18.08 Install Experience

REMEDY ITSMDIGITAL WORKPLACE ADVANCED

Carin SinclairPremier Support

Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3

18.08 Enhancements.............................................................................................................................3

Hardware Windows and SQL Server prerequisites................................................................................4

Tuning the SQL Server Database............................................................................................................4

Mid-Tier.................................................................................................................................................4

Mid-Tier Tomcat Tuning & SSL...............................................................................................................5

Running Platform Installers -ARServer/CMDB/AI..............................................................................6

Licensing................................................................................................................................................9

Enable FTS.............................................................................................................................................9

CMDB /AI.........................................................................................................................................10

Platform Tuning...................................................................................................................................12

Mid-Tier...............................................................................................................................................14

Mid-Tier Tomcat Tuning & SSL.............................................................................................................15

Service Desk/Service Request Management.......................................................................................16

ITSM install 18.05........................................................................................................................16

ITSM/SRM/SLM Post installation.........................................................................................................19

Service Level Management..................................................................................................................20

Server Group Ranking..........................................................................................................................21

Deployment Console...........................................................................................................................22

Digital Workplace................................................................................................................................23

DWP Post installation..........................................................................................................................25

Smart IT...............................................................................................................................................26

Smart IT Post Install.............................................................................................................................29

Smart Reporting..................................................................................................................................30

Smart Reporting Tuning.......................................................................................................................33

Smart Reporting Best Practises............................................................................................................33

Creating custom reports.................................................................................................................33

Designing dashboards.....................................................................................................................33

Creating views (data models).........................................................................................................33

Customizing views...........................................................................................................................33

Implications of customized views on reports and dashboards....................................................34

Implications of customized views on an upgrade........................................................................34

Remedy Single Sign-On........................................................................................................................35

Migrate and validate Customizations..................................................................................................38

Best Practises / Further Resources......................................................................................................39

Introduction

This document is intended to give you an overall idea of the installation process. It is not a replacement for existing documentation.

Below listed flow and duration

Component Install Time NotesMidTier 05 min Need to be installed prior to

attempting to apply licenses ARServer 22 minCMDB 1hr 07 minAtrium Integrator 03 minITSM 04hr 06 minSRM 1hr 03 minSLM 1hr 03 minDigital Workplace 32 minSmart-IT 15 minRSSO 05 minSmart Reporting 08 min

18.08 Enhancements

There have been many ITSM Suite enhancements which are documented here.

DWP enhancements are available here and for a summary of what’s changed in the last few releases:

What’s new in DWP 18.02

What’s new in DWP 18.05

What’s new in DWP 18.08

Hardware Windows and SQL Server prerequisites

Please provide the following links to your Server Team & DBA:

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/brid/1805/preparing-a-windows-environment-805357937.html

Permissions required to run the installer Temporary disk space Terminal Services Configuration options To update Terminal Services configuration options for Windows Server To configure the DEP feature

Tuning the SQL Server Database

Follow tuning recommendations from this location:

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/brid/1805/tuning-the-sql-server-database-805357823.html

Mid-Tier

a) If NOT using bundled Tomcat - Download Apache Tomcat 8.5 and configure as per this link:

Oracle: Installation and configuration of Tomcat 8.5

b) Run the Mid-Tier installer and select “Other” to use the above Tomcat instance.

Note: Tomcat home is up to “../opt/apache-tomcat-8/5/34” in this example:

Once the installation is successful, repeat on the secondary Mid-Tier Server and configure for clustering and proceed to check load balancer settings with your network team.

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/ars1808/Configuring+a+cluster

Mid-Tier Tomcat Tuning & SSL

I used the following references to tune tomcat:

CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST from the BMC R&D PERFORMANCE TEAM

Tuning the Remedy Mid-Tier

Some general settings:

a) Tomcat/conf/server.xml

connectionTimeout="60000"

b) Tomcat/conf/logging.properties

Change all INFO to SEVERE.

c) Setenv.sh (tomcat/bin directory)

export CATALINA_OPTS="-Xmx8192m -Xms8192m -XX:+UseCompressedOops -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m -XX:NewRatio=2"

d) MIDTIER/WEB-INF/classes/config.properties

arsystem.pooling_max_connections_per_server=350

e) Configure SSL as per the following instructions:

Configuring the Mid-Tier web server for SSL certificate

Running Platform Installers -ARServer/CMDB/AI

Verify and FIX all errors is Config report

Licensing Log into the Mid-Tier and add the following:

AR Server ( Licensing in an AR Server Group) AR User fixed/floating Application/user FTS

Enable FTSEnable FTS and restart AR Server and review managing FTS in a Server Group

CMDB /AI

Note: Unselect Webservices and Registry

Platform Tuning

Check the guidelines from the following links:

CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST from the BMC R&D PERFORMANCE TEAM

Performance Tuning for Remedy

Some general observations:

a) Check JAVA HOME is correct (/opt/bmc/ARSystem/bin/arserverd.conf)

# JVM search paths (number indicates search order)jvm.search.path.1=FILE_SYSTEM=/usr/jdk/jdk1.8.0_172/jre/bin

b) Update the “arserverd.conf” file.

Increase JVM from# JVM minimum heap sizejvm.minimum.heap.size=8589934592

# JVM maximum heap sizejvm.maximum.heap.size=8589934592 To 32GB for Indexing ServersTo 24GB for all other servers

Verify -XX:+DisableExplicitGC-XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m-XX:MetaspaceSize=384m-XX:+UseCompressedOops-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC

-XX:+UseParNewGC-XX:NewRatio=2

c) ARmonitor

Check paths in the “armonitor are correct.

d) AR.conf

Added IP/Names to each of the Server Added “Next-ID-Block-Size: 100” Added “Server-Side-Table-Chunk-Size: 1000”

e) Pluginserver_config.xml (ARSystem/pluginsvr/pluginsvr_config.xml)

<numCoreThreads>30</numCoreThreads><numSelectorThreads>2</numSelectorThreads>

Create arsys_api.xml in the current plug-in server directory with the following content.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><javaapi_config> <maxProxiesPerServer>80</maxProxiesPerServer> </javaapi_config

f) Pluginserver_config.xml(…cmdb/plugins/shared/pluginsvr_config.xml)

<numCoreThreads>10</numCoreThreads><numSelectorThreads>2</numSelectorThreads

Updated the arsys_api.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <javaapi_config> <maxProxiesPerServer>80</maxProxiesPerServer></javaapi_config>

g) Pluginserver_config.xml (..cmdb/plugins/ne/pluginsvr_config.xml)

<numCoreThreads>5</numCoreThreads> <numSelectorThreads>2</numSelectorThreads>

h) Create arsys_api.xml in the current plug-in server directory with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <javaapi_config><maxProxiesPerServer>80</maxProxiesPerServer> </javaapi_config>

Mid-Tier

c) Check non-root permissions here.d) Download Apache Tomcat 8.5 and configure as per this link:

Oracle: Installation and configuration of Tomcat 8.5

e) Run the Mid-Tier installer and select “Other” to use the above Tomcat instance.

Note: Tomcat home is up to “../opt/apache-tomcat-8/5/34” in this example:

Once the installation is successful, repeat on the secondary Mid-Tier Server and configure for clustering and proceed to check load balancer settings with your network team.

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/ars1808/Configuring+a+cluster

Mid-Tier Tomcat Tuning & SSL

I used the following references to tune tomcat:

CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST from the BMC R&D PERFORMANCE TEAM

Tuning the Remedy Mid-Tier

Some general settings:

f) Tomcat/conf/server.xml

connectionTimeout="60000"

g) Tomcat/conf/logging.properties

Change all INFO to SEVERE.

h) Setenv.sh (tomcat/bin directory)

export CATALINA_OPTS="-Xmx8192m -Xms8192m -XX:+UseCompressedOops -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m -XX:NewRatio=2"

i) MIDTIER/WEB-INF/classes/config.properties

arsystem.pooling_max_connections_per_server=350

j) Configure SSL as per the following instructions:

Configuring the Mid-Tier web server for SSL certificate

Service Desk/Service Request Management

a) Run the installer on the first Server for ITSM & SRM (shouldn’t take more than 1 hour & 20 mins).

b) Once successful, run the installer on the remaining servers making sure to flush the Mid-Tier cache.

ITSM install 18.05

If FTS configuration was not done after ARSErver install you will receive following message

Unselect Hebrew as language option for ITSM as it was NOT installed during cmdb and it will result in following warning

Kuwait currency is not available within the installer so will have to be configured separately after the installation if needed.

ITSM/SRM/SLM Post installation

a) Run post install check from “/opt/bmc/BMCRemedyITSMSuite/Utilities”

b) Run through standard configuration tasks

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Configuring+Service+Desk+Optimization

c) Synchronise people information

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Synchronizing+people+information+for+BMC+Remedy+ITSM+Suite

d) Create a Private queue for CAI

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Generating+a+private+server+queuehttps://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Configuring+the+CAIPluginRegistry+form

e) Change escalation Server thread counts

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Configuring+the+BMC+Remedy+Notification+Engine+threads+count

f) Set up Archiving Policies

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Archiving

g) Configure Submitter Mode

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Configuring+the+Submitter+mode+for+BMC+Service+Request+Management

h) Configure Mid-Tier for SRM

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/itsm1808/Configuring+the+mid+tier+for+BMC+Service+Request+Management

Service Level Management

a) Run installer on the first node – takes approx. 1 hour. b) When running on the second/third AR Servers, I noticed it presented these options (unlike

SRM, Service Desk) so make sure to choose “Reinstall SLM Application”.

c) Leave as default (without Primary Server ticked)

Server Group RankingOpen the” AR+System+Server+Group+Operation+Ranking” form and configure as per below:

More information on Server Groups is available here:

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/ars1808/Configuring+server+groups

Select refresh ranking to complete.

Deployment Console

a) Download the 18.08 ITSM, SLM, SRM packages from the EPD.b) Select “Import” and choose ITSM, SRM and SLM (In that order)

c) Deploy one package at a time (same order as above) and view the details and you’ll notice ITSM will get stuck so you’ll need to run the shell script on each of the AR Server that it reports (refer to step “To run the payload deployment utility”)

Once completed you should see a “Deployed” message:

Digital Workplacea) Perform a “yum update” to bring Linux software up to date.

b) Install pre-requisite software for the installer:

# yum install compat-libstdc++-33 libX11.i686 libXau.i686 libxcb.i686 libXext.i686 libXi.i686 libXtst.i686 libstdc++.so.5 libstdc++.so.6 libXrenderyum install libstdc++

c) Change permissions for non-root user

d) Install User Experience Patch 18.05 on the Admin Server of the Group. As there is no social cloud plugin from 18.05 + so no need to run the UX installer on the remaining AR Servers.

e) Run the DWP installer and either select pre-created DB or specify the system user and let the installer do it – choose any password for DWP_Business or System users.

Select the Admin Server of the Group and application service password

The installer comes bundled with tomcat 8.5 so I decided to use it rather than download manually. If you would like to configure SSL later, don’t tick the SSL connection box.

Once the installation has completed successfully, open the CTM:People form and update your Admin user with the MyITAdmin Permission. This allows the user to perform DWP admin activities.

DWP Post installation

Update DWP_SYSTEM CONFIGURATION_PARAMETER table with AR Server Group Alias (if configured at this point)

Customize look at feel with NBK logos

Decide what features you need enabled

Update the providers

Configure email notification

Configure SSL for tomcat

Setup multi-tenancy (if required)

Set up customer surveys

Smart IT

f) Run a “yum update” on the Linux box

# yum update

g) Install pre-requisite software for the installer:

# yum install compat-libstdc++-33 libX11.i686 libXau.i686 libxcb.i686 libXext.i686 libXi.i686 libXtst.i686 libstdc++.so.5 libstdc++.so.6 libXrenderyum install libstdc++

h) Set up env for non-root useri) Run installer (for first node select “In a New Cluster” and for the second select “Existing”

which will only update the filesystem, not the DB).

I used the SYSTEM account to automatically create the database. For a pre-created database please follow these instructions:

Enter Admin Server name here. Note: Once the AR Server Group is load balanced, you will need to update the configuration_parameter table with the LB name and encrypted password.

Smart IT Post Install

Follow these online instructions:

Configuring Tomcat with SSL

Login requirements for SmartIT

Configure security requirements

Deploying SmartIT

Configuring BMC Remedy Smart Reporting in SmartIT

Review configuration parameters

Smart Reporting a) Pre-create the Smart Reporting user/role and Database.

SQL> create tablespace reporting datafile 'reporting' size 500M reuse autoextend on;SQL> create user repadmin identified by RP#Admin# default tablespace reporting;SQL> create role RRole not identified;SQL> grant unlimited tablespace to repadmin;SQL> grant CREATE SESSION, alter session, create cluster, create database link, create sequence,create trigger, query rewrite, create synonym, create table, create view, create procedure to RRole;SQL> grant RRole to repadmin;

b) Run the installer using the DB username/password from above.

Specify ports/Heap size and choose any username/password.

c) Once the installation is successful, run customer onboarding.

Make sure the user is part of struct-admin and smart reporting groups before onboarding.

Use the Mid-Tier to specify Smart Reporting URL.

Update all of the required settings for cross launch

Smart Reporting TuningUpdate settings as per “CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST from the BMC R&D PERFORMANCE TEAM ”

-XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m-Xms8192m-Xmx8192m-XX:+UseG1G

Smart Reporting Best PractisesCreating custom reports

The best practices for creating custom reports are as follows:

Do not modify out-of-the-box reports provided with BMC Remedy Smart Reporting. However, if you

choose to modify a report, ensure that you first create and save a copy of it.

For better performance, create multiple small reports with only a few columns per use case, rather

than creating a large report with many columns to solve multiple use cases.

Designing dashboards

The best practices for designing dashboards are as follows:

Do not modify out-of-the-box dashboards provided with BMC Remedy Smart Reporting. However, if

you choose to modify a dashboard, ensure that you first create and save a copy of it.

Add only those reports to the dashboard that are relevant to the use cases. The dashboard loads all

reports every time you view it, which can impact performance.

Creating views (data models)

The best practices for creating views are as follows:

Create multiple small views specific to use cases instead of one large view that covers all use cases.

Plan for view objects like forms and fields that will be included in the new view.

To make a view more useful, give business names to the view objects.

Customizing views

The best practices for customizing out-of-the-box views are as follows:

BMC strongly recommends that you do not delete the current objects, joins, forms, fields, or tables

from the out-of-the-box views. BMC will continue to update out-of-the-box views with every release.

If you choose to modify out-of-the-box views, create and save a copy of the out-of-the-box view, and

then make changes to the copy.

For example, create a copy of the Incident Management view, call it Incident Management -

CUSTOM, and make changes to the custom view.

Although you can create multiple custom views for each out-of-the-box view, BMC recommends that

you combine your changes into as few customized views as possible.

When you create new objects in a view, always use unique names; for example, Object_X or

X_Object.

Implications of customized views on reports and dashboards

Existing reports do not automatically update their view references to the custom views. You must

update the references manually. See Updating semantic view references in out-of-the-box reports to

custom views.

You can continue to use existing reports that refer to existing views. You can create new reports that

refer to custom views.

If you choose to update out-of-the-box dashboards and reports, ensure that you create a copy, and

make changes to the copy.

Implications of customized views on an upgrade

BMC will continue to update out-of-the-box views with every release update. Existing out-of-the-box

views will be overwritten.

To update your customized views, you must manually reconcile updates from BMC to the

customized views.

For example, say that you copied the out-of-the-box Incident Management view to create a new

Incident Management - Custom view. You then customized the copied Incident Management -

Custom view. After the upgrade, BMC added a few new tables, and new fields from existing tables,

to the out-of-the-box Incident Management view. To update the Incident Management - Custom

view, you must reconcile it with the upgraded out-of-the-box Incident Management view, and

manually make changes to the Incident Management - Custom view.

Remedy Single Sign-On

The best practice is to run Remedy SSO cluster behind a firewall to protect the communication channels, such as access to the admin console. For security reasons, you must encrypt the communication between browser and Remedy SSO server cluster. The internal communication between other BMC products and Remedy SSO server cluster is not required to be encrypted.

a) Download and install Tomcat 8.5b) Create a DB for RSSO and select this when installingc) Run the installer and choose your domain (will be used by the cookie).

d) Copy installer to AR Servers, Mid-Tiers, DWP and Smart IT Servers.

e) Run the RSSO installer against the AR Servers and Mid-Tiers then restart tomcat. The following error can be ignored.

f) Follow instructions to manually integrate DWP and Smart IT

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/rsso1808/integrating-remedy-sso-with-smart-it-820495097.html

Note: The instructions for DWP for copying the RSSO files are not present so just use the instructions from the Smart IT link from above and update the following table to 1.

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/rsso1808/integrating-remedy-sso-with-smart-it-820495097.html

Note: Make sure you have the FQDN listed here as RSSO used cookies with domain names.

g) Create Authentication type

h) Create Realm and add all hostnames with their domains.

Migrate and validate Customizations

Import payload via D2p for customizations created

Apply all Patches and Hotfixes

Check EPD for available patches Check BMC recommended hotfixes: ftp://ftp.bmc.com/pub/ARRecommendedFixes/Server/ for available hotfixesAlso check with Premier Support to validate that latest is published

Best Practises / Further Resources

Migrating foundation data from BMC Remedy ITSM to a new Remedy environment

https://communities.bmc.com/people/muraliviswa/blog/2018/03/29/database-independant-data-migration-fresh-install-data-migration-bmc-solution

Change Management Approvals

Using model data to quickly load Foundation data

Business Logic objects

Connect with Remedy YouTube Playlist

Customizing ITSM form views

FAQ and additional Resources

Smart IT 18.05 Blog