Understanding MCS Auto-Deployment Behavior and Unintended Probe Upgrades

Products

• DX Unified Infrastructure Management (Nimsoft / UIM)

Issue/Introduction

Following a DX UIM upgrade, administrators may observe unexpected mass deployments of new probe packages (e.g., cdm 8.08) to MCS-managed robots, even when the newer MCS templates are marked as "loaded" in the database/UI. This unintended deployment can cause service outages if the newer probe versions are incompatible with the target operating system (e.g., RHEL 7/CentOS 7).

Environment

• Product: DX Unified Infrastructure Management (DX UIM) 23.4.x.
• Component: Monitoring Configuration Service (MCS), mon_config_service probe.

Cause

Understanding the Current Behavior: The current MCS auto-deployment engine is designed to ensure environment consistency by reconciling robot configurations with the latest probes available in the Archive.

In versions prior to CU9, the MCS deployment logic (managed by the mon_config_service reader service) may prioritize the latest available probe version found in the archive to maintain "consistency," even if the corresponding template is just loaded into the database, not put in production. The system does not currently treat the template's "Active/loaded" status as a strict gatekeeper for probe distribution. Consequently, if the archive contains a newer package version, MCS may proactively push that version to robots.

 

Example:

When you upgrade the UIM to 23.4 CU8, the cdm_mcs_templates 8.08 version will be automatically installed, and inserted into the database tables (as "loaded"). This version indicates that the minimum required CDM version for the template is 8.06. If the "probe_check_enabled" parameter is set to true, MCS probe will check all the robots, and deploy the most recent version of the CDM probe available in the archive to all robots with CDM probe lower than 8.06.

Resolution

If you are experiencing unexpected deployments and wish to retain control over probe versions:

1. Disable MCS Proactive Checks: You can temporarily disable the proactive deployment logic by setting the probe_check_enabled flag to false in the mon_config_service configuration (.cfg) file. (timed section)
2. Manual Reconciliation: After disabling the proactive check, you may manually downgrade affected probes to the desired version using Infrastructure Manager (IM) or the Admin Console.
3. Reference: For more information on probe update suppression, refer to KB 386085.

Planned Enhancement (CU9): Broadcom is committed to addressing this behavior to provide administrators with full control over mass deployments. This behavior is scheduled to be changed in UIM 23.4 CU9.

In the CU9 release, the MCS auto-deployment logic will be updated to strictly respect the "Active/Inactive" status of MCS templates. Auto-deployments will only trigger for templates that are explicitly marked as "Active," ensuring that inactive templates remain dormant and do not trigger unauthorized probe updates.