Well, here we are again! :D. This is a much long awaited release. Definitely, this product is becoming more and more mature with each iteration. I can now say this from the experience of running NMTools on big and complex Production Environments to solve real problems and handle considerably demanding situations.

There is a lot of hidden work that has been done during the last eight months. That is why I would like to start thanking all the people that has contributed to this release in any way: code, feedback, ideas, etc. This release wouldn’t be as good as it is without you.

Having said that, let’s go and see what’s inside this version:

NMAgent new features and improvements

• Support for SQL Server as well as MS Access back-ends.
• NMAgent will default to Trusted Authentication when no identity is supplied on the profile settings.
• SessionStore schema has been extended to allow DaX (Dependency Aware eXtensions) modules and enhance the user experience on multi-user environments.
• Personal user SessionStores can be defined as part of the profile settings.
• The OpenSLIM UserId can be defined as part of the Profile settings. This will reflect the user identity when persisting information on the OpenSLIM database.



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It’s time to spend some time on a tough topic: Information Quality. OpenSLIM implement several functions whose main purpose is to guarant data coherence when one has to deal with certain IT Processes: Provisioning, Repairings, Decommissionings, and so forth. In these cases, Registration Criteria is hard-wired inside OpenSLIM and you don’t need to worry about it unless you want to change it.

Unfortunately there still exist rules that you will have to settle if you want to have good levels on your Information Quality. These conventions must be:

1. Agreed with your Team(s) and Stakeholders.
2. Controlled with regular Sanity Checks.
3. Reviewed from time to time for you to make sure that they are still valuable or if they need to be changed or extended with new ones.

The references are only that: a reference or an starting point for Node Information Quality. You will have to make your own way and find what really fits on your particular scenario.

Node Hierarchy:

• [ParentNode > NodeName] | [ParentNode > ParentNode > NodeName] | [...]
• BladeChassisNodeName > PhysicalClusterNodeName.
  • On the “Other Relationships” Tab include the LogicalClusterNodeName to which this PhysicalClusterNodeName belongs using a “Hosting” relationship.
• “NoParentNode” > LogicalClusterNodeName.
  • LogicalClusterNodeName is a dummy Node.



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It’s finally here! This is the first release since the NMTools spin off. A lot has happened since then. In fact, there are many changes in the OpenSLIM roadmap that I would like to tell you over the course of the following weeks.

As every new version, this one represents an additional step forward in functionality and also in reliability. Here is the list of new additions and improvements that this new major release incorporates:

1. Systems Decommissioning Management.
2. Improvements on how Virtual Environments are handled.
3. Improvements on the automatic mechanisms that populate changesin a Node Property as long as this Node progresses through different states on a Repair, Virtualization or Decommissioning processes.
   1. All this processes take care of proper Data Versioning.
   2. Benefit 1: ~80% reduction in manual information updates.
   3. Benefit 2: better information quality as the implemented Registration Criteria become mandatory.
4. Quick Reports for Decommissioning Process Analysis.
5. Support for SAN information: HBAs, Ports, WWNs, etc.
6. Ability to document information regarding Systems and Security Audits.
7. Node Qualitative Capacity Indicators: ComputingCapacityIndex and StorageCapacityIndex
8. Improvements in the GUI: new “+” button expands Free Text Fields to ease reading and editing: Notes, HbaLinksInfo, SystemInformationDump, SecurityAuditReport, SystemAuditReport, etc.



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