Service Management › Compare Services or Components

Compare Services or Components

The Compare Services or Components feature finds the differences between the following:

• Current service data
• Most recent snapshot
• Second most recent snapshot
• Most recent snapshot on a specific date
• Selected snapshot
• Baseline snapshot
• Gold standard snapshot
• Silver standard snapshot
• Bronze standard snapshot

Component elements that have the Time Variant filter set in the corresponding Component Blueprint are the only items not checked for differences. Log files and data modified at runtime are examples of Time Variant-filtered elements.

To compare services or components

1. Click the Management link, then the Services tab.

   The Services tab page appears.

2. Click the check box next to the services you want to compare, and then select Management Actions, Run Compare from the Select Actions drop‑down list.

   The Compare Services wizard appears with the first service you selected listed in the Source Service field and the second service listed in the Target Service field.

3. Select a Source Snapshot from the following options:

   Current Data

   Specifies the current system data available for the service is used as the source.

   Most recent snapshot

   Specifies the snapshot with the most recent timestamp is used as the source.

   Second most recent snapshot

   Specifies the snapshot with the second most recent timestamp is used as the source.

   Most recent snapshot on a specific date

   Specifies the date of the snapshot to use as the source. If you select this option, the Source Snapshot Date field appears. Select the date of the snapshot you want to use. If there are multiple snapshots available on the specified date, the most recent snapshot on that date is used.

   Selected snapshot

   Specifies the snapshot to use as the source. If you select this option, the Source Snapshot field appears. Select the snapshot you want to use.

   Baseline

   Specifies the snapshot designated as the Baseline is used as the source.

   Gold Standard

   Specifies the snapshot designated as the Gold Standard is used as the source.

   Silver Standard

   Specifies the snapshot designated as the Silver Standard is used as the source.

   Bronze Standard

   Specifies the snapshot designated as the Bronze Standard is used as the source.

4. Select a Target Snapshot (the options are the same as those listed in step 3).
5. Click Next.

   The Components page appears.

6. Select the following options to use for the comparison:

   Include All Component Blueprints

   Specifies that all component blueprints are included.

   Select Component Blueprints by Name

   Specifies that one or more component blueprints are included. If you select this option you must double-click a blueprint in the Available Blueprints column to move it to the Select Blueprints column. If you select this option you also activate the Select Components area.

   Enable Component Selection

   Specifies whether you want to include specific software components in the comparison.

   Source Component

   Specifies the source software component to use for the comparison.

7. Click Next.

   The Filters page appears.

8. Select the following options to specify what differences are included in the comparison results:

   No children comparison if a hierarchical object exists on source or target only

   Specifies whether the comparison operation is performed on the child components if the object only exists in one of the services. When this option is selected, the operation ignores an object if it is not part of both services.

   All Differences

   Specifies that all differences in the services are included.

   Component Inventory Differences Only

   Specifies that only the components that are in the component inventory are included.

   Filters

   Specifies that one or more of the following objects are included:

   • Folders—Accept the default setting (All) or click the Select option, then select one or more folders to compare.
   • Categories—Accept the default setting (All) or click the Select option, then select one or more categories to compare. Categories are assigned in the Component Blueprint and are the organizational groupings to which an element belongs.
   • Weights—Accept the default setting (All) or click the Select option, then select the weights to compare. Weights are assigned in the Component Blueprint and represent the relative importance of an element. Unweighted elements (no weight assigned) are considered Medium.

     You can press Ctrl+click to select multiple non-consecutive list entries, or Shift+click to select multiple consecutive list entries.

9. Click OK.

   The service comparison runs, and the results appear as described in Viewing the Results of Change Detection and Compare Operations.