With the new year just on the horizon, it’s very tempting to look ahead. So, join me for a sneak peek at some upcoming features for early next year.
Not familiar yet with the DataMiner Infrastructure Discovery and Provisioning (IDP) app? You can learn all about it on the IDP app page.
Credentials Library
DataMiner IDP will start integrating with the DataMiner Credentials Library. This way, you can safely store your credentials and manage them centrally.
As a first step, it will be possible to use credentials from the Credentials Library to provision elements. At a later stage, it will also be possible to use the Credential Library for the discovery activity.
Separate scripts for Configuration Update and Restore Default operations
Over the last few months, several users have been leveraging DataMiner IDP to restore the default configuration on devices and perform configuration updates. We have learned that it isn’t always easy to implement the Restore Default and Configuration Update in a single script. That’s why it will become possible to use separate scripts for these operations.
Don’t worry, you will still be able to use the same script for both operations. But we feel that it’s going to be a lot easier if you can put them in separate scripts.
Removal of the Provisioning API
Yes, that is correct: we have decided to remove the Provisioning API.
Since its initial release, IDP comes with the Provisioning API (an HTTP(S) web service), which allows clients to manage elements, views, Visual Overviews, etc. The IDP components use this API when elements or views need to be provisioned.
However, DataMiner IDP has evolved to the point where the current form of the API is no longer able to meet future security, performance, and volume requirements. Besides, configuring the Provisioning API isn’t always that easy as it requires the configuration of local user credentials as well as HTTP(S) connectivity between the agents.
About a year ago, we released the IDP Process Activities, which allow you to create your own workflows with Process Automation. Users have been setting up workflows that accept any type of incoming requests and use the IDP Process Activities to provision their equipment in DataMiner. If you’ve been using the Provisioning API, you should start migrating to DataMiner Process Automation (PA) instead.
As of the next release, the IDP components will no longer use the Provisioning API. Instead, IDP components will use InterApp to communicate with each other. Using InterApp clears the path to meet future requirements. This will also make the installation less complex and no longer requires HTTP(S) connectivity between agents.
The Provision API will continue to be available until the end of Q2.
I’m looking forward to informing you about IDP in the new year and wish you all the best for 2022.