Impact Analysis Manager Overview

Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

Impact Analysis Manager enables you to define the interdependencies between components in your IT infrastructure to simulate how infrastructure changes (for example, a new software installation or upgrade) can impact your system.

By creating Impact rules based on TQL queries, you can determine the true origin of a problem and its business impact. Each Impact rule you define is attached to a specific Impact Analysis TQL query. For more information about TQL queries, see Topology Query Language.

You define Impact rules to specify a causal relationship between two or more Impact Analysis query nodes. Define one query node as the trigger, or the query node that represents the changes you want to make to the system, and another query node as the one that is impacted. After the causal relationship is established, Impact Analysis Manager enables you to determine the effect of the changes occurring in root cause query nodes.

You then run the Impact rules in IT Universe Manager to simulate how the changes impact your system and discover the root causes of the changes (for details, see Run Impact Analysis Dialog Box). This enables you to evaluate and handle accordingly, the possible implications of any action, update, new deployment, or a failure of the service delivery.

A simulated change in an impacted CI can alter the CI's map status, which is manifested through an addition of a status icon to the CI's symbol. The Topology Map displays the statuses of the trigger CIs as well as all statuses of the CIs that are impacted by it. Each color represents a different status.

For details about the status icons and the colors that represent them, see Show Impact Pane.

You can then generate a report displaying the following:

CIs in the system that are impacted by the changes.

Trigger CIs (the CIs that represent the changes you want to make to the system).

CIs that belong to a specific business service.