Accessing or retrieving federated data by creating federated relationship and data classes

To establish relationships between Configuration Items (CIs) stored within BMC Configuration Management Database (BMC CMDB) and external data, you must configure a federated relationship class in the data model. Federated relationship classes that you create are subclasses of the BMC_FederatedBaseRelationship class. The source class of the relationship must be in the BMC_BaseElement hierarchy of classes, and the destination class of the relationship must be a federated data class. 

Best practices for federated data

Create a federated relationship that links the CI class to your federated data class. Define a qualification that specifies which instances from the source class are related to the data in the destination class. This qualification requires matching an attribute in the federated data class to an attribute in the CI class (for example, matching IDs between two sets of CIs). 

For best performance from the BMC Remedy AR System server, the qualification should return only a limited result set from the federated repository. If your qualification returns a large amount of federated data, the BMC Remedy AR System server may experience poor performance. 

To create a federated relationship class

The following procedure includes examples for a Calbro Services administrator who wants to create a new federated relationship class. The administrator wants users to see federated data that is related to computer system CIs stored in BMC CMDB. It is assumed that you have already created a plug-in and data store for this database, and has created a federated data class for the incident information. 

After you have created a federated relationship class, you must verify the new federated relationship class and its attributes

1. In Federation Manager, open the Federated Relationship Class dialog box by using one of the following methods:
   • As part of the procedure to create a new data store and federated data class, as described in Making external data available to CMDB by using cross-launch links in the Federation Manager and Creating or editing a federated data class.
   • On the Retrieval Definitions tab, select an existing federated data class to be the destination class, and then click New next to the Federated Relationship Classes table.
2. In the Namespace field, select a namespace for the new federated data class.
   By default, new federated data classes are in the BMC.FED namespace. For more information, see Namespaces and partitioning the data model.
3. In the Name field, enter a name for the class.
   For example, the Calbro Services administrator would name the class CAL_FederatedBankingServersData.
   If your organization follows any naming conventions when extending the data model, apply those conventions to this class.
4. (optional) Enter the following information, and then click Next:

   
   

   Author	The person or provider that created this class.
   Description	The purpose of the class, such as the CI and federated data classes that it relates.

5. In the Source and Destination Classes page, select a source CI class for the relationship.
   By default, the current federated data class appears as the destination class.
   For example, the Calbro Services administrator would select a source class of BMC_ComputerSystem.
6. Click Qualification Builder to create the qualification.
   Create a qualification for the relationship to specify which instances of the source class are related to the data in the destination class. Creating a valid qualification is necessary to create the link between the CI instance and the external data in the federated class.
   1. Select an attribute from the source class. Attributes for the source class are automatically enclosed in single quotation marks.
   2. Select an operator.
   3. Select an attribute from the destination class. Attributes for the destination class are automatically enclosed in dollar signs. 
      
      Qualification Builder
      
      For example, the Calbro Services administrator would build the following qualification to relate computer systems to external information about the banking servers:
      'Name'=$Name$
   4. Click OK.
7. Click Next.
8. Assign Hidden and Visible permissions for the new class, and then click Next.
   For more information about BMC CMDB permissions, see Class permissions on BMC CMDB data.
9. Review the details for the federated relationship class.
10. If you are satisfied with the details, click Finish.
11. If the federated relationship class is successfully created, click OK to close the SUCCESS dialog box.
    If you created a successful match between records from the CI class and the federated class, you can view them in BMC Explorer. For more information, see Viewing federated data in BMC Explorer.

To verify the new federated relationship class and its attributes

1. Open Class Manager.
2. Select the BMC_FederatedBaseRelationship class.
   Your new federated relationship class is displayed as a subclass next to it.
3. Double-click the federated relationship class to open the Relationship Class dialog box.
4. Review the general properties of the federated relationship class.
5. Click the Attributes tab and review the source and destination attributes.
6. Click OK.

To edit a federated relationship class

As you change the amount and type of data that you store in BMC CMDB and external sources of data, you might need to modify the federated relationship class that relates CIs to federated data. For example, if you increase the number of fields stored as attributes of a federated data class, you should alter the qualification in the federated relationship class.

1. In Federation Manager, select the data store containing the federated relationship class that you want to edit.
2. In the Federated Data Classes table of the Retrieval Definitions tab, select the federated data class associated with the federated relationship class that you want to edit.
3. In the Federated Relationship Classes table, select a class, and then click Edit.
4. In the Edit Federated Relationship Class dialog box, modify the qualification that relates instances of this class to instances of a CI in the BMC CMDB.
5. If necessary, change the Visible and Hidden permissions for the class.
6. Click OK.