Open Source IT Documentation and CMDB

Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)– unconditionally human

Since 1997 synetics has been supporting MSF with an annual christmas donation. As part of our christmas campaign we have decided not to send out gifts to our customers, but to support those in need.

So far we have donated over 50,000 €.

MSF provides worldwide emergency medical assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conflict. The international organization helps quickly, efficiently and without bureaucracy – irrespective of race, religion, creed or political convictions.

We would like to ask our customers, partners and all other synetics friends to join in the good deed.

More information available at: Médecins sans Frontières

The meeting place for decision makers of the public sector from 8.-9. November 2011

Due to the administrative reform in Germany, increased action within the IT sector in cities and towns is required. Municipalities are also well advised to develop their IT efficiently and within to budgetary means.

This is where the Open Source CMDB i-doit has its effect. The tool for IT documentation and configuration management supports the municipalities to enter the management  in a safe and cost effective manner, thus increasing the efficiency of their IT processes.

Are you working in the puclic administration sector? Then make your appointment today and request your free entrance ticket.

Our i-doit experts will gladly inform you about the latest developments in the IT documentation field and will inform you how to cultivate your information.

Please contact Ms. Kuhlmann: vkuhlmann@synetics.de with your concern and arrange your personal appointment.

Don’t miss our presentation!

Here you will receive insights by Mr. Joachim Winkler, founder of i-doit and managing director of synetics gmbH:

When: Wednesday, 11.09.2011
Where: Best Practice Forum 2/ Hall 2
Time: 10:30-10:50 am
Topic: IT Management

We look forward to a personal exchange on the topics: IT documentation and configuration management. Our synetics booth is located in Hall 2 / booth 501.

The new release version number 0.9.9-7 is now available. A significant revision of the current version is a completely revised im- and export function. Additionally, all available browsers in i-doit (eg, location, object or connection browser) have been remodeled.

New features include:

• Import and export functions:
  Missing categories completion of import and export functions. Routine improvement and optimization. Now complex objects can be duplicated accurately and the multi-template system is also fully usable with this version.
• Object browser:
  With the newly developed object browsers, significant improvements in stability, performance and scalability have been achieved. In addition, new functions cater to creating new objects directly from the browser or allowing multiple selections.

Changes in release 0.9.9-7

• Revision of print views
• Rounding off im- and export, duplication, and template system
• Improvement of the CSV import
• Export and import of customized categories
• Improved reference handling when importing / templating / duplicating
• Improved CMDB browser
• New object browser to link CMDB objects
• New connection browser to connection devices (network, storage, ..)
• New object type SIM card
• New category SIM card
• New object type crypto card
• New category crypto card
• New category TSI-service
• Connecting mobile cards with mobile phones
• Abolition of the menu item “Modules”, replaced by “Extras”
• Relocation of the module configuration in “Administration”
• Improvement in the logbook change history

Bug fixes release 0.9.9-7

A special thanks goes to Mr. Martin Knab at EITCO, who has given extensive support with the beta-testing of the latest version. He has played a major role in the release.

• Locations are again displayed correctly in the list view
• Some display errors in IE have been fixed
• Nagios errors in the contact display have been fixed (occurred after the Nagios installation)
• Incorrect values no longer slip into the dialogue list of network/type
• With the licenses the selected lists and group overview are again correctly displayed and counted
• Location relationships have been corrected and applied correctly
• The URL to the log after the update is correct (“/” and “” were reversed and the name was wrong)
• Devices that occupy both sides of the rack will now appear correctly in the rack view
• When creating multiple ports letters “starting from” have been intercepted
• Query editor: Categories for conditions are now sorted alphabetically
• Adaption of the screen resolution to 1024×768 has been applied
• Special characters when creating objects no longer cause problems
• Specific categories are now evaluated via the query editor
• Nagios:
  • Timeperiods entries can be created and saved
  • Host escalation / service escalation contacts are displayed correctly again
  • Potential security vulnerabilities (SQL injections) were closed
• Export:
• Objects with apostrophe or inch symbol can be selected again

You can find the latest version in the subscription portal at https://login.i-doit.com/.

Visit us at the it-sa (IT Security Expo, 11/10-13/13/2011) in Nuremberg Germany. Whilst enjoying a vitamin-packed refreshment available at our nutzBAR, discover what is important not only in terms of IT security but also: “How to cultivate information”. We are available for personal consultations and presentations.

Make an appointment now and get your complementary guest ticket. In order to schedule your appointment, preferably stating your particular concerns, please contact: vkuhlmann@synetics.de.

We would also like to draw your attention to our little competition: We are looking for the most original, most colourful and exciting brief account of the daily IT routine on the theme of “cultivating information”. Whether it is the intelligent Excel spreadsheet that updates inventory data when opened, the annual f(r)ight during the search and allocation of maintenance contracts or the life-saving CD with the configuration data for a crashed system. Take part in the contest by sending your story to nutzbar@i-doit.com. In addition to a free i-doit pro subscription for a year, you can also win a reference book and a useful tool. The closing date for entries is 11/10/2011 at 12 noon.

Appealing presentation? Additionally, if you want to know how also to work with professional open source ITSM, you should come and join our presentation at the it-sa: in the “Blue” Forum, on 12.10.2011 at 11:45, under the title: Smart ITSM – Integrated ITSM with Open Source.

We look forward to talking to you about your IT documentation! Join us at the it-sa 2011:

Hall 12 / Booth 390

A new version of i-doit is available now. You can find the download in our download area . The following enhancements and bug fixes are included in our new release:

Version 0.9.9-6

•  Objects’ CMDB status for depicting an ITIL lifecycle
•  Status renamed in “condition”
•  Dependency model abolished, new relation model added
•  Main menu: dependencies renamed to relations
•  Unidirectional relations (i.e. cluster)
•  New object types:
•   Middleware (and SOA applications)
•   Replication
•   Database instance
•  New configurable colors for the object types
•  Auto suggestion in text fields for object connections
•  New category in IT service: IT service type
•  Global view of the relations in an IT service for its components
•  Grouped logbook in the IT service
•  Background color in category icons removed
•  Fixed errors:
•   While browsing in the logbook
•   While assigning partitions to a software RAID
•   While duplicating
•   While importing software from OCS
•   While filtering objects in the object browser
•   Category “hostaddress” does not generate an empty entry anymore (when not filled out)
•  Better display of the name from linked connectors
•  Improved calculation of the frequency of the CPU in object and cluster vitality
•  Improved select fields in change history
•  Small bugfixes
•  Improved stability

Die i-doit Anwenderstudie 2011 findet dieses Jahr im Juli 2011 statt.  Ziele der Online-Befragung sind, konkrete Ansatzpunkte für die technische als auch für die kundenorientierte Weiterentwicklung von i-doit auf Basis von User-Einschätzungen zu erlangen. Hier geht’s zum Fragebogen.

A new version with the release number 0.9.9.5 is available. You can find the download link under Download. The following enhancements and bug fixes are waiting for you:

Version 0.9.9-5

• Many many bugfixes!
• New ajax location browser (much fuster, no freeze anymore)
• Categories are now sorted alphanumerically
• Category group colors were removed
• New object type DBMS
• New categories for DBMS
• DBMS
• Database instance (practicable for oracle databases)’
• New object type Database schema
• New categories for database schema
• database schema
• database links
• Fixed different h-inventory problems where XML Import results in a parse error
• New category IT Service components
• New category computing resources
• New category object vitality
• The objecttypes are now shown as a row in an object group list
• Special character problem (öäü broken) after duplicating fixed
• Virtual machines are now able to get assigned to a cluster
• Fixed HTTP Port problem in Internet Explorer
• Duplicated objects don’t get an own sys-id
• Javascript error fixed in shared storage
• Search now works with special characters
• Sorting a search result works now
• The Port -> Interface list now also display the interfaces slot number
• Duplicating a template creates a new regular object instead of a template
• Archiving and deleting now works for ports and fc-ports
• Right groups can now only be edited by an admin

Extended documenation of virtualized environments

• New object type virtual host
• New object type virtual server
• New object type virtual client
• New categories for virtual machines:
  • Virtual host
  • Virtual devices
  • Virtual witch
• Shared virtual switches
• Documentation of clusters and cluster-services
• New object type cluster
• New object tyoe cluster-service
• New category cluster
• New category cluster-service
• New category cluster members
• New category shared storage
• New category cluster vitality
• New category cluster ressources
• Duplication of objects
• New category shares
• Empty categories now look a bit palish
• Mass completion of workflows

Bugfixes:

• Fixed: Search doesn’t work in redbox theme
• Fixed: Search didn’t escape special chars
• Several IE-specific issues

Theres a new i-doit version available in our download section.