An integrated configuration assistant tool (ICAT) is a set of components that are delivered with IBM storage devices and subsystems. Each ICAT implementation includes a server. Each storage device communicates with one ICAT component. The ICAT component translates requests from XML-CIM (Extensible Markup Language-common information model) format into device-specific requests and returns the device responses in XML-CIM format.
ICATs are launched from the IBM Director. Drag the Launch Device Manager icon from the IBM Director Task pane and drop it onto a discovered device in the IBM Director Group Contents pane to launch the ICAT for the device. Launching the ICAT for a device enables the Multiple Device Manager (MDM) Performance Manager to communicate with the storage device.
Performance Manager uses the ICAT interface of a SAN Volume Controller to start and stop performance statistics collection on a device. If the device is available and the connection is successfully established, a secure shell (SSH) is used to retrieve files that contain performance data. These files are copied into a directory on Performance Manager. Data is read from these files and saved into Performance Manager database tables.