The feature Browse objects allows searching for CMDB resources that meet the specific criteria. Use Visual Mode to search for objects using the list view builder.
Start
Select the resource in CMDB Navigator to open a list view (e.g. AWS Accounts):
Click Browse Objects on the left. Select Visual Mode. When starting a new search, you have two sections to work with: 1) Filter Criteria and 2) Columns to Display.
1. Setting Up Filters
Click +ADD FILTER to add a new filter criteria.
A filter criteria consists of a field name, a logical operator and a value. You can select a field name from the drop-down list or type the name in the search bar:
Some fields have a list of related fields to drill down into (use > to select a related field):
Click 'home' sign to go back to the general list of fields.
Based on the objects relationship, you can filter your search results by fields of a parent object:
Example: Here we refer to AWS Account which is a master object for AWS EC2 Instance, and retrieve its related field 'Account Name'. Setting up a certain value or criteria, we can narrow the search scope, i.e. AWS accounts containing 'test' in their names will be excluded. Having added the field 'State Name' along with the operator 'equals and the value set up as 'running', we managed the search to display all running instances only.
Field Type
Select 'Standard' to see the list of all fields, except JSON fields.
Select 'JSON field' type to filter the fields containing JSON data, pick the one under question and click Apply. You can also use JSONPath expressions in the box 'Field JSON Path' to focus your search.
Select one field (ex.1) or several ones (ex.2) for the search to refer to. JSON data will be parsed and shown in several columns below.
Example 1: Here we refer to the JSON field 'Tags JSON' and its related field 'Name', so that their values are displayed in separate columns in the list.
Example 2: Here we refer to the JSON field 'Policy Document JSON' first to evaluate all related fields available, and then we pull fields 'Statement' and 'Effect' to the list to see their values.
JSONPath expressions start with $ and can contain the dot- (a) or the bracket-notation (b) for input paths:
a) $.Fieldname[0].Fieldname
b) $["fieldname"]["fieldname"][0]["fieldname"] - where [0] is the number of an element in the array.
The element number can be replaced by the wildcard symbol * to refer to all elements: $[“Fieldname with whitespaces”][*]
Logical Operators
equals | Use for an exact match |
not equal | Use for an exact match with a certain value excluded |
greater than | Use when you want results that exceed the value you enter |
greater or equal | Use for results that match or exceed the value you enter |
less than | Use for results that are less than the value you enter |
less or equal | Use for results that match or are less than the value you entered |
contains | Use for fields that include your search string |
not contains | Use to eliminate records that don’t contain the value you enter |
like | Use to locate records that include the exact value you enter or type % to include a certain part of the value entered, e.g. `Account`.`Account Name` like test will search for all account names containing test |
not like | Use to locate records that exclude the exact value you enter or type % to exclude a certain part of the value entered, e.g. `Instance Name or ID` not like %environ% will search for all instance names and IDs, except the ones containing -environ- |
starts with | Use for results that start with a certain value |
Grouping Filters
You can combine several conditions within one group of filters. Select the condition operator AND (all of conditions are true) or OR (any of conditions are true):
Click Create group to create a group of filters and move a selected filter into it. Such a grouping allows you to add a new condition as well.
Click Extract from group to exclude a filter from the group of filters under question, reverting Move to group action:
Using groups of filters and condition operators AND/OR, you can set up complex conditions in the section 'Filter Criteria':
Pay attention to the check box Invert group: if checked, it inputs a negation to the meaning of all filters in the group.
Example: In this example we initiate a search for all instances that are present in AWS and running, but we also want to exclude the instances containing ‘test’ and ‘dev’ in their names. Instead of looking for appropriate operators with a negative value for each filter criteria, we simply group the required filters and apply negation to the whole filter group.
2. Setting Up Columns
You can manage the columns which will be displayed in the list. Click +ADD COLUMN to add columns.
Click the 'label' icon to change a column name (in a resulting list view):
Select the sorting order for assets in a column: ASC for ascending or DESC for descending.
Sorting Order Of Columns
Hover over triple dots on the left and drag a column up or down to manage the order of columns in the list: