Configuring device synchronization

You configure device synchronization to enable Netcool Configuration Manager to use Network Manager for network device discovery.

Before you begin

During Netcool Configuration Manager 6.4.2 installation you are asked if the product is to be integrated or not. If you select Yes the installer will ask the necessary questions to set up the configuration of device synchronization between Netcool Configuration Manager and Network Manager.

A default value of 24 hours (1440mins) is defined in the Netcool Configuration Manager rseries.properties file for the periodic synchronization with Network Manager.

For the initial synchronization, a large number of devices may already have been discovered by Network Manager, and it can take a considerable time before they are imported into Netcool Configuration Manager. (This also applies in a situation where the discovery scope is widened so that a significant number of new devices are added to Network Manager.)

Consequently the devices may not yet appear in the NMENTITYMAPPING table in the Netcool Configuration Manager database, and therefore the context tools (right-click tools) from Network Manager will not be available for those devices.

Tip: You can reduce this time by editing the rseries.properties file, and changing the mapping period to 60 (for example). This will speed up the process by which devices are added to the autodiscovery queue on Netcool Configuration Manager, but will not change the actual time to import each device configuration.

Tip:

If the password for the itnmadmin user has changed on Network Manager, update the locally stored copy on Netcool Configuration Manager as follows:

Use the icosadmin script located in /opt/IBM/tivoli/netcool/ncm/bin.

For example:

icosadmin ChangeNmPassword -u itnmadmin -p <new_password>

Also update the changed itnmadmin password manually by updating the following property in the rseries.properties file:

NMEntityMappingComponent/passwd=updated itnmadmin password

About this task

The configuration is stored in the rseries.properties file located in the following directory: <ncm-install-dir>/config/properties/

Network Manager:

NMEntityMappingComponent/baseURL=https://nmguiservername:16311
NMEntityMappingComponent/uri=/ibm/console/nm_rest/topology/devices/domain/NCOMS
NMEntityMappingComponent/uriParam=
NMEntityMappingComponent/uriProps=
#####Note: Complete URL = baseURL+uri+uriProps&uriParam 

NMEntityMappingComponent/delay=10 ## delay on startup before first run (in minutes) 
NMEntityMappingComponent/importRealm=ITNCM/@DOMAINNAME 
NMEntityMappingComponent/maxDevicesPerRealm=50 
NMEntityMappingComponent/ncmUser=administrator 
NMEntityMappingComponent/period=1440 ## Daily (in minutes) 
NMEntityMappingComponent/user=itnmadmin 
NMEntityMappingComponent/passwd=netcool ## Optional: Install stores securely
NMEntityMappingComponent/deviceNameFilter=
NMEntityMappingComponent/allowDuplicateDeviceForSeparateDomains=false
NMEntityMappingComponent/securityComponent=TLSv1.2

Note: You can edit this file and the component configuration properties after install if requirements change.

Before device synchronization runs for the first time ensure that the Network Manager Rest API user (in our example 'itnmadmin') has the ncp_rest_api role in DASH.

Device synchronization is now done by a new core component of Netcool Configuration Manager, and is therefore part of Netcool Configuration Manager Component configuration and started automatically when Netcool Configuration Manager starts. Component start up is configured in <ncm-install-dir>/config/server/config.xml

<component>
<name>NMEntityMappingComponent</name>
<class>com.intelliden.nmentitymapping.NMEntityMappingComponent</class>
</component>

Note: The NMEntityMappingComponent is configured by default so if you wish to stop it being started on Netcool Configuration Manager startup you can comment it out in the config.xml file.

Note: There is a limit of 50 imported devices per Realm in Netcool Configuration Manager. If there are more devices than this in a Network Manager domain, they will be added to sub-realms (labeled 001, 002, etc) in Netcool Configuration Manager.

Example

Troubleshooting NM Component

Verify that the component has started in file:

<NCM_INSTALL_DIR>/logs/Server.out 
Fri Jul 31 13:30:06 GMT+00:00 2015 - Starting component : NMEntityMappingComponent 
Fri Jul 31 13:30:06 GMT+00:00 2015 - All components started

Verify that the config.xml file has the component specified for startup

Verify that the NMEntityMapping table has the new columns required for the new component implementation:

"NMENTITYMAPPING" (
"UNIQUEKEY" BIGINT NOT NULL,
"ENTITYID" BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
"RESOURCEBROWSERID" BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
"DOMAINNAME" VARCHAR(64),
"JPAVERSION" BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
"ENTITYNAME" VARCHAR(255),
"ACCESSIPADDRESS" VARCHAR(64),
"SERIALNUMBER" VARCHAR(64),
"VENDORTYPE" VARCHAR(64),
"MODELNAME" VARCHAR(64),
"OSVERSION" VARCHAR(64),
"OSIMAGE" VARCHAR(255),
"OSTYPE" VARCHAR(64),
"HARDWAREVERSION" VARCHAR(64)
)

Ensure that the Network Manager Rest API user has the ncp_rest_api role in DASH.