Introduction

This user guide describes CMDB Analyzer for SDE version 5.0 and later.

Installing CMDB Analyzer For SDE

Setting Memory Size

To change the application's maximum heap size, edit file sdeAnz.l4j.ini.

For example,

-Xmx512m : set heap size to 512M
-Xmx1024m: set heap size to 1G

Supported BMC Service Desk Express (SDE) Version

CMDB Analyzer for SDE supports Service Desk Express 9.2, 9.6 and up with Microsoft SQL Database or Oracle Database. It also supports BMC Alignability for SDE (APM).

More Information

If you need more information, please contact support@bluelineG.com, or go to BlueLine Graphics, Inc. web site www.bluelineG.com.

Getting to Know CMDB Analyzer For SDE

The following diagram describes function areas in CMDB Analyzer for SDE main window:

1. Project Panel - Organizes workspace, projects and views
2. Project Panel Toolbar - Creates and switch workspaces and creates projects.
3. Application Toolbar - Manages view windows
4. View Toolbar - Toolbar for the view
5. View Content - Shows SDE data visualization view
6. View Detail Panel - Displays detailed attributes and other information
7. View Selection Bar - Selects active view window

Working with Workspace

A workspace is a directory that contains configurations for projects and views. Only one workspace is activated at a time but you can switch between workspaces.

Switch Workspace

You can switch workspaces at any time. If there are unsaved views, you will be prompted to save them. To switch a workspace, click the "Switch Workspace" tool button in the project panel toolbar.

Create New Workspaces

To create a new workspace, click the "Switch Workspace" tool button and enter a directory path. If the specified workspace directory doesn't exist, once the "OK"  button is pressed, a new directory with the workspace name will be created.

NOTE: It is highly recommended that you create your workspace outside of the CMDB Analyzer installation directory.

Working with Projects

A project is a folder in the file system that contains SDE data views.  When you create a new project, depending on project type, the following views may be created as default:

• CI View - displays CI, Service and relationships
• Assembly View - displays CI Assembly relationships
• Incident View - provides Incident visualization and analysis
• Change View - provides Change visualization and analysis
• SLA View - displays SLA-Service-Org relationships
• Service Map View - displays services in a background image map

You can create either a server project or an off-line project.

Project Panel organizes projects and views in a tree structure for the current workspace. The followings are the basic mouse operations available in the Project Panel:

• Mouse Wheel - Scrolls the Project Panel up and down
• Mouse Drag - Scrolls the Project Panel at any direction
• Mouse Double Click - Opens an item in the tree
• Right-Mouse Click -  Pops up the project menu

Creating Server Project

To create a server project you need to have a SDE database administrator account.

Steps to create a server project:

1. Click "Create Project" tool button in the Project Toolbar
2. Select "SDE Database Server - SQL Server" or "SDE Database Server - Oracle" data source option
3. Enter SDE Database login info
4. Click "Next" button
5. Configure SDE URL. SDE URL is used to open SDE web pages from CMDB Analyzer.
   
    

NOTE: You have to go to MS SQL configuration manager console to enable TCP/IP protocol which is disabled by default. Also set a static port number if dynamic port is used (SQL Server 2005). You need to restart SQL for this to take effect.

Save Password

If you uncheck "Save Password" option, the password will not be saved - you have to enter the password every time you open the project.

Creating Off-line Project

Off-line project connects to a CSV data store in your local file system instead to a SDE database. A CSV data store is a directory that contains database files in CSV format. You can generate a CSV data store from a server project by selecting "Export Database..." option in the project popup menu. The data store directory is what you need to specify in the off-line project creation wizard.

Steps to create an off-line project:

1. Click "Create Project" tool button in the Project Toolbar
    
2. Select "CSV File" data source option
   
    
    
3. Enter the directory path that holds the exported database files
   
   

Tip: To change project settings after project has been created, right-mouse click on a project in Project Panel and then select "Preference...".

Deleting Project

To delete a project, right-mouse click on the project tree node and select “Delete”. If you have any unsaved views, you will be given options to save the views or cancel the delete operation.

Closing/Opening Project

To close a project, right-mouse click on the project tree node and select "Close". If you have any unsaved views, you will be given options to save the views or cancel the operation. Closing a project removes all views and cleans data store from the project and releases resources it holds.

To open a closed project, double-click the project tree node or right-mouse click on the project tree node and select "Open". Opening a project rebuilds all its views and data will be refreshed again from the database (server project) or from the off-line data store (off-line project).

Project Preference

Project preference panel is accessed via right-mouse click on a project tree node and then click "Preference...". From the preference panel, you can change the project connectivity settings, such as the SDE database server name, port, user name, password, etc., and configure data refresh settings for server projects.

Refreshing Project

Refreshing is only available for server projects. For off-line projects, you can simply close/open the project to load new data.

For one-time only refresh, right-mouse click on a project tree node and then select "Refresh"; for scheduled auto refresh, open the Project Preference Panel and choose the refresh frequency.

NOTE: Frequencies in seconds should be only used in your testing environment as it might impact the performance of the SDE database.

Understanding Project Hierarchy

CMDB Analyzer organizes views under projects and projects under workspace. This workspace-project-view structure is represented in the project panel as well as in your computer's file system. When you create a workspace, CMDB Analyzer creates a directory with the name of the workspace. Each project and view also has its own folder. The following pictures show the representations of workspace-project-view in the file system and in the project panel:

Understanding Data Processing

CMDB Analyzer retrieves SDE data directly from SDE database. As long as a SDE database is running, you can create project to connect to it. You can create any number of projects to connect to different SDE database or create multiple projects connecting to a single SDE database. You can simply load a backup SDE database and create a server project for it.

Database Query

CMDB Analyzer only retrieves SDE data in a project when you first time open a view (any view) or refresh the project (either manually or automatically). This is to ensure that CMDB Analyzer has minimum impact on the performance of your SDE database. What data to retrieve from database is controlled by the "query.xml", which can be found in your project directory. See Customizing Database Query for more information about how to modify this file.

Data Validation

CMDB Analyzer also performs some data validation tasks when retrieving data from SDE database. The following is a list of validation tasks:

• Validate that each CI has a valid Type defined, if not, a warning dialog will appear:

• Validate that no "loop" is found in Service to Service relationships, such as a Service node becomes parent of its parent Service node. If found, a warning dialog will appear.

Working with CI Category View

CI Category View is listed under "CI Views" and is one of the default views when a new project is created. It shows all CI categories and provides a summary of CI in each Category. Since BMC Alignability for SDE has a hierarchical CI Category structure, you have extra options to switch between the hierarchical view and the flat view. Click on one category item, all CIs belonging to that category get listed in the CI detail table, where you can then right-mouse click to open one of the CI Views to view this CI.

CMDB Analyzer defines two additional Categories for internal use:

• SERVICE_BLG is the internal category for Service
• UNKNOWN_CATEGORY is the internal category for CI without Category defined

These two internal defined Categories are also listed as filterable categories in the graph filter panel. See Applying Graph Filter for how to use graph filters.

Working with CI Type View

CI Type View is listed under "CI Views" and is one of the default views when a new project is created. It shows all CI types and provides a summary of CI in each Type. Click on one type item, all CIs belonging to that type get listed in the CI detail table, where you can then right-mouse click to open one of the CI Views to view this CI.

CMDB Analyzer defines two additional Types for internal use:

• Service is the internal type for services
• UNKNOWN TYPE is the internal type for CIs with undefined or invalid type

At the data loading time, if CMDB Analyzer detects a CI with undefined or invalid type, a warning dialog will pop up. You have options to exit the application,  ignore this warning only or ignore all similar warnings.

These two internal types are also listed as filterable types in the graph filter panel. See Applying Graph Filter for how to use graph filters.

Working with CI Views

Double-click on “Main View” opens a graph that displays CI and their relationships. If you have defined Service in SDE, you will also see services hierarchy and Service to CI relationships in the same integrated graph. By default, CMDB Analyzer for SDE loads all active CIs, Services and relationships. If you want to limit the number of CI to load, you can modify the queries for selecting CI, Service or Relationships. See Customizing Database Query for more details.

• CI Graph View - provides a hierarchical view of CIs, Services and their relationships.
• CI Flat View - provides a flat (without displaying relationships) view of all CI and Service nodes
• CI Tabular View - lists CI nodes in a table (no Service nodes)

CI Graph View is your main working view. CI Flat View and CI Tabular View are companions of CI Graph View.

Creating new CI View

"Main View" is a default view and can't be renamed or deleted. However, you can always create your views by duplicating an existing view or by creating a sub-graph. 

Duplicating a CI View creates an exact copy of the view. To create a duplication:

• Right-mouse click on a CI View node in the Project Panel and select menu item "Duplicate"
• Or Click the "Duplicate" button in the Graph View toolbar

Each CI View is created as a directory in the file system. The name of the CI View is used as the directory name. The creation of a new CI View could fail if

• A view name (directory name) already exists
• A view name has characters that are not allowed in a director name

Renaming CI View

Except "Main View", you can rename CI Views via "Rename..." menu item in the CI View popup menu. This operation could fail for the same reason as creating a new CI View.

Deleting CI View

Except "Main View", you can delete CI Views via "Delete" menu item in the CI View popup menu.

Working with CI Graph View

CI Graph View basic mouse operations

• Let mouse drag in the empty area of the view  - Move the graph around (Pan)
• Mouse wheel - Zoom in and zoom out
• Click on a CI or relationship - Highlight the instance
• Right-mouse click on a node - Pop up a menu for the selected node
• Right-mouse click in the empty area of view - Pop up a menu for the view
• Drag a node in the view by holding "Ctrl" key

CI Graph View toolbar

The following is the fully expanded toolbar seen in Graph View:

Toolbar action table

	Collapse/Expend toolbar		Save the view		Graph Filter
	Duplicate view		Print		Copy snapshot to clipboard
	Export to image		Change graph layout		Configure graphics properties
	Zoom in		Zoom out		Reset zoom
	Find CI		Show Object Magnifier		Center graph in view area
	Center and fit graph in view area		View options		Preference editing

Applying Graph Filter

You can filter the graph by Relationships, CI Categories and CI Types.

If the "Instance Graph Update" option is checked, the graph is updated instantly when a filter item is selected or deselected. Otherwise, you have to click the "Apply" button to force the graph to update.

If you don't want to display CIs and Services that have no relationships in the view, uncheck the option "Show dangling CI".

Changing Graph Layout

You have options to layout the graph in these three ways:

• Top-to-bottom hierarchical tree
• Left-to-right hierarchical tree
• Radial tree

Top-to-bottom and left-to-right trees are good choices for simple graph. Radial tree is more suitable when there is a large number of nodes and complex relationships. You might need to try all three layouts in order to pick the best layout option.

Changing Graphics Attributes

You can use Graphics Properties window to change graphics attributes of CI nodes including graph background and grid fill color. Once the CI View is saved, these graphics properties are saved too.

Displaying CI Attributes

• Default - default CI attributes
• Custom - customized (user defined) CI attributes
• Characteristic - CI characteristic key-value data

You can change the content of Custom Attribute by editing database query, see Customizing Database Query.

To hide the CI Detail Panel:

One of the following actions hides the CI Detail Panel:

• Click the "close" button on the panel
• Click the "View" button in toolbar and check "Attributes Panel"
• Open the view popup men and select "Hide Attributes" 

To show the CI Detail Panel:

One of the following actions shows the CI Detail Panel:

• Click the "View" button in toolbar and uncheck "Attributes Panel"
• Open the view popup menu and select "Show Attributes"

To float the CI Detail Panel:

• Click the "Float" button in the CI Detail Panel
• Click the "Dock Bottom" or "Dock Right" button to dock it back to view

To dock the CI Detail Panel:

• Click the "Dock Right" button to dock the CI Detail Panel to the right side of the view
• Click the "Dock Bottom" button to dock the CI Detail Panel to the bottom of the view

Displaying Linked Incident, Change and Problem

Customizing Relationship Graphics Attribute

The graphics attributes for relationships, such as the line color and the line width, can be modified by editing an xml file "relationshipTypes.xml" in the project folder. The following is a sample entry that defines the "Physical" relationship type:

<type id="Physical" desc="Physical Relationship">
    <attr>
        <outline color="160,160,255,255">
            <stroke lineWidth="1.0" dashArray="" />
        </outline>
    </attr>
</type>
 

The "desc" field defines the mouse hover tooltip for the relationship type.

The supplied relationshipTypes.xml supports default SDE relationship types. If you have user defined relationship types, you need to add new entries into the file. The "id" field must match the relationship type name.

There is a master copy of "relationshipTypes.xml" in the "system/bridges/com.blg.bmc.sde/config" folder. When a new project is created, the master file is copied to the project folder. If you modified the master file, new projects will inherit the modified version.

Customizing CI Label and Tooltip

1. In Graph View toolbar click the tool button "Graph View Preference"
2. Select "Choose CI Label" in the left side panel
3. Select a CI field that will be used as the CI label
4. Click "OK" button
5. Save the view

When a CI View is created, the CI node tooltip is configured to show only the CI Type and Category information. You can customize CI tooltips by following these steps:

1. In Graph View toolbar click the tool button "Graph View Preference"
2. Select "Configure CI Tooltip" in the left side panel
3. Check the fields that will be displayed in the tooltip window
4. (Optional) Remove the fields by clicking the delete button in the "Selected CI Attribute" table
5. Click "OK" button
6. Save the view

Customizing CI Icons

When a new project is created, CI icons and an icon configuration file are copied from system director "system\bridges\com.blg.bmc.sde\config" to the project directory. If you want project specific CI icons, follow these steps:

1. Use an XML editor or any text editor to open the icon configuration file "categoryConfig.xml" in the project directory. The file "categoryConfig.xml" maps the CI with icons by CI category. CI categories can be arranged in a hierarchical way, so that if a child category does not define an icon, the icon of the parent category will be used.
    
2. Edit icon configuration file to add a new entry. For example, to define an icon for category "Database", you enter the following line in the icon configuration file:
   <category code="Database" image="database.gif" />
    
    Image files are stored in the directory "images" under project.
    
3. Verify the XML syntax. You can use Microsoft Internet Explorer to check the correctness of an xml file.
4. Save the icon configuration file
5. Restart the application to see the changes

Creating Sub-graph

You can also create views that show only a subset of CI instances and relationships. It is called a sub-graph. You can create a sub-graph by following these steps:

• Right-mouse click on a CI node to open the node popup menu
• Select menu item "New Subgraph View..."
• Enter a name for the view (a directory will be created in the project folder using this name)
• Select sub-graph type: outbound sub-graph, inbound sub-graph, or all-direction sub-graph (explained below)
• (Optional) Select the check box if you want to create a tight sub-graph (explained below)

The creation of a new Sub-graph View could fail if

• A view name (directory name) already exists
• A view name has characters that are not allowed in a director name

A sub-graph type defines the directions that your sub-graph is going to traverse. The picture below shows the difference in these three sub-graph types.

Tight Sub-graph

A sub-graph can be "loose" or "tight". "Loose" means there are branches in the sub-graph that travels in the opposite direction. For example, an outbound sub-graph (going downstream) has some upstream branches because some nodes have multiple parent nodes. "Tight" sub-graph, on the other hand, can not have these extra branches. For example, a tight inbound sub-graph (going upstream) should not have more than one outbound (downstream) path. The picture below explains the difference between a "loose" sub-graph and a "tight" sub-graph.

Showing Relationship

Click "Relationship View" tool button to display the view that only shows the immediate upstream and downstream relationships of the selected CI node.

The middle node is the current selected node. The left side nodes are the upstream (parents) nodes and the right side nodes are the downstream (children) nodes. Click the arrow buttons at left or right side to drill up or drill down.

Superposing Incident, Change and Problem Information

Incident, Change or Problem information can be superposed on top of a Graph View or Flat View. To superpose the Incident information, follow these steps:

1. Open Graph View popup menu by right-mouse click in empty space in the view
2. Select menu option "Show Incident Info"
3. Incident count is displayed under the CI icon in Graph View, and a color bar with the Incident number appears
4. By default only open incidents are counted. You can change the incident status selection in the Incident Color Bar
5. To change the color scheme, click the "Edit" icon in Color Bar
6. Click the CI node to display the details of the incidents in the "Incident" tab of the Detail Panel
7. Right-mouse click on an incident in the "Incident" tab to open views in Incident Views

The Color Bar Editor allows you to define the number of colors you use (Color Steps), what colors you use (Start Color and End Color) and the mapping between incident count and the color (Incidents per Step).

Follow similar steps to superpose the Change or Problem information.

Tip: To display the count number on top of the graph in radial layout (there could be many overlapped nodes), close and then open the Incident Color Bar again so that the incident numbers can be redrawn on top of the graph.

Drawing Impact Path

Steps to show an impact path:

1.  Right-mouse click on a CI or service node and then select "Show Impact Path..."
2. "Create Impact Path" dialog is displayed
3. Select upstream level and downstream level in the "Create Impact Path" dialog
4. Click "OK" button in the "Create Impact Path" dialog

To remove all impact path, open view popup menu and select "Clear All Impact Path".

Cross Referencing

Cross referencing allows users to quickly jump from one view to another. There are many places in the CMDB Analyzer that cross referencing is available. For example, you can launch Incident or Change views in CI View Detail Panel, or you can launch CI View from CI Type View. Cross referencing is usually available by right-mouse click on an item.

Showing Incident Priority On CI

If a CI has associated Incidents, then you can map incident priority to CI status ("Critical", "Warning" and "OK") which will be propagated all the way to the root node. If you connect to a APM database, then the Incident Impact value is used instead of Incident Priority value.

To enable the displaying of Incident priority,

1. Open "Main View"
2. Click "CI View Preferences" on Graph View toolbar
3. Select "Show Incident Priority"
4. Check "Show Incident Priority On CI"
5. Map the Incident Priorities to CI Status
6. Press "OK"
7. Save the "Main View"

NOTE: "Graph View Preferences" is only available on "Main View" and is a global setting that affects all CI Views, CI Explorers, SLA Views and Service Maps in the project.

Manual Setting CI Status

You can set CI status manually by right-mouse click on the CI and select either "OK", "Warning" or "Critical" status. Manual status propagates to the top node in the Graph View. The manual status setting also affects Service Maps as well as SLA Views. If you have "Show Incident Priority" turn on, the CI status mapped from Incident are overridden by manual status.

NOTE: Manual status setting also has global affect on all CI Views, CI Explorers, SLA Views and Service Maps in the project.

Using SmartZoom

SmartZoom allows you to spread out otherwise crowded graph nodes and relationship lines in the graph instead of just changing the size of the graph nodes. You can use the mouse wheel or the zoom buttons in the toolbar to perform smart zoom. SmartZoom is only available in the radial layout.

Using Object Magnifier

You can use Object Magnifier to view parts of the graph in great detail, or use it as an overview window to have a bird view of the whole graph. The CIs and relationships in the Object Magnifier window are alive - you can perform any mouse or keyboard actions as if you are working in the main view window.

Zoom out and turn magnifier into an overviewer:

Basic Object Magnifier Mouse Operations :

• Drag Magnifier Spotter to target a specific area to magnify. The crosshair of the Magnifier Spotter is always aligned with the Crosshair in the Magnifier Window.
• Drag the Crosshair in Magnifier Window and release it. Both Crosshair and Magnifier Spotter will align again.
• Drag the Magnifier Window title bar to move the window.
• Drag the Magnifier Window border to resize the window.
• Use mouse wheel in the Magnifier Spotter to zoom.
• Use mouse wheel in the Magnifier Window to zoom.
• Use mouse to pan, pick CI instances and relationships, popup menus, and so on - as if in main view window.

Taking Snapshot

Click "Snapshot" button on the CI View toolbar to take a snapshot of the view and copy it to the clipboard. The snapshot image only covers the visible view area.

Tip: Use "Export Image" option to export the whole graph to an image file.

Exporting Image

To export the whole graph to an image file, click "Export" on the CI Graph View toolbar and select "Export Image...". You can either export to a gif file or to a TIF file. The following table shows the difference between these two image file formats:

Finding CI

Open the "Search CI" window to search for a CI or service. Search is done using full text search by the CI key attributes including CI label, CI type, CI category, asset tag, serial number, etc.

Printing

Click "Print" on the CI View toolbar to pop up the print preview window.

Options in the print preview window:

• Select page orientation - Landscape or Portrait
• Scale the whole graph to fit into a single page
• Scale preview window
• Start to print

Working with CI Flat View

Click the "Flat View" tab to view all CI nodes including Service node in a flat format without overlapping.

Working with CI Tabular View

Customizing CI Table Columns

The table columns in the CI Tabular View can be customized. Follow these steps to customize table columns:

1. Click "Configure Table Column" button in the toolbar to bring up Configure Table Column window.
2. Select the CI attribute fields by clicking the check boxes and the selected fields are moved down to the "Selected CI Attribute" table.
3. (Optional) Remove the CI attribute fields by clicking the "Delete" button in the "Selected CI Attribute" table.
4. Click "OK" button
5. Click "Save" button in Graph View

NOTE: CI Tabular View always displays these columns: Icon, CI Type, Description and Category.

The customized columns will appear in other CI related tables, such as in the CI Type View and in the CI Category View.

The selectable CI attribute fields in the "Configure Table Column" window are defined in the project "query.xml" file. You can modify the query to add your customized CI attribute fields. See Customizing Database Query for details.

Exporting CSV

You can export the CI table to a CSV file by clicking the "Export As CSV File" tool button.

Working with CI Explorer

CI Explorer is very similar to CI View. The only difference is the Graph View in the CI Explorer has the ability to expand/collapse graph on the fly.

Creating CI Explorer

You create CI Explorer from CI Graph View just like to create a sub-graph view by right-mouse click on a CI node or Service node and select "Show In CI Explorer" and then "New CI Explorer...". You can rename and delete CI Explorers in the same way as to rename and delete a CI View.

Understanding Sticky Nodes

Sticky nodes (with a distinguish yellow color background) are special nodes that are always visible in the CI Explorer.  Your exploration starts from sticky nodes by expanding upstream and downstream. When you collapse its upstream connections (parents), a sticky node becomes one of the root node in the graph. Non-sticky nodes are only visible through the expanding of sticky nodes.

Sticky nodes can be added from other CI graph views by opening node popup menu, selecting "Show In CI Explorer" and then selecting a CI explorer (or creating a new CI Explorer). You can also set or remove stick nodes through the node popup menu. The CI Explorer only saves the sticky nodes not the entire graph.

Expanding and Collapsing

CI Explorer gives you the control of expand/collapse a CI graph. You start with one sticky node and you walk through the graph by expanding specific levels either upstream (parents) or downstream (children). Or you can work on one level at a time by click the expand/collapse symbols on CI nodes.

You have the following navigation options in the node popup menu:

• Expand Parent Level
• Expand Child Level
• Expand All
• Collapse All
• Set/Remove Sticky

Working with Assembly View

Working with Incidents Views

Incident related views are grouped under Incident Views.

Incident Summary View

Incident Summary View lists all incidents in a tabular format. Cross referencing to CI View and Category View are available through right-mouse click on an incident row.

Customize Summary View Table Columns

The table columns in the Incident Summary View can be customized. Follow these steps to customize table columns:

1. Click "Configure Incident Attribute Fields" button in the toolbar to bring up "Config Incident Attribute" window.
2. Select the Incident attribute fields by clicking the check boxes and the selected fields are moved down to the "Selected Incident  Attribute" table.
3. Remove the Incident  attribute fields by clicking the "Delete" button in the "Selected Incident Attribute" table.
4. Click "OK" to confirm the Incident  attribute fields you selected
5. Incident Summary View updates its columns
6. Click "Save" button in the view toolbar to save the column configuration.

The customized columns will appear in other Incident related tables, such as in Incident Category View and in the Incident tab of CI View Detail Panel.

The selectable Incident attribute fields in the Config Incident Attribute window are defined in the project query.xml file. You can modify the query to add your customized Incident attribute fields. See Customizing Database Query for details.

Incident Category View

Incident category view organizes incidents in categories. "Total Incident #" is the incident count of the specified category including all incidents of its descendents. Click the "Flat View" button in the toolbar to flat the table, so that sorting of columns is enabled.

Incident Group View

Incident Group View groups incidents in Clients, Category and Staff&Group. If you choose "Show Open Incident Age", the group box displays the aging information of current open incidents.

If you choose "Show Incident Status", the group box displays the open incident count and closed incident count.

Working with Change Views

Change related views are grouped under Change Views.

Change Summary View

Change Summary View lists all changes in a tabular format. Cross referencing to Category View is available through right-mouse click on a change.

Customize Summary View Table Columns

The table columns in the Change Summary View can be customized. Follow these steps to customize table columns:

1. Click "Configure Change Attribute Fields" button in the toolbar to bring up "Config Change Attribute" window.
2. Select the Change attribute fields by clicking the check boxes and the selected fields are moved down to the "Selected Change Attribute" table.
3. Remove the Change attribute fields by clicking the "Delete" button in the "Selected Change Attribute" table.
4. Click "OK" to confirm the Change attribute fields you selected
5. Change Summary View updates its columns
6. Click "Save" button in the view toolbar to save the column configuration.

The customized columns will appear in other Change related tables, such as in Change Category View and in the Change tab of CI View Detail Panel.

The selectable Change attribute fields in the Config Change Attribute window are defined in the project query.xml file. You can modify the query to add your customized Change attribute fields. See Customizing Database Query for details.

Change Category View

Change category view organizes changes in categories. "Total Change #" is the change count of the specified category including all changes of its descendents. Click the "Flat View" button in the toolbar to flat the table, so that sorting of columns is enabled.

Change Calendar View

The Change Calendar View provides a grand view of all changes in a user defined period. A colored box represents the number of changes in a particular day. Different color indicates different number of changes.

Click the colored box to display the Change details for that day. You can configure the color map and other Calendar View properties by clicking the "Configure Calendar View" toolbar button.

Working with SLA View

The attribute pane displays the detail information of the selected SLA, Service or Organization.

NOTE: If a SLA is associated with more than one Service, multiple SLA nodes are created for the same SLA to avoid drawing multi-parents relationships. 

Building Service Map

If you have services defined in SDE, you can create a service map that graphically displays services on top of any image you choose. Service maps also display the total number of incidents for each service propagated from all descend services and CIs.

Creating New Service Map

• To create a new service map, right-mouse click on the "Service Maps" tree node in the project panel and select "New Service Map".
• To duplicate a service map, click "Duplicate" on the service map toolbar.

Adding Service Nodes

• To add a service node, drag a service on the left-side tree to the map area.
• To remove a service node from the map, right-mouse click the service node and then select "Remove".
• Click the "Save" button in the toolbar to save the service map.

Configuring Graphic Properties

To change service node graphic attributes and service map image, click "Graphics Options" on the service map toolbar.

Cross Launching

You can launch SDE ConfigItem, Service, Incident, Change and Problem pages from CMDB Analyzer, and you can also launch CMDB Analyzer from SDE page by using the CMDB Analyzer's command line interface.

Launching SDE Pages Within CMDB Analyzer

Note: this feature is only available for Server projects.

URLs that are used to launch SDE pages are defined in the project creation window. You can modify these URLs by opening the project's preference window.

Steps to launch the SDE ConfigItem page:

• In CI Graph View, right-mouse click on a CI node and select menu item "Show In SDE Configuration Item Page"
• If you don't have an open SDE session, you will be redirected to a SDE login page and after login you need to select this menu again
• The SDE ConfigItem page will popup showing the selected CI

Steps to launch the SDE Incident page:

• In the CI View Incident tab, right-mouse click on an incident and select menu item "Show In SDE Incident Page".
• If you don't have an open SDE session, you will be redirected to a SDE login page and after login you need to select this menu again.
• The SDE Incident page will popup showing the incident of what you have selected in the Incident tab.
• You can also launch Incident page from Incident Summary View and Incident Category View.

Steps to launch the SDE Change page:

• In the CI View Change tab, right-mouse click on a change and select menu item "Show In SDE Change Page".
• If you don't have an open SDE session, you will be redirected to a SDE login page and after login you need to select this menu again.
• The SDE Change page will popup showing the change of what you have selected in the Change tab.
• You can also launch Change page from Change Summary View and Change Category View.

Steps to launch the SDE Problem page:

• In the CI View Problem tab, right-mouse click on a problem and select menu item "Show In SDE Problem Page".
• If you don't have an open SDE session, you will be redirected to a SDE login page and after login you need to select this menu again.
• The SDE Problem page will popup showing the problem of what you have selected in the Problem tab.

Launching CMDB Analyzer Within SDE

CMDB Analyzer for SDE supports a command line interface which you can use to launch CMDB Analyzer from other applications.

For example, run command in the CMDB Analyzer installation directory:

"sdeAnz.exe -workspace workspace/demo -project myProject -dbserver myServer -dbname sde -user administrator -instanceId 1107"

to launch CMDB Analyzer to create a server project "myProject" in workspace "demo" and to open CI View with CI (sequence 1107) highlighted in the center of the view.

The following is a list of available arguments:

• -workspace The workspace that contains the project
• -project The project name, if not specified default to database server name
• -dbserver The database server
• -dbname The database name
• -user Database admin account
• -instanceId  CI sequence number
• -sdeurl SDE Server URL (http://myServer/sde)
• -incidenturl URL to show incident page in SDE, if not specified default to "Commonframe.aspx?strFormSeq=6"
• -changeurl URL to show change page in SDE, if not specified default to "Commonframe.aspx?strFormSeq=56"

NOTE: You must first "cd" to the CMDB Analyzer installation directory and then run the command. You can write a batch file to accomplish this. A batch file can be launched by a correct path name from anywhere in the system.

Customizing Database Query

The Query File

SDE database queries that are used by CMDB Analyzer are defined in the file "query.xml" in the project folder. A master copy of this file is in the "system\bridges\com.blg.bmc.sde\config" folder. The master query file gets copied into the project folder once a project is created. If you modified the master copy, all new created project will inherit the modified query file. You can use an xml editor or any text editor to edit the query file. You have to make sure that the xml syntax is valid before save the file. The following is a sample query for CI:

<query id="ConfigItem">
<select>
    <!-- System Core Fields, Don't Modify!! -->
    <field id="F_Sequence" label="Sequence">Sequence</field>
    <field id="F_TypeID" label="Type ID">Seq.Catalog</field>
    <field id="F_AssemblyID" label="Assembly ID">Seq.Configuration</field>
    <field id="F_ComponentID" label="Component ID">Seq.AssemblyItem</field>
    <!-- End of System Core Fields -->

    <!-- Default form fields, set enabled="false" to disable this field -->
    <field id="F_AssetTag" label="Asset Tag" enabled="true">Asset/Tag #</field>
    <field id="F_VendorID" label="Vendor ID" enabled="true">Vendor ID</field>
    <field id="F_SerialNum" label="Serial #" enabled="true">Serial #</field>
     .....
    <field id="F_CurrentBookValue" label="Current Book Value" enabled="true">Current Book Value</field>
    <field id="F_StockLocation" label="Stock Location" enabled="true">Stock Location</field>
    <!-- End of default form fields -->

    <!-- Fields displayed in the CI Attribute Custom Form-->
    <field id="CF_Desc" custom="true" label="Description" enabled="true">Part Description</field>
    <field id="CF_PartNum" custom="true" label="Part #" enabled="true">Part #</field>
    <field id="CF_VendorName" custom="true" label="Vendor Name" enabled="true">Vendor Name</field>
    <!-- End of custom attribute form fields -->
</select>
<from>"_SMDBA_"."Inventory Items"</from>
<other>where "InActive:" = 0</other>
</query>
 

<query id="ConfigItem">
Identifies the query for CI.

<select>
Equivalents to the "Select" statement in SQL

<field id="" label="" enabled="" custom=""> (Database Table Column Name) </field>
Defines a column in the database table.

Field types:

• System Core Field - if a field is designated as "System Core", don't delete or modify it because system core fields are critical for the application to run.
• Default Field - if a field is designated as "Default Form Field", it is for display only. You can delete/modify the field, but don't add a new field.
• Custom Field - if you want to see extra fields, add fields to the "Custom Field" section. For a custom field, you need to assign a unique ID for it and set attribute custom="true".

Field attributes:

• id - field ID is always required. Don't change the field id in the "System Core Field" or "Default Field".
• label - display label for this field.
• enabled - if not specified, the field is default to "enabled". A disabled field means a field is removed. System core fields should always be enabled.
• custom - a custom field must have this attribute set to "true"

<from> (Database Table Name) </from>
Specifies a SDE database table name.

<other> (SQL statements after "From") </other>
You can put "where" clause, "Group by", and other valid SQL statements in the <other> tag. For example, to retrieve CI records whose Catalog sequence # is 1005:

<other>where "Seq.Catalog" = 1005</other>

NOTE: A query must have at least one system core field, but default fields and custom fields are optional.

Customizing The Query File

Using the CI query as an example, the followings are typical scenarios that you have to modify the query file:

If you want to see more CI fields in the CI custom attribute tab in CI View:

        Add more custom field entries in the Custom Fields block of the query

If you want to exclude a default  or a custom field:

        Set enabled="false" in the field you want to exclude

If you want to have a different column label in the CI View detail pane:

        Change the "label" attribute in the field

If you have customized the CI database table and changed column names:

        Modify the <field> tag to reflect the column name change

If you have changed the CI database table name, or you want to query CI data from a different table:

        Change the table name in the <from> tag

If you want to define query search criteria:

       Add SQL "Where" clause in the <other> tag

Customizing Query File Best Practice:

• Always make backups of the query file. Your project won't run if the query file is corrupted.
• Always use a proper XML reader/editor to valid the XML syntax after modification.
• Don't modify core fields.
• All field IDs in a query must be unique.
• Use "where" clause or other SQL techniques to avoid loading excessive amount of data into the application.
• Set field attribute enabled="false" in Default or Custom fields to improve performance and lower application memory size for large data records.
• Set field attribute custom="true" for all custom fields.

NOTE: Each exported data directory contains a copy of query.xml file along with the data files. Don't modify this query file, as it stores the data field definitions for all exported data files.