Documenting operator-initiated changes for networks
When network configuration changes are implemented, network engineers need to document the changes in BMC Remedy Change Management. After the Continuous Compliance for Network Automation solution is installed and configured, this change tracking process can be automated.
With the Continuous Compliance for Network Automation solution, a network change request is automatically created in BMC Remedy Change Management when a network user submits a job that requires BMC Remedy tracking and approval. After the change is approved in BMC Remedy, the change is scheduled for execution in BMC Network Automation.
After the job has run, the BMC Remedy change task is closed with an associated completion status and updated network CIs. The BMC Remedy Service Desk user can launch the Job Details report from the network task to verify the change actions. In addition, from the BMC Atrium CMDB CI Relationship Viewer, the BMC Remedy user can launch a Change Summary report to view change history for a network device.
Key benefits
The main benefit of this solution capability is to enforce continuous compliance to the change process without introducing labor intensive activities. The solution reduces the risk of unauthorized and unplanned changes through enforced change tracking.
To enforce compliance for operator-initiated changes
The following table provides a high-level view of the tasks required to implement the use case, with links to the BMC Software documents containing the task details.
Step | Product involved | Description and references |
|---|---|---|
Step 1: Create a Job | BMC Network Automation | Create a job to update a network device. Do not assign the change ID and task ID as these fields will automatically be assigned once a BMC Remedy network change request is opened. While creating the job, choose the Now or When Approved option in the Run At field. |
Step 2: Submit the Job | BMC Network Automation | Submit the job and select a job approval type that requires BMC Remedy approvals. |
Step 3: View the change request | BMC Remedy Change Management | In BMC Remedy Change Management console, the change request is associated with a network task, which you can view from the Tasks tab. For details on using BMC Remedy Change Management, see Using BMC Change Management in the BMC Change Management documentation. |
Step 4: View the Job details report | BMC Remedy Change Management, BMC Network Automation | From the BMC Remedy Change Management console, you can launch the Job Details report to aid in approving the change request. To launch the report, double-click the network task associated with the change request and click the Launch button on the General tab. BMC Network Automation launches the job and now you can view the Job Details report. In addition, you can see which network CI will be changed on the Relationships tab. |
Step 5: Approve the change in Remedy | BMC Remedy Change Management | After you approve the change in BMC Remedy Change Management, BMC Atrium Orchestrator notifies BMC Network Automation to schedule the change request. |
Step 6: Verify the changes (optional) | BMC Remedy Change Management, BMC Network Automation | In BMC Remedy, you can verify the actual changes made by the job. Double-click the network task and then click the Launch button. View the Job Details report in BMC Network Automation to verify the changes. |
Step 7: View additional details of the change (optional) | BMC Network Automation | You can view additional details of the change by clicking on the job ID, change ID or task ID to display the Job Summary report, which can be used for investigation if issues later arise with the affected device. |
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