Legacy CI Search Engine

The search is performed in the most intuitive way possible using natural language, in the same manner as modern search engines. The UCMDB Browser currently supports searches for CIs according to the following attributes:

• ID
• Display Label
• Location
• IP Address
• Party (that is, owner)

• Any attribute marked with the CMS_SEARCHABLE_ATTRIBUTE qualifier. For details on how to add this qualifier to an attribute, see Adding the Search Qualifier to an Attribute.

  Note By default, CIs with the MODELING_ENABLED qualifier are included in the search results. To improve performance, you can exclude these CIs by setting Return CIs with MODELING_ENABLED qualifier (legacy search engine) in the Infrastructure Settings Manager to False. The CMS_SEARCHABLE_ATTRIBUTE qualifier on an attribute overrides this setting.

• If searching for a term that matches a CI Type Display Label, all the instances of the matching CI Type are displayed along with the results of the normal search.

The following are some search examples:

• Searching for John Doe, who is a project manager, yields all Business Elements and Nodes whose owner is John Doe
• Searching for 172.16, which is the most significant part of an IP address, yields all Nodes with an IP-address starting with “172.16” (that reside in that subnet)
• Searching for Ohio yields all Nodes residing in data centers located in the state of Ohio, USA
• Searching for Oracle yields all nodes and relevant running software related to the Oracle DB

• If the DiscoveredOsName attribute is marked with the CMS_SEARCHABLE_ATTRIBUTE qualifier, searching for Windows 2008 Server yields all Nodes with the DiscoveredOsName attribute equal to Windows 2008 Server.

Search Results: Search results (in the current version – CIs) are the heart of the UCMDB Browser. Users get results of their search criteria, view relevant information at a glance, and, if required, zoom into the results for a more detailed view. Search results include only Star CI types, which are the most important CI types. Star CI types receive special treatment from all (or most) widgets, thus allowing users to receive more comprehensive and relevant information regarding them.

The following is a list of all Star CI types:

• Business Elements Related
• CI Collection

• Node

• Running Software (excluding Agent, Inventory Scanner)
• All CI types with the Modeling Enabled or CMS_BROWSER_SEARCH qualifier

Composite Search: A Composite Search allows searching for any CI Type (not just Star CI types). The search terms must be in the form: X + Y (two search terms, separated by the "+" character). Any of the search terms can be a possible CI Type display label (for example, "Windows + server_partial_name" is equivalent to "server_partial_name + Windows").

Performing a Composite Search greatly increases the number of CIs that can be found in the UCMDB Browser. Searching is performed on the CI Type represented by one of the search terms. The other search term is considered as input for the normal search algorithm (described above). Federated data is also searched, if federation is enabled from the configuration file. For details, see Specify Data Stores Used for Data Loading (legacy search engine).

The matching algorithm attempts to find an exact match on the first term. If nothing is found, it attempts to find a partial match on the first term (for example, entering "dows" matches the "Windows" CI Type, entering "nix" matches "Unix" CI Type). If no results are found, the algorithm attempts to find an exact match on the second term, and if nothing is found, it attempts to find a partial match on the second term. If no results are found on the second term, the algorithm performs a search on both terms together including the '+' character.

The Composite Search is not case sensitive. If there are multiple CI Type matches, only the first one will be returned. If there are more than two terms (for example, a+b+c), the search is performed on the entire expression, including the '+' character.

Search by Global ID: The user can perform a search for a CI according to its Global ID. This is useful in the case of federated CIs, where the Global ID and the CMDB ID differ. For example, if a CI has a Global ID with a value of daily%0Ant%0A1%0ACMDB_ADAPTER_ID%3DSTRING%3Df37a5e73a861db7f417ba1ee4192544b%0A%03%03%03rmiron1%0Ant
%0A1%0ACMDB_ADAPTER_ID, you can use the Global ID value as search input in the UCMDB Browser.

CI Refocus: Each CI presented in the UCMDB Browser, either as a search result or as part of a specific widget, can be refocused by simply selecting it. Refocusing a CI presents its data using the information widgets.

Adding the Search Qualifier to an Attribute

The CMS_SEARCHABLE_ATTRIBUTE qualifier can be added to a CI attribute, thus enabling that CI to appear in search results performed in the UCMDB Browser.

To add the CMS_SEARCHABLE_ATTRIBUTE qualifier to an attribute:

1. In UCMDB, go Modeling > CI Type Manager.
2. Select the class in which you want to change an attribute.
3. Select the Export to XML button in the upper right of the CI Types tree.
4. Save the XML file containing the exported class on a local drive.
5. Open the XML file for editing.

6. Find the section corresponding to the attribute to which you want to add the CMS_SEARCHABLE_ATTRIBUTE qualifier.

   An attribute section appears like this:

   <Attribute name="attr_name" type="type">
       <Attribute-Qualifiers>
           <Attribute-Qualifier name="ATTRIBUTE_QUALIFIER1"/>
           <Attribute-Qualifier name="ATTRIBUTE_QUALIFIER2"/>
         ….
       </Attribute-Qualifiers>
   </Attribute>

   Note If the attribute you want to edit does not have the <Attribute-Qualifiers> section, add it as specified above.

7. In the <Attribute-Qualifiers> section, add the new <Attribute-Qualifier> tag as follows:

   <Attribute-Qualifier name=”CMS_SEARCHABLE_ATTRIBUTE”/>

8. Save the XML file.
9. Go back to the CI Type Manager.
10. Select the class that you previously exported.
11. Select the Import from XML button in the upper right of the tree.
12. Select the XML file that you previously modified.
13. Wait for the import to complete. You will see a success notification message if the import process is successful, or a failure message with errors if the process fails.