What's New in CMS 10.22

The Automated Service Modeling (ASM) feature has the following improvements:

• Stronger ASM solution. Two approaches (through monitoring the TCP communication and parsing configuration files) are available and are seamlessly integrated to discover the "next-hop".
• Faster top-down discovery. With Content Pack 18, service discovery is faster than the previous version of ASM.
• Easier discovery troubleshooting. Clearer error messages and status indicators provide more information to assist troubleshooting.
• Cleaner service map display. The service map only displays Running Software, and no longer displays folded application resources.

• Now the parent of the ConsumerProvider relationship is Usage, instead of Dependency.

  This change is effective if you upgrade UCMDB to 10.22 (or later) first and deploy CP 18 after.

  If you deploy CP 18 first and then upgrade UCMDB to version 10.22, the parent of the ConsumerProvider relationship is still Dependency. In this case, see CP18 Release Notes for the workaround.

• In UCMDB Browser, as a service modeler,

  • you can see more detailed information related to probe's discovery issues
  • you can see the ignored TCP connections of a running software

As part of the CMS system, HP Universal CMDB enables large enterprises and service providers to manage the configuration of their IT resources in a comprehensive and secure way while delivering value to end users and integrated applications.

Rebuilding indexes on Microsoft SQL databases

UCMDB is an online transaction processing (OLTP) application and performs many insert, update, and delete operations each day, its indexes might become fragmented. The index fragmentation could be even higher if discovery jobs that run also modify the data.

Starting from UCMDB version 10.22, a new scheduler job RebuildIndexes is available for building fragmented indexes on Microsoft SQL databases on a daily basis. By default the RebuildIndexes runs at 5:00 AM everyday. If necessary, you can modify the job definition by going to Administration > Scheduler > Job Scheduler.

If you want to start rebuilding fragmented indexes manually, you can invoke the new rebuildIndexes JMX method.

Monitoring failures of UCMDB history DB operations through the JMX console

Now if a failure occurs when UCMDB manages the history for all CIs and relationships, the failure is recorded in the Unified Resource Manager (URM). You can monitor and purge the last failures by using the following newly added JMX methods under UCMDB:service=History DB Services in the JMX console. These JMX methods allow you to monitor the UCMDB history operations without having to check the log files.

• purgeHistoryFailures: This method deletes all the failures from URM. This purge action also runs when the history DB is restarted.
• showLastHistoryFailures: This method displays a report of the failures per operation together with the associated count. You can drill down on a specific operation to check all the associated failures.

• showLastHistoryFailuresForOperation: This method displays a report of the failures per history operation together with the associated count.

For more information, see the HP Universal CMDB JMX Reference Guide.

Improvements for the SOLR search engine

• The full reindex operation is now multithreaded.

• Added a new tag named index for each class in the Search_Indexer_Configuration_XML file. This tag controls if the class will be indexed. You can set the tag to one of the following values:

  true: The class will be indexed.

  false: The class and all its child classes will not be indexed.

  This improvement allows you to,

  • add a class just to inherit its attributes.
  • choose the CI types you want to index more granularly.
• The UCMDB server supports standalone SOLR database. For more information, see the How to Set Up a Standalone Solr Environment topic in the HP Universal CMDB Administration Guide.

UCMDB Browser 4.04

• Added discovery indicators and the Discovery Progress widget in the UCMDB Browser. Discovery indicators allow you to see a warning or an error flag on a discovered CI, if any of the discovery jobs have completed with warnings or errors. The Discovery Progress widget presents the progress of running discoveries, and enables you to drill down to discovered CI instances. The discovery progress information displayed is the last status known by the UCMDB server for each job Trigger CI within the context selected for discovery.

  The discovery indicators feature is available with UCMDB Browser 4.03 or later. The Discovery Progress widget is available with UCMDB Browser 4.04.

• Service Modeling

  • As a service modeler, you can see more detailed information related to probe's discovery issues

    Now you can see a pause indicator and meaningful error messages in the following situations:

    • When the discovery job cannot run because the probe is suspended or disconnected, or there is no setup for the probe.
    • When the discovery job cannot run because the probe or the activity is in a blackout period.

    • When the discovery job cannot run because the IP is out of the all probe's IP ranges.

    These error messages are supported on UCMDB 10.22 and later.

  • As a service modeler, you can see the ignored TCP connections of a running software

    Now you can see the ignored TCP connections of a running software, under Software Related Errors discovery issue type. This way you can ensure that important connections are not missed because of a non-standard port. You can add the missing ports in the portNumberToPortName.xml file, directly from UCMDB Browser. For details, see the Run discovery manually for a service model section in the HP Universal CMDB Browser User Guide.

For more details, see the UCMDB Browser 4.04 documentation.

Other Improvements

• Increased the default value of the Infrastructure setting Max Num To Federate to 2,000,000. Now the federation can calculate and get results when users have large number of configuration_item CIs.
• Enhanced the hwOSSoftwareIdTagLicenseLinkageActivationStatus field in the scan file to create package rules for differentiating Adobe Creative Cloud's (CC) trial and Adobe CC Full Version.

• The TQL query operations from users now have higher priority over other TQL queries. This improvement increases the UI responsiveness for the related operations.

• Added a new setting cmdb.search.max.condition.phrases for configuring the maximum number of condition phrases for a single node. By default it has value 2 and can be set using the setSettingValue JMX method from JMX console > Mbean: UCMDB:service=Settings Services.

  Solr has a search mechanism to take multiple words as a single value by enclosing the searched text with the quotation symbol ("). For example,if you want to search a node named avaya aic logs error, you should use the following notation:

  node with name "avaya aic logs error"

Extended Support Matrix Coverage

• Databases:

  • Added support for PostgreSQL 9.4

  • Added support for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP2

• Operating Systems:

  • Added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server versions 6.6, 7.0, and 7.1 on UCMDB server side, and version 6.6 on probe side
  • Added support for Oracle Enterprise Linux with Red Hat Compatible Kernel versions 6.6, 7.0, and 7.1 on UCMDB server side, and v6.6 on probe side
  • Added support for Oracle Enterprise Linux with Oracle Compatible Kernel versions 6.6, 7.0, and 7.1 on UCMDB server side, and v6.6 on probe side

• Virtualization:

  • Added support for VMware ESXi 6.0

• Web Browsers:

  • Added support for Windows Internet Explorer 11 (for Configuration Manager)

• Application Server:

  • Updated Apache Tomcat version to 7.0.64

• Removed Support for the following:

  • Safari on Windows platform

HP Universal Discovery (UD) software provides visibility into IT environments by automatically discovering and mapping IT applications and infrastructure elements. This is an overview of the main new features and enhancements in Universal Discovery 10.22.

• Integrating UCMDB/UD with CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault

  Added the capability of integrating UCMDB/UD with CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault. The integration allows Universal Discovery administrators to configure credentials for supported Universal Discovery protocols, which enables administrators to manage the credentials in a secure and easy way.

  Instead of storing the passwords themselves in UCMDB/UD, this integration involves storing only references (in the CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault) to the passwords, and retrieving the passwords when they are needed from the vault using the stored references.

  For details, see Chapter 11: Integrating UCMDB with CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault in the HP Universal CMDB Data Flow Management Guide.

• IP Range Management API

  The Data Flow Management Java API has a new importIPRanges() method in the DDMConfigurationService class. This method allows you to perform the following tasks by using a customized script to manage the IP ranges of specified Probes:

  • Overwrite the IP ranges of specified Probes. The IPv4/6, Range, and Type settings of an IP range are manageable through this method.

  • Assign certain probes in the same domain into a probe list, and then distribute the IP addresses in the specified ranges evenly to each probe in the group.

  You can perform this task on any computer that can access the UCMDB server. For more information about how to use the UCMDB API, refer to the following documentation:

  • The HP Universal CMDB API chapter in the HP Universal CMDB Developer Reference Guide
  • API Reference

• Enhanced discovery troubleshooting capabilities

  Added discovery indicators and the Discovery Progress widget in the UCMDB Browser. For more details, see UCMDB Browser 4.04.

• Added the following JMX methods in the UCMDB:service=Discovery Manager category:

  • cleanCredentialsAndRangesInformation: For removing the credential and range information for a selected domain.
  • getDispatchTasksExecutorHealthInfo: For displaying information about the dispatch tasks executor.

• Universal Discovery Client Inventory Tools:

  • Added support for Windows 10

• Third-Party library

  Updated Jython version to 2.7

HP releases frequent Content Packs that extend the breadth and depth of discovery and integration content, and enhancements to existing content. Content Pack 18.00 delivers a wide range of content in the areas of support matrix, new discoveries, new and enhanced jobs, and integrations.

Discovered Operating Systems

Added support for discovery and inventory (including agent support) for the following operating systems:

• Apple OS X 10.11
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.1
• Ubuntu Server/Desktop 15

Discovered Applications

Added support for discovering the following applications:

• IBM HMC 8
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP2

• NetFlow v10 (IPFIX)

• Oracle 12c RAC

New Discoveries

Added support for the following discoveries:

• OpenStack Discovery

  Added the OpenStack by Web Services job to discover projects, compute resources, networks, storage and other details on an OpenStack using the HTTP protocol.

• Docker Discovery

  Added the Docker Discovery by Shell job to discover the Docker topology by connecting to the Docker Host.

• A10 vThunder Load Balancer Discovery

  Added the A10 vThunder by SNMP job to discover A10 vThunder load balancers and all related CIs.

• Cisco ACE Load Balancer Discovery

  Added the Cisco ACE by SNMP job to discover Cisco ACE load balancers and all related CIs.

New Jobs

Added the following new jobs:

• Manual UriEndpoint Discovery job to discover UriEndpoint CIs with the data configured in UriEndpointConfiguration.xml. If the UriEndpoint CIs are for the OpenStack Discovery, you must configure type to openstack in UriEndpointConfiguration.xml as follows:

  <uri-endpoint>
      <url>http://<IP or hostname>:5000/v2.0</url>
      <type>openstack</type>
  </uri-endpoint>

• Thin Clients MAC-based Detection job to discover Wyse thin client devices.

  The nature of this job is to report a Node CI when you have a MAC address from switches or routers that belongs to the Client IP range and the MAC address contains the prefix 008064 (which means that is the Wyse thin client). This job is created to cover the gap between DDMI and Universal Discovery.

  This job runs on top of data present in the Data Flow Probe database. The precondition is that the input data are only IP addresses of the Client range type. The IP MAC Harvesting by SNMP job must run before the Thin Clients MAC-based Detection job in order to take effect.

• Report Linux with Duplicated MAC Layer2 job for the Layer2 discovery, which is a post-processing job running on the top of results collected on the Data Flow Probe File System by the Layer2 Topology VLAN-based by SNMP job.

  This job triggers on Linux boxes that have interfaces with the same MAC and share the VLAN-enabled interface name notation, for example, <iface name>.<vlan id>@<iface name>.

  When this job is enabled, and then according to each Node’s interface, the job will look for the saved Layer2-related data on the File System and report a Layer2 CI by setting all available reconciliation Interface CIT attributes, thus resolving the 'Multiple Match' issue.

Integrations

• Added the multi-tenant support in the Asset Manager (AM) Generic Adapter.

• Added support for integrating the following applications:

  • HP Network Automation (NA) 10.11
  • HP NNMi 10.10
• Enhanced the Troubleshooting section of the ServiceNow Integration chapter in the HP UCMDB Discovery and Integrations Content Guide - Third Party Integrations.

• Added support for the Insert Multiple API function of ServiceNow, which can accelerate the push integration.

Others

• Enhanced the Inventory Discovery by Manual Scanner Deployment job to use Application Signature to report the running software.

  Added a parameter discoverRunningSW to the Inventory Discovery by Manual Scanner Deployment job, which is the same as that of the Inventory Discovery by Scanner job, to control which running software should be reported.

• Enhanced the SMI-S discovery by adding relationships among Logical Volume, Storage Pool, Fibre Channel, ISCSI Adapter, Physical Volume and so on for the HP 3PAR's TPD and EMC's namespaces.

• Enhanced the ICMP ping DLL performance for the Range IPs by ICMP job by improving the bulkSize, retryDiscover, and timeoutDiscover parameters. Now the ICMP ping DLL can asynchronously ping multiple IP addresses at one system call, which improves the ping efficiency, and the timeout is for all the IP addresses in one ping action instead of only for one IP address. For more details, see the HP UCMDB Discovery and Integrations Content Guide - Discovery Modules.

• The Inventory Discovery by Scanner job can discover Citrix XenApp native installed applications by Citrix Receiver Client now. The application's OS Installed Application Package Type is Citrix XenApp. However, currently the Software Utilization function of the job does not support Citrix XenApp native installed applications.

• Created a new CI type (CIT) Oracle Data Guard and identification rule in the UCMDB class model. Now the Oracle Topology by SQL job reports Oracle Data Guard as Oracle Data Guard CIT instead of Oracle RAC CIT.

• Added a new job parameter configFiles in the Apache Tomcat by Shell job, which can set the full path to Tomcat server.xml. The full path is separated by commas.
• Added a new job parameter reportCPUs in the IBM Virtualization by Shell job to provide a capability to manipulate the CPU reporting flow.
• Added a new job parameter reportLayer2connection in the VMware ESX Topology by VIM and VMware vCenter Topology by VIM jobs, which decides whether to report Layer2 Connection.

For more information, see the Content Pack 18.00 documentation.

HP Universal CMDB Sizing Guide

The HP Universal CMDB Sizing Guide aims to help HP Universal CMDB (UCMDB) and HP Universal Discovery (UD) customers to right size your CMS infrastructure to support your CMDB strategy. The objective of sizing is to estimate the system resource required to ensure the deployed system meets the performance objectives.

This guide is available in PDF format only. You can access this guide from the HP CMS product Help Center (Help > UCMDB Help). You can also download the PDF version of the document from the HP Software Support site by clicking here.

HP Universal CMDB End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough Guide

The updated HP Universal CMDB End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough Guide contains one additional end-to-end scenario:

• How to Relate Two CIs from the UCMDB Browser

You can access this guide from the HP CMS product Help Center (Help > UCMDB Help). You can also download the PDF version of the document from the HP Software Support site by clicking here.

HP Universal CMDB and Configuration Manager Hardening Guide

Added the Configure CAC (Smart Card / PKI Authentication) Support for the Embedded UCMDB Browser section to provide detailed instructions.

HP Universal CMDB Database Guide

Added the How to Configure PostgreSQL on Probe to Accept Local Connections Only section to provide detailed instructions.