Server-Side Data Normalization

Before populating the CMDB with new CIs, the server normalizes the incoming data as follows:

  • When a CI of type ip_address is reported, if one of the name or the ip_address_value attributes contains data, the other is populated automatically.

  • When a CI of type ip_subnet is reported, if one of the network_netmask or ip_prefix_length attributes contains data, the other is populated automatically.

  • When the REPLACE_VALUE_WITH_VALUE_FROM_SYSTEM_PROPERTY qualifier is defined for a particular attribute, the attribute is normalized with the specified system property value.

    For example, the routing_domain attribute, by default, contains the REPLACE_VALUE_WITH_VALUE_FROM_SYSTEM_PROPERTY qualifier where:

    • CONSTANT_TO_REPLACE data item is defined as ${DefaultDomain}

    • SYSTEM_PROPERTY_NAME data item is defined as default.domain

    This means that if a CI of type ip_address is reported with ${DefaultDomain} in the routing_domain attribute, then the routing_domain attribute is populated with the value in the default.domain setting.

  • If the CI attribute's Discovery Auto Truncate (DDM_AUTOTRUNCATE) qualifier is enabled, then results of type STRING are truncated according to the database encoding setting.

    Note By default, the database encoding is defined as UTF-8. This encoding can be changed in the Infrastructure Settings, in the Reconciliation Settings > Database Encoding setting (reconciliation.auto.truncate.db.encoding). To access the Infrastructure Settings, go to Administration > Setup and Maintenance > Infrastructure Settings. Select Foundations > RTSM and navigate to the RTSM - Reconciliation Settings. For more details, see "Infrastructure Settings Manager Page".

  • If the CI attribute has a case qualifier that is enabled, then the case of all of the results are normalized. The case qualifiers are:

    Qualifier Display Name Description
    TO_UPPER_CASE Upper Case Normalizes all results to upper case
    TO_LOWER_CASE Lower Case Normalizes all results to lower case

    Note The deprecated qualifiers, DDM_AUTOUPPERCASE and DDM_AUTOLOWERCASE, can also be used to normalize results to upper case or lower case respectively, if enabled.

  • If the Discovery Auto Trim (DDM_AUTOTRIM) qualifier for the attribute is enabled, any leading and trailing spaces and tabs are removed from the string.

For more information about attributes, see CI Type Attributes.

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