What is IRE and when it is used?

Identification Reconciliation Engine (IRE) is an integrated system adopted for identifying and reconciling data from different assets and deploying it into the respective CMDB tables.

The asset can be discovered by multiple resources such as System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Lan sweeper, Turnkey asset management platform (TAMP), Agentless discovery, and Agent-based discovery. But there are instances wherein the same data of the same attributes can be captured by these different discovery sources. In such cases, Sandbox table is used to store the hardware and software details of the source attributes. IRE then processes the datasets, reconciles the correct data using IRE rules, and pushes it to the appropriate CMDB. The functional diagram showing the process flow of the Identification Reconciliation Engine (IRE) is displayed as below:

Figure: Functional flow of IRE Process

The description of the highlighted step numbers( 1 to 7 ) is listed as below:

Discovery sources: System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Agentless discovery, Agent-based discovery, and API.
Proxy or web server - Sends the client requests of asset discovery to the proper backend server for processing.
Sandbox table – Contains the device attributes discovered through servers via API/HTTPS is stored in table.
IRE process – Defines the rules, configures source and priority.
Sources – Contains data of the source attributes.
Normalization process – Process and reconciles the correct data.
Reconciled data – Contains the data of source attribute obtained after the reconciliation process.

A detailed example illustration of asset discovery through three discovery sources such as Agent-based discovery, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and Agentless discovery is displayed below.

Asset Discovery

Figure: Asset discovery

Why is IRE pivotal for use?

To define and logically represent rules for hardware.
To define device attributes for the respective device class.
To define the type of device class for IRE Rules and prioritize work for the specific devices.
To define source and priority for selected attributes of respective device types.
To select and prioritize the precedence of discovery sources for updating data attributes.

How is Symphony SummitAI implementing it?

In the SummitAI Discovery feature, User can add the following functionality:

Map the Tenant with a proxy.
Use the IRE Rule configuration for the discovery process, so that the best data can be created for the discovered devices from various sources.

Apply the override option at the column level in the IRE Rule configuration page so that empty data can be updated and processed in the main table based on the defined configuration.

See Mapping Proxy with Tenant for additional information on Mapping Proxy with Single Tenant and Multiple Tenant. Refer to the table for the list of 111706118 available at the Admin/Analyst level.

Key features and functionality of IRE rules

Serial No	Features	Functionality
1	Add processing rule.	Logical naming of IRE rule.
2	Add rule type.	Applicable to hardware.
3	Define device type.	Name of device type: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Data Centre
4	Define system type.	Free text-based tagging (Example: Win 2016 or win 2019).
5	Select multiple device types through drop down option.	Selects multiple device types in a single rule: Windows, Linux
6	Define sources and priority in the rule.	Precedence-based processing rule.
7	Define the priority and data sources in conjunction.	Selects both priority and data sources.
8	Add available data sources in the application.	Integrate available data sources within the application.
9	Add data source type, name & keywords.	Uses added keywords for the data source drop-down in the rule.
10	Handle null values from the data sources.	Validates null value and its associated actions.
11	Update data from the latest data sources.	Manages and updates the situation as needed.
12	Map data from common master to system type.	Maintains data consistency through master mapping.
13	Configure IRE rules through Override option.	Updates and processes the null data in the configured main table.

Source and Priority configurations

There are four sources available in the default SummitAI configuration template, which are grouped as:

Priority 1: Agent
Priority 2: System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)
Priority 3: Agentless
Priority 4: API

The order of the Priority can be defined as per user-defined attributes. Refer to the hardware table for the list of attributes in the default configuration template.

Source and Priority

Serial Number	Column Name	Source Priority	Override	Action
1	System Name	*Priority 1 :* Agent, *Priority 2 :* SCCM, *Priority 3 :* Agentless, *Priority 4 :* API
2	Model No	*Priority 1 :* Agent, *Priority 2 :* SCCM, *Priority 3 :* Agentless, *Priority 4 :* API
3	IP Address	*Priority 1 :* Agent, *Priority 2 :* SCCM, *Priority 3 :* Agentless, *Priority 4 :* API
4	MAC Address	*Priority 1 :* Agent, *Priority 2 :* SCCM, *Priority 3 :* Agentless, *Priority 4 :* API
5	CPU	*Priority 1 :* Agent, *Priority 2 :* SCCM, *Priority 3 :* Agentless, *Priority 4 :* API
6	RAM Size	*Priority 1 :* Agent, *Priority 2 :* SCCM, *Priority 3 :* Agentless, *Priority 4 :* API

Figure:  Source and Priority list

Note

If device type is not present and default rule is selected, then incoming device type is taken or inserted into the system against the Others (Parent or Target platform).

Use case scenarios

If an attribute like CPU is configured using IRE Rules, then five use cases are generated based on source and priority mapping under the configuration templates.( Three sources are only considered in the present Use case scenarios ).

Refer to the infographics for more details.

Infographics of Use Cases

Use case - 1

Figure: Use case 1 for source attribute CPU - Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core

Use case	Column Name	Priority	Source	Column Value	Old Widget Data	Reconciled Data
1	CPU	P1	Agent	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz
		P2	Agentless	Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core
		P3	SCCM	No Data

Note

The infographics and table indicate the discovery of CPU with the following source priority mapping: P1: Agent, P2: Agentless and P3: SCCM.
The attribute of the CPU is captured by configuration P1: Agent, P2: Agentless and ‘no data’ is discovered by P3: SCCM.

Use case - 2

Figure: Use case 2 for source attribute CPU - Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core

Use case	Column Name	Priority	Source	Column value	Old Widget Data	Reconciled Data
2	CPU	P1	Agent	Null	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz	Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core
		P2	Agentless	Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core
		P3	SCCM	No data

Note

The infographics and table indicate the discovery of CPU with the following source priority mapping: P1: Agent, P2: Agentless and P3: SCCM.
The attribute of the CPU is captured by configuration P2: Agentless, P3: SCCM returned ‘null’ and ‘no data’ is discovered by P1: Agent.

Use case - 3

Figure: Use case 3 for source attribute CPU - Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core

Use case	Column Name	Priority	Source	Column Value	Old Widget Data	Override	Reconciled Data
3	CPU	P1	Agent	Null	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz	Yes	Null
		P2	Agentless	Null		No	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz
		P3	SCCM	No data		No	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz

Note

The infographics and table indicate the discovery of CPU with the following source priority mapping: P1: Agent, P2: Agentless and P3: SCCM.
The attribute of the CPU is not captured by P1: Agent, P2: Agentless and P3: SCCM and P1, P2, P3 returned ‘null’ and ‘no data’ respectively.
If override option is selected, it is updated as ‘null’ data, else old widget data is retained as reconciled data.

Use case - 4

Figure: Use case 4 for source attribute CPU - Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core

Use case	Column Name	Priority	Source	Column Value	Old Widget Data	Override	Reconciled Data
4	CPU	P1	Agent	Null	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz	Yes	Null
		P2	Agentless	Null		No	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz
		P3	SCCM	Null		No	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz

Note

The infographics and table indicate the discovery of CPU with the source priority mapping are listed as: P1: Agent, P2: Agentless and P3: SCCM.
The attribute of the CPU is not captured by P1: Agent, P2: Agentless and P3: SCCM and P1, P2, P3 returned ‘null’ for all configurations.
If override option is selected, it is updated as ‘null’ data, else old widget data is retained as reconciled data.

Use case - 5

Figure: Use case 5 for source attribute CPU - Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core

Use case	Column Name	Priority	Source	Changed Source	Column Value	Old Widget Data	Reconciled Data
5	CPU	P1	Agent	Agentless	Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz	Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz - 1 Core
		P2	Agentless	Agent	Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz
		P3	SCCM	SCCM	No Data

Note

The infographics and table indicate the discovery of CPU with the changed source priority mapping are listed as: P1: Agentless, P2: Agent and P3: SCCM.
The attribute of the CPU is captured by P1, P2 and P3 returned ‘No Data’ for all configurations.

After configuring the source and priority for a specific source attribute, the discovery source captures the attributes of the selected source and based on the IRE rules, displays the details of the reconciled data.

Note

At least one discovery source should be mapped to the priority.
The default configuration of Priority 1 is set as Agent since it returns most of the source information as it is available inside the system.
If Priority 1 is mapped to some source, if it does not capture the asset data, it moves to Priority 2, else to Priority 3 or Priority 4.
If Priority 1 returns the data, then it skips Priority 2,Priority 3 and Priority 4.
If the Override option is selected in the IRE Rule, it updates and process the null data in the configured main table.

What are the benefits of IRE?

Creates rule for discovery sources and decides its precedence for source attributes.
Identifies the best data from various sources through reconciliation process.
Prevents and minimize the loss of data.

For more information about Mapping Proxy with Tenant and Multiple Tenant, see Mapping Proxy with Tenant.

For more information about IRE Rules Configuration, see Configuring IRE Rules.