Viewing and using connections to external products

After TrueSight Server Automation installation, an endpoint administrator can set up connections to external products from the Administration page. After installation, administrator can add, modify, or delete external connections. In addition, for BMC Discovery, endpoint administrators can refresh Discovery data.

This topic contains the following sections:

Benefits of connecting to BMC Discovery

Integration with BMC Discovery (formerly called ADDM), lets you use its scanning capabilities to:

• Identify servers that are not included in scans (sometimes known as blind spots)
• Filter information on dashboards by software application. This kind of filtering lets you identify targets that may have vulnerabilities.

Currently, BMC Discovery can only be integrated with TrueSight Server Automation.

Benefits of connecting to TrueSight Orchestration

Integrating with TrueSight Orchestration allows you to execute the Change Automation use case for Remediation operations and thus, set up change tracking and authorization of Remediation operations in TrueSight Vulnerability Management. To enable this use case, you must perform some configuration in the change management system (such as, BMC Remedy IT Service Management) and endpoint managers, in addition to establishing a connection with TrueSight Orchestration. This integration enables you to automate and track the infrastructure change actions initiated by a TrueSight Vulnerability Management administrator and automate the change creation and tracking process. For a description of the overall process, see Setting up job approval and change tracking.

To view connection information for BMC Discovery

1. As an endpoint administrator, click the drop-down menu by your user name (at top right). Then, select Administration.
2. Click the External Connectors tab. 

3. Click the name of the external connector with a type of Discovery.
   The External Connector window opens.
    

   The window provides the following information:

   Parameter	Description
   Type	Type of external connector, such as Discovery.
   Connection String	URL for the Discovery instance, such as http://clm-aus-014680/ or http://10.0.0.10/.
   Port	Port number used to connect to the Discovery instance.
   Username	Name of the Discovery user required to connect to the Discovery instance.
   Password	Password required to connect to the Discovery instance.
   Exclude IPs/Hosts/Range	Comma-separated list of servers that should not be scanned. You can exclude individual IP addresses, host names, or IP address range. You can also mix host names, IP addresses, and IP ranges. Special characters are not permitted in this list. Example IP address to exclude: 192.168.1.100 Example of mixed formats: 192.168.1.100,192.168.1.120,192.168.1.125-192.168.1.130,myserver1234.com

4. Click Test Connection to confirm that the connection to BMC Discovery is working correctly.
   A message confirms that the connection is valid. 
5. Click Back to External Connectors. 

To update data from BMC Discovery

To update data from BMC Discovery, you need to configure Data Refresh for the BMC Discovery connector. If Data Refresh is configured, data is updated every 60 minutes.

To view connection information for TrueSight Orchestration

1. As an endpoint administrator, click the drop-down menu by your user name (at top right). Then, select Administration. 
2. Click the External Connectors tab. 

3. Click the name of the external connector with a type of Orchestration.
   The External Connector window opens.
    

   The window provides the following information

   Parameter	Description
   Type	Type of external connector, such as Orchestration.
   Hostname	IP address or fully-qualified host name of the TrueSight Orchestration configuration distribution peer (CDP) server. The host name should be in the format https://<hostname>.
   Port	Port number used to connect to the TrueSight Orchestration CDP.
   Username	Name of the TrueSight Orchestration user required to log on to the CDP. This user must be associated with the ADMIN role in TrueSight Orchestration.
   Password	TrueSight Orchestration password for the specified user.
   Grid	Name defined for the TrueSight Orchestration grid. A grid is a logical collection of servers, called peers, where the TrueSight Orchestration Platform is installed. The peers on the grid communicate with each other and work as a group. They communicate concurrently to every other peer in the group, and can detect which peers are running and the load on those peers.

4. Click Test Connection to confirm that the connection to TrueSight Orchestration is working correctly.
   A message confirms that the connection is valid. 

5. Click Back to External Connectors.