Software and infrastructure visualization
The visualization views show a dynamic, pictorial view of a selected part of your discovered IT infrastructure. The following views are available:
- Software-Connected–focuses on software and communication between items of software and shows some details of the hosts and load balancers involved.
- Software–focuses on software and communication between items of software running on a host.
- Infrastructure–focuses on the connectivity to network and storage components. It shows the switches a host is connected to, underlying storage for host filesystems, VMs on VM servers, or if the given host is a VM, the server on which it is hosted.
- Application–shows the contents of an application model.
The system determines the most appropriate view and automatically shows your visualization in that view, though you can switch to a different view if you prefer.
Visualizations are supported for modern, standards-compliant web browsers only. The view works best in recent versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, and it is also supported for Microsoft Internet Explorer version 10 and later. It is not supported for Internet Explorer 9 or earlier.
Launching Software and Infrastructure Visualizations
When you view a single node or multiple node groups, a Visualize / Model button is shown.
- When viewing any node, or selected nodes on a list page, click Visualize / Model. The Visualize window is displayed showing details on the selected node, and the hardware and software it is communicating with. If you select multiple nodes from a list view, those nodes are shown along with the hardware and software they are communicating with.
The image below shows the software context popup view for a Cloud Provider with background shading for Locations and Cloud Regions showing.
Make the visualization large by clicking the + in the top right corner.
Make the visualization occupy the full browser window by clicking the maximize icon in the top right corner. Exit full window mode by clicking the minimize icon in the top right corner - To change the focus, click Display > Focus > Infrastructure in the side bar.
The infrastructure visualization preview is displayed. You can hide, create, or delete collections by using the modeling controls. The image below displays the infrastructure view of a host in a cloud, and has the background shading for Locations and Cloud Regions turned off. - You can manipulate the image using the tools provided. For more information, see the visualizations tool set.
When viewing a large visualization, remember that it is still part of the node view page. Information which may be useful while working on a model is available by scrolling down. In full window mode, only the visualization is displayed, so you must exit full window mode using the minimize button. The Application Model Editor always occupies the full window; click Stop Editing to leave the editor.
Visualizations tools set
The following table lists the options you can use to manipulate a visualization and perform modeling tasks.
When you have saved the model, you can also export a model definition. Exported model definitions can be imported using the Model > Applications page.
Icon | Description | |
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Drag and select modes | Toggles the mode in which the visualization can be displayed. In both docked (maximized) and floating (minimized) views, use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out, and drag on the background to move around. On a touch device, pinch to zoom. Double-click inside the view to recenter and zoom the display to fit the window. | |
Drag mode | Drag the background to move the whole diagram. Drag individual icons to rearrange the view. Dragging individual icons to rearrange the view is not supported in Internet Explorer version 10. | |
Select mode |
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| Enables you to change the following:
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Focus Enables you to change between the Visualize - Software - Connected, Visualize - Software, and the Visualize - Infrastructure views. You can also change between the views using the drop-down selector in the header bar of the software context popup view. In each view, the node that represents the object you are looking at is highlighted. Click a node to view the object page of that node. | ||
Software - Connected | The Software-Connected view focuses on software and communication between items of software and shows some details of the hosts and load balancers involved. This view is the only view from which you can begin application modeling. When you are modeling an application, the Focus section is removed from the Display panel to ensure you remain in the Software-Connected focus. | |
Software | In the Software focus, the node that represents the object you are looking at is highlighted. The Software view focuses on software and communication between items of software running on a host, and is particularly useful for understanding what is running on a host. | |
Infrastructure | In the Infrastructure focus, the node that represents the object you are looking at is highlighted. The Infrastructure view focuses on the connectivity to network and storage components. It shows the switches a host is connected to, underlying storage for host filesystems, VMs on VM servers, or if the given host is a VM, the server on which it is hosted. | |
| When viewing an Application node, the Application focus shows the contents of the application model, and no other nodes. | |
Background shading Displays or hides the background shading around nodes. | ||
Do not show any background shading. | ||
| Show shaded backgrounds of differing colors for locations or cloud regions. For location or cloud region nodes, if you set a | |
| Show user specified colors for background shading around nodes. If you have specified | |
| When viewing an application model, shows which nodes were in the model when the user last saved it, and which nodes were automatically added by BMC Discovery. | |
Model Definitions and Manual Groups Provides options for viewing information node membership of manual groups and model definitions. When you choose to show indicators or labels, the Groups icon is displayed next to the help icon in the top right of the visualization. Click this to see a key to reconcile labels, indicators and groups. | ||
Do not show any group or model definition labels or indicators. | ||
Show indicators. Indicators are small color-coded shapes next to the node icon, a different colored one for each group. Model definitions are shown as triangles; manual groups are shown as circles. Hover the mouse pointer over an indicator to see the name of the model definition or group. | ||
Show colored labels containing the group name. | ||
| Displays the ways in which the object nodes can be arranged. Once a layout has been calculated, you can further manipulate the view by dragging nodes, and by expanding and collapsing collections. Choosing the same layout again recalculates the layout, and can lead to a clearer view. The following options are available under Layout: | |
Switch wide/tall | Choose a wide or tall layout depending on the shape of the nodes you have selected. | |
Layout Provides options for laying out the nodes. Experimenting with the layouts can reveal structure in the model. | ||
Force-directed | Spreads nodes using a balance of attracting and repelling forces. | |
| Impact | Shows impacting nodes at lower levels on the view than impacted nodes. For example, a host container impacts a contained host, which impacts a software instance. Arrows on the view show the direction of impact. |
Root at top | Arranges nodes into a tree view with a root node at the top. | |
Application layers | Arranges the view into the functional layers of the application. Hosts are in a layer at the bottom of the visualization, and user access points, such as load balancers at the top of the visualization. The application layers control is not available in the Infrastructure view. | |
Relationship routing Provides graphical options for routing the relationships between nodes. | ||
Direct | Gently curved lines link nodes. The nodes are arranged for clarity, subject to the selected layout. | |
Orthogonal | Lines link nodes using horizontal and vertical section joined by right angle curves. | |
Avoid nodes | Straight lines link nodes where possible. The lines are curved to avoid crossing nodes. | |
Choose the node kinds to show. Select the node kinds to show or hide from the list of node kinds shown in the model. Depending on the application that you are modeling, you may see the structure more clearly by hiding certain nodes such as hosts. You cannot hide Collections. Rather, when all node kinds held in a collection are hidden, the collection itself is no longer displayed. | ||
You can export or print the current view for review at any stage. The images are produced without the associated tools and menus. When you have saved the model you can export it as a model definition | ||
| To print an image of the current view, click Print Visualization and select a paper size from the drop-down list. The browser print dialog is displayed. You must choose the same paper size in the print dialog. | |
Export as SVG | To export an SVG image of the current view, click Export and choose SVG. | |
Export as PNG | To export a PNG image of the current view, click Export and choose PNG. | |
| When you have saved the model, you can also export a model definition. Exported model definitions can be imported using the Model > Applications page. | |
| Provides a list of removed nodes and a list of unsaved removal rules. A count of removed nodes and unsaved removal rules is shown on the Removed Nodes icon.
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Opens the current view in the application modeling editor. You can choose to:
This option is only enabled in the Software-Connected focus. |
Information, zoom and undo/redo controls
Information, zoom and undo/redo controls are provided at the top right of the screen.
Icon | Description |
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Undo/Redo | Enables you to undo or redo recent operations. Where no operation can be undone, the undo icon is disabled. Where no operation can be redone, the redo icon is disabled. Using the keyboard, Control-Z is undo; Control-Y is redo. When you save removal rules, the Undo/Redo queue is cleared. |
Models and Groups | Provides information on any application models and manual groups to which nodes in the view belong. The Models and Groups icon is only displayed when show indicators or show labels is selected. |
| Shows a key for the symbols used in views. |
Zoom slider | Click + to zoom in and - to zoom out. Or drag the slider up or down respectively. To zoom using the keyboard, press '+' or '=' to zoom in, and '-' to zoom out. |
Zoom to fit | Click the zoom to fit control to fit the image to the window. |
Context sensitive menu options
The following options are available from the context sensitive menu, accessed by right-clicking in the visualization window. When you right-click on a node, the context sensitive menu displays a header with counts of related, removed, and suppressed nodes. See Related, removed, and suppressed nodes in the context sensitive menu for more information.
Menu option | Description |
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Stop layout updates | Prevents any further layout updates. Sometimes with a large or complex model, the layout may take a long time to stabilize. Select this option to stop the updates. |
Select all | Selects all nodes in the view. |
Select all 'review suggested' nodes | Selects all nodes in the view that are in the 'review suggested' status. When BMC Discovery detects that an update would cause a large change, it suppresses most of the change, and sets the application model into a state of Review Suggested. See Lifecycle of an application model for more information. |
Clear selection | Deselects all selected nodes. |
Invert selection | Inverts the current selection. Nodes previously not selected are selected, and the reverse. |
Keep only selected | Keep the selected nodes and remove all nodes that are not selected. |
Remove selected | Remove the selected nodes. |
Undo action | For example, Undo extend model. If you have performed an action, undo it and return to the previous state. You can also use the Undo arrow at the top right of the visualization, or via the keyboard with Control-Z. |
Redo action | If you have undone an action, redo it. You can also use the Redo arrow at the top right of the visualization, or via the keyboard with Control-Y. |
Open in new tab/window | Opens the visualization, centered on the selected node, in a new browser tab or window. |
Select node | Select a node. Available when right-clicking a node which is not currently selected. |
Deselect node | Deselect a selected node. Available when right-clicking a selected node. |
Add to selection | Add the node to the current selection. Available when right-clicking a node which is not currently selected. |
Remove node | Remove the node from the view or model definition. Once a node is removed, it is added to the removed nodes list. You can see the removed nodes list by clicking Removed Nodes. The node itself is not affected. |
Force to shared | The system automatically identifies software nodes that are likely to be shared by multiple applications, and visualizations do not follow relationships out of these nodes, so the view is simpler. If the system does not automatically identify a software node which you consider shared, use this option to force it to be considered shared. |
Force to not shared | If the system has decided that a node is shared, but you do not wish to consider it shared, use this option to force to to be not shared. |
Let the system decide if shared | If you have forced a node to be shared or not shared, you can change that behavior and let the system decide whether software is shared or not. |
Node kind or group |
These options affect visualizations and application model definitions, but they do not affect the underlying data in BMC Discovery. The nodes are still created and maintained as usual. You can show the suppressed connections using the plus control described in Additional controls or the context menu header described in Related, removed, and suppressed nodes in the context sensitive menu. |
Create Software Instance | Shown when right-clicking a Candidate Software Instance. Opens a dialog to create a rule to create an SI from a candidate SI. See Using candidate software instances for more information. |
Do not create candidate SI node kind | Shown when right-clicking a Candidate Software Instance. Opens a dialog to create a rule preventing creation of this kind of candidate SI in the future and deleting any existing candidate SIs of this kind. The deletion of candidate SI is not limited to the current visualization or application model, it operates on the entire datastore. Creating a rule to delete candidate SIs may affect other existing models. See Using candidate software instances for more information. |
Expand collection | A collection is an automatically created group of closely related items. Expand collection expands the selected collection so that the individual nodes are visible in the view. The nodes from the expanded collection are highlighted. You can see what is contained in the collection using Preview collection. |
Preview collection | Shows a popup window with the expanded contents of the selected collection. There is an Expand Collection control in the popup window which enables you to expand the collection. |
Collapse back into collection | Collapses the nodes from an expanded collection back into the collection. Available when right-clicking a node that was expanded from a collection. |
Hide highlighting of collection | Hides the highlighting of the named expanded collection. |
Hide all highlighting | Hides all highlighting that shows the nodes from an expanded collection. |
Remove link | Deletes the selected link. Available when you right-click a link between two nodes. |
See this video (04:12), which provides information on how to remove nodes and create rules in visualizations.
Additional controls
When a node is likely to have additional related nodes that have not been displayed, a plus icon is shown at the top left of the node icon. When you mouse over the icon, it expands. Click the icon to show the related nodes. The plus icon is only a guide that there may be some related nodes, but there may not be anything new to show. If there is not, the system displays the message, "No more related nodes".
Related, removed, and suppressed nodes in the context sensitive menu
When you right click on a node, the context sensitive menu shows counts of related nodes (+ icon), suppressed nodes (struck through circle icon), and removed nodes (trash can icon). Click the item in the header to display those nodes in the visualization.
- Show more related nodes—show nodes that are connected to the selected node, but are not included in the visualization. Click the icon to show the related nodes.
- Show nodes that are suppressed due to exclusion rules and shared nodes—show nodes that are connected to the selected node, but have been suppressed by exclusion rules or because the node is considered shared. Click the icon to show the suppressed nodes.
- Show currently removed nodes—show nodes that are connected to the selected node, but have been removed. Click the icon to restore the removed nodes.
See this video (03:27), which demonstrates how to manage related, removed, and suppressed nodes in visualizations.
Limits on number of nodes displayed
There are a number of limits in the visualizations, there to prevent overwhelming the display with too many nodes. If you start a visualization from a search result, selecting more than 100 nodes, only the first 100 in the results are used as the starting points for the visualization.
The visualization works by starting from one of more nodes, then performing a number of rounds of relationship traversal. Each round, it performs one traversal hop from the current nodes to find all the nodes one hop away from them. If during a round of traversal the number of visible nodes exceeds 100, the round is completed, thus adding more nodes, but no more traversal rounds are performed; if the number of visible node exceeds 150, the traversal stops mid-round. A "visible node" corresponds to an icon displayed in the visualization – it can be a single datastore node, or a group of nodes that are presented as a single icon.
Keyboard Controls
The following keyboard controls are available when manipulating the visualizations:
Key | Description |
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+ = | Zoom in |
- | Zoom out |
Escape | In select mode, return to drag mode When viewing the context menu, close the menu When viewing a dialog, close the dialog |
Control-Z | Undo the previous action |
Control-Y | Redo the previous action |
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