Grouping servers by installed software

This use case lets you use BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping and BMC Server Automation to group servers by the applications they have installed on them. You can also use additional information, such as software vendors or operating system when grouping servers.

Benefit

This use case lets administrators operate more efficiently by using various factors to group servers, including software type and software version. After you have grouped servers, you can use these groups for running Patching, Snapshot, Audit, and Compliance Jobs as well as performing software upgrades. Using BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation, you generate reports based on job activity. These reports can be used for software license management or other purposes.

To group servers by installed software

The following table provides an overview of the tasks required to implement this use case. For each task the table provides more detail by referencing other BMC Software documents, available by clicking the links.

Task

Product involved

Description and reference

Step 1. Create a component template

BMC Server Automation

The component template should include a signature that can be used to discover the existence of software applications. The signature can consist of a basic condition that checks for the existence or number of occurrences of a software application object that you choose from the discovered software applications.

For example, when adding parts to the template, you can use the Atrium Discovery object to add a part from the Discovered Software node called Oracle Database Server 10.2.0.1.0. Then you can define a signature specifying that "Atrium Discovery.Software:/DiscoveredSoftware/Oracle Database Server 10.2.0.1.0" exists.

For details on creating a component template, see Creating a component template in the BMC Server Automation documentation.

Step 2. Create and run a Component Discovery Job

BMC Server Automation

Using the component template, create and run a Component Discovery Job. The components that the job discovers should correspond to instances of a software application.

For details on creating a Component Discovery Job, see Creating Component Discovery Jobs in the BMC Server Automation documentation.

Step 3. Create a component smart group

BMC Server Automation

Create a smart group based on the component template you created in the first step. The smart group will be automatically populated with components that were discovered based on the signature in the component template.

For details on creating component smart groups, see Defining a smart group in the BMC Server Automation documentation.

Step 4. Use the smart group

BMC Server Automation

Use the smart group you have created as a target when running Snapshot, Audit, Patching, and Compliance Jobs.

For details on using these jobs, see the following pages in the BMC Server Automation documentation:

 

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