UCMDB

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UCMDB is a software product from Micro Focus that generates and maintains a Configuration Management Database of information technology items. It includes a mechanism for automated discovery of IT infrastructure components, such as computers and network devices.

Micro Focus International plc is a multinational software and information technology business based in Newbury, Berkshire, England. The firm provides software and consultancy. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data, or information, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. IT is considered to be a subset of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system is generally an information system, a communications system or, more specifically speaking, a computer system – including all hardware, software and peripheral equipment – operated by a limited group of users.

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UCMDB is included in several HP products and supports ITIL-based configuration management and change management processes.

ITIL, formerly an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business.

Configuration management process for maintaining consistency of a product attributes with its design

Configuration management (CM) is a systems engineering process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a product's performance, functional, and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. The CM process is widely used by military engineering organizations to manage changes throughout the system lifecycle of complex systems, such as weapon systems, military vehicles, and information systems. Outside the military, the CM process is also used with IT service management as defined by ITIL, and with other domain models in the civil engineering and other industrial engineering segments such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings.

Change management is a collective term for all approaches to prepare, support and help individuals, teams, and organizations in making organizational change. The most common change drivers include: technological evolution, process reviews, crisis, and consumer habit changes; pressure from new business entrants, acquisitions, mergers, and organizational restructuring. It includes methods that redirect or redefine the use of resources, business process, budget allocations, or other modes of operation that significantly change a company or organization. Organizational change management (OCM) considers the full organization and what needs to change, while change management may be used solely to refer to how people and teams are affected by such organizational transition. It deals with many different disciplines, from behavioral and social sciences to information technology and business solutions.

DDMA

The DDMa component (Discovery and Dependency mapping Advanced) of UCMDB works by scanning ranges of IP addresses within pre-set probe IP ranges, using ping, ICMP echo requests and Nmap to locate live IP addresses and open TCP ports, and IP address harvesting techniques by querying ARP/Cache tables of level 3 network devices. Resulting current IP addresses are then translated into CIs which function as input for deeper level discovery. The pyramid model is designed to ensure that only relevant sources are being queried, resulting in lower network and node load.

An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing.

Ping is a computer network administration software utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. It is available for virtually all operating systems that have networking capability, including most embedded network administration software.

Nmap network scanner

Nmap is a free and open-source network scanner created by Gordon Lyon. Nmap is used to discover hosts and services on a computer network by sending packets and analyzing the responses.

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KNX (standard) Standard in building automation

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Zigbee

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Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manual operator intervention or special configuration servers. Without zeroconf, a network administrator must set up network services, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS), or configure each computer's network settings manually.

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In the Internet addressing architecture, a private network is a network that uses private IP address space. Both, the IPv4 and the IPv6 specifications define private addressing ranges. These addresses are commonly used for local area networks (LANs) in residential, office, and enterprise environments. Private IP address spaces were originally defined in an effort to delay IPv4 address exhaustion.

Profinet is an industry technical standard for data communication over Industrial Ethernet, designed for collecting data from, and controlling equipment in industrial systems, with a particular strength in delivering data under tight time constraints. The standard is maintained and supported by Profibus & Profinet International, an umbrella organization headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany.

A configuration management database (CMDB) is a database used by an organization to store information about hardware and software assets. This database acts as a data warehouse for the organization and also stores information regarding the relationship between its assets. The CMDB provides a means of understanding the organization's critical assets and their relationships, such as information systems, upstream sources or dependencies of assets, and the downstream targets of assets.

The Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is a vendor-neutral link layer protocol used by network devices for advertising their identity, capabilities, and neighbors on an IEEE 802 local area network, principally wired Ethernet. The protocol is formally referred to by the IEEE as Station and Media Access Control Connectivity Discovery specified in IEEE 802.1AB and IEEE 802.3 section 6 clause 79.

Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database is IBM's strategic tool that is said to automatically discover the physical and application infrastructure in an enterprise, given the appropriate credentials. The low level component of CCMDB is called Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager. TADDM creates comprehensive application maps that include complete run-time dependencies, deep information about the Configuration Items (CIs) and tracks changes to the CIs. Deploying TADDM is the first step in populating a Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB) that serves as the basis for the automation of ITIL processes such as configuration and change management. It is also said to enable other ITIL processes like Incident and Problem Management.

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