Overview of the BMC Helix Remedyforce integration with BMC Client Management

When BMC Remedyforce and BMC Client Management are integrated, staff members can perform the following actions:

• Start the BMC Client Management console from the CMDB Manager in BMC Remedyforce.
• View the asset summary of devices imported from BMC Client Management.
• Perform actions on the BMC Client Management device imported in BMC Remedyforce.
• Create service request definitions (SRDs) and incident templates that deploy operational rules and make them available to Self Service clients.
• Attach BMC Client Management operational rules to Task templates to deploy the operational rules on BMC Client Management devices.
• Search, import, and link a device to an incident or service request.
• Deploy operational rules on a BMC Client Management device.

The first time users connect to BMC Client Management from BMC Remedyforce, the BMC Client Management Authentication dialog box is displayed. In this dialog box, users must enter their BMC Client Management credentials. If the credentials are correct, BMC Remedyforce stores the user name in the BCM Login ID field of the user record. Users need to enter their credentials for future connection attempts only if they change their BMC Client Management password. To display the BCM Login ID field in user records, system administrators must edit the layout and add the BCM Login ID field to the layout. To prevent users from editing the BMC Client Management user name stored in the BCM Login ID field, system administrators must also enable the Validate_BCM_Login validation rule. For more information, Configuring the integration between BMC Remedyforce and BMC Client Management.

The following topics are provided:

Support for BCM versions built on Java 11

Starting with Remedyforce 20.19.01 release, Java 11 will be supported for BCM and Remedyforce Discovery integrations. If any latest version of BCM is integrated with Remedyforce 20.19.01, instead of JNLP files, binary files will be downloaded. The latest versions of BCM includes BCM 12.8 Patch 2, BCM 12.7 Patch 4, and BCM 12.6 Patch 5. With older versions of BCM, JNLP file will still be downloaded and it will continue to work same as before.

The JNLP/binary files are downloaded under the following conditions:

• While launching BCM Console from Remedyforce CMDB list view. 
• While preforming the following CMDB actions: 
  • File System 

  • Remote Control 

     Remote Control without file download

    • Starting with 20.20.01, you can perform the Remote Control action directly, without downloading and executing the Binary or JNLP files.
    • When you click Remote Control, a new window opens where you perform remote control actions on BCM scanner devices. You do not need to enter credentials to connect to the BCM Console. All the connections and authentications are completed without user intervention.
    • This enhancement does not have UI impact on the other options from the Actions menu. Those actions continue to function as earlier.
    • This feature is available for both On-demand and On-premises.
    • For On-premises integration, the BCM version must be upgraded to 12.9 patch 2, for the Remote Control enhancement to work. However, if for some reason, the BCM Console is not accessible, the existing approach of file download will be executed.

    • For BCM versions earlier than 12.9 patch 2, the existing approach of file download will continue to work.

  • File Transfer

The following table shows BMC and Remedyforce versions based on which either JNLP or Binary files will be downloaded. 

Considerations 

• Executing the binary file for the first time will take some time as it has to copy multiple files. However, subsequent executions will be faster.
• The binary file should not be renamed. A renamed binary file will not run.
• Binary files are not supported on machines that are running a 32 bit operating system. The binary files will not work as Java 11 is not supported for 32 bit operating systems.

Enhanced UI 

If you are integrating with BMC FootPrints Asset Core 11.7 or later (known after version 12.0 as BMC Client Management), you have the option to enable the enhanced UI. In this case, BMC Remedyforce uses the Representational State Transfer (REST) web API in BMC Client Management to retrieve device data and perform actions on the devices from the CI Actions window. Users do not have to start the BMC Client Management console to perform these actions. For information about the REST web API in BMC Client Management, see the BMC Client Management documentation.

The following table highlights how actions in the CMDB Actions menu work differently based on availability of the enhanced UI (CMDB Actions window).

The following figure illustrates the architecture of the integration between BMC Remedyforce and BMC Client Management.
Integration between BMC Remedyforce and BMC Client Management 

Related topics

Troubleshooting the BMC Remedyforce integration with BMC Client Management