Application Connectivity Monitor uses signatures to discover and classify software applications in the managed infrastructure. Application Connectivity Monitor includes many predefined signatures; additional signatures can be user developed.
Conceptually, applications have characteristics or attributes that uniquely differentiate one application from another; together, these characteristics constitute a signature for a given application. Using the mechanism of application signatures, we can then further qualify an application to reference particular instances of that application.
Application signatures are selected or created, and configured and enabled through the application signature configuration interface.
- Their configuration includes the:
- Name of the signature
- Port number
- Expected request and response
- Application class
- Application prefix
Their configuration also associates a signature with a post discovery probe and monitoring action. Host matching criteria can be specified to limit discovery.
Once predefined signatures are configured and enabled, they are automatically registered with Application Connectivity Monitor. At the same time, the signatures are combined with a standard probe, which is set to “Autodetect,” that automatically discovers the specified applications. The discovery of applications is initiated during the next discovery period, or when a new host is added to the Application Connectivity Monitor topology. “Application Signature Definitions” on page 139 includes definitions and parameters for the predefined IANA application signatures available in Application Connectivity Monitor.
