JDisc Discovery

JDisc Discovery makes an inventory of whole networks and recognizes all important operating systems (including HP-UX, Solaris and AIX). It recognizes hardware and software, IP networks, Windows domains and Active Directory. In addition, JDisc Discovery identifies all important virtualization technologies, as well as many cluster environments.

Installation#

The installation of JDisc server components on a Microsoft Windows system (preferably the server version) is required for its operation. The necessary installation files can be downloaded via the following web address:

https://JDisc.com/downloads/

During the setup you will be asked which passwords are to be used for the PostgreSQL-DBMS, which is applied in the background. This concerns the administrative account postgres and the account postgresro, which only has read permission for the JDisc database. The latter account is required for the interface to i-doit. Besides, with the setup you have to specify that the PostgreSQL instance should be accessible to the outside. As a default, it observes port 25321. You have to activate the port in the Windows firewall.

The JDisc documentation can be found at https://JDisc.com/support/documentation/. If you have any questions regarding the installation or configuration of JDisc, please contact the manufacturer's support https://JDisc.com/support/.

Configuration#

The configuration of the interface is under Administration → Import and interfaces → JDisc → JDisc configuration. You can define any number of instances of JDisc Discovery. This allows complex inventory scenarios with separated networks.

Common Settings#

After the parameters are saved, you can test the connection to the JDisc database with the Check connection button.

To archive objects that have not been seen by JDisc for a certain number of e.g. X days, the threshold value and the threshold value unit must be set under Administration → [Tenant name] management → Settings for [Tenant name] → JDisc.

Discovery settings#

The user can activate a scan with the configured JDisc instance with i-doit. For this purpose, the JDisc Discovery web service is used, provided it is installed and activated.

After saving the parameters, you can test whether the configuration was successful with the Check connection button.

JDisc profiles#

The JDisc profiles of i-doit provide the possibility to define the connection of object types and their attributes between JDisc and i-doit. Under Administration → Import and interfaces → JDisc → JDisc profiles you can specify how the objects found by JDisc find their way into the IT documentation.

The i-doit default installation already provides a predefined example profile. The Example profile serves as an example of how you can setup your JDisc profile in order to import the data inventoried by JDisc.

General configuration#

Object-type Assignment#

For each type in JDisc you can select an equivalent object type in i-doit. If none is selected, devices of this type will not be imported. The order of allocations is observed during import. In order to identify an allocation, the list is processed from top to bottom. For each line the matrix has the following structure:

Additional Options#

Categories which are JDisc specific or have related information:

• Access Point Controller
• Assigned Subscriptions
• Data source
• JDisc Custom Attributes
• JDisc Device Information
• JDisc Discovery
• Network → Connection endpoint
• Subscriptions
• Support Entitlements

Custom identifier#

We identify JDisc devices using a combination of factors, primarily the object type, serial number and MAC address. If available, we also use JDisc's internal unique identifier as an additional means of identification. The identification process is tailored to the respective object type and uses attributes such as title, serial number, host name, IP addresses, FQDN and MAC address. To avoid duplicate entries, we create a mapping relationship between JDisc and i-doit devices.

When importing objects, other sub-objects such as networks, software, clusters and other object types are also imported. In this case, we can use rules other than those defined in the "Object matching" section.

Import of Data via the Web GUI#

The import of data contents from JDisc is carried out via Extras → Import → JDisc.

Before you execute the import process, you have to define the import parameters.
Because it is possible to apply more than one JDisc server, you have to select the JDisc server in the first step. The profile which you defined beforehand can be also selected to influence the imported contents and their use. In addition, you can set the import mode. The Append import mode creates all found objects without checking whether these already exist. The Update import mode creates only objects which can't be found in the i-doit data pool. Categories of already existing objects are complemented (if necessary) with new data. The Overwrite import mode is, in principle, like the Update mode but with the difference that list categories are emptied first and are then recreated.

With the logging function you can influence the extent of the written log. A more extensive logging increases the import duration. When you carried out the settings completely, you can activate the import with Start the import. Please, consider that the duration of the import process depends both on the size of the JDisc database and the utilized hardware. When the import process is completed, a summary is displayed in the Result section. You can find the logs which are generated during import in the i-doit directory called log/.

While importing via the JDisc import, you can stop the import via the Pause button. Pressing the Pause button will pause the import for a set amount of time to free system resources. This can be controlled via the setting Maximum import pause within your i-doit settings for the JDisc-import. After the time limit is reached, the import will either be canceled or continued, depending on your setting for Paused import behaviour in your settings. The import can also be manually canceled or continued manually at any time. If the countdown is finished, the import will be canceled automatically. ou can also cancel the report by pressing the Cancel button, which is always available after starting the import. This will cancel the import at the current state. Already imported objects will still remain in your database.

The configuration can be found at Administration → Tenant Management → Settings for Tenant → JDisc.

Import via JDisc Discovery category#

You can update individual objects using the JDisc Discovery category. Here it is possible to scan the device using a specific identification (host address, FQDN and serial number).

You can add the category via the object type configuration of the object type.

Import via i-doit Console#

Importing data from JDisc to i-doit is not only possible manually via the user interface. It can also be executed via the i-doit Console and thus automated. How the corresponding call is generated can be found in the corresponding article with an example for the import-jdisc option.

For the import, the ID of the desired profile can be specified. The ID can be found in the list of profiles:

Also the ID of the JDisc server to be used can be specified. This can be found in the configuration:

A JDisc.ini might look like this more information about .ini files can be found here.

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[commandArguments]
[commandOptions]
user=admin
password=admin
tenantId=6
profile=1
group=
mode=1
server=2
overwriteHost
detailedLogging=3
regenerateSearchIndex
[additional]

If we assume that the JDisc.ini is located in the i-doit root directory, then the import is called with the ldap.ini from the i-doit root directory like this:

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sudo -u www-data php console.php import-jdisc -c JDisc.ini

Report views#

JDisc availability#

Under Report Manager -> Views you will find a report with the name JDisc availability, which compares i-doit objects with JDisc objects.

JDisc delete devices#

In JDisc gelöschte Objekte werden im Device Deletion Log protokolliert., which lists all objects which were imported from JDisc and are archived or deleted in i-doit. These objects can than be selected and than deleted in JDisc. The deleted objects will be logged in the Device Deletion Log** in JDisc.

FAQ#

The JDisc import uses a fixed memory_limit of 2G, if the search index exceeds this limit during the JDisc import the key system.memory-limit.JDisc = 3G should be added to the Expert settings.