Smarts IP: When exporting/importing polling settings using the sm_settings.pl script, only the first line of the multiple-line "Description" field is kept, and the rest of the fields after the multi-line field are missing

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:


Cannot import Smarts IP polling settings using the sm_settings.pl script when a field contains a value with multiple-lines such as "Description"

If a multiple-line value such as "Description" is present and sm_settings.pl is used to export settings and import it to a different domain, only the first line of the multi-line value is kept, and other settings for the polling / interface group below the multi-line field are lost.

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - SMARTS

Cause

While it is not explicitly mentioned in the interface or documentation, there is an implicit assumption that all values are single lined. Values that contain more than one line are not accepted while importing. You can see entries related to this in the following log file for example for the setting Ethernet_Performance_Setting.

[2013/07/08 10:43:46 +997ms] t@59 SM_ProtocolEngine-10 6624 Perl-Client-6624-1

ASL_MSG-*-ASLP-icf/init-settings.asl: Setting 'Ethernet_Performance_Setting' defined outside of configuration.

When values with multiple lines are present, only the first line is taken and everything after that gets discarded. That is why you only see the first line in the description field once it is loaded. This happens because within a configuration setting definition, no empty/invalid lines are permitted. Since the multiple-line description causes the extra lines to be discarded, the configuration setting definition is assumed to be ended there.

Resolution

The Smarts sm_settings.pl settings import script is working as designed. The format for settings import is strict. Any line should start with one of the key words such as setting, config, and so on. Any other lines are discarded and also any line that comes after the multiple-line field this is expected to be belonging to another configuration. If the description is changed to a single line (no new line), the remaining single-line fields should be successfully imported. One possible future Smarts IP enhancement is to strip off extra lines (or replace new lines with space) during export to ensure the resulting file can be safely imported. Please open a product enhancement request if you desire this functionality.