Making CMDB Reconciliation Work for you - CA … · TWA Concepts Transaction Work Area stores...

Making CMDB Reconciliation Work for youChristophe Trinquet & Laurent Roussel

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This presentation was based on current information and resource allocations as of October

2009 and is subject to change or withdrawal by CA at any time without notice.

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2 October 2009 2009 Dev Ex - Making CMDB Reconciliation Work for You Copyright © 2009 CA

For Informational Purposes Only

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Agenda

> Overview of the reconciliation features available

in CA CMDB

Reconciliation concepts

Passive Reconciliation

Proactive Reconciliation

Reactive Reconciliation


What is Reconciliation

> Reconciliation is the process we use to resolve similar

identifying characteristics

Real life:

– Credit agencies “reconcile” different identities to the same or

different people based on identifying attributes

Name, birth date, national id, drivers license, employee id

CA CMDB (11.0, 11.1, 12.0, 12.1) uses the following identifying

attributes:

– Name - MAC address

– Serial number - Asset tag

– DNS name - System name


Why Reconcile

> When creating the full picture of a CI, gathered from

different data sources, we want to make sure that all

attributes are associated with the correct CI


How many CIs?

> Question:

Is the intent to have 3 CIs or just one?

If 1, which is the “survivor”?

If 2, what happens to the 3rd one?


Name server1

Mac address 11:11:11:11:11

Name server1

Mac address 22:22:22:22:22

Name server1

> Scenario:

• 3 Transactions arrive at an empty CMDB

Results from incorrect reconciliation

> False matches (a.k.a. false positives)

Too few CIs

> False mismatches (a.k.a. false negatives)

Too many CIs

> Relationships won‟t load (false negatives)

> Relationship connects the wrong CIs (false positive)


Measuring the ambiguity of a CI or a Transaction

> You cannot manage what you cannot measure

> KEY CONCEPT: The ambiguity index measures

uniqueness of the identifying attributes of a CI; it is

the count of all CIs that match any of its identifying

attribute values

Count (matching name)

+ count(matching serial number)

+ count(matching mac address)

Etc.


CIs and transactions can be ambiguous

> Scenarios – using the data in the squares below:

> Scenario:

I have 3 CIs in my CMDB, all named „server1‟

The ambiguity index of each CI is 2

> Scenario:

I have an update which specifies name=server1

The ambiguity index of the transaction is 2


Name server1

Mac address 11:11:11:11:11

Name server1

Mac address 22:22:22:22:22

Name server1

Root causes for ambiguous reconciliations

> Inconsistent data between MDRs

CMDB implementations with many sources of data are more likely to

encounter reconciliation problems

Single source of data less likely to present incomplete information

> Changes in identifying attributes

Best managed through a formal change review process

> Black Box reconciliation process

May give you results other than what you had expected


MDR1

Name server1

Mac address 11:11:11:11:11

MDR2

Name server1

Mac address 22:22:22:22:22

MDR3

Name server1

DNS name server1.ca.com

Managing Reconciliation

Passive: In the MDR, after discovery

Proactive: In “transition” to updating the CI

Reactive: After the fact


Passive Reconciliation: Loading CIs from MDR‟s Leveraging the reconciliation done in an MDR

13October 2009 2009 Dev Ex - Making CMDB Reconciliation Work for You Copyright © 2009 CA

MDR-based Reconciliation

> Scenario:

MDR(Cohesion1) discovers server1 with mac address 1

Later, Cohesion discovers the same server was reconfigured to have a

dnsname of server2.ca.com, and a mac address of 2

2 CIs are created

> There is a need for 1:1 mapping between what the MDR discovers and

the CIs that are created


MDR: Cohesion1

Name: server1

Mac address: 1

MDR: Cohesion1

Name: server2

Mac address: 2

Dnsname: server2.ca.com

MDR: Cohesion1

Name: server3

Federated asset id: 100

MDR: Cohesion1

Name: server4

Dnsname: server4.ca.com

Federated asset id: 100

MDR-based Reconciliation

> MDRs are assumed to be trusted sources of data and it is assumed

they already have performed their own reconciliation

> Reconciliation will first check for (mdr_name, mdr_class,

federated_asset_id) before checking the other identifiers

> Scenario:

Only one CI will be created in the example below because the federated

asset id is supplied by the MDR


MDR Based Reconciliation

> Ideal when every CI is managed by only 1 MDR

> When multiple MDRs are involved, greater analysis may

need to be performed – to do cross MDR reconciliation

(will be discussed later in the presentation)


Summary: Reconciliation PrioritiesIdentifying Attributes

> ID

> Federated identifying attributes

Federated asset id

Mdr name

Mdr class

> CI identifying attributes

Name

Serial number

Mac address

System name

Alt asset id

Dns name


Proactive ReconciliationManagement:Taking control over ambiguous changes to the CMDB


TWA ConceptsTransaction Work Area stores transactions before they are committed to the CMDB

No Management

MDR Discovery

CIs and Relationship

Tables


Proactive Management: stage transactions before they alter the CMDB

MDR

Transaction Work Area CI and

Relationship Tables


Transaction Work Area

Provides greater control over CMDB transactions

1. Manage transactions before the updates are committed to the CMDB2. Associates transactions with change orders3. Can use SQL in addition to XML as input 4. Simulation

* May require updates to the embedded GRLoader version and command options

Loading the TWA


XML Input

<GRLoader>

<ci>

<name>server1

<serial_number>11

<dns_name>server1.ca.com

<system_name>server1

<phys_mem>1 gb

End tags left off for

readability

SQL Input

INSERT INTO ci_twa_ci

(id, name, serial_number,

dns_name, system_name,

phys_mem)

VALUES

(0, “server1”, “11”,

“server1.ca.com”,

“server1”, “1 gb”)

Modify transactions in the TWA prior to execution

> To cleanse data or enforce standards, you can change the

transactions, before the transactions are executed

> Tgt_id can be manually set to the uuid of the target CI

for “forced” reconciliation

> Example:

use mdb

go

UPDATE [mdb].[dbo].[ci_twa_ci]

SET [dns_name] = “”


New GRLoader options

> Simulations from TWA

GRLoader –simci load CI from twa

GRLoader –simrel load relationships from TWA

> Run from TWA

GRLoader –lttwa load data TO twa

GRLoader –lftwa load transactions FROM twa

> Filter by change number

GRLoader –lftwa –chg nnnn filter by chg order number

> GRLoader –lftwa uses no XML. Errors are written to the TWA, visible

in the web UI


Proactive Reconciliation Management

> Identify

Calculate the ambiguity for all transactions

Find ambiguous transactions

– Scoreboard query

– Admin tab

– Reconciliation tab for a particular transaction

– Goal – no ambiguous transactions

> Research

> Resolve

Pick one:

– Do nothing

– Specify exactly which CI should be updated by the transaction


Run ambiguity query

> On demand, or scheduled externally

> Calculate ambiguity of

All CIs

Recently updated CIs (since last run)

Transactions


Ambiguous Transactions

Manage the list of ambiguous transactions before they are committed


Transaction details

Transactions can be altered before committed


Select target CI to manually resolve ambiguity


Transaction State Management

> Transaction state

Initial

Ready

Successful

Warning

Error

> GRLoader will only process CIs which are in ready status

> Before committing Ready transactions in the TWA, you may

wish to do a simulation run


Simulation


GRLoader reporting using TWA (simulation)TWA updated with error messages


Reactive Reconciliation Management:Managing ambiguity in Existing CIs


Reactive Reconciliation Management

> Identify

Find ambiguous CIs

– Scoreboard query

– Admin tab

– Reconciliation tab for a particular CI

> Research

> Resolve

Pick one:

– Do nothing

– Mark as not ambiguous

– Inactivate

– Supersede


Identify Ambiguous CIs scoreboard


Identify Ambiguous CIs – admin tab


Resolve: Mark as not ambiguous

Removes the CI from scoreboard/admin tabs/reconciliation tab that

list ambiguous CIs


Resolve: Inactivate

> Inactivate:

Logically deleted

> Removes the CI from all WEB UI lists (CI list, standard

searches)

> Updates to inactivated CIs are not allowed*

> This is the preferred method for dealing with ambiguous CIs

Problem: what if the data provider keeps sending data


Name server1

Mac address 11:11:11:11:11

Name server1

Mac address 22:22:22:22:22

Name server1

Resolve: Supersede

> A Superseded CI is one where updates to the superseded

CI are redirected to the superseding CI


Server1

Mac address

11:11:11:11:11

Server1

Superseded Superseding

Research: Factors to consider when superseding a CI

> Last Update Date

> Outstanding problems, incidents, changes

> Creation date

> Assets (owned by APM (is_asset=“yes”)) cannot be

superseded


Consequences of superseding a CI

> Should only be used when the user has no control over

the transactions entering the system - prefer to fix the

input data

> Updates performed via cmdbf or GRloader are redirected

to the superseding CI

> Superseded CIs are inactive and cannot be updated

> Data associated with the superseded CI is allowed to

atrophy, including problems, incidents, changes


Server1

Mac 11:11:11:11:11

Server1

Mac 22:22:22:22:22

Superseding a superseded CI


Server1

Mac

11:11:11:11

Server1

22:22:22:22:22Server2

Server1

Mac

11:11:11:11

Server2

Server1

22:22:22:22:22

Reactive Reconciliation Management of Existing Ambiguous CIsExample

Identify and research ambiguous CIs

3 CIs, same name, different alt Asset id


Not Ambiguous


Resolve ambiguity by superseding


Summary

> Reconciliation is an important process to consider when

loading data into the CMDB

> CA CMDB supports multiple ways of managing the

reconciliation process

Passive – automatic, mdr based reconciliation

Reactively – resolve ambiguous data in the cmdb

Proactively – resolve ambiguities in the inbound

transaction data

> Use the ambiguity index to calculate the uncertainty

associated with a CI or transaction


Questions?

Making CMDB Reconciliation Work for you - CA … · TWA Concepts Transaction Work Area stores...

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