Atrium Webinar- What's new in ADDM Version 10 This document provides question and answers discussed during following webinar session: Atrium Webinar- What's new in ADDM Version 10 on May 8th, 2014 Q: Hi, we have an environment and the IPs are sub netted in fashion that we have to do a scan for "/10" subnets. Will ADDM 10 help me to do that? A: Yes it will, in the sense that it can scan more rapidly. However, with such a big range, you may find it better at present to pre-filter the IP addresses to those which have devices to scan. Q: Previously in ADDM 9, we're been told to limit each job endpoints to around 14K. Do you have to worry about this anymore now since the load is automatically balanced? Or each range is processed per appliance in the cluster? A: The scanning load is balanced across each of the cluster members, so you can scan more with the cluster than with a single appliance. A: Here is a doc that talks about how to configure your cluster based on scale needs. http://discovery.bmc.com/confluence/display/100/hardware+requirements Q: Okay, so we do not need to worry splitting the subnets anymore. A: Not from a scale point of view. You may wish to from a management point of view. Q: How do you factor in appliances across the globe? We've got 2 in NA and others in Europe and Asia Pacific. Plus, we have a physical consolidation server in NA. A: Clustering isn't intended to be used across a WAN. It could work if the links are fast but we would expect a cluster in each region. A: Each region can be cluster and they can consolidate to NA, which is itself a cluster. You don't need to separate the NA scanning and the global consolidator Q: How does standing up all these ADDM VMs impact licensing? A: It doesn't. ADDM is licensed based on the total number of servers being discovered, not how many instances of ADDM you have. A BigDiscovery cluster of 5 servers scanning 1000 servers costs the same as a single appliance scanning those same 1000 servers.
Q: How does clustering work for appliances which might not have the same config i.e. credentials. Will it merge settings together and apply to all cluster members or can clustering only be setup up on 'blank' appliances A: Clustering does not merge previously separate appliances' configurations. The configuration from one single appliance is automatically propagated across the cluster. Q: We have over 90 dmz's with windows servers. I'm assuming the same rules apply as in version 9 win proxy required in each dmz. A: Yes DMZs present a challenge. You still need a proxy in each but those proxies will all be shared by the machines in the cluster. Q: Can ADDM 9 Consolidate to ADDM 10? A: Yes Q: Any changes in how CAM data is loaded into the CMDB dataset? A: Not in ADDM 10. We did, however, add support for synchronizing Functional Components to the BMC_ConcreteCollection class back in TKU February. A: We did however adjust the Reconciliation Identification rules in 8.1 SP1 somewhat to accommodate ADDM for better identification Q: Do we have the VMware image for ADDM 10 patched after the OpenSSL issue? A: That should be available on EPD very shortly. We have uploaded and are validating. Q: Have they fixed the memory leak that exists between ADDM sync and CMDB which causes the arsystem to consume about 8% of physical memory after every scheduled sync. We do sync once per day. We need to restart our server group about every 2 weeks. A: If you're having a perceived memory leak with ARS then the issue is likely with ARS Server Group configuration, fine-tuning of the AR Servers individually or RE Identification rules (possible Continuous mode for jobs that include RE and Norm). A: Please take a look at below references: https://kb.bmc.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=ka370107 And https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies /bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/11/20/identifying-weak-reconciliation-identification-rules-canbe-done-with-ardriver
If none of those help then we'd love to help you review your environment to see what is happening. Please submit an issue to support when you get to that point Q: We have over 5000 networks. I've had to establish countless scheduled discoveries. In a cluster, how do you set up scheduling? A: 5000 separate networks is definitely a bit of a challenge to configure. It is exactly the same in a cluster as with a single appliance, though. You configure the scanning just once and the system spreads it through the cluster automatically. Q: If I build a new ADDM 10 consolidation appliance - when I do my first data sync to CMDB, will it compare against existing data or just trust in the internal CMDB functions? A: If you just build a new appliance, you should create a new dataset for ADDM's data and then use reconciliation to match the previous ADDM data, because ADDM's idea of the identities of CIs will have changed. Alternatively, we have a new tool to export the keys from existing ADDM instances and import them into a new one. See http://discovery.bmc.com/confluence/display/100/moving+node+keys Q: You mention not rushing into big discovery in an existing deployment of 9. If we have a fresh deployment of 10 for a large site would you recommend deploying it clustered? A: That depends on your needs but we do have some customers who are starting on 10 and as part of their deployment are going live with Big Discovery. You should at least consider it as it may save you time vs. having to go back. Please refer information on how you might build your cluster: http://discovery.bmc.com/confluence/display/100/hardware+requirements Q: Is there an ability to use an external credential store? We have a separate solution that manages our credentials and through automation keeps our passwords in compliance with changes, etc. We are getting lots of flak around having a separate vault. This credential vault has APIs, web services etc. for solutions to request a password. A: Not in ADDM 10. Such integrations have been done in the field but it s not an out of the box feature at present Also please submit an idea for this case https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies /discovery Q: When building a cluster, does the disk configuration need to be the same on all appliances? E.g. if you have a data volume on one of the appliances that is 100GB, do you need to make a data volume of 100GB on all appliances or can they be different sizes?
A: It is recommended that the disk capacity on all members of a cluster is equivalent. Chris is covering this a bit now; the data is shared equally across the cluster members, so disk usage will be to all intents and purposes the same on all members. Q: Our consolidation appliance is a big physical box (our VM farm doesn t have the capacity). Any issues with ADDM 10 on physical servers. 2nd - our data store is housed on SAN (not local to the server). Any issues with this disk approach in 10? A: ADDM 10 is very happy with physical servers. We generally see slightly better performance on physical machines than the same machine running ADDM on a VM. We often see that SAN storage is a fair bit slower than local storage, which can have a big impact. Q: I saw Sam was demoing 10.0.0.2. Is.2 public? A: 10.0.0.2 is the version with the OpenSSL bug fixed and a couple of small product fixes. It will be available in the next day or so. Q: I don't want my data discovered inside my firewall shared with the instance outside the firewall. Can that data prevention be prevented? A: Data is shared across all machines in the cluster. You wouldn't want to cluster machines inside and outside of a firewall. If you don't want data on a machine, don't include in cluster. Q: Can you designate one ADDM (say outside my firewall) to forward to my back end (inside the firewall) where the back end may then be a cluster (or not). A: Yes using consolidation you can forward data from outside the firewall to inside. Either end of this channel can be cluster. We still have the consolidation feature. Clustering doesn't replace consolidation. Q: Is there a way to export the entire data set from an ADDM 9 machine to a new ADDM 10? Q: Migrating the ADDM appliance dataset - I'm working on a re-arch of our discovery architecture and that includes re-working our consolidation. Q: I'm actually merging two consolidation paths into one. A: Yes. There may be some corner cases where there are clashes of data that has been scanned from more than one place. Q: Any changes to the discovery approaches and scripts for server discovery? A: They are fundamentally the same in 10 as in 9. There may be small updates here and there in the default discovery scripts. We document them here: http://discovery.bmc.com/confluence/display/100/changes+to+discovery+commands
Q: With the export of keys from 8.3 to 9 this did not work for us and support could not provide a solution to the issue. Does the new tool work for a 8.3 to 9 A: There was no feature to export keys from 8.3 to 9. The new tool is just for 10 to 10 or 9 to 10. You can of course upgrade an 8.3 to 9, and then use the new tool. Q: The start of the presentation mentioned that one of the main benefits of v10 was 'to support more users' - does that mean concurrent user access to an appliance? A: Yes Q: Thanks. I was under the impression that there was no limit previously? A: There has never been a limit in terms of the system preventing too many people connecting at once, but more users create more load. With a cluster (especially fronted by a load balancer), you spread the user load. We also have a new option to limit the speed of discovery, to leave more spare capacity for interactive users. Q: If you upgrade from 9.x t 10.x, should you double the disk space to account for the failover feature, or do you need more than double for some other reasons? A: No. A single machine will use the same amount of space. With fault tolerance, a cluster of two will also use the same amount of space as each machine will have a full copy of the data. As the number of machines increases each hold less than 100% of the data, even with the replica copies. Q: My understanding is that CMDB Sync is assigned to a single appliance in the cluster. If that appliance goes down, does CMDB Sync move to another cluster appliance? A: Not automatically at present. You have to designate a new machine as the coordinator. Q: Do you need more RAM when going to 10x? A: Please review below information for Big Discovery recommendations http://discovery.bmc.com/confluence/display/100/hardware+requirements Q: The use of a load balancer in front of the cluster was mentioned in the presentation. Was that just to balance user access to the cluster? A: Yes, correct. Q: Does 10 include any work-around for Solaris ps line length limitations? A: No
Q: Does it matter which appliance you setup the cluster on? A: Only in the sense that it is the one whose configuration is used for the cluster. Q: For an updated pattern/module, I thought the rule of thumb was to keep at least the prior version so that discovered data from the pattern. Does this auto cleanup maintain data when activating the new pattern? A: Yes. It deletes the old patterns when they are no longer maintaining anything. Q: Do updates, such as TKU's, get pushed out at the clustering level only or also at the scanner/consolidation level? A: At the clustering level. Think of a cluster as a single logical instance of ADDM from a management point of view. You still need to manage scanners and consolidators the same in 10 as you do in 9. Q: It looks like you can still upload custom pattern packages to v10 to have them logical grouped together? A: Yes. You can also add a "tree path" that causes the modules to appear where you choose in the tree. You can stay on 9.x until you are ready to upgrade them Q: For Win Proxies currently on 9.02, do we need to upgrade to 10 or can they stay on 9? A: You can stay on 9.x until you are ready to upgrade them. We would recommend that you upgrade them to the latest release sooner rather than later, just to keep on the latest and greatest. Please note that SSL keys have changed in 10.x and you might need to fix the keys on the 9.x proxy Q: About SNMP, any plan to integrate vendor MIBs for a wider devices recognition? A: Not via TPL. Device support is handled by the device definitions in TKU. Q: Being able to complete the hardware definition (in addition of the TKU). E.g. being able to load EMC, DELL Mibs to recognize the enclosures and SAN devices. A: Device discovery sadly isn't as simple as loading a MIB. Each vendor and device has its quirks which the discovery code has to deal with. If the TKU device support is missing things you need there is a mechanism for requesting new things. Q: if you have a v9, you can already "prepare" your TPL to be v10 ready. I did it on our v9 infra. A: This would be great to share on the communities
Q: Does 10 allow saved queries to be shared? Currently, saved queries are only viewable by the creator. A: There is an idea for this requirement. Please vote on it if you haven't. https://communities.bmc.com/ideas/1736 Q: Not technically a v10 question, but anything on the roadmap for OOTB support for Atrium Shared Information Data (SID) model? http://www.bmc.com/it-solutions/productlisting/quindell-frameworks-for-remedy.html A: No. If it's important, we suggest creating it as an idea on the community. Q: How does a clustered consolidator handle CAM and application maps within its clustered hosts? Patterns are distributed to all and create apps and relations on all? A: Yes. BigDiscovery cluster acts as a single logical instance of ADDM. So when you work in the UI on one system to add a CAM model, it will be reflected across all other members of the cluster. Q: For consolidation speed improvements especially the CMDB sync, do you get the 3x faster just from uplifting to v10 from v9 or do you have to cluster the consolidator to get the CMDB sync speed improvements A: The performance improvement comes from the changes to the CMDB sync component. You don't need to cluster to get use it. Q: I've inherited two non-overlapping consolidation environments - so I should be able to import the xml from both and repoint their clients to the new server? A: Yes. Q: What is the difference on how V10 discovers Stacked switches and how V8 discovered them? A: The device support is unchanged (v10 has more devices but the mechanism is the same) Q: So you could have v9 scanners sending to a v10 consolidator? A: Correct. Q: In the new UI for knowledge management can I still create my own folders for custom patterns i.e. BAI's, CMDB custom patterns etc. A: Yes. You can make use of the same treepath metadata to define your own "folders". Have a look in the TKU patterns to see how that is done.
Q: Has the disk space requirements been documented related to enabling redundancy and clustering A: No Q: In regards of the CMDB sync, does the performance gain require all appliances to be in v10? Or only the consolidator A: The one talking to CMDB does. If you have 9.0 scanners, but a 10 consolidator talking to CMDB, you get the gain. Q: Does ADDM 10 support CMDB 7.6.04? A: It will work, because the common data model is the same. Q: Has the disk configuration been changed in any way? A: No