How to confirm if the node is a physical or virtual appliance, or a software installation

Products

• STARTER PACK-7
• CA Rapid App Security
• CA API Gateway

Issue/Introduction

It may be required by CA Support to determine if the appliance in question is physical or virtual, or if it is a software installation. Understanding the platform allows CA Support to provide a solution specific to a customer environment. This applies to all API Management products including the API Gateway and API Developer Portal.

Environment

Release:
Component: APIGTW

Resolution

Solution to determine if software installation

In a privileged shell, the following command can be run to gather diagnostic data useful in determining whether it is a software installation or an appliance: # rpm -qa | grep ssg

If the output contains references to ssg-appliance, then we can gather that this is an appliance provided by CA Technologies, and now need to narrow down if it's physical or virtual. If there is no reference to ssg-appliance and only to ssg in the output, then that output indicates the node is a software installation rather than an appliance.

Solution to determine if physical or virtual

In a privileged shell, the following command can be run to gather diagnostic data useful in determining whether an appliance is physical or virtual: # dmidecode -t 1

If the output shows a value of VMware Virtual Platform for the Product Name field, for example, then it is a virtual appliance. If the output contains a value of Oracle for the Product Name field, for example, then it is a physical appliance. The full output of the command above should be provided to CA Support for analysis in the appropriate support case, if it is required.

If further troubleshooting / diagnostic data is required by CA Support, then the following KB article should be reviewed and completed: Troubleshooting Gateway application failures, performance concerns, and service outages