How to customize Discovery to find something new, or with an alternative/additional method?

This article covers the cases where:

- A customer wants to change the content of an existing attribute such as "Host.ram" or "SoftwareInstance.version"
- A customer wants to add a new attribute to existing nodes
- A customer expects Discovery to detect and model a running software
- A customer expects Discovery to enhance the existing model of a software (i.e. add a new Software Component node, add a relationship to another SI or BAI, etc...)
- A customer wants to add or modify something in the CMDB via CMDB Sync from Discovery

If the proposed changes may be helpful to the general Discovery community:

- Open a new support case and describe the request and requirements
- Provide as much information as possible to illustrate the request (record/pool data, screenshots, files, command outputs)
- BMC Customer Support will review the request and provide suggestions. In some cases, Support may recommend that the customer file an enhancement request. Discovery uses a community-based RFE (ideas) process. This process allows customers to share their enhancement requests (RFE) with other members of the user community. It also allows the community to vote on the ideas they would most like to see implemented which may give more weight to the request. To submit an RFE to the community, go to BMC Community - Discovery and click on the "Ideas" tab.

If the proposed changes are specific to a particular customer environment:
For example:

- The new feature only works with one custom application, a specific attribute, or a specific configuration that only exists in a particular customer environment
- The request is "out of the scope of Discovery", but is a requirement for a particular customer
- The new feature is available by using other BMC products, but a particular customer wants to do it with BMC Discovery.

In this case, Discovery has to be customized. An idea (RFE) can be submitted as mentioned above, but the request may not be accepted by the Product Management team if it is too specific.

Of course, it is always possible to customize Discovery to implement a new feature before it is reviewed/accepted/released by BMC.

When the customization is related to the content of the attributes found by Discovery OOTB, the best approach is to customize the platform scripts. More information on this topic in the documentation Managing the discovery platform scripts.

Sometimes, the best solution is to make changes to attribute values in the CMDB rather than in Discovery, especially if the goal is to get the data in CMDB to make changes. This is because:

- The CMDB provides a well-documented UI to do this
- The CMDB provides a precedence management feature that allows the administrator to chose between the Discovery value and the manual edit in case of conflict.

When the customization is about the CMDB synchronization, the customization may be done with a Discovery custom syncmapping pattern extension.

When the customization is about improving the scan result of the SoftwareInstance, SoftwareComponent, BAI, DatabaseDetail, etc nodes, or the relationships, the best approach is to customize the Discovery TKU patterns.

The  customization can be done:

• if the customer does not have development skills
• if the customer is not familiar with Discovery and/or the CMDB
• if the customer does not have the time and resources to devote to learning, developing TPL, testing, maintenance, etc

• PART 1: Webinar: Introduction to Discovery Customization
• PART 2: Webinar: TPL for Beginners
• CMDB Sync Customizations
• BMC Discovery & BMC Helix CMDB Integration - Part 1
• BMC Discovery & BMC Helix CMDB Integration Part 2