Entity discovery

DX can discover, suggest, and import entities from your connected systems into the Software Catalog.

Deployment services

Whenever you create a deployment in DX (either via API or deploy rules), two actions are automatically performed:

  1. A Service is created in Software Catalog
  2. If that Service does not have an explicitly assigned owner team, DX attempts to assign an owner based on recent pull request authors for the connected repsitory.

Automatic assignment of ownership continues, based on the latest deployment data, until one of the following occurs:

  • The auto-assignment suggestion is accepted in the UI
  • Ownership is explicitly set via the DX UI or API

Auto-assignment of ownership can be disabled from the service entity type settings page.

AWS infrastructure import

If you have the AWS connector configured, you can enable automatic import of AWS infrastructure resources into your Software Catalog.

To enable automatic AWS entity import:

  1. Navigate to Catalog Settings
  2. Find the “Import” section
  3. Toggle “Auto import AWS entities” to enabled

The AWS import process runs automatically on a scheduled basis. After enabling import or making changes to your infrastructure, allow up to 30 minutes for your entities to sync and appear in the Catalog.

AWS entity types

Upon configuring an AWS connector, new entity types become available:

  • S3 storage bucket
  • EC2 compute instance
  • RDS database instance
  • Lambda serverless function
  • EKS Kubernetes cluster
  • ElastiCache cluster

AWS entity types have automatically-generated properties. These entity types, as well as their properties, are managed by DX and cannot be edited or deleted. However, once an entity with one of these types is created, you can add custom properties, define custom relations, and assign ownership to the entity.

Properties

Each AWS entity type includes properties specific to the resource:

EC2 Instance

Property Type Description
Region Text AWS region where the resource is located
Availability Zone Text AWS availability zone
Tags JSON AWS resource tags
CPU Options JSON CPU configuration details
Instance Type Select EC2 instance type (e.g., t2.micro, t2.small)
Placement JSON Instance placement configuration
Monitoring JSON CloudWatch monitoring configuration
Image ID Text AMI image identifier
Platform Details Select Operating system platform (e.g., Linux/UNIX, Windows)

RDS Instance

Property Type Description
Region Text AWS region where the resource is located
Availability Zone Text AWS availability zone
Tags JSON AWS resource tags
DB Instance Class Select RDS instance class (e.g., db.t2.micro, db.t2.small, db.t3.micro)
Engine Select Database engine (e.g., mysql, postgresql)
Endpoint JSON Database connection endpoint details

Lambda Function

Property Type Description
Region Text AWS region where the resource is located
Tags JSON AWS resource tags
Runtime Select Lambda runtime environment (e.g., nodejs, nodejs4.3)
Handler Text Function handler entry point
Code Size Number Size of the deployment package in bytes
Description Text Function description
Timeout Number Function timeout in seconds
Memory Size Number Amount of memory allocated in MB
Last Modified Date Last modification timestamp
Architectures Multi-select Supported architectures (x86_64, arm64)

EKS Cluster

Property Type Description
Region Text AWS region where the resource is located
Tags JSON AWS resource tags
Version Select Kubernetes version (e.g., 1.30, 1.31)
Endpoint Text Cluster API server endpoint
Role ARN Text IAM role ARN for the cluster
Platform Version Text EKS platform version

ElastiCache Cluster

Property Type Description
Region Text AWS region where the resource is located
Availability Zone Text AWS availability zone
Tags JSON AWS resource tags
Description Text Cluster description
Engine Select Cache engine (redis, memcached)
Full Engine Version Text Complete engine version string
Cache Usage Limits JSON Cache usage limit configuration
Endpoint JSON Cluster endpoint details
Daily Snapshot Time Text Scheduled snapshot time
Major Engine Version Text Major version of the engine
KMS Key ID Text KMS encryption key identifier
Security Group IDs JSON Associated security groups
Snapshot Retention Limit Number Number of days to retain snapshots
User Group ID Text Associated user group identifier
Subnet IDs JSON Subnet configuration
Reader Endpoint JSON Read replica endpoint details

S3 Bucket

Property Type Description
Region Text AWS region where the resource is located
Tags JSON AWS resource tags

Suggested entities

DX continuously scans available aliases in your connected systems (Data Cloud) to identify potential service entities that could be added to your Software Catalog. These suggestions help you discover and catalog services that may not have been automatically created through deployments.

To review and manage suggested entities:

  1. Navigate to the Suggestions section in the Catalog
  2. Review the list of suggested services, which displays:
    • Entity name and identifier
    • Associated source system alias entry
    • Actions to accept or ignore each suggestion

The Suggestions interface provides several ways to manage your suggestions:

  • Status tabs: Filter suggestions by their status:
    • Open: Suggestions that are pending review
    • Accepted: Suggestions that have been added to the Software Catalog
    • Ignored: Suggestions that have been dismissed
  • Source filter: Filter suggestions by the source system (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, etc.)
  • Search: Search for specific entities by name or identifier

When you accept a suggestion, DX creates the corresponding service entity in your Software Catalog with the appropriate aliases already configured. Ignored suggestions are hidden from the Open tab but can be viewed in the Ignored tab if needed and re-added later.