Context

Tool mentors explain how a tool can perform tasks, which are part of ITUP processes and activities. The tasks are listed as Related Elements in the Relationships section.

You can see the details of how processes and activities are supported by this tool mentor, by clicking the links next to the icons:

•   Configuration Management
  •   Verify and Audit Configuration Items

Details

The IBM® Tivoli® Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM), a component of the Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB), is an agent-free tool for discovering CIs and provides complete and detailed application maps of business applications and supporting infrastructure, including cross-tier dependencies, run-time configuration values, and complete change history. Authorized CI definitions can be defined in CCMDB for particular CIs which are deemed critical to tightly manage.  CI audits can then be performed to compare the Authorized and Actual CI states to determine if there were unauthorized changes made to the CI.  This activity might be performed as part of a regulatory or internal controls compliance audit.  Using the capabilities defined herein will show what, if any, changes have been made to CIs outside of the Change Management process.

The verification and audit activity can be performed in one of two ways:

1. Identify a baseline or target CI configuration, and then compare other CIs to that configuration.
2. Identify recent changes to a CI over a specific time horizon.

This activity might be performed as part of a regulatory or internal controls compliance audit. Using the capabilities defined herein will show what, if any, changes have been made to CIs outside of the Change Management process.

1. Select the application or business service to be audited.

    

1. 1. Right-click the service or application icon (Order Management, for example) and select View Topology.

       

   2. From the Topology menu, select Show Changes. This prompts the user for a time horizon to search on. After entering the desired horizon, click OK. The tool highlights any components that have changed over that horizon.

       
      
      
      

   3. Right click the highlighted object and select Change History. This brings up a pre-filled in Change History Screen. Select the available components.
      
      
      
   4. Click the run Report button.  The result is a table that shows the attributes that have changed, and the before and after values of those attributes.

      

2. The second way to audit configuration items is to compare one or more CIs to a master copy. This is particularly useful in a clustered environment where there can be homogeneity among CIs.
   1. First, perform step 1.a.
   2. Select the CIs to be compared. In this example, all of the Apache Servers are selected.

       

   3. From the Analytics menu, select Compare Components. The user is prompted with a list of all components to compare, with the two Apache servers pre-selected.

       

   4. From the Included components list, select one of the components to be the key, click Set as Key, and then select Run Report.
      
      The resulting report highlights the key CI in orange, and compare the others to this key. Where there is a difference in attribute value, those values are displayed. Where there is no difference, the field is left blank.

       

For more information

For more information about this tool, click the name of the tool at the top of this page.