Standard verticalizations

Application already configured for the IT Governance management, ITIL compliant

Application already configured for the Property and Facility Management and Maintenance Processes

CMDBuild Newsletter n. 61

May 2017

Summary

Developing CMDBuild 2.5

Designing CMDBuild 3.0

CMDBuild reference

New connector with Zabbix

openMAINT and the IoT

Developing CMDBuild 2.5

cluster

The development of the new version 2.5 continues, the main innovation will be the ability to use CMDBuild in a "cluster" mode, configuring more independent nodes running on different Tomcat systems and delivering the same service.

This will on one hand ensure the overall system operation even in the event of a failure in one of the Tomcat instances (availability), on the other hand it will allow to deploy workload on multiple servers (scalability), increasing the overall performance.

CMDBuild 2.5 will also include the following innovations:

New task type in the Task Manager of the Administrator Module, for automatic scheduled reports delivery by mail (feature previously announced for version 2.4.1 but then postponed);
GIS refactoring, now able to operate with an almost unlimited quantity of items, thanks to a new dynamic loading mechanism;
Possibility to link a user to different groups with different permissions on disjoint row sets of the same class / process;
Performance enhancements, both in the user interface construction and in the process progress.

The release has been rescheduled for next September.

Designing CMDBuild 3.0

testing

We are simultaneously working on designing CMDBuild 3.0.

In the new version, we will pay special attention to automatic tests, which will be further extended to increase the quality of the releases made.

Tests, already partially present in the “server code”, will also be introduced extensively in the “client code”, to ensure the correct implementation of declared UI requirements.

The solution studied is based on Cucumber, an open source Test Framework.

Cucumber supports the Test Driven Development (TDD) methodology, which suggests writing tests before proceeding with software development.

To this then adds support to the Domain Driven Design (DDD) methodology, whose approach is to use a simplified formalism (Cucumber uses Gerkin, very close to the English native language) for describing each scenario where it is decomposable a functional requirement.

In other words, each scenario is described in the form “Given-When-Then”, that is, given a context (Given), by executing a specific operation (When), I get a certain effect (Then).

To this scenario it is then matched a Java code executable automatically, and repeatable at each release, which can verify the actual gain of that effect (presence of a text at a particular location, opening a popup with certain content, result of push of a button, etc.) on all supported browsers.

In this way, it is also always guaranteed the alignment of source code with the functional requirements, since modifying the source code without intervening on the control code would cause the failure of the test.

openMAINT and the IoT

Since the first release of openMAINT, we have been able to configure custom connectors to automatically receive and record in openMAINT information produced by devices interrogated using standard protocols.

Since the birth of openMAINT, this possibility has become more and more concrete, within the new IT area now known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

The advantages of integrating the IoT into openMAINT are several:

collection of information on system failures (safety, civil, industrial, etc.) and proactive start of the breakdown maintenance workflows;
collection of performance abnormalities (energy, comfort, etc.) and comparison with the available sensors;
collection of information on plant utilization for a more accurate planning of scheduled maintenance activities;
collection of data on energy consumption, by interrogating counters directly.

Tecnoteca is now facing the first major design situations of direct interfacing between openMAINT and "field" devices, on which standard support mechanisms will be then implemented.

Useful links

CMDBuild

SourceForge Project

Twitter @cmdbuild

Twitter @openmaint_org

CMDBuild and openMAINT are open source software developed and maintained by Tecnoteca and released with AGPL license.

CMDBuild reference

unir

The University of Parma is one of the oldest state University in Italy, been established before the year 1000.

The University has over 20,000 students and approximately 1,800 employees between educational, researcher, technical and administrative staff.

The responsible of the Services Department in the Information Systems area, Dr. Fabrizio Russo, had started a couple of years ago a first phase of a study for the activation of a CMDB and its related process of Configuration Management, and was considering the adoption of a support application.

The features of the product, its open source license and the positive feedback received by University of Bologna that already used it for a long time, led to the choice of CMDBuild.

The start-up of the system was carried out by a group of technicians from the University of Parma, consisting of Riccardo Cappone, Michele Cavazzoni, Michele Zenna and Mario Bozzetti, supported by Tecnoteca's specialists.

The configuration activities concerned the initial installation, some data model extensions, the loading of existing data files, the activation of the VMware connector, the implementation of a new custom connector with the SANET Network Monitoring Tool already in use.

Has also been performed an extensive training activities of the University technicians on the CMDBuild system functionalities, both on theoretical aspects and with a “training on the job” activity on some of the required implementations.

New connector with Zabbix

As already reported in the previous newsletter, last March Tecnoteca participated with an own stand at the CeBIT Exhibition in Hannover, Germany.

Among the many contacts gathered, it has been particularly important the one with the Italian Company Quadrata Srl, Premium Partner of the Zabbix monitoring tool.

Zabbix is an open source tool for networks and computer systems monitoring, to check the status of the devices, to diagnose any malfunctions and to send notifications to whom should then manage these.

On the other hand, CMDBuild is the natural environment to gather meaningful information about the state of the Configuration Item and handle Incident Management workflows.

We therefore decided, in agreement and with the technical support of the Company Quadrata, to add a new connector in CMDBuild READY2USE, with the aim of seeking synergies between the two instruments and the two Companies.

The connector will initially handle malfunctioning of an apparatus, notifying these to the responsible technicians, with the most relevant information available in the CMDB for that device and starting an Incident Management workflow.

The connector will later be extended to provide basic Inventory functionality in "agentless" mode, useful for those who, due to Company’s policies, could not install the agent software required by da OCS Inventory.

The new connector, always based on the CMDBuild Advanced Connector framework, will be released with version 1.2 of CMDBuild READY2USE.