User-Defined Entity Management
A handful of entity types can (or must) be defined using the IO administrator (IO-admin role). Manual entity creation can occur after initial auto-discovery is completed, or after new components have been added.
The highlighted entity types can only be created manually. Tiers and Applications can be created automatically through IO's APM integrations.
Manual Entity Creation
Navigate to the Inventory module and select New, then select the entity type (Host, HBA Card, Storage Array, Storage Controller, Storage I/O Module).
Name is the only required field but you can define custom properties such as description and tags. Creator and creation date are also tracked.
Enter the new entity's name and any other desired information.
Important
The following characters cannot be entered in entity names: ~ % & * = [ ] \ ; , | < > ?
Click Add to associate the entity with sub-entities, e.g., HBA ports in the case of a host or HBA card.
You will see a different menu depending on the entity type you are creating.
For example, entities that can be comprised of more than one sub-entity types will require you to select the sub-entity type first. Click the entity button at the top to select an entity type. You can use the search field to filter the entities by name.
For entity types for which there is only one possible sub-entity type, you will see a list of sub-entities that you can select from.
Creating SAN Fabric Entities
Creating host and storage array entities from discovered HBA and storage ports is recommended to support advanced troubleshooting capabilities.
Entities should be created after vSphere discovery is completed (ESX Hosts are automatically discovered and do not need to be created).
The Entity Matching or Entity Import Utilities are used to create these entities. Please see the relevant chapters in the IO User Guide for more information.
