Default language.

Important This documentation space contains information about the SaaS version of BMC Helix Discovery. If you are using the on-premises version of BMC Helix Discovery, see BMC Helix Discovery 25.2 (On-Premises).

Consolidating directly discovered data

You cannot consolidate directly discovered data (DDD) to or from a BMC Helix Discovery (SaaS) instance. The information on this page is included for reference only.

Configuring directly discovered data (DDD) consolidation is a two-step procedure. Initially, you must enable consolidation on the appliance that is to be the receiver. Then you register one or more senders with the receiver appliance. To configure consolidation, you need the permissions detailed in Consolidation Permissions.

You cannot consolidate DDD to a BMC Helix Discovery instance.

For consolidation purposes, clusters operate similarly to stand-alone appliances. Stand-alone senders can consolidate to any member of a cluster. When using a cluster as a sender, you configure consolidation on any member UI, but the cluster coordinator sends information to the receiving cluster. The scanning cluster can consolidate to any member of the receiving cluster. 

Note

DDD consolidation uses port 25032 to communicate. The sender must be able to connect to port 25032 on the receiver. You must configure any firewalls between senders and receivers to allow this traffic. For clusters that act as senders, you must open port 25032 on all members. For clusters that act as receivers, you must open port 25032 on the coordinator, but if you change the cluster coordinator, you must open port 25032 on the new coordinator.

You cannot use consolidation if the appliance is named Discovery_Appliance. A warning is displayed, including a link to where you change the appliance name.

To configure DDD consolidation between two appliances

  1. Perform the following steps on the sender appliance:
    1. From the main menu, click the Administration Settings icon, and then select Discovery Consolidation.
      ConsolidationNotStarted.png
    2. On the Discovery Consolidation page, select Enable Consolidation.
      The appliance can now be configured for consolidation.
      ConsolidationEnabled.png

  2. Perform the following steps on the receiver appliance:
    1. From the main menu, click the Administration Settings icon, and then select Discovery Consolidation.
    2. On the Discovery Consolidation page, select Enable Consolidation.
    3. Copy the DNS Name (preferred) or the IP address by using the copy icon:
      DNScopyIcon.png
  3. Perform the following steps on the sender appliance:
    1.  Click + Add Destination to show the Add Consolidation Destination panel.
    2. Paste the copied DNS Name into the Destination Address field.
      AddDestinationDDD.png
    3. Click Apply to establish the connection to the receiver appliance. The screen is updated and the status shows Pending Approval. 
      SenderPendingApproval.png
      You must approve the connection request in the receiver UI.
  4. Perform the following steps on the receiver appliance:
    1. From the Actions menu, select Approve.
      ReceiverApprove.png
  5. On the sender appliance, the status is updated to Approved.

SenderApproved.png

Consolidation of DDD from the sender to the receiver is configured.

To perform a discovery run from the sender

When you use the sender to perform a discovery run on a target, the discovery run is displayed on the receiver as two runs:

  • Discovery progress on Sender — The reported progress of the discovery run on the sender.
  • DDD Consolidation progress — The progress of the DDD processing on the receiver.

The following image shows the discovery run on the sender:

ConsolidationSendingScan.png

The following image shows the same discovery run on the receiver:

ConsolidationReceivingScan.png

After consolidation has been configured, whatever scanning takes place on the sender is automatically sent to the receiver after an endpoint scan is complete. On the receiver, runs from the sender are displayed on the Discovery Status page.

Discovery must be running on the receiver for consolidation to take place. If discovery is not running, the receiver doesn't accept data from the sender. The sender will attempt to resend data later. Also, if you stop discovery on the receiver, it stops consolidating any data already received.

To cancel a discovery run

You can cancel a consolidating discovery run from a sender or a receiver. Where possible, always cancel the discovery run on the sender. Select the discovery run on the Discovery Status page of the sender and click Cancel Runs.

If you cancel the discovery run on the sender, this stops the scan rather than the consolidation. The receiver can continue receiving all the data sent by the sender and complete the consolidation. When the consolidation is completed, the two appliances' data is consistent.

Warning

Canceling a consolidation run on the receiver stops the consolidation, although the scan continues on the sender and leads to inconsistencies between the data on the two appliances. Where possible, always stop the scan on the sender and allow the consolidation to run to completion.

If you must cancel a consolidation run from the receiver, select the discovery run on the receiver's Discovery Status page and click Cancel Runs. If canceling the discovery run is unsuccessful, a status message is displayed.

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*