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Quick Start Guide

Purpose

This guide is a first walk through Clarity Transform. It shows where things are in Clarity, then takes you through one pass from a discovery endpoint to a device placed in a move group for a migration event. Each step names the screen and the labels you see on it, so you can check every step on screen. For the detail of each screen, follow its link.

Before you start

  • A Clarity sign-in with the Administrator or User role. Roles are set on Settings → Identity & Access Management → User Roles.
  • For the endpoint in step 3: the FQDN or IP address of the management system you will discover from (for example vCenter or Nutanix Prism), and a user name and password for it.

Where things are

  • Header: the signed-in user (Welcome! <DOMAIN>\<user>) and the build ("Version: 5.2.1.4963", top right). This guide was checked against that build.
  • Sidebar: the top-level menus, in order, are Governance, Discover, Assess, Rationalise, Plan, Execute, Logging and Settings. A Search menu box sits above the menu tree. Rationalise opens a screen directly; the other menus open into groups and screens.
  • Landing page: Clarity opens on Discover → CMDB, which reads "Welcome to the Clarity CMDB" and "Select a CI to get started", above a strip of CI type cards.
  • Grids: most list screens share one grid. Hover over a toolbar icon to see its tooltip: the add icon's tooltip begins Create New and the edit icon's begins Edit; others include Remove selected, Reload table data, Enable spreadsheet editing and Export CSV. Not every grid has every button. There is a Search: box, a filter row under the column headings, and a page-size selector (10, 25, 50 or All entries per page). The add icon opens a form titled Create new entry, and the edit icon, with a row selected, opens Edit entry. Both forms close with Cancel or Save.

The grid remembers its Search: text, column filters, sort order and page size between visits. If the grid shows fewer rows than you expect, clear the Search: box and the filter row. On the Application, Database and Device grids, also check Display all scopes..., and on Events and Move Groups, Show completed.

A first walk-through

1. Open the CMDB

  1. Open Clarity. The page shows "Welcome to the Clarity CMDB".
  2. Check the header for the version, top right.
  3. Select the Device card in the card strip. The Device grid loads on the same page. If there is no Device card, select the eye icon at the top right of the card strip (tooltip Show CI classes with no records): classes with no records are hidden by default.

2. Store a credential

  1. Go to Settings → Identity & Access Management → Credentials.
  2. Select the add icon on the grid toolbar. The Create new entry form opens.
  3. Complete Name, User Name, Password and Description.
  4. Select Save. The credential is listed in the grid under Name, User Name and Description.

See Credentials.

3. Add a discovery endpoint

  1. Go to Discover → Integrations. The page header is Technology Integrations.
  2. Select the card for your source, for example VMware vSphere or Nutanix AHV. The integration's page opens. Select its Endpoints tab.
  3. Select the add icon (tooltip Create New Integration Endpoints). The Create new entry form opens.
  4. Complete Name and End Point, select the credential from step 2 in Credential, enter a Job Schedule as a five-field cron expression (for example 00 22 * * *, 22:00 every day; illustrative), and tick Enabled.
  5. Select Save. The endpoint is listed on the Endpoints tab.

Some integrations have a different form, for example RVTools and Nutanix Collector, which take a File Upload instead. See Infrastructure Discovery for the variants.

4. Check the endpoint's runs

  1. To run the endpoint now rather than wait for its schedule, select Mark as Running on its row.
  2. On the integration's Endpoints tab, read the endpoint's Last Run and Last Result.
  3. Select the History tab. It lists past runs with Name, Success Count, Warning Count, Error Count, Time Taken, Date and Result.

5. Review the discovered devices

  1. Go to Discover → CMDB and select the Device card.
  2. The Device grid lists only devices whose Scope is In scope. Newly discovered devices may have no scope yet, so select Display all scopes... in the toolbar to list them.
  3. In the grid, Integration names the integration that supplied each record.
  4. Select a row's View Details icon. A read-only side panel titled Device Details lists the record's populated fields, followed by Discovered Listening Ports if any ports have been discovered on the device.

See CMDB.

6. Check how complete the device records are

  1. Go to Discover → Data Quality → Device Data Quality. The header is Device Data Quality Dashboard.
  2. Read the cards TOTAL DEVICES, QUALITY SCORE, COMPLETE and MISSING DATA, and the Device Quality Details grid.

See Device Data Quality.

7. Create a migration event

  1. Go to Plan → Events. The header is Migration Events.
  2. Select the add icon on the grid toolbar. The Create new entry form opens.
  3. Complete Name, Start Date (required) and End Date (required). Select In Planning as the Status. Notes is optional.
  4. Select Save. The event is listed in the grid. Completed events are hidden until you select Show completed, so don't choose Completed here. If the form stays open with its buttons disabled and does not finish saving, the event may still have been saved: reload the page and check the grid before you create it again.

See Events.

8. Create a move group for the event

  1. Go to Plan → Move Groups. The header is Move Groups Summary.
  2. Select the add icon on the grid toolbar. The Create new entry form opens.
  3. Complete Move Group, select your event in Event Name, and set Migration Date (required). Description, Workflow Stage and Notes are optional. Below the fields, the guard-rail rule builder shows six locked system default rules.
  4. Select Save. The move group is listed in the grid with its Event Name.

To see the move groups in an event later, go to Plan → Events and select the event's Name. Plan → Move Groups opens filtered to that event.

See Move Groups.

9. Place a device in the move group

  1. Go to Discover → CMDB and select the Device card. If your device is not listed, select Display all scopes....
  2. Select a device's row, then select the edit icon on the grid toolbar. The Edit entry form opens, with the fields grouped in section cards.
  3. In the Migration Planning section, select your move group in Move Group. A move group marked "(guard rails)" is greyed out because the device breaks one of the move group's guard-rail rules, such as the system default rules from step 8: hover over it for the reason, and correct the device first, for example its Scope. A move group marked "(event locked)" belongs to a locked event and cannot be selected.
  4. Select Save. If Clarity reports that the assignment breaks the move group's guard rails, it asks "Guard rails are advisory. Override and assign to this move group anyway?" Confirm to assign anyway, or cancel and correct the device.

To add several assets at once, select the move group's name on Plan → Move Groups and use the add button on the move group's page. This is not available when the event is locked. See Place a device in a move group.

10. Generate a T-Minus runbook for the event

Generate the runbook from the event. Generating creates the runbook and its tasks from the template.

  1. Go to Plan → Events.
  2. In your event's row, select View T-minus Runbook. The event's T-Minus runbook page opens.
  3. Select Generate Runbook from Template. The Generate T-Minus Runbook dialog opens.
  4. Check the Runbook Name, choose a Template, and set the Target Cutover Date (T=0).
  5. Select Generate. The page reloads and shows the runbook and its tasks. The runbook is also listed on Governance → T-Minus Runbook Management → T-Minus Runbooks.

See Generate a T-Minus runbook for an event.

Next steps