Setting up the UCMDB Integration

Prerequisites:

SBM On-Premise only

Before you can set up the integration with UCMDB, you must:

Have the Configuration Management System (CMS) application already promoted according to the steps described in Promoting the SSM Snapshots.
Grant a user the Manager and Analyst roles in the CMS app. You will specify this user on the Application Administrator | Scheduler page. The Scheduler will run a script as this user to populate the Configuration Manager and Configuration Analyst fields on the Submit transition in the Configuration Management System (CMS) app.
Promote the UCMDB Integration snapshot according to the steps in Promoting the UCMDB Snapshot.
Important: You must promote the UCMDB Integration app instead of deploying it. This adds a record to the UCMDB Integration auxiliary table that you will use to connect to your UCMDB system.
Update endpoints in the UCMDB Integration snapshot according to the steps in Updating Endpoints.
Define one or more TQL statements that can query your UCMDB system and return data that you want to import into SSM.

The UCMDB Integration process app enables you to populate data in the CMS Configuration Items table with items from your UCMDB system, such as servers, software, services, laptops, phones, or other CIs (configuration items).

You will enter credentials for your UCMDB system in an auxiliary table, and then define one or more Scheduler jobs in Application Administrator to run a ModScript that executes your TQL queries.

To set up the integration:

In SBM Configurator, open the Manage Services tab and ensure that the Notification Server is running. The Notification Server must be running in order to use the Scheduler feature in Application Administrator.
Log in to SBM Work Center as a user with administrative privileges who can launch Application Administrator.
Edit your user account and ensure that you have Table privileges to modify the UCMDB Configuration and UCMDB Integration auxiliary tables.
In Application Administrator, navigate to the Manage Data page.
Select UCMDB Integration in the Table drop-down list, and edit the UCMDB record.
Enter the User Name and Password of a user account that can run TQL queries against your UCMDB system using a REST service call. Save your changes.
Select UCMDB Configuration in the Table drop-down list. The UCMDB record that is created when you promote the UCMDB Integration process app contains JSON data that maps a set of attributes in UCMDB to fields in the CMS Configuration Items table. Review the JSON that is provided and update it as needed.

Note: If you have modified your Configuration Items table by adding new fields and you want to map UCMDB data to those fields, you must update the JSON that is provided here.
In Application Administrator, navigate to the Scheduler page, and then add a new job.

Provide the following information:
- Name – Enter a name for the job. If you have more than one TQL query, create separate jobs with unique names.
- Schedule – Determine when the initial import from UCMDB should occur.
  - For the initial import, consider scheduling the job to run at a time when users will not be actively using SSM.
  - Avoid scheduling multiple jobs for the same time. If you have more than one TQL query defined in UCMDB, create separate jobs that will execute the TQL queries in succession or use the Run Job Now option to perform an import after you have confirmed that the prior import is finished.
- Action – Select Run Script.
- Script to Execute – Select the UCMDB_SynchAllCIs script, which is provided by the UCMDB Integration process app.
- Execute By – Select a user who can create and update items in the Configuration Items table and the Relationships table. This user should have the Manager and Analyst roles, because it will also be used to fill the Configuration Manager and Configuration Analyst fields on newly-created CIs.
- Parameters – In the Name column, type tqlname, and then type the name of your TQL query in the Value column.
Click Save.
Click Run Job Now to perform the initial import immediately, or wait for your scheduled job to run, and then view the Application Event log to confirm that the job finished successfully.

The initial import will create all the items that the TQL query returns, which can be substantial number of items, depending on the query. Therefore, consider running the job off-hours or when system usage will be low.

Note: On the Scheduler page, the job execution status might appear as "Failed", with a log message that states "Read Timed Out". This message appears when the Scheduler times out waiting for the response when executing a script that requires a long execution time. To work around this, increase the Web services invocation timeout setting under Common Options on the Mail Services tab in SBM Configurator. Also, the UCMDB integration writes messages to the Application Event Log and the Active Diagnostics log; refer to these logs to confirm that the import has succeeded.
After the initial run is finished, update the scheduled job to execute the script during off-hours, in an ongoing basis. This ensures that your Configuration Items data is kept up-to-date.

CIs from UCMDB are imported into the Configuration Items table and ready for use with the CMS application.

Related Topics

Configuration Management System