Creating a comparison job

Types of comparisons

The comparison job performs the following types of comparisons:

• Compare Regular (Default): Compares the top level CIs only.

• Compare Recursively - Compares the top level CIs and their children CIs until there are no more CIs to compare.
• Compare CI Relationships- Compares relationships between target CIs with the relationships between CIs in the baseline.
  • Only outward relationships from the source of the relationship to the destination of the relationship are tracked.
  • Only relationships of the BMC_BaseRelationship class are compared.

These comparisons can be enhanced by specifying one of the following types of cardinality for the comparison job:

• One-to-one (Default):  A one-to-one comparison of CIs from the baseline and the target. For a one-to-one comparison, all CIs must have a ReconciliationIdentity attribute that is created during a BMC Atrium CMDB reconciliation process. CIs without this attribute are ignored during a one-to-one comparison.

• If comparing relationships between CIs, only one level of relationships are compared.

  Note

  This cardinality type is not displayed on the Comparison Job Wizard pane.

• Many-to-one: A many-to-one comparison of the target CIs with a single CI in the baseline. You use this option if, for example, you are comparing many CIs with a standard or golden CI to which all other CIs must conform. For a many-to-one comparison, the CIs are identified using the Reconciliation Engine rules. If you have more than one CI in the baseline, a many-to-one comparison will fail.
  If comparing relationships, all levels of relationships are compared.

Combine comparison types in a single comparison job to provide more detailed information about a drift. For example, create a comparison job that combines a Compare Recursively type with a Compare CI Relationships type to create a very detailed report about the drift between the CIs and relationships in your target.

Before you begin

• Before creating a comparison job, you must create a baseline and a target by using the Baseline and Target Wizards as described in the following topics:
  • Creating-baselines
  • Creating-targets
• (Optional) Create a qualification set if you want to compare only selective data. See, Creating-qualification-sets-include-sets-and-exclude-sets.

To create a comparison job

1. On the drift management console, select Management > Job Console > Create.
2. In the Specify Type of Job dialog box, select Comparison Job.
   The Comparison Job Wizard is displayed.

3. Enter the following information and click Next.

   Field	Description
   Name and Description	Provide a name and description for the comparison job.
   Priority	Defines the priority for correcting drifts detected by the job. The priority selected here is displayed on the Drift Console for each drift report resulting from a run of this job.
   Status	Indicates if the job can be executed. Following are the available options: Active (Default): Select Active if you want the job to be executed. The job can be started manually or set to run on a schedule using the Comparison Job Wizard. Inactive: Select Inactive if you do not want the job to be executed. For example, you might want to make a job inactive after several runs, but you want to keep it for historical or record-keeping purposes. If you need to run the job later, you can change the status to active.
   Compare Recursively	Compares the top level CIs and their child CIs until there are no more CIs to compare. The default comparison type is Compare Regular, not shown on the wizard pane, which only compares the top level CIs.)
   Many-to-One	Compares many-to-one CIs from the target to the baseline. The default cardinality is a one-to-one comparison that is not shown on the wizard pane.
   Compare CI Relationships	Compares the relationship between CIs.
   Accessible To	Specifies the groups that can have access to this job. For more information about permissions, see Managing-drift-management-permissions.

4. In the Target pane, click Select Target and click Select Item.
5. In the Baseline pane, click Select Baseline and select the baseline you want to use and then click Select Item.
6. (Optional) Create an incident request ticket.
   If drift is detected and you want the comparison job to create an incident request, enter the following information, and then click Next. To skip this step, directly click Next and continue.
   1. In the Incident pane, click Select Incident Template.

   2. Select the appropriate software or hardware template, and then click Select.
      The Comparison Job Wizard Incident pane appears, displaying the details of the incident template you selected.

      Important

      If you encounter an error when you select an incident template, check the DSM:INTHPD:AutomationDriftIncidentTemplate form. If the First Name and Last Name fields are blank, enter the correct information and save the form to continue with the incident template selection.

7. (Optional) Assign a schedule for running the job.
   After the job is created, you can manually start the job from the Job Console by clicking Start Job.
8. Click Done.

The job appears on Job Console as the first entry in the Jobs pane.

Output of a comparison job

Any difference in the target as compared with the baseline is considered to be a drift. All drifts detected by a comparison job are presented as a drift report on the Drift Console. If the comparison job did not detect drift, the drift report is not generated.

All CIs and their relationships that are modified, added, or removed are considered to be a drift and are displayed in the drift report, depending on the comparison type chosen.