What's New in CMS Version 10.21

As part of the CMS system, HPE 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.

Enhancements to the UCMDB Integrations with Service Manager and Asset Manager

• Enhancements to the Visual Mapping Tool

  • More detailed and meaningful error messages are now available in the Visual Mapping Tool

  • As an integration user, you can now

    • have multiple federated nodes in the same TQL query
    • configure federations using fewer TQL queries
  • As an integration administrator, you can keep XML comments from old mapping files when using the Visual Mapping Tool
  • Mandatory attributes for a mapped CIT are automatically added

• As an integration administrator, now you are able to,

  • synchronize the Is Candidate For Deletion status of CIs with push as it is done with population

    Note: In order to enable this new synchronization feature, you need to configure the TQL query element layout to include the CI property Is Candidate For Deletion. This ensures the Is Candidate For Deletion CI property is treated just like any other CI property in the context of push and population.

  • schedule the pushback of IDs without creating an integration point when using UCMDB 10.x adapter

    Two new settings are added to the Create/Edit Integration Point dialog box when using the UCMDB 10.x adapter (Cmdb10xAdapter): Push Back Ids For Population and Push Back Ids For Push. For more information, see the How to Enable Scheduling Pushback of Global IDs When Using UCMDB 10.x Adaptersection in the Universal CMDB Data Flow Management Guide.

• As an integration user, with tenant information set on the TQL query layout, your autocomplete reconciliation data will also now have the assigned tenant information with the push flows.

Pushing data from the authorized state to the actual state using the new Local State Push Adapter

UCMDB 10.21 includes a new adapter called Local State Push Adapter, which allows you to push data from the authorized state to the actual state. For details, see the How to Push Data from Authorized State to Actual State section in the Universal CMDB Data Flow Management Guide.

UCMDB health check improvements

• Added a new JMX method testConnectionToDB in UCMDB:service=DAL services. Stored procedures for Oracle and MSSQL will be used when invoking the testConnectionToDB method.

• Added a JMX supportability handler Memory and Thread Count Info to record the UCMDB memory usage and thread count in the MemoryAndThreadInfo.html file. The information is displayed in color: green, orange, and red. If the color is not green, it requires attention.

• Added an Excel file named DiscoveryProcessingStatistics.xlsx in the zip file generated by the Reconciliation supportability handler to record discovery throughput statistics data. For more details, see the How to Access Support Using the JMX Console section in the Universal CMDB Administration Guide.

Support for Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2

CMS version 10.21 supports running in FIPS mode. The FIPS mode covers all HP CMS products and components, including UCMDB Server, UCMDB Browser, Configuration Manager, Universal Discovery, Data Flow Probe, Integration Services, and UCMDB UI. For detailed step-by-step instructions about switching HP CMS products and components to FIPS mode, see the new Universal CMDB FIPS Deployment Guide. To download the PDF version of the document from the Micro Focus Software Support site, click here.

Usability Improvements, Easier Maintenance and Support for the Product

• Multi-tenant status available in the system information

  Added multi-tenant status information into the system information to show whether the UCMDB Server is set up as a single-tenant or multi-tenant environment.

  The multi-tenant status information can be seen in two places:

  1. Mbean: UCMDB:service=Server Services. Method: viewSystemInformation

     When executing the JMX method viewSystemInformation, the result now displays an additional line:

     MT: [enabled | disabled]
     

  2. Mbean: UCMDB:service=Supportability Services. Method: runSupportHandlersForAllCategories

     When exporting the UCMDB System Info information by executing the JMX supportability tool (JMX method runSupportHandlersForAllCategories), in one of the archive files created (systemInfo.properties), a new line is added to display the status of the multi-tenancy:

     MT: [enabled | disabled]

UCMDB Browser 4.02

• Reports

  • As a user, you can use new operators Occurs after and Occurs within on a date type attribute when you perform an advanced search or create a new report in the Reports module

  • As a user, you can use the Labels view in the Reports module

    In the Labels view of the Reports module, you can quickly locate a group of reports that have certain labels. UCMDB administrators can manage the labels and assign labels to reports.

  • As an administrator, you can use labels to group reports. You can create a label, rename or delete a label, assign labels to a report, and remove labels from a report.

  • As a user, you can generate a direct link in Reports

    When you select a report or browse through the Reports module, a link is generated in the address bar of the browser. You can always copy the URL generated and then share it with others. Other people can open the same report by using the URL.

  • By using the new Expand All button, Collapse All button and Search Results field, you can quickly locate an item in a generated report. The search is performed only on the Display Label field.

  • Detailed description about a report is available.

• CAC support with multiple CRL files. The UCMDB Browser can use multiple CRL files for Common Access Card (CAC) support. For details, see the Configure CAC Support with Multiple CRL Filessection in the HPE Universal CMDB Browser Installation and Configuration Guide.

• Improved search. Now by default, the search algorithm filters out the queries that are too general. You can turn off the filter. For details, see the Configure Query Search Filter section in the Universal CMDB Browser Installation and Configuration Guide.

For more details, see the UCMDB Browser 4.02 documentation.

Other Improvements

• A new attribute isTopologyRequired is added in the <connected-ci-condition> XML tag of the reconciliation rule of a CI type.

  Setting the isTopologyRequired attribute value to true overrides the UNKNOWN result with FALSE for a validation criteria when there are no connected CIs. This enhancement is implemented to address an issue that several SAP System CIs with the same name get merged to a single SAP System CI although they should be different.

  The following example shows the usage of the attribute, which is taken from the identification rule for the sap_system CI type:

  <validation-criterion priority="2">
      <connected-ci-condition ciType="sap_app_server" linkType="membership" isTopologyRequired="true"conditionType="approveAndContradict">
          <overlap-fixed-operator number-of-matches="1"/>
      </connected-ci-condition>
  </validation-criterion>

• Extended Application Signature engine with plug-ins for Microsoft and EMC cluster technologies

  For example, extended the EMC AutoStart plug-in to include reporting of Cluster Resource Group CIs in the Host Applications by Shell job.

• Added a new JMX setting reconciliation.match.attributes to verify names of attributes during the matching phase of the identification process. If, compared to the other CI, there is a different value among the CI attribute values defined in this setting, the verification process stops and the match is rejected. This setting applies only to CIs that are identified based on the Identification Rule. Only the attributes that are inherited from the Managed Object should be used in this setting (for example, global_id and name). Names of the attributes specified in the setting should be separated by comma.

  For an example of how this setting works as well as instructions about how to enable the setting, see the Universal CMDB Data Flow Management Guide or the Universal CMDB JMX Reference Guide.

• Added a new JMX setting reconciliation.tenantaware.citypes to verify names of CITs during the matching phase of the identification process for the TenantOwner attribute. If, compared to the other CI, the value of the TenantOwner attribute is different, the verification process stops and the match is rejected. This setting applies only to CIs that are identified based on the Identification Rule. Names of the CITs specified in the setting should be separated by comma.

  For an example of how this setting works and instructions about how to enable the setting, see the Universal CMDB Data Flow Management Guide or the Universal CMDB JMX Reference Guide.

• Added a new JMX setting appilog.collectors.ShowCanNotInvokeError in the getInternalSetting method, allowing you to show or hide the "Cannot invoke trigger" error message on UI. The default value for the setting is true. For detailed instructions, see the Universal CMDB JMX Reference Guide.

• Administrators can specify a customized directory to store UCMDB applet files (.JAR files). For details, see the How to Customize the UCMDB Applet Files Directory section in the Universal CMDB Administration Guide.

• Re-index mechanism improvement. By using the new reindexCiType JMX method, you can re-index the CIs of a given CI type from the CMDB model database for search purposes. During the execution of the re-index operation, search operations are allowed and will return results based on what is already indexed. For details, see the Universal CMDB 10.21 JMX Reference Guide.

• Administrators can now configure the batch size of data to be sent to Solr, when executing the reindex method.

  To do that, adjust the value of the new JMX setting cmdb.search.batch.size.list.attributes using the setInternalSetting method. The default value of the cmdb.search.batch.size.list.attributes setting is 512, which is good for small amount of data, also good for enterprise deployment of UCMDB. For large amount of data, increasing the batch size increases the performance, but the memory usage increases too. If the batch size is less than or equal to 1, then the data will not be sent in batches.

Extended Support Matrix Coverage

• Plug-ins:

  • Added support for JRE 8. The recommended JRE version is changed from 7u65 to 8u45.

    Note: Configuration Manager and the standalone UCMDB Browser 4.02 do not support JRE 8.

• Databases:

  • Added support for PostgreSQL 9.3
  • Added support for Oracle Advanced Security Option (ASO). For detailed instructions, see the Universal CMDB Hardening Guide.

• Web Browsers:

  • Added support for Safari on iPad with iOS 6 or later (for UCMDB Browser only)

• Removed Support for the following:

  • Java Runtime Environment 1.6 family

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 10.21.

• Added a new API method void setDiscoveryConfigurationXML(String xmlString, boolean includeGroup);

  Compared to the existing API method void setDiscoveryConfigurationXML(String xmlString);, this new method contains the includeGroup parameter. The includeGroup parameter allows you to set whether you want to update the entire discovery group.

  For example, if you want to update IP ranges and credentials only and leave the statuses of all jobs as is, you can invoke this new method by setting the includeGroup parameter to false.

• New and enhanced discovery troubleshooting capabilities

  Implemented the following new or enhanced discovery troubleshooting capabilities:

  • With the new View Discovery Status and Error permission, you can run the enhanced Show Discovery Progress action from IT Universe Manager even without the Run Discovery and Integrations permission. This enables you to view discovery progress of your CI in IT Universe Manager, and then you can verify if a CI data error is caused by any discovery issue. For details, see the How to View Discovery Status and Errors for a Selected CI section in the Universal CMDB Modeling Guide.

  • You can use the network ping options available in the new Check Network Availability dialog box to troubleshoot network connection issues and/or credential related issues against an inventory CI in IT Universe Manager. For details, see the How to Check the Network Availability of an Inventory CI section in the Universal CMDB Modeling Guide

  • You can view the discovery status and the agent deployment log for an inventory CI in JMX via the new JMX methods. For details, see the How to View Discovery Status of an Inventory CI in JMX section and the How to View Agent Deployment Log for an Inventory CI in JMX section in the Universal CMDB JMX Reference Guide.
• Administrators can create folders in the Management Zones tree to organize the Management Zones. For details, see the How to Organize the Management Zones Tree section in the Universal CMDB Data Flow Management Guide.

Micro Focus releases frequent Content Packs that extend the breadth and depth of discovery and integration content, and enhancements to existing content. Content Pack 16.00 delivers a wide range of content in the areas of support matrix, SNMP Discovery improvements, Universal Discovery improvements, and integrations.

Extended Automated Service Modeling Content Coverage

Micro Focus CMS 10.21 ASM Package contains the following new features and changes:

• New TCP-based ASM solution enables Service Discovery to discover your business services and applications by detecting the TCP connections between applications. The discovery process starts from a CI that represents the URL of a specified service, and continues only with other CIs that can potentially be related to the service with TCP connections. The Service Discovery process builds dependency graphs from the consumer-provider components which are connected to its neighbor components with consumer-provider relationships.

  A provider deployable component delivers a service, and declares how other deployable components can consume that service. A consumer deployable component "consumes" a service provided by a provider deployable component. The dependency between these deployable components is a consumer-provider dependency.

• The updated ConfigurationFile-based ASM solution supports more technologies, including WebLogic, JBoss, IIS, Tomcat, and Oracle Access Manager. For details, see the ASM Content Support Matrix section in the Supported Content section of the Content Help for Content Pack 16.00.

Discovered Operating Systems

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

• Apple OS X 10.10
• CentOS 7
• Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server/Desktop 12
• Oracle Linux 7
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions 6.6 and 7

• Ubuntu Linux Server/Desktop 13 and 14

Discovered Applications

• Added support for discovering the following applications:

  • IBM WebSphere Application Server 8 and 8.5.

  • Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 8 and 8.5.

    Note: The AppCmd.exe tool is now used for discovery of IIS version 7 and later versions.
• The Layer2 Topology by Shell job now reports Layer2 related data for Cisco Nexus 5000 and 7000 series of switches.
• The Host Applications by Shell job supports the Microsoft cluster and EMC cluster.
• Implemented the HTTP proxy setting to discover Amazon Cloud services via web services.
• Added the Firewall Topology by SNMP job to discover Fortinet and Juniper firewalls.

• Discovery support for the following versions was dropped:

  • JBoss 3.x by JBoss by JMX discovery and JBoss by Shell discovery
  • WebLogic 6.x, 7.x, and 8.x

Virtualization Discovery Support

• Added support for Citrix Xen Server versions 6.2 up to 6.5.

SNMP Discovery Improvements

• Enhanced the Host Connection by SNMP job by adding a new parameter reportInterfaceName. This is because reporting the Interface Name of nodes by the Host Connection by SNMP job may cause duplicate nodes if these nodes are also being discovered by Host Connection by Shell and interface names that are discovered by the jobs are different.

  The reportInterfaceName parameter allows you to specify whether you want the job to report the Interface Name of nodes. By default, the reportInterfaceName is set to true.

Universal Discovery Improvements

• Enhanced the SAP Solution Manager by SAP JCO job so that the job can discover IDs for SAP CIs properly. The enhancement includes addition of the following:

  • Added a new attribute blueprint_element to the following CITs:

    • sap_bp_project
    • sap_business_process
    • sap_business_scenario
    • sap_process_step

  • Added a new parameter reportCIsInChunks in the SAP Business Layer Discovery adapter to report CIs in chunks. This is because the Data Flow Probe server memory is not enough for more than 100,000 SAP Process Step CIs. Also reporting a large number of SAP Process Step CIs without chunking may result in performance issues.

    Setting the reportCIsInChunks parameter to true enables the SAP Solution Manager by SAP JCO job to report CIs in several chunks. The default value is false.

• For the Inventory Discovery by Scanner job, added two attributes usage_last_used (UsageLastUsed) and infocus_usage_last_used (InFocusUsageLastUsed) to the following CITs:

  • installed_software
  • UserSoftwareUtilization

  The usage_last_used (UsageLastUsed) attribute is used to store the last used date for the application based on the software utilization data. The infocus_usage_last_used (InFocusUsageLastUsed) attribute is used to store the date that the software was last in focus (for example, interacting with the user - for Windows only).

• Enhanced the Host Connection by Shell job by adding a new parameter useLastSuccessConnection. Setting the new parameter to true allows you to use the last success connection regardless the value of the udaConnectionOrder parameter. When the useLastSuccessConnection parameter is false, the value of the udaConnectionOrder parameter will then be considered.
• Enhanced the Inventory Discovery by Scanner job by adding a new parameter udaConnectionOrder. The new parameter allows you to specify whether you want to use the UD Protocol first or last. The default value of the parameter is first.

Integrations

• AM Generic, Push, and Population adapters now support Asset Manager (AM) version 9.50.
• Pushed the Global ID of more CI types to Asset Manager to improve the reconciliation. Now All CI types in the out of the box push mapping support global_id in reconciliation.
• In the AM Push Adapter and AM Generic Adapter, the software utilization push is separated from the software installation push.
• HP Network Automation (NA) 10.10 is supported by the Pull Topology from HP Network Automation integration.
• HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) 7.4 is supported by the UCMDB-SIM integration.
• Added the HP Storage Operations Manager (SOM) Integration.
• Enhanced the Storage Essentials integration to collect the TapeLibrary information.
• Enhanced the ServiceNow integration job to avoid creating duplicated CIs in ServiceNow.

Other

• The NetApp Filer by WebServices job now supports discovery via NetApp Data ONTAP 8.x with ONTAP SDK 5.3.1.

• Added support for the AES256-CBC and AES256-CTR encryption ciphers for the SSH protocol. For details, see the UCMDB Discovery and Integrations Content Guide - General Reference.

• Enhanced the normalization rule engine by adding the enableNormalizationRuleLabel property in the globalSettings.xml file for specifying the label format of the output values in the normalization rules.

  If you want to display values in the label format instead of the default format that contains underscores for the normalized fields, do the following:

  1. Add <property name="enableNormalizationRuleLabel">true</property> in the globalSettings.xml file.
  2. Restart the probe.

• Added encryption parameters for the Sybase Database Type in the Generic DB Protocol (SQL) Parameters window (Data Flow Management > Data Flow Probe Setup > Domains and Probes > DefaultDomain(Default) > Generic DB Protocol (SQL), then click Create New or Edit) as follows:

  Parameter	Description
  Encryption Method	None. No encryption method will be used. SSL. For Oracle and Sybase only.
  Trust Store File Path	Enter the full path to the SSL trust store file. To use the trust store file, do one of the following: Enter the name (including the extension) and place the file in the following resources folder: C:\hp\UCMDB\DataFlowProbe\runtime\probeManager\discoveryResources\ Insert the trust store file full path.
  Trust Store Password	The SSL trust store password.

For more information, see the Content Pack 16.00 documentation.

Universal CMDB FIPS Deployment Guide

CMS version 10.21 is compatible with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 140-2. The Universal CMDB FIPS Deployment Guide provides guidelines for switching the Micro Focus CMS system to the FIPS mode. We strongly recommend you follow the guidelines strictly to avoid any unseen risk that may be introduced by the complex FIPS solution. This guide also walks you through the entire FIPS migration process step-by-step to ensure that the FIPS mode can be successfully turned on for Micro Focus CMS 10.21. To download the PDF version of the document from the Micro Focus Software Support site, click here.

Universal CMDB End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough Guide

The updated Universal CMDB End-to-End Workflow Walkthrough Guide contains two additional end-to-end scenarios:

• Working with Assisted Modeling in UCMDB Browser
• Performing the Daily Monitoring Process

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

CMS 10 Documentation Library

The updated Configuration Management System (CMS) 10 Documentation Library provides the most up-to-date version of Micro Focus CMS documents available on the Software Support portal. Use this library to access any of the guides and release notes relevant to this release or to download the full documentation set as a bundle. To access this documentation library, click here.