Node lifecycle

This document is intended for the customers and partners of BMC Software and for the integrations developers. The information contained in this document will help you understand the BMC Helix Discovery node lifecycle. This document details the internal components of BMC Discovery, the data model (for example, how virtualization hosts are modeled), and how to extend the data model. It is a good reference guide for integrating BMC Helix Discovery with other systems.

The prerequisite for understanding the content in this document is basic familiarity with BMC Helix Discovery, and the document should be used in conjunction with the Using and Administering sections of the BMC Helix Discovery documentation.

This document contains the following sections:

• Model summary
• The default data model
• How nodes are identified
• Discovered attributes by platform
• How nodes are removed
• Relationships
• Attachments
• Partitions and history
• Key terminology
• Naming conventions
• Inferred nodes
• DDD nodes
• Pattern Management nodes
• Conjecture nodes
• Telco nodes

The nodes are described in terms of their attributes, relationships and lifecycle.

Nodes can also be created by a user; some of their attributes and relationships are only populated by the user through the User Interface. These specific instances are noted in the documentation.