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What a Discovery Pattern Is

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • Infrastructure vs application patterns
  • How horizontal discovery uses patterns
  • How Service Mapping uses them differently

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Probes and Sensors on Older Instances. You learned what probes and sensors are, and how patterns replaced them.

1 The Problem: You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Understand

Soon you’ll build a pattern for the SNWR Mail Archiver. But first you need to know how patterns work. Without that:

  • You’ll copy steps you don’t understand.
  • You can’t debug when something fails.

🎯 The problem: You can’t fix or build what you don’t understand.

👉 The fix: Learn how patterns are organised and used, using ones that already run at SNWR.

Compare infrastructure and application patterns.
Figure 1. The two kinds of pattern.

2 Two kinds of pattern

Key term: Infrastructure pattern

Explores a device after classification and fills its CI.

Key term: Application pattern

Explores software on a device and fills the application CI and its links.

3 How they’re used

  • Horizontal discovery runs patterns on every device found in a range.
  • Service Mapping runs application patterns top-down, following one service’s connections.

The same application pattern can be used both ways. Clear View uses horizontal discovery only.

4 Project Clear View: How We Implemented It

📍 Situation: The team would build a custom pattern in two weeks.

🧭 Decision: Study the patterns already running at SNWR first.

🛠️ Steps we took:

  1. Listed the patterns that ran in the pilot.
  2. Picked Linux Server and PostgreSQL to study.
  3. Noted which is infrastructure and which is application.
  4. Agreed the archiver will be an application pattern.

✅ What we verified:

  • The team can name each pattern’s kind.
  • The archiver pattern type is decided.

📁 Evidence: Pattern study notes in the project folder.

5 Quick recap

  • Infrastructure patterns explore devices.
  • Application patterns explore software and its links.
  • Horizontal discovery runs patterns on every found device.
  • Service Mapping runs them top-down from one service.

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 Which kind of pattern is Linux Server? Show answer

Infrastructure.

2 Which kind will the archiver pattern be? Show answer

Application.

3 How does Service Mapping use patterns differently? Show answer

It runs them top-down, following one service’s connections.

Nice work! You know the two kinds of pattern. 🎉
Next up: Pattern Designer Tour

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