Tideway Foundation 7.2 Cmdb Population

Tideway Systems Inc., 2008 Page 1 of 12

Foundation BMC Atrium CMDB Population

Version No 1.0


1. Contents 1. Contents ............................................................................................................................ 2

2. Preface............................................................................................................................... 3

2.1. Purpose........................................................................................................................... 3

2.2. Document History ........................................................................................................... 3

3. The CMDB Challenge ....................................................................................................... 4

4. How does Tideway Foundation help? ............................................................................ 5

4.1. Key Benefits .................................................................................................................... 5

4.2. How does it work?........................................................................................................... 5

5. Example Output ................................................................................................................ 7

5.1. Server Discovery............................................................................................................. 7

5.2. Highlight Changes Between Discovery........................................................................... 9

5.3. Dependencies ............................................................................................................... 10

5.4. The Atrium Adapter....................................................................................................... 11

5.5. Example Data Transfer ................................................................................................. 12


2. Preface

2.1. Purpose

This document describes the outputs from Tideway Foundation which are typically used in

CMDB population projects. All standard reports within Foundation export as CSV by default.

Additionally, a set of generic export adapters and data mapping sets allow the export of any

data to CSV and RDBMS. Tideway also supplies an adapter to BMC Atrium CMDB, which

includes data mapping for BMC’s Common Data Model.

2.2. Document History

Date Version Details

22nd

April 2009 0.1 Initial Draft

22nd

April 2009 1.0 Final Draft. M.Wallenstein


3. The CMDB Challenge Many organisations are in the process of adopting ITIL as a framework for improving their

service management processes. For ITIL v2 the CMDB is central to this framework and

requires high quality CI and dependency data to drive the ITIL processes.

Populating the CMDB can prove difficult for several reasons:

• Existing CI data is usually held in many siloed data stores. It is usually inconsistent

and rarely includes any dependency data.

• Gathering the data and keeping it up to date manually is intensive and very difficult to

maintain in the long term.

• Poor coverage or stale CI data usually leads to mistrust of the data, resulting in poor

adoption of the CMDB.


4. How does Tideway Foundation help? Through regular agent-less discovery of the IT estate, Tideway Foundation is able to identify

servers and their configuration. Foundation will additionally model business applications and

map them to its view of the underlying infrastructure components. Through continuous

discovery of the estate this mapping is kept up to date.

This CI and dependency information is automatically populated into the Atrium CMDB,

minimizing initial CMDB deployment time. Subsequently, the accuracy of this information is

maintained through regular updates. Newly indexed or changed configuration information is

automatically reconciled with pre-existing data.

Tideway’s unique Provenance feature allows full traceability of the source of the data; vital for

providing confidence when the data is utilised in ITIL processes.

4.1. Key Benefits

• Acceleration of CMDB roll-out through the automated population of configuration items

and their key attributes in the CMDB

• Population of up-to-date service maps into the CMDB, providing business context for

any IT component

• Generation of accurate impact analysis reports for proactive management of change

• Increased data CI data quality in the CMDB at minimum cost, and subsequently

accelerated adoption of the CMDB due to increased trust in the data

4.2. How does the integration work?

The Tideway adapter communicates directly with the Atrium Server using the BMC Atrium

CMDB 2.0.1 Java API to achieve robust data transfer.

Tideway Foundation Adapter for BMC Atrium CMDB auto-populates and maintains the Atrium

CMDB with configuration items from Foundation - such as networks (switch data from

Ciscoworks), servers, software products, and business applications as well as the

dependencies between them.

The update frequency can be anything from daily to monthly, dependent upon requirements. To

ensure only relevant information is stored in the CMDB, the set of exported CIs is fully

configurable. Since the Foundation and Atrium data models are customizable, the mapping

between the Tideway model and the Atrium data model is fully configurable. As a result, the


adapter supports any modified Atrium data model. Exported sets of dependencies are

constructed into service views or impact views to maintain a complete, up-to-date picture of a

business application within the CMDB. This provides an instant understanding of the impact of a

change or incident to any infrastructure component on any modeled business application.


5. Example Output The following examples highlight the discovery capability of Foundation and the associated CI

data captured. Regular discovery keeps the data up-to-date and is fed on a regular basis into

Atrium.

5.1. Server Discovery

These views highlight Configuration data captured for servers

High level view

• Hardware vendor

• Services supported

• Link to running software

Contextual data included by

dynamic SQL query or CSV

import

Full OS details; type, version,

patches, packages

OS End of Life & Support details


NIC Details, links

to switch and port

from CiscoWorks

HBA Details


5.2. Highlight Changes between Discovery

Foundation retains full history for all nodes in the data model. This allows individual CIs to be

tracked; in this example RAM and Patches have changed

Track attribute changes over time

RAM and patches have changed


5.3. Dependencies

Foundation discovery captures a view of the server and software estate. Dependencies

between components are visualised in the context of Business Services:

This dependency structure can be pushed to Atrium and used for change impact analysis and

improved service management from a business perspective.

Logical Business Service

Software

Components

Servers

Edge network


5.4. The Atrium Adapter

Foundation Enterprise Edition ships with the Atrium Adapter and data mapping sets. Setup of

the adapter is straightforward:

One click will confirm that the connection is correct and working.

Atrium data mapping sets can be downloaded and edited to suit your requirements:


Data mapping sets are defined in XML format and can be easily extended

5.5. Example Data Transfer

This image illustrates a Business Service dependency map presented within Foundation, and

following a push to Atrium the same service represented within the dependency viewer.

Documents

Tideway Foundation 7.2 Cmdb Population