Tideway Knowledge Update 2009-Jul-1


The Tideway Knowledge Update 2009-Jul-1 (TKU 2009 July) is a deliverable for Tideway Foundation platform version 7.2 and later.

Release Compatibility

TKU 2009-Jul-1 has been tested and verified against Tideway Foundation version 7.2 / 7.2.1.

Note

TKU July 2009 (TKU 2009-Jul-1) is not compatible with nor supported on versions of Tideway Foundation before v7.2

Download

Customers can access this TKU release from the Tideway Downloads site and then clicking Download Area->latesttku. If you're a customer or partner and don't already have a login to this site or have forgotten yours please contact support@tideway.com.

Contents of the Knowledge Update

The Tideway Knowledge Update comprises four main components:

  • Core - Patterns that model various software products
  • Database detail - Patterns that extend some of the core database patterns to obtain additional detailed information about certain databases
  • Product Lifecycle - Patterns that populate Foundation with information about End-of-Life, End-of-Support, and End-of-Extended-Support for versions of certain host Operating Systems as well as versions of certain software products
  • Hardware Reference Data - Patterns and data import CSV file that populate Foundation with power and heat consumption figures for various hosts.

To see some of the highlights of this release visit the July In The Spotlight Page

Installation and Upgrade

Installation and upgrade instructions are provided here.

Note

Due to an issue with pattern module names, if you are upgrading from TKU-2009-Apr-1 to TKU-2009-Jul-1 without removing the TKU April, you will need to manually disable the EMC_Powerpath pattern module in TKU-SUPPORTDETAILS-2009-04-1

A matrix covering ALL commands executed and ALL files retrieved by the patterns is available to our customers from the Tideway Downloads site

TKU Core

New Software Instance Patterns

Vendor

Product

Category

Platforms

Instances

Versioning

Module

BEA

Connect

Data Integration and Access Software

UNIX, Windows

N

Y

CA

Clarity

Project and Portfolio Management

UNIX, Windows

Y

Y

CA

Fast Unload

Database Development and Management Tools

UNIX, Windows

N

Y

HP

Business Process Monitor

Performance Management Software

Windows

N

Y

HP

Client Automation

Change and Configuration Software

Windows

Y

Y

HP

Network Automation

Network Management Software

UNIX, Windows

Y

Y

IBM

DB2 Performance Expert

Database Development and Management Tools

UNIX, Windows

N

Y

IBM

Rational Robot

Automated Software Quality Tools

Windows

Y

Y

IBM

Tivoli NetView

Network Management Software

UNIX

Y

Y

IBM

Workload Manager

Job Scheduling Tools

UNIX

Y

Y

Microsoft

Antigen for Exchange

Secure Content and Threat Management

Windows

Y

Y

Microsoft

Antigen for SharePoint

Secure Content and Threat Management

Windows

Y

Y

Microsoft

Connected Service Framework

Website Design / Development Tools

Windows

Y

Y

Microsoft

Hyper-V Server

Virtual Machine Software

Windows

Y

Y

Oracle

Internet Application Server (IAS)

Application Server Software Platforms

UNIX

Y

Y

Red Hat

MRG Grid

Clustering and Availability Software

UNIX

Y

Y

Red Hat

MRG Messaging

Messaging Applications

UNIX

Y

Y

Red Hat

MRG Realtime

Other System Software

UNIX

Y

Y

SAP

BusinessObjects InfoView

End User, Query, and Reporting Analysis

UNIX

Y

Y

Sybase

ASE Cluster Edition

Relational Database Management Systems

UNIX

Y

Y

Symantec

VERITAS Cluster Server Agents

Clustering and Availability Software

UNIX

Y

Y

Enhanced Software Instance Patterns

Vendor

Product

Enhancement

SI Key Change

Pattern Module

AlarmPoint Systems

AlarmPoint

Improved trigger for the Server pattern. Added Web Server pattern.

N

Apache Foundation, Oracle, IBM

Apache Web Server

An attribute (ebs_sid) is added to the SI when required for modelling of eBusiness suite. 'config_file_list' attribute changed to 'config_file'. 'server_root' attribute added to provide information about the Apache server root.

N

HP

Data Protector

If recovered, patch information added as an attribute to the Cell Server Database SI, Cell Server Service SI, Media Management Server SI

N

HP

OpenView ServiceCenter

license_expiration_date attribute in the Server pattern is now in 'date' format instead of being a string - enables use time-based reports

N

IBM

FileNet Content Manager

As the ContentEngineServer pattern currently only identifies the IBM FileNet Content Engine Server on the Windows platform, improved the efficiency of the pattern by ensuring that it stops as soon as possible if it starts executing on the Unix platform (which it can since its trigger is a WebSphere Application Server SI)

N

Oracle

Application Server

Table mapping Oracle version strings with actual product versions has had entries related to Oracle Internet Application Server removed as a completely separate pattern for this product has been released

N

Oracle

E-Business Suite

Trigger for the Oracle E-Business Suite pattern updated to improve modelling of the actual software by searching for specific attributes on Oracle RDBMS SI which are now set if it is believed that a particular RDBMS instance belongs to the E-Business Suite. In addition to this, the SI key has been improved (differentiating by Oracle RDBMS SID) to allow for modelling of more than one instance of E-Business Suite on a host. Finally, support for Oracle Internet Application Server being part of the E-Business Suite (v11 of E-Business Suite) has been added to the pattern.

Y

Oracle

Database

Oracle RDBMS SI which is believed to be part of an E-Business Suite now has an attribute created ('ebs_suite') and set to 'true' to indicate this. This attribute is then used by the E-Business Suite pattern as part of the trigger.

N

Sybase

Adaptive Server Enterprise

The Dataserver pattern has had additional checks included to prevent it from modelling instances of Sybase ASE Database which are Sybase ASE Cluster Edition since a separate pattern has been created to model these

N

Bugs Fixed

The following bugs have been fixed in Tideway Knowledge Update 2009-Jul-1

Case No

Defect No

Details

Pattern Module

19515 / 21156

11774 / 12088

Problem: VMware ESX guests (Virtual Hosts) which were hosted by one VMware ESX physical host and then moved to another VMware ESX physical host would stay linked to the original physical host as well as creating a link to the new physical host. The link to the original physical host would be removed only if the original physical host aged out of the model or if the Virtual Host was removed from the model and then re-scanned. Solution: The patterns that create relationships between the VMware SI , Virtual Host and physical hosts were updated to remove links to old physical hosts as soon as the physical and virtual hosts have been scanned following the migration of the virtual hosts

20918

11982

Problem: Lotus Notes Domino Server pattern did not return the correct version of the product when the product had been upgraded multiple times. Solution: Further parsing of notes.ini file implemented to return the highest product version found

N/A

12010

Problem: Oracle RDBMS pattern parsing of oratab file could erroneously pick up entries which have been commented out and use the data parsed for ORACLE_HOME leading to failure to then obtain the version of the product or other information (e.g. port, etc.) Solution: Parsing code improved to ignore entries in oratab which have been commented out.

N/A

12036

Problem: If MySQL command-line arguments are enclosed in quotes (specifically the configuration file path) the pattern fails to parse them Solution: Improved parsing of command-line arguments to handle this scenario

21207

12048

Problem: Enhancements to the Oracle Enterprise Manager Agent pattern released in TKU April 2009 introduced an issue which lead to the SIs being created with a key which wasn't unique enough (on the host nor across the hosts) Solution: SI key for the Oracle Enterprise Manager Agent pattern was changed to rectify this issue - the key is now generated from the installation path and host key. The key for the Oracle Enterprise Manager Server SI has also been changed to group the SIs based on the installation path on the host if the instance name of the server is unknown.

21521

12065

TIBCO EMS pattern has been enhanced by adding another trigger process to allow identification of 64-bit versions of the product on UNIX platform.

21586

12079

Problem: BEA WebLogic Application Server pattern uses as part of its key the command-line path and arguments (passed through an MD5 hash) to ensure that unique instances of the application server have been identified. A change in the command-line arguments is regarded as a change in the instance which would create a new SI while the original SI starts ageing. While this approach has been proven over time to be correct in most cases as the command-line arguments are usually stable, a recent change in a customer's environment where an additional 'ServerStartTime' command-line argument has been added has meant that new SI is created every time a WebLogic Application server has been restarted (and the old SI starting to age out of the model) leading to an unexpected increase in WebLogic Application Server SIs. Solution: While we believe that the current approach to generate the SI key is correct, we have added code to parse out the 'ServerStartTime' command-line argument (and its value) from the key in order to make the SI key more stable again.

21740

12112

Microsoft Operations Manager version lookup table has had additional entries added based on customer request and some additional research

21731

12137

The EMC PowerPath Server (UNIX) pattern has been updated to make use of privilege elevation commands when running certain commands (required for versioning on Solaris and listing of device information on both Linux and Solaris). Use of privilege elevation commands is user configurable.

Product Lifecycle Patterns

You can use Tideway Foundation and OS / Software product lifecycle data to:

  • Identify operating systems and software that are exposed to security / stability risks as they are no longer supported by patch updates
  • Identify operating systems and software that you may may be paying a premium maintenance subscription for
  • Identify operating systems and software that are no longer shipping so may increase costs and risks associated with variance

Operating System Product Lifecycle Patterns

TKU 2009-Jul-1 includes product life cycle patterns providing End Of Life, End Of Support and End Of Extended Support dates for:

  • 11 publishers
  • 17 operating systems
  • 177 operating system versions

Go to the OS-Product-Life-Cycle-Patterns-TKU-2009-Jul-1 page for a full list of products included in this release.

Software Product Lifecycle Patterns

This TKU includes product life cycle patterns providing End Of Life, End Of Support and End Of Extended Support dates for:

  • 33 publishers
  • 200 software products
  • 1,179 software product versions

Go to the Software-Product-Life-Cycle-Patterns-TKU-2009-Jul-1 page for a full list of products included in this release.

Hardware Reference Data

You can use Tideway Foundation hardware reference data to:

  • Identify servers that can be expanded in situations where space is a constraining factor in the data center
  • Identify server refresh / rationalization candidates in situations where cooling is a constraining factor in the data center
  • Identify server refresh / rationalization candidates in situations where power is a constraining factor in the data center

This TKU includes hardware reference data providing Rack Size, Power Consumption, Heat Output and Maximum Memory capacity for:

  • 9 manufacturers
  • 401 server models
  • 1,166 server model configurations

Go to the Hardware-Reference-Data-TKU-2009-Jul-1 page for a full list of products included in this release.

 

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