This documentation supports the 20.02 (12.0) version of BMC Discovery.To view an earlier version of the product, select the version from the Product version menu.

Managing adapter configurations

The BMC Discovery export framework is deprecated

The BMC Discovery export framework is deprecated in the 20.02 (12.0) release of BMC Discovery and will be removed in a future release. For new exports or integrations, you should consider Using-the-REST-API.

Related topics

Using

Setting-up-and-configuring-an-export

BMC Discovery Export enables you to publish data from BMC Discovery directly into relational databases and into all systems that can accept CSV files. BMC Discovery data is exported by creating an exporter, which is a combination of a mapping set with an adapter configuration. These concepts are explained later in this section.

Export does not delete any BMC Discovery data from BMC Discovery, or from the export target.

Exporters

An exporter is the combination of a mapping set and an adapter configuration.

  • The mapping set is a set of mapping files. These allow you to determine which data to extract from BMC Discovery and how to transform it according to the target data model.
  • The adapter configuration is used to determine where to publish the data.

Mapping files and sets

When performing an export, the exporter needs to know which data to read from the BMC Discovery datastore and where to place it. It does this with mapping files. A mapping file is an XML document that contains the following information:

  1. A BMC Discovery datastore query specifying which data to export
  2. Information on how BMC Discovery Export must restructure (or transform) the query result in order to make it usable by the system being exported to (that is, to comply with the remote system's schema)

A mapping set is a set of mapping files that are used to carry out the export. In order to perform an export using a mapping set, the exporter will run the query from each one of the mapping files in the set. A typical export requires more than one query of the datastore. For example, one query to get hosts, another to get Business Application Instances (BAIs), and so on.

For further information about mapping file formats, see The Mapping File Format.

Adapters and adapter configurations

BMC Discovery Export supports the following adapters:

  • RDB — populates relational databases
  • CSV — generates CSV files

An adapter configuration typically contains the information needed to connect to the target destination:

  • Target host
  • Port
  • User name
  • Password

You can create multiple adapter configurations. For example, if you needed to export data from BMC Discovery to two relational databases ("development" and "production") then you would create two adapter configurations for the RDB adapter, one for each destination.

To permit users to edit the adapter configuration

The cmdb-export-administrator user group gives permissions for users to edit the adapter's configuration. To add a user to this group:

  1. From the BMC Discovery appliance UI, log in to BMC Discovery.
  2. From the main menu, click the Administration icon. The Administration page displays. 
  3. From the Security section, click Users.
  4. Edit the profile of any user that you want to administer BMC Discovery Export. Add the user to the cmdb-export-administrator group. The user must be a member of the public group.


This topic contains information and instructions about managing adapter configuration.

To view the configuration page for the adapter configurations, click the Adapter Configurations tab. The adapter configurations page contains a section for each adapter:

  • CSV file
  • Relational database

When the page is first displayed, the sections are collapsed. You can expand them by clicking on the name of the adapter. When the section is expanded, a table listing the configurations for the adapter is visible.

To create an adapter configuration

  1. To navigate to the export user interface (UI), from the main menu, click the Administration icon. The Administration page displays. From the Model section, click Export.
     If an export has never been set up, links display all the available adapter types.
  2. Click the appropriate type to create an adapter configuration.
  3. If an export has already been created and you want to create another, click the Adapter Configurations tab and then the New link for the corresponding adapter configuration type.
     A page displays with the details of your new configuration.
     The options displayed depend on the type of adapter configuration that is created. A CSV configuration has different options than a relational database (RDB) configuration. However, the following options are common to both:
    • Name: The name of an adapter configuration is its identifier in the system. The only characters that can be used in the configuration name are:
      • a to z
      • A to Z
      • 0 to 9
      • - (dash), _ (underscore) and . (period)
    • Description: The description of an adapter configuration is only for your use. You can enter any information that you want to record about the adapter. For information about the per-adapter options, see:
    • Configuring-the-CSV-file-adapter for the CSV file configuration.
    • Configuring-the-RDB-adapter for the RDB adapter configuration.
  4. To save the new adapter configuration, click Apply Only.
  5. To save the changes and verify that the adapter can connect to the target system with the details supplied, click Apply and Test.
    For more details, see the following section.
     If a validation error occurs on any of the details that you have entered, an error message is displayed.
     If the connection test fails, a page is displayed with a message and a button which enables you to edit the adapter configuration. You cannot click Back from this page in order to edit and correct the configuration details. Your adapter configuration has already been created. Clicking Back, editing the options and clicking Apply results in an attempt to create another configuration with the same name. This causes an error.
  6. To edit the adapter configuration that resulted in a failed connection, click Edit This Adapter.

To edit the adapter configurations

  1. Click the Edit link for an adapter configuration.
     The configuration edit page is displayed.
     The options displayed depend on the type of adapter configuration being edited; each adapter configuration has different options.
    However, the following options are common to both:
    • Name: The name of an adapter configuration is its identifier in the system. The name is not modifiable after the configuration has been created.
    • Description: The description of an adapter is only for your use. You can enter any information that you want to record regarding the adapter. For information about the per-adapter options, see the following pages:
    • Configuring-the-CSV-file-adapter for the CSV file configuration.
    • Configuring-the-RDB-adapter for the RDB adapter configuration.
  2. To save the changes you have made to the options, click Apply Only.
  3. To save the changes you have made to the options and verify that the adapter can contact the target system with the details you have supplied, click Apply and Test.

To delete adapter configurations

You can delete a configuration by clicking on the Delete link in the Actions field. Be aware that after a configuration is deleted, you cannot retrieve it. Also, if you delete a configuration that is used by exporters, those exporters are also deleted.

 

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