VMware Application Discovery Manager Connector

This section of the documentation describes the details of the third-party application, that is, VMware ADM.

Alemba is currently reviewing and updating the whole of the connector section, including all subsections. Expect this section to be updated by end of June, 2025.

Including:

The name of the .NET assembly file
Connection methodology
The resource and link types that can be discovered on the application
The attributes of each resource and link types that can be imported into the ASM Core Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

For compatibility and version support details, refer to the ASM Connector Matrix.

You should familiarize yourself with the information in Installing Connectors before installing any connectors, and read the Integration topics for more information on how to configure them.

Use Case scenario

An organization uses ADM to discover and maintain resources present in its organization networks. The role of the connector is to expose these resources and their relationships to allow for population and ongoing consistency checks of the ASM Core CMDB.

Architecture

The Application Discovery Manager Connector requires the ADM reporting database provided by ADM for reporting purposes, as illustrated below.

Prerequisites

The Application Discovery Manager Connector requires the ADM reporting database for it to work. ADM provides an external reporting database which is designed for reporting purposes. This reporting database can be created for SQL Server or Oracle. The connection parameters are the login ID and other settings needed to connect ASM Core to the external database or reporting database.

For information on how to set up the external report database, including how to synchronize it regularly with the live ADM repository, read the ADM documentation.

Connector Description

The table below provides a description of the Application Discovery Manager Connector.

Information Fields

Name

Connector name

VMware ADM <-> ASM Core

Third-party application

VMware ADM

Assembly

Infra.Connector.VMware.ADM.dll

Connector class

Infra.Connector.VMware.ADM.ADMConnector

Configuration file

Infra.Connector.VMware.ADM.icnf

Connection methodology

Database

Connection Parameters

The table below provides the list of connection parameters of the Application Discovery Manager Connector.

Fields

Description

Database connection

Connection String

Database login ID

Database password

Password

Database type

SQL Server, Oracle

Additional Information

The connection parameters for this connector must grant the source access to the ADM External Reporting Database.

For information on how to set up the external reporting database, including how to synchronize it regularly with the live ADM repository, read the ADM documentation.

SQL Server

If the external reporting database is hosted by the SQL Server, the account used by the connector to connect to that database must be configured with the OLAP schema as its default schema.

Run the following SQL statements against the database to pre-configure the account:

USE <DATABASE_NAME>
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_owner', N'<CONNECTOR_USER>'
ALTER USER <CONNECTOR_USER> WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA=olap
GO

where <DATABASE_NAME> is the name of the ADM external reporting database and <CONNECTOR_USER> is the login name of the account to be used by the connector.

See Setting SQL User Account to Use OLAP as Default Schema for more details on how to configure the account in SQL Server. Alemba recommends that you review this with the Database Administrator.

Oracle

If you are connecting to Oracle, note that only Oracle drivers should be used to access it.

Customization

The Application Discovery Manager Connector permits extensions to the schema through customization of the configuration file. The possible customizations are:

New Resource Types
New Resource Properties
New Link Types

The customizations are not limited to the ones listed above.

Connector Diagnostics

The connector has the facility to trace information. The data can be obtained through Polling tracing or Application tracing.

Resolve functionality

The Resolve functionality can be accessed through the Federated CMDB Integration Platform when setting up mappings between third-party resource fields and ASM Core fields.

Active Directory allows specifying a manager value for every user.

This is how the Resolve functionality handles this particular Active Directory Manager field:

Background

One Active Directory user possesses one Active Directory Manager

Expected operation

In the context of the Microsoft Active Directory Server Connector, the Resolve capability allows the importation of both user and its manager, and also the creation of a link between them. If the manager cannot be found or imported, or if it is not mapped, the Resolve functionality would resort to a default user-defined value for the Manager field in the ASM Core person details.

The default Active Directory schema is a maximum of one manager user.

Resource Types

Resource types for ADM

The following table lists the resource types for different version of VMware ADM.

Resource Type

Properties in ADM 5.3

Properties in ADM 6.0/6.2/6.2.2

Database

Database server and instance information. Several instances may exist for each server.

Vendor – Vendor of the database

Server Name – Database Server Name

Database Instance – Database Instance

Vendor — Vendor of the database

Server Name — Database Server Name

Database Instance — Database Instance

Group (View)

(A built-in or user-defined grouping of related elements within ADM)

Name

Description

Time Created

Creator

Time of Modification

Modified By

In ADM 6.0/6.2/6.2.2, Group has dynamically generated sub-types in the same way that Service does. The ADM 5.3 "Group (View)" is just a singular resource type like the others.

Group Type

Name

Description

Time Created

Creator

Time of Modification

Modified By

Group (system view)

(A built-in or user-defined grouping of related elements within ADM)

Name

Description

Time Created

Creator

Time of Modification

Modified By

Name

Description

Time Created

Creator

Time of Modification

Modified By

Group Type

Java EE Application

(Java Enterprise Edition Application: Application Server, JEE Application, and modules such as jar, war, ear, and so on)

Server Name — Application Server

Server Config Path — Application Server Configuration Path

Application Name — JEE Application

Application Description

Application Path

Server Name — Application Server

Server Config Path — Application Server Configuration Path

Application Name — JEE Application

Application Description

Application Path

Network Element

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

Element ID

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

Router

Element ID

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

Element ID

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

Switch

Element ID

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

Element ID

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

Physical Host

Element ID

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

OS Build

OS Build Type

OS Service Pack

OS Language

OS Kernel Version

OS Kernel Release

OS Swap Memory

OS Physical Memory

CPU Model

CPU Vendor

CPU Family

CPU Clock Speed

CPU Cache Size

CPU Stepping

CPU Description

CPU Count

Element ID

primary Hostname

primary IP

Vendor

Description

OS Name

OS Family

OS Type

OS Build

OS Build Type

OS Service Pack

OS Language

OS Kernel Version

OS Kernel Release

OS Swap Memory

OS Physical Memory

CPU Model

CPU Vendor

CPU Family

CPU Clock Speed

CPU Cache Size

CPU Stepping

CPU Description

CPU Count

Service

A software service running on the network element usually exposed through a network port.

Resource types are dynamically created for each service category such as Application Server, Web Server, and so on.

Name

Vendor

Version

Link Types

This section lists the link types that the connector discovers on ADM v5.3 and v6.0/6.2/6.2.2 systems. The connector then imports the link types discovered in ADM into the ASM Core CMDB.

ADM 5.3

ADM 6.0/6.2/6.2.2

Name

Higher resource types

Lower resource types

Higher resource types

Lower resource types

Database connected to

Database

Service

Database

Service

Group to Network Element

Group (view)

Network Element

Group

Network Element

Group to Service

Group (view)

Service

Group

Service

Group System to Network Element

Group (System view)

Network Element

Group (System view)

Network Element

Group System to Service

Group (System view)

Service

Group (system view)

Service

Application Run On

Java EE Application

Service

Java EE Application

Service

Documented Dependency (Network Element)

Network Element

Service

Network Element

Service

Network Connection

Network Element

Service

Network Element

Service

Documented Dependency (Service)

Service

Service Network Connection

Service

Service Hosted Link

Service

Network Element

Service

Network Element

Host Virtualized On

Virtual Host

Virtual Container

Setting SQL User Account to Use OLAP as Default Schema

When using a SQL Server connection to connect to the ADM External Reporting Database, the SQL account must be set to use the OLAP schema by default.

The following instructions can be used to achieve this in SQL Server.

It is recommended to consult the Database Administrator for the complete instructions on how to do this.

Open SQL Server Management Studio. Drill-down in the tree-view on the left-hand side to Security\Logins:
- Security
- Logins
Right-click on Logins and select New Login...
Enter a Login Name, select SQL Server authentication and enter the password.
If desired, deselect the Enforce password policy and the Enforce password expiration options.
- If deselected, the user must change the password at next login.
Set the Default Database to ADM database.
In the User Mapping option, select Map to ADM database.
In the tree-view on the left-hand side, drill-down to Databases\ADM database\Security\Users
- Databases
- ADM database
- Security
- Users
Double-click on the new user which has the same name as the Login created above.
Change the Default schema to olap.
Under schemas owned by this user, select olap. This completes the configuration of the SQL user in SQL Server to use the OLAP schema by default.

For Database login, ensure that under Server Roles, no checkboxes are selected and under User Mapping, only Public is selected.

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