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Collectors

You define collectors to determine what properties the system collects from (or assigns to) your servers. The collector assigned to a server is like a blueprint for the server's manifest.

The Collectors section of the Servers module (Servers > Collectors ) lists the available collectors and allows you to create new collectors.

A collector consists of a series of properties which are assigned to any server that uses the collector. However, the specific values of the properties can vary from server to server, because a collector is a set of instructions for collecting data.

You can define several types of properties in a collector:
Set Value
These properties simply assign a named, static value to the server. Specify the property name and the value. The same value is assigned to all servers that use the collector.
The system recognizes values with special names as defining behavior for a server. These special values begin with the underscore (_) character. See Special Set Value Properties for a list of these.
Built-in
These properties return information about the server. For a list of built-ins, see Built-in Properties Reference. When you choose this type, the system allows you to pick a built-in from a list.
Run Command
For these properties, you define a command for the system to run. The command's output is used to populate the property value in the manifest. You can use a regular expression to specify what part of the command's output to use.
To define a Run Command property, fill out the following fields:
Property
The name of the property, for the manifest.
Command
A command to run on the server.
Regular Expression
A Perl regular expression. Optional. If specified, the system tries to match the regular expression against each line of output from the command. The first time a line matches, it retrieves the value of $1 (a Perl convention), and uses it as the value for that property. The regular expression must include at least one set of parentheses so that it returns a value. Consult Perl documentation for more information on constructing Perl regular expressions.
Note: If you do not specify a regular expression, the system uses up to the first 255 characters of output from the command to populate the property in the manifest.
.include
These allow you to nest collectors. When you create a .include property, you specify the name of another collector as its value. When it creates or updates the manifest, the system inserts the properties from the referenced collector.
Note: The system applies collector properties in the order they are listed in the collector, and later properties of the same name override earlier ones. Use this feature when you include one collector within another one. If you want to use some of the properties of a collector but not all, override the ones you do not want to use.

The system also applies a few properties automatically, such as the BF_NAME property that contains the logical name of the server. See Special Manifest Properties.

Related concepts
Manifests
Selectors
Built-in Properties Reference
Special Manifest Properties
Special Set Value Properties
Creating a Selector
Selecting the Server for a Project or Step
Using Filter Boxes