FusionSuite project presentation

January 12, 2022
David Durieux: david@durieux.family

Who am I?

David Durieux

• live in France (countryside near Lyon)
• admin & developer since 1999, self-taught
• leader of FusionSuite project
• co-leader of FusionInventory project
• Innovation and expertise manager at DCS EASYWARE company
• old GLPI contributor

What is FusionSuite?

FusionSuite is a free software for IT service management:

• incident management
• request management
• change management
• assets management
• ...

History

GLPI POC (2014)

When GLPI was managed by the Indepnet association, after consultation, I created a GLPI POC to restart the software on modern and good foundations.

After POC, the association has decided to give it up, for these reasons:

• too small team to achieve the POC
• too important impact on GLPI releases (no releases possible until 2 years)

FusionInventory

Created in 2010 at FOSDEM:

• rename the GLPI plugin Tracker (2008) in FusionInventory
• fork of the OCS Inventory Perl agent

2022: new exchange protocol (2.0) between agent and server.

It allows to:

• use REST API
• have a modern and more usable data format

FusionSuite

This is the timeline of FusionSuite project:

• creation of the POC in March 2020
• begin to write the specifications in November 2020
• performances problems appear in September 2021
• performances are now good, POC is validated in December 2021
• presentation of the project to the community in January 2022

Architecture

FusionSuite is made up of 2 parts:

• Backend
• Frontend

Backend

The backend is the part managing the data, stored into database.

It's made of:

• REST API (documented)
• support of many database types (ORM Eloquent)
• good performances
• symplicity & stability

Database

FusionSuite is compatible with many databases:

• MySQL
• MariaDB
• PostgreSQL
• SQLite
• Microsoft SQL Server

Frontend

The frontend is the web interface:

• coded in typescript with the Ionic framework (over Angular).
• responsive (desktop, smartphone, tablet)
• dynamic interface
• can be generated in different formats:
  • web
  • desktop app
  • android & iOS app

Users

FusionSuite manage users and accounts. The main features are:

• local accounts
• LDAP/AD connection
• SSO (SAML, Auth0...)

ITSM

FusionSuite can manage ITSM: incident, request, problem, change, knowledge... The main features are:

• creation
• follow-up
• validation
• notifications
• workflow
• ...

Assets management

FusionSuite can manage assets. The main features are:

• IT or non IT assets
• contracts
• automatic inventory possible by FusionInventory
• budgets
• stock
• ...

Dynamic items

The items are dynamics!

You can create how many you want.

Item definition

An item definition is defined by:

• a name (for examples laptop, ticket, switch, car...)
• groups properties (Main, Actors...)
  • properties (for example: serial number, operating system...)

Creation

Many ways to create these items definition:

• manually in the web interface
• by import a JSON description file (there will have an items catalog on the website, export is too possible)
• with REST API (for developers)

Properties

Definition

These properties are defined by:

• a name
• a type of field (string, integer, float, date, datetime, list, boolean, text, itemlink, itemlinks)
• a regex format
• a list of values (when use list type)
• a unit (for example months, MHz...)

Attach

When having a property definition created (for example a Serial Number type string), we can attach this property to one or many items definition (Laptop, Software...).

Using this approach, you can add properties you want to your items.
It's flexible.

Example

POC version, not the final render!

FusionInventory

I have written FusionInventory server into FusionSuite.

Some features improvements have been made since have coded the Plugin FusionInventory for GLPI many years ago.

Item type rules

When inventory enter in server (backend), the first rule is to define what item type this inventory is.

For example:

• if chassis_type in inventory is laptop => define item Laptop
• if chassis_type in inventory is rackmount => define item Physical server
• if chassis_type in inventory is other => define item Computer

Item search rules

Once have the item type, playing rules to search if this item is in the database, for example:

• if no name => ignore the import
• search if item have this serial number in DB, if found update it
• if not found, search on name, if found update it
• finally, if not find, create a new item

Item rules

The rules are very important when you create, update and delete an item (properties).

Rewrite properties

Before update in the database, code is playing rewrite fields.

Some examples:

• when add a solution in a ticket, the status of ticket will be modified to be solved.
• when add a memory stick on computer, increment number of sticks

Notifications

These rules are played after item updated in database.
With criteria, notifications can be sent.

Some examples:

• when add followup in a ticket, send a notification to the requester
• when a memory stick of a computer is deleted, send a notification to the IT park administrator

When FusionSuite will be released?

As seen previously, the POC is validated since very few weeks.

The software is not over, need lots of works to develop, document, test...

The release is planned for the end of 2022.

Why created this project?

GLPI is a great software, but:

• project management closed to the contributors since 2020 (during the development of 9.5 version)
• many security problems (marketplace)
• serious stability issues

So need an other solution!

Why announce the project now?

FusionSuite is a free software.

I want to build on the community to help us to make this software grow.

Contribution

I search people to help us for:

• translate the website
• develop the backend (PHP)
• develop the frontend (IONIC/Angular)
• enhance UI Design
• enhance UX Design
• write the documentation
• and certainly other things...

Partners

I also want to forge partnerships with companies.
These companies help us on the project (with elements described in contribution part).
2 partners have joined the project this month.

Spécialiste du support, de la gestion des environnements utilisateurs et de la gestion des infrastructures (production et exploitation), DCS poursuit sa stratégie en développant notamment l'intégration de solutions afin d'augmenter la valeur de ses prestations et répondre aux enjeux de ses clients.

La SCOP Probesys est une structure à taille humaine, dynamique, réactive et participative.
C'est une structure spécialisée en solutions libres et open source qui accompagne tout type de structures dans l'ensemble de leurs projets informatiques : Administration système et réseaux, développement web ou applicatif.

Join us

If you (user or company) want to join us to contribute to FusionSuite project, contact us!

• Discord server
• David Durieux: david@durieux.family

Demo of the development version

This is a demo of the development version.

The design not yet done and not all features implemented!