Searching for data

You can search for information in the BMC Discovery datastore from the Search box that is displayed at the top-right of each page. Click the magnifying glass icon for search options. You can run a quick search, a basic search, or an advanced search that includes additional options, allowing you to define the set of objects to be searched and to search for destroyed objects. See Search Bar.

To perform a quick search

In the top search box, enter the keyword or text string you want to search for, and press Enter.

To search for a phrase, enclose it in quotation marks (for example "apache webserver"). 

To limit the kinds of nodes found by the search, prefix the search terms with the node kind followed by a colon; for example, host: Windows Server, which will find "Windows Server."

The node kind is case insensitive. You can use any node kind defined in the taxonomy, plus the following abbreviations:

To perform a basic search

A basic search enables you to search for keywords or text strings occurring anywhere in the BMC Discovery datastore. The following screenshot displays the various search options available.

1. In the top search box, enter the keyword or text string you want to search for.
2. Click the magnifying glass icon to display the search options.

3. Under Section, choose an option that you want to search:

   • Administration
   • Applications
   • Discovery
   • Infrastructure 

   The Any option searches all modules. See Notes on Searching for a list of the objects in each module.

4. Under Match, choose the type of search you want to run:
   
   • Exact Match—Requires an exact match for an entire attribute. This search is case-sensitive.
   • Word Match—Searches for entire words (separated by spaces or punctuation) and does not find partial words or substrings. For example, if you search for "Windows," the system returns Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 or Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 and so on. However, if you are searching for a person called Robertson, the search does not find details if you enter "Robert." This search is not case-sensitive.

5. If you need to view the data completeness for all items, select the Show Data Completeness check box, which indicates whether the Data Completeness indicator will be shown for each returned object.

   Note

   The default setting permits faster searching when large numbers of objects are involved, as the system does not need to calculate data completeness values.

6. Click Search.
   • If objects of more than one kind are found, a page is displayed, listing the number of objects of each kind found.
     Click any entry in this list to display the list of objects of this kind.
   • If objects of only one kind are found, the matching objects are listed immediately. The list shows summary attributes only, and it is possible that the text you searched for does not appear in these attributes.
7. Click any entry to display details of the object.

To perform an advanced search

1. Click the magnifying glass icon next to the search box, and then click Advanced Search.
   The Advanced Search page is displayed.
2. Under Keywords, enter the keyword or text string you want to search for.
   The following screenshot displays the advanced search option available with the BMC Discovery datastore.
   
3. For the Select match type option, choose the type of matching to be performed:
   
   • Exact Match—Requires an exact match for an entire attribute. This search is case-sensitive.
   • Word Match—Searches for entire words (separated by spaces or punctuation) and does not find partial words or substrings. For example, if you search for "Windows," the system returns Windows XP, Windows 2000, and so forth. However, if you search for a person called Robertson, the search does not find details if you enter "Robert." This search is not case-sensitive.
   • Partial Match—Finds all occurrences of the string anywhere in the object attributes. This search is not case-sensitive.
4. (Optional) To include objects that have been destroyed, select the Include Destroyed check box.
5. (Optional) To view the data quality for all items, select the Show DQ check box.
   The default setting allows for faster searching when large numbers of objects are involved, as the system will not need to calculate data quality values.
6. Select check boxes to indicate the kinds of object in each module (Applications, Infrastructure, Discovery, and Administration) that you want to search.
   You can select any number. In each module section, you can click All to choose all kinds in the module or None to deselect all kinds of objects in the module.
7. Click Search.
   • If objects of one kind are found, the matching objects are listed. The list shows summary attributes only, and it is possible that the text you searched for does not appear in these attributes.
   • If objects of more than one kind are found, a page is displayed, listing the number of objects of each kind found. Click an entry in this list to display the list of objects of this kind.
   • If the object that you were searching for was not found, click Search Again to return to the Advanced Search screen.

8. To display the View Object page of the objects found, click the object name.

   Tips on searching

   • The returned list displays summary attributes of each object only. Click an item in the list to access the View Object page, which displays all of an object's relationships and attributes.
   • If your search returns too many matches, you can refine it by running a further search on the items. If the matches include destroyed items, an Include destroyed items check box is shown. Enter an additional keyword and a matching type, and click Refine Search.
   • You can export the results of a search in CSV format. For more information, see Exporting-data-in-CSV-format.

How advanced searching works

If you are familiar with the Search Service and its query language, you can use the Advanced Search page to enter a search query. To access the Advanced Search page, at the Search box, click the magnifying glass icon, and then click Advanced Search. For a detailed description of the Search Service and query language, see Using-the-Search-and-Reporting-service.

The following check boxes are provided in each advanced search section:

Related topics

• Working with queries
• Using-the-Query-Language
• Query-Builder