Merge-object behavior - BlueCat Integrity - 9.5.0

Address Manager Administration Guide
Locale
English
Product name
BlueCat Integrity
Version
9.5.0

Using a value of merge-object with the on-exist attribute allows users to merge data from two different elements without having to recreate the element. When on-exist=merge-object is applied to the second element, the first element is modified with the data of the second element.

In the following example, an ACL named merge-example is declared twice:

Element 1:

<acl name="merge-example">  
   <acl-value value="133.188.167.0/26"/>  
</acl>

Element 2:

<acl name="merge-example" on-exist="merge-object">  
   <acl-value value="51.82.246.0/26"/>  
   <acl-value value="97.12.0.0/25"/>  
</acl>

After processing the two elements one after another, the resulting merged element contains a combination of the sub-elements.
Result:
<acl name="merge-example">  
   <acl-value value="133.188.167.0/26"/>  
   <acl-value value="51.82.246.0/26"/>  
   <acl-value value="97.12.0.0/25"/>  
</acl>

The merging of elements via on-exist=merge-object is intended to only apply to the corresponding element at the same level and not it's children (unless those children are metadata fields). The merge operation will modify the first element with new metadata and also combine the children, but the metadata for child elements will not change unless on-exist=merge-object is explicitly declared on the child element. If the elements have children that are pointing to the same element, the engine will not combine the children to avoid creating duplicates of an element.

In the following example, an IPv4 network named Network 1 is declared twice:

Element 1:

<ip4-network range="1.1.0.0/16" name="Network 1">  
    <dhcp-role server="Server 1" type="master" secondary="Server 2"/> 
</ip4-network>

Element 2:

<ip4-network range="1.1.0.0/16" name="Network 1" on-exist="merge-object">  
    <dhcp-role server="Server 1" type="none" secondary="Server 2"/>  
</ip4-network>

Result:

<ip4-network range="1.1.0.0/16" name="Network 1">  
    <dhcp-role server="Server 1" type="master" secondary="Server 2"/> 
</ip4-network>

In this example, it can be observed that:

  • The DHCP role did not change from master to none because the merge applies at the IPv4 network entity level.

  • The DHCP roles are not duplicated after the merge. They are assumed to be the same entity because their identifier is the name Server 1

To modify the DHCP role, on-exist=merge-object must be declared at the DHCP role level.