CMDB Building Blocks
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This document discusses considerations for populating a CMDB from automated discovery data. It covers data enrichment from both user-managed and electronically discovered sources. Normalization and reconciliation processes are explained to standardize data from various tools. Performance tuning tips are provided, such as indexing databases and reducing network latency during synchronization. The benefits of fully integrating discovery data into the CMDB are described as enhanced usability and ability to relate ITSM requests to configuration items.
CMDB Building Blocks
- 1. Joshua Schuller ISM Practice Senior Architect Unisys Corporation Building Blocks for Your CMDB
- 2. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 2 Objectives and Results Objective - In this session we are discussing implementation considerations when deploying ADDM discovery with the CMDB and ITSM. Results - Fully populated CMDB that is operational with the other ITSM modules Skills developed - ADDM Integration - CMDB Administration - Performance Tuning
- 3. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 3 Enriching your CMDB data Automated population of the CMDB Straightening out the Product Catalog with Normalization Reconciliation tips and performance tuning Benefits now that we’re done Agenda
- 4. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 4 Data Enrichment – Two Types • Any data from a non-integrated source • Manual input or “one-off” bulk load • Examples include Cost Centers, Contracts, Used By Relationships, Sites, etc User Managed Data • Examples include ADDM, BBCA, SCCM/Seamless Data Pump • Could be agent-less or agent-based • Data derived from scanning Electronically Discovered Data
- 5. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 5 Data Enrichment User Managed Data - Finding the balance between too much or not enough - Appropriate for KEY pieces of data like Status, Work Info - Will always be a need for some kind of bulk loading capability - Consider a procedure to import a User Managed Data template spreadsheet into a Staging Dataset with a Reconciliation Job - Additional data load tools may help (e.g. Atrium Integrator or Effective Technologies Transport)
- 6. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 6 Data Enrichment Electronically Discovered Data - Automation is preferred (obviously) - Default ADDM CMDB mapping is a good start - ADDM mappings accomplished via TPL (“The Pattern Language”) formatted files that can easily be extended - Additionally, ADDM 8.3 contains new features for Collaborative Application Mapping
- 7. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 7 Collaborative Application Mapping (CAM) What is Collaborative Application Mapping? - A workflow process that enriches discovered data by rolling it up into higher level Business Applications - A set of ADDM features which support the creation of Dynamic and Durable Application Models (Derived Application Data) CAM enriches the discovered data within ADDM for a more complete CMDB and ITSM integration
- 8. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 8 Collaborative Application Mapping (CAM) Prototype • Search Datastore • Decide on Tiers • Create Groups / Subgroups • Create Notes Share • Generate PDF Report • Request App Owner feedback Provide Seed Data • Name of Application • Affiliated Hostnames • Database Instance • Process Usernames ADDM Admin does this 2 Application Owner does this 1 ADDM Admin does this 3
- 9. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 9 Collaborative Application Mapping (CAM) Gather Seed Data (what is required?) - Application Name - Basic breakdown of tiers - Hostnames involved (for datastore searches only, we will avoid hardcoding any hostname into the model) - JMX or J2EE application names - Location of DB config file, DB instance names - Any service or j2ee domain names - Process usernames
- 10. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 10 Collaborative Application Mapping (CAM) Build the Prototype - Search the ADDM datastore using the seed data - Think about the discovered technologies in terms of tiers - Create groups/subgroups (aka the scratch pad or workspace) - Add notes into the model with any questions for the Application Owner - Create the Prototype PDF report with notes and visualizations - Email the report to the Application Owner for feedback and review
- 11. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 11 Collaborative Application Mapping (CAM) Collaborate! - Create the Prototype PDF report with notes and visualizations - Email the report to the Application Owner for feedback and review - Application Owner reviews and provides feedback on the notes Application Owner input is used to refine the Model Wash, Rinse, Repeat.. the CAM process
- 12. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 12 Enriching your CMDB data Automated population of the CMDB Straightening out the Product Catalog with Normalization Reconciliation tips and performance tuning Benefits now that we’re done Agenda
- 13. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 13 Discovery to CMDB/Asset without Normalization Overview Reconciliation Engine Normalization Engine Product Categorization Product Catalog BMC Atrium CMDB BMC Remedy ITSM Discovery Tool Asset Management BMC.Asset Dataset Asset ClassesImport Dataset No product catalog entries are reviewed or created. No product categorization is created. Data comes in from the discovery source. 1 The data is reconciled to existing data and goes into the Production Dataset. 2
- 14. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 14 Discovery to CMDB/Asset with Normalization Overview Import Dataset Reconciliation Engine Normalization Engine Product Categorization Product Catalog BMC Atrium CMDB BMC Remedy ITSM Discovery Tool Asset Management BMC.Asset Dataset Asset Classes Data comes in from the discovery source. 1 Normalization follows rules defined to update the categorization, product name and manufacturer name. 2 The data is reconciled to existing data and goes in to the CMDB as visible from ITSM. 5 If the dataset is ‘trusted’, product catalog records will be added for the company. 3 If product catalog records are added for the company, corresponding Product Categorization is added 4
- 15. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 15 Normalization Flow 1- Hardware | Processing Unit | Laptop | Latitude J650 | Dell, Inc 2- Hardware | Processing Unit | Laptop | Latitude J650 | Dell 4- Hardware | Computer | Laptop | Latitude J650 | Dell *Diagram is from BMC Atrium CMDB 7.6.04 Normalization and Reconciliation Guide This is a server wide setting, not per company If no normalization the data is passed as originated – Hardware | Processing Unit | Notebook | Latitude J650 | Dell, Inc Sample of data at this point – 1- Hardware | Processing Unit | Notebook | Latitude J650 | Dell, Inc Sample of data at this point – 4 - Hardware | Processing Unit | Laptop | Latitude J650 | Dell Sample of data at this point – 2 - Hardware | Processing Unit | Notebook | Latitude J650 | Dell
- 16. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 16 Normalization Flow 8 *Diagram is from BMC Atrium CMDB 7.6.04 Normalization and Reconciliation Guide Sample of data at this point – 5 - Hardware | Processing Unit | Notebook | Latitude J650 | Dell, Inc Sample of data at this point – 8 - Hardware | Processing Unit |Laptop | Latitude 650 | Dell The final answer is one of the samples shown (1, 2, 6 or 8) depending on the route through the process. It is critical to have a Data Administrator who configures the path to get consistent results. Sample of data at this point – 6 - Hardware | Processing Unit | Notebook | Latitude 650 | Dell Entry matches the values above
- 17. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 17 Normalization Alias
- 18. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 18 Product Catalog
- 19. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 19 Reconciliation Flow Merge Import Dataset BMC.Asset Dataset Identify Using defined rules (queries) look in the BMC.Asset dataset and see if a match is found to a record in the Import dataset. If found, set the reconciliation ID, else create a new recon ID. 1 If a new record, create it. If an existing record, update it base on precedence rules. 2
- 20. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 20 Identification Activity Example Identification Rules for Computer Class Sequence '‘ADDM_IntegrationID' = $ADDM_IntegrationID$ 10 'Domain' = $Domain$ AND 'HostName' = $HostName$ AND 'SerialNumber' = $SerialNumber$ 20 'SerialNumber' = $SerialNumber$ 30 IMPORT DATASET TokenID = Domain = company.com HostName = Liberty Serial Number = 12345 Recon ID BMC.ASSET DATASET ADDM_IntegrationID = Domain = company.com HostName = Freedom Serial Number = 12345 Recon ID = 7890 1 IMPORT DATASET ADDM_IntegrationID = Domain = company.com HostName = Liberty Serial Number = 12345 Recon ID = 7890
- 21. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 21 Merge Example IMPORT DATASET TokenID = Domain = company.com HostName = Liberty Serial Number = 12345 Recon ID = 7890 BMC.ASSET DATASET TokenID = Domain = company.com HostName = Freedom Serial Number = 12345 Recon ID = 7890 2 BMC.ASSET DATASET TokenID = Domain = company.com HostName = Liberty Serial Number = 12345 Recon ID = 7890 Precedence Rules BMC.ASSET 10 IMPORT 100 IMPORT2 50
- 22. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 22 Enriching your CMDB data Automated population of the CMDB Straightening out the Product Catalog with Normalization Reconciliation tips and Performance Tuning Benefits now that we’re done Agenda
- 23. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 23 Which Application Performance Monitoring tools are available in your environment? - Perfmon, top - Service Availability monitoring (e.g. BEM, Nagios) - End User Experience Mgmt, Deep App Tier Visibility/Tracing Establish a Performance Baseline - What do the AR and DB utilization look like during normal operation? - How long does it take to execute the Identification and Merge activities? - How long to run the ADDM CMDB Sync? - What is the Transaction Size? How many CI’s? Performance Tuning 23
- 24. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 24 Performance Tuning – A Real Example DB utilization during the Identification Activity - Test 1 is the baseline - Test 2 is post indexing - Test 3 is post index tuning 24
- 25. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 25 Performance Tuning – Indexing Adding just a few indexes showed immediate gains - Reconciliation execution times - Overall system performance - End user experience 25
- 26. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 26 In this example we will look at the ADDM transaction performance from a Connectivity perspective - What happens “on the wire” Similar questions - What other APM tools are available to help - How long does it take to run a CMDB Sync - What does CMDB Sync look like for a single host Performance Tuning – ADDM to CMDB Synchronization 26
- 27. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 27 Performance Tuning – ADDM to CMDB Synchronization Wireshark capture of a single host CMDB Sync Summary of Delays - Total response time of 70.8 seconds - 41.2 seconds spent in the CMDB - 1.9 MB of application data transferred
- 28. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 28 Performance Tuning – ADDM to CMDB Synchronization Application Turns - Application Turn is a change in direction of the conversation Application turns can be significant - Each turn incurs a network delay - Magnify network latency - Increase application response time 431 turns for a single CI!!
- 29. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 29 Performance Tuning – ADDM to CMDB Synchronization Also many Out of Sequence Packets This can indicate - Many retransmissions - Heavy congestion - Error prone link - Network Problem…
- 30. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 30 Enriching your CMDB data Automated population of the CMDB Straightening out the Product Catalog with Normalization Reconciliation tips and performance tuning Benefits now that we’re done Agenda
- 31. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 31 Benefits now that we’re done Enhanced Integration - Automatically derived data is populated into the CMDB - The whole is more than the sum of parts Increased Usability - Fully populated data models lead to a richer user experience - ITSM requests can be easily related to discovered Computer Systems, Software Instances, etc. Performance - Negative performance can be dramatic in multiple areas - Value diminishes quickly if user experience impacted Builds a foundation to map Applications to Services
- 32. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 32 Questions?
- 33. © 2012 WWRUG Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved 33 Wrap-up Contact Information
Editor's Notes
- #24: A list of procedures and steps, or a lecture slide with media.
- #25: A list of procedures and steps, or a lecture slide with media.
- #26: A list of procedures and steps, or a lecture slide with media.
- #27: A list of procedures and steps, or a lecture slide with media.
- #33: Conclusion to course, lecture, et al.