Service Mapping - knowing how to find configuration information

[porthos]

Many Business Services involve various applications such as Apache, Tomcat, Weblogic, etc.   It is hard to know where to find the needed information such as database connection info or other information about connecting to the next item in the business service.   Unless you or the owner of the Business Service know apache config files or weblogic files intimately it is difficult to find this information.

How does one learn this rapidly, is there a good resource/link for this sort of information?

Thanks,

P.G.

[bernyalvarado]

Hi Porthos,

It's a mix of options the ones you need to explore. Here goes some:

a) talk with the owners of the applications

b) talk with those supporting the applications

c) talk with those that created the applications (sometimes these could be 3rd party companies)

d) search online (this should be #1 option btw... )

e) try doing a controlled recursive find through the relevant files within the host

f) leverage commands like netstat that expose existing connections. It has the obvious lowlight that you could experience recurrent/frequent changes on your maps which are not truly changes but rather just changes in the active connections at the time of the discovery.

g) ultimately, hardcode the target given a condition where it's certain that the connection needs to be done. At all means try to avoid this as an option (yet, it's an option)

Thanks,

Berny

[bernyalvarado]

I hope this helps!

[srikanthvk]

Let me tell you something which i used to follow, i always look for property files, xml and config files for information by logging into the server. As a last resort i reach out to application team for further help.

Thanks,

Srikanth Varma

[sarahbr]

Just to add to Berny's comments:

• Search the internet!!!!  
• Utilize the SaCmdManager.do?ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx to search the host, and view running processes.  
• Remember (especially on unix hosts) to look at the processes running, to see if they can give you any tips as to what directories, and configurations are used to run the process.  
• Read up on various applications for common locations of configurations (Apache, Tomcat, IIS, WebSphere, etc)
• If it is an SNMP device (think Load Balancers), be sure to reference the SNMP OID   to help identify where information may be stored.   I worked on a loadbalancer, and found this invaluable to help identify how the load balancer was configured so I could handled things like redirects, SSL, farm, and pools on the loadbalancers, etc.  

Sarah