Adapter and Mapping Interaction with the Federation Framework

An adapter is an entity in UCMDB that represents external data (data that is not saved in UCMDB). In federated flows, all interactions with external data sources are performed through adapters. The Federation Framework interaction flow and adapter interfaces are different for replication and for federated TQL queries.

Adapter Lifecycle

An adapter instance is created for each external data repository. The adapter begins its lifecycle with the first action applied to it (such as, calculate TQL or retrieve/update data). When the start method is called, the adapter receives environmental information, such as the data repository configuration, logger, and so on. The adapter lifecycle ends when the data repository is removed from the configuration, and the shutdown method is called. This means that the adapter is stateful and can contain the connection to the external data repository if it is required.

Adapter assist Methods

The adapter has several assist methods that can add external data repository configurations. These methods are not part of the adapter lifecycle and create a new adapter each time they are called.

• The first method tests the connection to the external data repository for a given configuration. testConnection can be executed either on the UCMDB server or the Data Flow Probe, depending on the type of adapter.

• The second method is relevant only for the source adapter and returns the supported queries for replication. (This method is executed on the Probe only.)

• The third method is relevant only for federation and population flows, and returns supported external classes by the external data repository. (This method is executed on the UCMDB server.)

All these methods are used when you create or view integration configurations.