What is the best starting point for downstream discovery of relationships and hosts when creating Portal Application Models?

The most effective starting point for downstream discovery in Riverbed Portal is the front-end hosts or their IP addresses. Application performance monitoring and modeling aim to trace the path of a user transaction from its origin. This journey begins when a user request hits a front-end component, such as a web server or a load balancer's virtual IP (VIP). By defining these front-end entities first, the discovery process can naturally follow the traffic flow "downstream" through the application servers, middleware, and ultimately to the back-end databases, creating a complete and accurate model of the entire service delivery chain.

A. Back-end DBs: Databases are at the end of a typical transaction path. Starting discovery here would be an "upstream" process, which is less effective for modeling the user-facing application structure.

C. Application Servers: While a critical component, the application server is a middle tier. Starting discovery here would fail to include the front-end web servers or load balancers that users initially interact with.

D. 3rd Party Services: These are external dependencies. They are typically discovered as a result of traffic leaving the core application, not used as the starting point for discovering the application itself.

1. Riverbed SteelCentral Portal User's Guide: In the sections covering Application Discovery and Configuration, the process typically begins by defining an application based on the servers that host it. The guide emphasizes identifying the client-facing (front-end) servers to allow the system to automatically map dependencies by analyzing traffic flows. For instance, the configuration workflow for a new application model prompts the user to add servers, and the logical first step is to add the servers that receive initial client requests. (Reference: SteelCentral Portal User's Guide, specific versions may vary, but the "Application Definitions" or "Application Discovery" chapter consistently outlines this front-end-first approach).

2. Riverbed SteelCentral AppResponse Documentation: When defining applications for analysis in AppResponse, which feeds data into Portal, the configuration is based on identifying the servers and ports that constitute the application. The primary method involves specifying the front-end server IP addresses that receive client traffic, which then allows the system to trace and discover the back-end tiers they communicate with. (Reference: SteelCentral AppResponse User's Guide, section on "Configuring Applications").