Federation in Version 9.x/10.x CMDBs

Federation allows the CMDB to retrieve data in real time (on-the-fly) from any remote data repository, and combine it with the CMDB's internal data to show a complete picture of the configuration it manages, including multiple sources. For more information about federation, see Work with Federated Data.

Using the UCMDB 9.x/10.x adapter to federate data from different CMDBs, enables the federation of any CIT in the model. This means that only a small portion of data from the remote CMDBs can be populated, and the rest of the data is federated on demand. This ability enables the delegation of the information to multiple CMDBs, with the CMS always showing the most updated data available and at the same time not overloading its capacity.

A CMS populates the Node, Interface, and IP from a Discovery CMDB (a CMDB whose role is to run Discovery), and defines the CPU, File System, OS, User, Printer, and Process CIs as federated from the same source. When a user runs a TQL query or view that has any federated CITs, these specific CIs are brought in real time from the Discovery CMDB. They are therefore as updated as the Discovery CMDB and do not depend on the population schedule to receive updated information. In addition, these CIs only reside on the Discovery CMDB, and do not burden the capacity of the CMS.

The CMDB 9.x/10.x adapter supports the delegation of the federation capabilities, providing the ability to set up a single point for data retrieval (usually the CMS). Any CMDB or service that uses the CMDB's ability to delegate federation uses the CMDB as a virtual black box, and is unaware of whether data comes directly from the CMS or from an external integration.

In the following example, the SM integration point is defined with incidents as federated CIs, and the RTSM has incidents federated from the CMS. Whenever the RTSM requests an incident, it requests it from the CMS, which in turn requests it from SM and returns the answer to the RTSM.

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