According to the configpedia, Tideway is able to see the IIS Metabase. How can I scan a webserver and get back a list of websites and/or web services running on that webserver (specifically IIS)?

Try this in the generic query (click on the search “magnifier” icon at the top right, then the generic query link)

That’s cool. At least the UI is aware of the sites.

So are the individual sites stored as separate CIs or only attributes of the Microsoft IIS Service, Software Instance(s)?

It’s more than just the UI it’s stored in the model. That extensibility is key to the way the Foundation product works by not restricting to you to a rigid schema.

Many SoftwareInstance nodes will have additional attributes set on them that will store product specific information.

In the Microsoft IIs Service case these additional attributes are:
metabase_update, web_sites, web_sites_list

When you view the pattern documentation on Configipedia you will see a details box on the top right next to the index box. If you click on the “Reports & Attributes” section you will get a full breakdown of the attributes set in the pattern and frequently some search query strings for interesting reports.

If you look at the Microsoft IIS Service – Reports & Attributes you will see the detail for the attributes I mention and some example reports relating to recent advisories around the product. Alongside that you might be interested in the Patch Updates and Product Lifecycle details as well.

There is also a Video Tutorial on reporting on product attributes that you might find useful as well as a general one on how the TKU Product Patterns work.

Hopefully that all helps!

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 10:23 AM

Many SoftwareInstance nodes will have additional attributes set on them that will store product specific information.

In the Microsoft IIs Service case these additional attributes are:
metabase_update, web_sites, web_sites_list

If these sites are only stored as attributes of a CI, and not as individual CIs, then how can individual sites be linked to other CIs, such as a business owner, developer, customer notification list, etc.?

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 10:23 AM

There is also a Video Tutorial on reporting on product attributes that you might find useful as well as a general one on how the TKU Product Patterns work.

I’m getting an error when I click on the TKU Product Patterns link.

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wearnest@teleflora.com - 22 October 2008 01:54 PM

I’m getting an error when I click on the TKU Product Patterns link.

That’s a known occasional error on the video tutorials when accessed from a direct link on the forum, apologies for that. We’re working on it and in the mean time, despite the errors, the video should play back correctly.

If not access it from the Online Tutorials page.

wearnest@teleflora.com - 22 October 2008 01:54 PM

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 10:23 AM

Many SoftwareInstance nodes will have additional attributes set on them that will store product specific information.

In the Microsoft IIs Service case these additional attributes are:
metabase_update, web_sites, web_sites_list

If these sites are only stored as attributes of a CI, and not as individual CIs, then how can individual sites be linked to other CIs, such as a business owner, developer, customer notification list, etc.?

Any comment on relating individual sites to other CIs?

wearnest@teleflora.com - 22 October 2008 06:32 PM

If these sites are only stored as attributes of a CI, and not as individual CIs, then how can individual sites be linked to other CIs, such as a business owner, developer, customer notification list, etc.?

The pattern language makes it easy to define various types of CI and their relationships, and by default the IIS pattern does indeed store them as just a list. Obviously no two environments have the same requirements, but the good news is that if the individual sites under IIS were significant enough in a given environment, then it’s quite easy to alter. The default pattern defines the SoftwareInstance and it’s attributes; it could just as easily create more SoftwareInstances from the websites, creating the relationships (with provenance) between them as well.

edited for clarity.

wearnest@teleflora.com - 22 October 2008 06:32 PM

Any comment on relating individual sites to other CIs?

Sorry for not answering earlier, we support the forum on a best efforts basis and sometimes everyday work gets in the way :)

It depends on what you want to achieve. In the Foundation model data is stored as Nodes with attributes interconnected with Relationships. I recommend you read the short primer on Configipedia to help you understand the system better.

Some Configuration Items it makes sense to model as a Node and for some others that would be overkill so they are modelled as attributes on Nodes; for instance modelling the RAM in a Host is overkill to have a RAM Node when a Host.ram attribute will serve.

For many people the websites being served by a webserver are just interesting properties of the server. Maybe they are used just in a basic report, or so that they can be quickly searched on to find the servers supporting them. An attribute serves these needs efficiently.

(By the way have you tried the free text search – try putting the website you are interested in the search box – all of the attributes are freely searchable)

In other scenarios you might want to link a number of servers together because they collaborate to provide a service. In this case you would write a pattern to build a node to represent this service and you can use the existing attribute to search for the appropriate servers. I’d use a BusinessApplicationInstance node for this rather than the SoftwareInstance as Mark suggests; as I suggested in my response to you on the “How do I create custom CIs“ thread BAIs can be used to represent business processes.

Without knowing in detail your needs I think I would recommend modelling the business purpose of the logical collections of your websites as BAI nodes, which you could then relate to Person nodes to represent Owners, Developers etc.

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 08:10 PM

Sorry for not answering earlier, we support the forum on a best efforts basis and sometimes everyday work gets in the way :)

I posted these questions to this forum because I was asked to do so by Chris Walton (a Tideway representative), as he said this is the best way to get answers from the people that actually know the answers. I made the assumption that he was telling the truth. If your everyday work doesn’t involve answering questions for potential customers, then please let me know who I should speak with. I am simply trying to evaluate Tideway as a potential CMDB solution and need clarification of how your product works.

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 08:10 PM

It depends on what you want to achieve. In the Foundation model data is stored as Nodes with attributes interconnected with Relationships. I recommend you read the short primer on Configipedia to help you understand the system better.

This link was very helpful. Thank you.

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 10:23 AM

There is also a Video Tutorial on reporting on product attributes that you might find useful as well as a general one on how the TKU Product Patterns work.

I have watched the video, “Find Out How a Tideway Pattern Works Tutorial”, several times now. While it does a decent job of explaining how to scroll through a web page and read the subject headings, it unfortunately does very little to explain how Tideway patterns work.

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 08:10 PM

Some Configuration Items it makes sense to model as a Node and for some others that would be overkill so they are modelled as attributes on Nodes; for instance modelling the RAM in a Host is overkill to have a RAM Node when a Host.ram attribute will serve.

For many people the websites being served by a webserver are just interesting properties of the server. Maybe they are used just in a basic report, or so that they can be quickly searched on to find the servers supporting them. An attribute serves these needs efficiently.

(By the way have you tried the free text search – try putting the website you are interested in the search box – all of the attributes are freely searchable)

Yes, I have tried the search. The problem is, that not all attributes are displayed for these nodes. This makes viewing the data very frustrating. Is the list of attributes for a given node type configurable to the extent that I can choose which attributes to display or not?

Example: If I search for “Default Web Site”, I get a list with the results File and Software Instance. If I click on Software Instance, I get a list of two nodes of type Microsoft IIS Service along with the corresponding Host. If I click on either of these, I get a detailed view of the Software Instance, with absolutely no reference to the website I just searched for.

Charles Oldham - 22 October 2008 08:10 PM

In other scenarios you might want to link a number of servers together because they collaborate to provide a service. In this case you would write a pattern to build a node to represent this service and you can use the existing attribute to search for the appropriate servers. I’d use a BusinessApplicationInstance node for this rather than the SoftwareInstance as Mark suggests; as I suggested in my response to you on the “How do I create custom CIs“ thread BAIs can be used to represent business processes.

Without knowing in detail your needs I think I would recommend modelling the business purpose of the logical collections of your websites as BAI nodes, which you could then relate to Person nodes to represent Owners, Developers etc.

Again, if this is not the correct place to ask these questions, please point me in the right direction and I would gladly oblige.

Hi,

Just a quick demo of some TPL for you that you should be able to load into your pattern management page.

Copy the text below into something like wordpad. Save the file and then upload into the appliance.

This piece of code does nothing special – just put a little bit together for you to show you how you caould make use of the web site listing for IIS.

After loading the pattern and making it active, if you rescan a host that has an IIS SI on – then you should be able to click on the Applications TAB and see the results.

Code to copy:

Regards
Nik