Manual Link Population

The Generic Adapter achieves the population of links by defining (mapping) the three entities required by a link:

• the Link entity
• the Link’s End 1 entity
• the Link’s End 2 entity

Let’s analyze the mapping example shown in Population Mapping Files. In this case, we are populating three entity types in UCMDB: Nodes, Running Software, and the Composition link between them. Because we want to populate a link (the link named RootLink of type Composition), we also need to map the two link ends. Thus, from looking at the TQL query we see that the entities that need mapping are Node (end 1) and Software (end 2). The way the Generic Adapter framework understands the link structure is by looking at the created entity’s element name and definition in the TQL query. Because the population job must also bring instances of Node and Running Software, the needed ends’ mapping is already in place.

Types of Link Population

There are two types of link population situations:

• Decomposing a complex external entity in multiple related UCMDB entities

  In this case, a complex external entity such as PC is converted into the UCMDB Node and Running Software types, which need to be linked by a Composition link. This type of link only exists in the context of UCMDB.

  

• Links between complex external entities

  In this case, we need to model a link between two complex external entities such as PCs.