BMC Remedy Integration

Downloading the BMC Remedy Integration

The BMC Remedy Integration plugin can be found on the BMC Remedy Integration page.

Technology Components and Pre-requisites

• BMC Remedy Action Request Server v9.0
• BMC Remedy Plug-in server v9.0 (Pre-installed with AR Server)
• Java 1.8+
• MS SQL Server 2008+
• Tomcat 7.0.53+
• BMC ITSM Incident Management

Installing the BMC Remedy Integration

Import BMC Remedy Definition Files

1. Login to BMC Remedy Developer Studio as BMC Remedy Admin (Developer)
2. Begin by first importing the file Device42_Forms.def
3. Import the file Device42_IncidentTemplateForm.def. This file contains the field details which need to be created in OOB HPD:Help Desk form
4. Create all the fields in the form HPD:Help Desk by referencing the Incident Template form
5. Import the rest of the workflow definition files in the following order:
6. Device42_ALs.def
7. Device42_AL_Guide.def
8. Device42_Filters.def
9. Device42_Escalations.def
10. Device42_Char_Menu.def
11. Attach the Character Menu:
    • After Importing the file Device42_Char_Menu.def, open the form HPD:Help Desk and go to the “Device42” Panel -> ObjectType field -> Attach this Char Menu.

BMC Remedy configuration data import and configuration

Open the form “Device42:BaseConfigurations” in your browser [as Admin], and create a new record as in BaseConfigurations.xlsx
Please note: Update both the Device42 user credentials and your BMC Remedy user credentials accordingly!

Integrate with Incident forms

The below image shows an example of HPD:Help Desk integrated with the Device42 panel to display a list of Device42 CIs and CIs associated with an incident:

Clicking the view icon (annotated above) brings you directly to the Device42 details page for RackID: 10, Name: NHCTDC1R4

Installing the plug-in files

The following steps are specifically for a Windows server. However, the same general steps can easily be adapted for a Linux-based server. Care must be taken to update the relevant paths for Linux.

• Copy the d42fa.zip to the pluginsvr directory.
• For example, place the zip file in the folder C:\Program Files\BMC Software\ARSystempluginsvr\
• Unzip the d42fa.zip file, a new directory d42fa is created with following lib files:
  • commons-codec-1.9.jar
  • commons-logging-1.2.jar
  • d42fa.jar
  • httpclient-4.4.1.jar
  • httpcore-4.4.1.jar
  • jettison-1.3.7.jar
  • stax-api-1.0.1.jar

Configure plug-ins within BMC remedy

The following configuration needs to be done to include the plug-in within BMC.
* Update the following line at the end of list of plugins within ar.conf/ar.cfg under <AR_INSTALL_DIR>Conf directory

Server-Plugin-Alias: DEVICE42.RESTAPI.PLUGIN DEVICE42.RESTAPI.PLUGIN <RemedyServer>:9999

Add the following lines in pluginsvr_config.xml under <AR_INSTALL_DIR> pluginsvr directory. Add the lines within <pluginset> tag at the end:

<plugin>
<name>DEVICE42.RESTAPI.PLUGIN</name>
<classname>com.device42.bmc.integration.Device42BMCFilter</classname>
<filename> <AR_INSTALL_DIR>/pluginsvr/d42fa/d42fa.jar</filename>
<pathelement type="location"><AR_INSTALL_DIR>/pluginsvr/d42fa/d42fa.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="location"><AR_INSTALL_DIR>/pluginsvr/d42fa/httpclient-4.4.1.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="location"><AR_INSTALL_DIR>/pluginsvr/d42fa/httpcore-4.4.1.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="location"><AR_INSTALL_DIR>/pluginsvr/d42fa/jettison-1.3.7.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="location"><AR_INSTALL_DIR>/pluginsvr/d42fa/stax-api-1.0.1.jar</pathelement>
</plugin>

• BMC Remedy AR Server needs to be restarted to recognize and load the new plug-in.
• The integration requires a fixed license user to fetch and update records. This needs to be configured in the Base configuration form

Using the BMC Remedy Integration

Manual Synchronization with BMC Remedy

The base configuration form allows users to manually trigger a synchronization. The sync process is split into 2 steps for optimal performance; Both processes need to be executed, one after another to complete a sync.

• Sync creates new CIs on Device42 from CIs on BMC Remedy, and updates the attributes for any CIs that may already exist.
  Execute a sync by selecting Operation = “Sync” and modifying the record.
• Mark for Delete where missing ids or deleted CIs in the Device42 server are identified and marked for delete into Remedy AR System.
  This can be executed by selecting Operation = “Delete” and modifying the record.

Automatic Synchronization through remedy escalation

Automatic synchronization is achieved by automating the above 2 steps using Remedy Escalations.

Enabling detailed logging

The connector uses log4j logging mechanism to log the transaction. To enable detailed logging configure priority value to info from warn in log4j_pluginsvr.xml under pluginsvr

The snapshot of the log shown below:

Selective Synchronization

During manual synchronization, the user can select the item category to selectively synchronize the items.

To synchronize all the object types, the content should be “devices, racks, pdus, parts” (excluding the quotes). If selected items need to be synched then the values can be changed as “devices, parts” or “devices”.

Internal Parameters

Some of the fields are for internal use only. These fields should not be modified unless there is a need to do so. These are Device Field Ids, Rack Field Ids, PDU Field Ids and Part Field Ids