Reconciliation

Reconciliation is the process of identifying and matching entities from different data repositories. The reconciliation engine is responsible for identifying and matching entities from different data collectors and storing them, without duplicating CIs in UCMDB.

Many different data collectors can send CIs to UCMDB. In actuality, each different source might be providing information about the same CI. The reconciliation engine is responsible for identifying and matching entities from different data collectors and storing them, without duplicating CIs in UCMDB.

Three main services provide support for the reconciliation engine:

Data Identification > responsible for comparing input CIs, according to reconciliation rules.

Data In > responsible for inserting data into UCMDB. This service decides whether to merge data into existing CIs in UCMDB or whether to ignore input CIs in the case of multiple matches

Merge > responsible for merging CIs (used in Federation and Data In flows). Merging is done according to the reconciliation priority definitions.

The reconciliation engine contains out-of-the-box identification and match criteria rules for most usable and problematic CITs, such as host, software element, and so on.

Reconciliation Configuration: The reconciliation engine uses XML configuration files that contain identification and match criteria to determine how CIs are identified during federation or data insertion. Configuration files for out-of-the-box CI types are provided when packages are deployed, but you can modify the provided files or create additional files.

What is identification? A method for comparing two (or more) CIs to tell if they are the same.The CIs usually come from different sources, e.g. one from UCMDB and the other is a newly discovered one. During Data-In process, need to identify the incoming CIs to see if an equivalent CI is already present in CMDB.

How to Identify?

For most of the CI types, use Key Attributes. That’s the default for Object. The key attributes are defined by the class model. For special complicated cases we use Reconciliation Rules.

Identification method and identification rules are inherited from parent CI type.

Can override for any CI type, which, of course, implies on its descendants.

To view identification means in UCMDB for a certain CI type, click on CI Type Manager, and then on the Details tab.

Reconciliation Priority: Micro Focus CMS solution is flexible in integrating with other ITSM products. It is recommended to use reconciliation priority to Identify the source of truth for a CI. Once you have an integration point established, reconciliation priority should be set immediately.

Logs to watch for Recon issues:

• cmdb.reconciliation.audit.log
• cmdb.reconciliation.log
• cmdb.reconciliation.datain.ignored.log
  

The reconciliation logs have a dedicated log count setting in the \conf\log\log4j2_root.yaml log configuation file. In case of a high load the reconciliation logs can quickly get overwritten. Increasing reconciliation.files.backup.count can quickly change how many files will be created. This change requires a service restart.

Reconciliation Internal and External Fuse Settings:

Setting Name	Display Name	Default Value	Refresh Rate	Display in UI	Description
reconciliation.data.container.size.fuse	Maximal size of Data Container	100000	Minutes	False	Maximal number of CIs and Links processed by the Data In per bulk
reconciliation.data.container.undo.fuse	Maximal undo operations	1000000	Minutes	False	Maximal number of undo operations on the Data Container
reconciliation.identification.map.entry.fuse	Maximal mapped CIs per CI in bulk	5000	Minutes	False	Maximal number of CIs allowed to be mapped to a single CI
reconciliation.identification.map.fuse	Maximal mapped CIs per Data in operation	2000000	Minutes	False	Maximal CIs allowed to appear in a single Data In operation
reconciliation.internal.data.container.size.fuse	reconciliation.internal.data.container.size.fuse.name	200000	Minutes	False	reconciliation.internal.data.container.size.fuse.desc