To create a new application signature:

Procedure

  1. Click the Application Signature tab.
  2. Click the New button.
    Default values are added to the following fields:
    • Class defaults to Application Server.
    • Enabled checkbox is cleared-disabling the application signature requiring the application signature to be enabled.
    • Monitoring Action defaults to tcpAction for monitoring.
    • System Name or IP Pattern defaults to *-discovery will occur on all hosts added to the ACM Domain Manager’s topology.
  3. Type information in the displayed fields. Table Application Signature tab fields describes the Application Signature tab fields. All required fields must be completed.
  4. Select the Enabled checkbox.
  5. Click the Apply button.
    The application signature is created in the ACM Domain Manager and is enabled. It is then used to discover the application:
    • When discovery is manually invoked with Discover All
    • When the next discovery cycle is initiated
    • When a new host is added to the topology of the ACM Domain Manager

    To enable autodetect application signatures to start on demand for a given host:

    1. Right-click the desired host in the Domain Manager Administration Console.
    2. Select Rediscover.
    Note:

    The information required for application signatures should be available to the administrator (or other authorized person) who will define and configure the signatures. If necessary, it can be gathered from the network environment, a common source of information.

    Table Application Signature tab fields defines the Application Signature tab fields. The following fields configure the Standard Probe as part of the application signature:

    • Port Number
    • Request
    • Class
    • Application Name Prefix
    Note: “ The Standard Discovery Probe” contains detailed Standard Probe information.
    Table 1. Application Signature tab fields
    Field name Description Required/optional
    Name The name of the application signature. For a new signature, the name must be unique; it cannot be the name of an existing application signature. Required
    Enabled Allows you to Enable/Disable the application signature during deployment in the ACM Domain Manager. Selecting the checkbox enables the application signature. The enabled signature is invoked in the next discovery cycle on the hosts depending on the hostname pattern, or when a new host matching the hostname pattern is added to the topology of the ACM Domain Manager. Required
    Port Number The port number on which the application should be actively listening.

    The same port number can be used for multiple signatures. However, when the same port is used for multiple signatures, the request strings and response patterns must be different (mutually exclusive). For example:

    Signature 1: port 25, response "*Sendmail*"

    Signature 2: port 25, response "*Exchange*"

    If the requests and responses are not different (that is, inclusive), the results of the probes are unpredictable.

    		 Required
    Request The command string to check for the detection of the application on the specified tcp port number. Optional
    Class The application class of the discovered application. The list includes Software Service and the subclasses of Software Service. Required
    Application Name Prefix The prefix to be added to the instance names in the topology discovered by the signature.

    For example, if the application name prefix is "Apache" the discovered instance name of the application is "APP- Apache/frame.company.com" and the display name is "Apache/frame.company.com".

    		 Required
    Monitoring Action The monitoring action to be used to monitor the discovered application. The default is tcpAction. The parameter values in the monitoring action are specified by clicking the Customize button.

    “Specifying monitoring action parameters” contains additional information.

    If <None> is selected from the list, the applications discovered by the application signature are not monitored.

    		 Optional
    System Name or IP Pattern The hostname or IP pattern(s) to be used on a list of hostnames or IP addresses in the ACM Domain Manager topology. The pattern values are specified by clicking the Customize button.

    Wild card criteria specification is supported. “Wildcards Used by VMware Smart Assurance Software” contains additional information.

    The default is “*”-the system will discover all hosts added to the ACM Domain Manager’s topology.

    		 Required

    The Port Number and Request parameters provide various types of information depending upon the typed values.

    For example, if you only need to know whether you can connect to a specified port, type that port number:

    Port Number <25> (for SMTP)
Request <No Value>

    However, if you need to know whether you can connect to a specified port and that the server should respond with a certain pattern, then type a port number and response string.

    1. Select the application signature name. For example, select AS-IANA-http.
    2. Type the request as, 
      GET / HTTP/1.0\n\n
    3. Click Launch Viewer. The Response Viewer dialog box appears.
    4. Enter the host.
    5. Click Get Response to get the sample response.

      From the sample response, you can form your Match Pattern. For example, if we assume that all valid web servers respond with HTTP/1.x 200 OK string, then the match pattern is 200.

    6. Close the Response Viewer dialog box.
    7. In the Domain Manager Administration Console, enter the Match Pattern as *200*
    8. Type values for all three parameters to send a request to induce the server to respond with a particular pattern: 
      Port Number <80> (for a Web Server) 
Request <GET HTTP/1.0\n\n> 
Match Pattern: HTTP 1.1 200 OK*