Cohesity storage system discovery

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Cohesity Storage System Discovery

    The Cohesity Storage System discovery pattern in the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application enables ServiceNow customers to automatically identify and map Cohesity DataPlatform resources such as clusters, nodes, and chassis within their environment. This facilitates centralized visibility and management of Cohesity storage infrastructure within the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB).

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    Cohesity's DataPlatform is a hyper-converged software solution that consolidates backups, archives, test/dev, and analytics workloads onto a single cloud-native platform. It supports physical and virtual environments and extends backup capabilities to various NoSQL databases and Hadoop data stores. Accurate discovery of these resources aids in simplifying data management and addressing mass data fragmentation.

    Prerequisites

    • Ensure the following applications are updated to at least these versions:
      • CMDB CI Class Models version 1.37.0
      • Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns version 1.0.91
    • Verify the MID Server is active and can reach the Cohesity storage cluster.
    • Configure a basic authentication account with appropriate API permissions to access Cohesity cluster and node endpoints.
    • Create an alias for the basic authentication credential used in discovery.
    • Set up a serverless discovery schedule for automated discovery runs.

    Data Collected

    During discovery, the following configuration items (CIs) are populated in the CMDB:

    • Cohesity Cluster (cmdbcicohesitycluster): Includes IP address and fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the cluster.
    • Cohesity Node (cmdbcicohesitynode): Captures manufacturer, FQDN, operational status (default Installed), and a description such as “Cohesity Backup Server.”
    • Chassis (cmdbcichassis): Stores manufacturer, description (“Cohesity Chassis”), and serial number.
    • IP Address (cmdbciipaddress): Contains the node’s name, IP address, and IP version.

    CI Relationships

    The discovery process also establishes key relationships between the CIs to accurately represent the Cohesity storage system's topology:

    • Cohesity Node owns IP Address (and vice versa).
    • Cohesity Node belongs to a Cohesity Cluster.
    • Cohesity Node is hosted on a Chassis.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By implementing the Cohesity Storage System discovery pattern, customers gain automated, consistent, and detailed insights into their Cohesity storage environment within the CMDB. This enables better infrastructure management, supports impact analysis, and improves data governance across physical and virtual resources.

    Customers should ensure prerequisites are met for seamless discovery and leverage the resulting CI data and relationships to optimize their IT operations and data management strategies.

    The Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application uses the Cohesity Storage System pattern to find clusters, nodes, and chassis for the Cohesity DataPlatform. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.

    Cohesity develops software that are used to consolidate and simplify data management, and it includes analytics capabilities. Their software also solves the problem of mass data fragmentation with data that extends across multiple systems or cloud providers.

    The company's main product, DataPlatform, is a hyper-converged software that allows businesses to consolidate a variety of workloads, including backups, archives, test, development, and analytics data onto a single cloud-native platform. It works with physical servers as well as virtual machines.

    Cohesity extends backup capabilities to NoSQL workload distributed databases like MongoDB, Apache Cassandra, Couchbase, and Apache HBase, as well as Apache Hadoop data on Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) datastores.

    Request apps on the Store

    Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Prerequisites

    Verify that the applications are up to date
    • CMDB CI Class Models, from version 1.37.0
    • Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns, from version 1.0.91
    Verify MID Server configuration
    Verify the MID Server is set to Active and is reachable to the Cohesity storage cluster.
    Verify API permissions
    Verify you have a basic authentication account configured with proper permissions for the following API calls:
    • https://" + ${cluster_ip} + "/irisservices/api/v1/public/cluster?fetchStats=true
    • https://" + ${cluster_ip} + "/irisservices/api/v1/nexus/cluster/status
    • https://" + ${cluster_ip} + "/irisservices/api/v1/public/nodes?fetchStats=true
    • https://" + nodeIp + "/irisservices/api/v1/nexus/node/hardware_info
    Create an alias for the basic authentication credential
    For more information, see Create an alias for a basic authentication credential for Cohesity storage system discovery.
    Create a serverless discovery schedule
    For more information, see Create a serverless schedule for Cohesity storage system discovery.

    Data collected by Discovery during horizontal discovery

    Discovery populates the data in the CMDB when running the Cohesity Storage System pattern.

    Table 1. Cohesity Cluster [cmdb_ci_cohesity_cluster]
    Label Description
    IP Address [ip_address] IP address of the cluster.
    Fully qualified domain name [fqdn] Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the cluster.
    Table 2. Cohesity Node [cmdb_ci_cohesity_node]
    Label Field Name
    Manufacturer [manufacturer] Manufacturer of the cluster node, which could be Cohesity or third-party.
    Fully qualified domain name [fqdn] FQDN of the node within the cluster.
    Operational status [operational_status] Operational status. Default value: Installed.
    Description [short_description] Description of the cluster node: Cohesity Backup Server.
    Table 3. Chassis [cmdb_ci_chassis]
    Label Field Name
    Manufacturer [manufacturer] Manufacturer of the chassis.
    Description [short_description] Description of the chassis: Cohesity Chassis.
    Serial number [serial_number] Serial number of the chassis.
    Table 4. IP Address [cmdb_ci_ip_address]
    Label Field Name
    Name [name] Name of the Cohesity node.
    IP Address [ip_address] IP address of the Cohesity node.
    IP version [ip_version] IP version of the Cohesity node.

    CI relationships

    Discovery creates these relationships to support the Cohesity storage system discovery.
    CI Relationship Type CI
    Cohesity Node [cmdb_ci_cohesity_node] Owns::Owned by IP Address [cmdb_ci_ip_address]
    Cohesity Node [cmdb_ci_cohesity_node]

    Cluster of::Cluster

    		 Cohesity Cluster [cmdb_ci_cohesity_cluster]
    Cohesity Node [cmdb_ci_cohesity_node] Hosted on::Hosts Chassis [cmdb_ci_chassis]