Knowledge management

From BMC Atrium Discovery version 10, pattern and knowledge management have been improved and a new Knowledge management page is added, replacing the existing Pattern management page. The Knowledge management page enables you to better understand and use the Knowledge updates and patterns installed on BMC Atrium Discovery. You can access the Knowledge management page through the Discovery tab.

Key terminology

• Pattern — A sequence of commands written in the Pattern Language (TPL), which contain instructions that identify scanned entities which are then used to create the BMC Atrium Discovery data model.
• Module — A text file written in TPL which contains one or more patterns.
• Knowledge uploads— Typically these are TKU zip files that include:
  • Zip archives of patterns
  • Hardware Reference Data (HRD) files
  • Device RPMs (DRPMS)

To view the Knowledge management page

To view the Knowledge management page, from the Discovery tab, click Knowledge Management.
It provides:

• Toolbar — a toolbar enabling you to create patterns, upload knowledge, and download pattern modules, view pattern configurations, and enable automatic knowledge cleanup.
• Knowledge summary — a summary of the TKUs and Custom Modules, and CAM Modules installed on the BMC Atrium Discovery machine. Shows the total number of active and inactive patterns. Also shows the TPL version in use.
• Pattern modules list — a tree view of all pattern modules installed on the BMC Atrium Discovery machine, sorted by product category. From here you can view details and the TPL code of pattern modules.

Product categories 

The pattern modules are organized in a browsable hierarchy based on the type of product the modules discover, for example, Structured Data Management Software > Relational Database Management Systems > Oracle RDBMS. When writing patterns, you can add tree_path metadata to control where the pattern module appears in the hierarchy.

The following non-product related categories are also provided:

• CAM — a category for modules created using CAM
• Unclassified modules — modules that do not have a specified category, for example, pre-version 10 patterns present on an upgraded system, or user written patterns that do not specify a tree_path.

Choosing the pattern modules to display 

You can view pattern modules in the main tree view section of the Knowledge management page. Selection tools enable you to choose the pattern modules to display.

To choose the type of pattern module to display using the pattern module name:

1. Enter text to search the pattern module name or tree path information in the Pattern modules list.
2. Click Apply to view the chosen pattern modules.

You can also choose pattern modules using their source or activation state:

1. Select any or all of the following check boxes:
   • TKU — to view TKU supplied pattern modules.
   • Custom — to view pattern modules written for your organization.
   • Generated — to view pattern modules produced using the CAM or Generate Software Instance Pattern tools.
2. Choose to view pattern modules to display depending on their Active or Inactive state. Choose one of the following from the Display drop down list:
   • active and inactive
   • only active
   • only inactive
3. Click Apply to view the chosen pattern modules.

Selecting pattern modules 

You can perform actions on selected pattern modules. The selection options are summarized here:

• To expand a product category branch and show all pattern modules, click the plus icon to the left of the product category.
• To select all pattern modules in a product category branch, click the selection check box to the left of the product category.
• To select individual pattern modules from a product category branch, click the selection check box to the left of the pattern module name.
  The selection options are shown in the Knowledge management screen capture.

The action options are summarized here:

• To activate selected pattern modules, select Activate from the Actions menu. You are requested for confirmation.
• To deactivate selected pattern modules, select Deactivate from the Actions menu. You are requested for confirmation.
• To delete selected pattern modules, select Delete from the Actions menu. You are requested for confirmation.
• To download selected pattern modules, select Download Selected Modules from the Actions menu. You are requested for confirmation.

• To download all visible pattern modules, select Download Visible Modules from the Actions menu. You are requested for confirmation.

  Note

  Activating a pattern means that it is loaded and can be used to identify software instances. You cannot activate a pattern with a lower version number than one that has previously been activated. Delete the pattern with the higher version number first. All patterns specify the TPL version number that they use. If a pattern uses TPL language features which are from a later TPL version than specified, you cannot activate that pattern.