITM Agents differ from ITM agents purchased from IBM?
A.  Blue Medora agents and IBM Tivoli Agents for IBM Tivoli Monitoring are nearly identical in the types of functionality they provide.  Each includes a full complement of workspaces, views, take-actions, situations, and expert advice, and each is designed to operate with other ITM infrastructure components such as TEMS, TEPS, TDW, and various IBM Tivoli Monitoring command-line utilities such as tacmd and itmcmd.  Blue Medora ITM agents differ from IBM ITM agents in two notable ways:
  • Blue Medora ITM Agents require the presence of an IBM ITM agent on the target system.
  • The installation mechanism for Blue Medora’s ITM Agents is based on the Solution Installer tool used by the IBM Tivoli Agent Builder toolkit, but differs in that it does not install Java or IBM GSKIT. Java and IBM GSKIT are typically installed when the IBM ITM agent is initially placed on the target system.

Q.  Why do Blue Medora’s ITM Agents require the presence of an existing IBM ITM agent in order to be installed?
A.  Both a Tivoli Enterprise Management Agent (TEMA) and an IBM GSKIT are prerequisites for installing a Blue Medora Agent for ITM. These are not included in the installation package for our agents.  This is the primary reason why an IBM ITM agent (typically an OS agent) must exist on the target system prior to installation.  

Q.  Do Blue Medora’s ITM Agents support remote deployment?
A.  Yes. Blue Medora’s ITM Agents can be installed into agent depots and subsequently deployed remotely.

Q.  Are Blue Medora’s ITM Agents supported by common ITM command-line utilities such as tacmd and itmcmd?
A.  Yes. Blue Medora’s ITM Agents are fully compatible with all IBM Tivoli Monitoring command-line utilities such as tacmd and itmcmd.

Q.  Do Blue Medora’s ITM Agents interface with the Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP)?
A.  Yes. Blue Medora’s ITM Agents integrate, look, feel, and operate like IBM releases when viewed through the Tivoli Enterprise Portal.  

Q.  Are Blue Medora’s ITM Agents supported by Tivoli Data Warehouse (TDW)?
A.  Yes. Blue Medora’s ITM Agents are fully compatible with Tivoli Data Warehouse.  Historical data collection (HDC) can be configured from within the TEP in the usual way.
Q.  Are Blue Medora’s ITM Agents supported on Red Hat or SLES Linux on IBM zSeries mainframes?
A.  Please check specific product pages to see the platform compatibility matrix. Some of Blue Medora’s ITM Agents are supported on IBM zSeries mainframe Linux platforms and have been IBM Chiphopper certified as Ready for IBM Systems Linux. 

Q.  If we have support problems, do we call Blue Medora or IBM for support?
A.  If you believe the support issue is tied specifically to one of your Blue Medora ITM Agents, contact Blue Medora.  If you are unsure whether the problem is occurring in a Blue Medora component or an IBM component of your ITM infrastructure, we encourage you to contact Blue Medora first—we will work with you and IBM to isolate the issue and ensure that it is assigned to the correct support organization.