Deployment scenarios for integrating with BMC Change Management

Scenario 1: BMC Change Management installed with BMC CMDB Extensions prior to installing TrueSight Operations Management

Ensure that you install TrueSight Operations Management with BMC CMDB Extensions enabled. BMC Change Management integrates with Operations Management automatically and is activated without any manual configuration. Verify the integration by performing the following steps:

1. Ensure that you configure UDDI registry on which the BMC Change Management web service details are configured. Perform the following steps to verify the UDDI registry in the BMC Change Management web service configuration:
   1. Open the AR System Web Services Registry form in search mode. 
   2. In the Web Service drop-down menu, select CAI_ChangeManagementEventsSubscription_WS and click Search.
      If you see records displayed in the search results, the BMC Change Management integration with Operations Management details are present in the UDDI registry.
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2. Ensure that the required CMDB extensions are installed on the system where BMC Change Management is installed, and perform the following steps:
   1. Search for the SHARE:Application_Interface form where the Providing Application Name is BMC_PN: Class and Attribute Definitions for Service Impact Management.
   2. Ensure that the installed status of the chgbpm.jar file is set to Yes.
   3. Ensure that forms starting with PN: are present. For example, PN:Published Data.
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3. Install BMC Operations Management with CMDB Extensions enabled.
4. Ensure that the following BMC Change management related properties are enabled or set to true in the installationDirectory\pw\pronto\conf\pronet.conf file:
   1. Enable the pronet.jserver.ruleconfigurator.enable flag.
   2. Set the jserver.ruleconfigurator.eventcollectiondowntime.enable flag to true.
   3. Set the pronet.jserver.ruleconfigurator.datacollectiondowntime.enable to true.
   4. Ensure that the integration is active on the system where BMC Change Management is installed. To verify this, go to Application Administration Console > Custom Configuration > Change Management > Advanced Options > Change CI Event Notification to BPPM > BPPM Subscription. The status of Operations Management (listed as BPPM) should be Active.
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Scenario 2: TrueSight Presentation Server with BMC CMDB Extensions installed prior to installing BMC Change Management

1. Ensure that the required CMDB extensions are installed the system where BMC Atrium CMDB is installed, and perform following steps:
   1. Search for the SHARE:Application_Interface form where the Providing Application Name is BMC_PN: Class and Attribute Definitions for Service Impact Management.
   2. Ensure that the installed status of the chgbpm.jar file is set to Yes.
   3. Ensure that forms starting with PN: are present. For example, PN:Published Data.
2. Ensure that the following BMC Change management related properties are enabled or set to true in the installationDirectory\pw\pronto\conf\pronet.conf file:
   1. Enable the pronet.jserver.ruleconfigurator.enable flag.
   2. Set the pronet.jserver.ruleconfigurator.eventcollectiondowntime.enable flag to true.
   3. Set the pronet.jserver.ruleconfigurator.datacollectiondowntime.enable flag to true.
3. Ensure that TrueSight Operations Management is integrated with BMC Atrium CMDB. To verify this, check the cmdb_crosslaunch_credentials.conf file in the installationDirectory\pw\custom\conf\ folder for UDDI and BMC Atrium CMDB details. File and data should exist to enable the integration.
4. Install BMC Change Management and perform step 1 from Scenario 1 to verify whether the UDDI registry is configured.
5. From the TrueSight console, perform these steps to activate the integration with BMC Change Management.
6. Ensure that the integration is active. To verify this, go to Application Administration Console > Custom Configuration > Change Management > Advanced Options > Change CI Event Notification to BPPM > BPPM Subscription. The status of Operations Management (listed as BPPM) should be Active.

Best practices for integrating BMC Change Management with Operations Management

Ensure that you follow these best practices before proceeding to the actual use case of integrating events for generating an automatic blackout configuration, and for checking whether the RCA for the BMC Change Management events are generated in Operations Management.

• Operations Management registers BMC Change Management with the company name Global Company. Ensure that you do not modify this company name.

• Ensure that you verify the blackout policy in the Infrastructure Management administrator console when you configure change requests for Operations Management-enabled CIs. Operations Management generates an event and schedules a blackout policy only when the change request is in Scheduled State. To verify this, open the Infrastructure Management administrator console and go to Event Management Policies > Component Based Blackout Policy.

• By default, TrueSight Operations Management creates a Blackout policy with the following event configuration settings:
  • At start of Blackout Window - Do Not Change Status of Existing Events
  • During Blackout Window  - Keep Incoming Events and Set Status to Blackout
  • At End of Blackout Window - Leave Blacked-out Events in Blackout Status

• When Operations Management generates a change event for a computer system CI, a Blackout policy and a Schedule Downtime for the event is configured by default. You can customize the following properties in the pronet.conf file to only configure a Blackout policy and not Schedule Downtime or only configure a Schedule Downtime and not a Blackout policy.

           pronet.jserver.ruleconfigurator.datacollectiondowntime.enable=true

           pronet.jserver.ruleconfigurator.eventcollectiondowntime.enable=true

• BMC Change Management events generated in Operations Management are deleted from the cell when the change request reaches to CLOSED state.
• The Blackout policy is deleted when the change request reaches the COMPLETED state.
• The processing time for the change event received by Operations Management from BMC Change Management is minimal. Operations Management creates the policies immediately after it receives the change event.

Communication break between BMC Change Management and Operations Management

BMC Change Management change requests are converted to change events and sent to Operations Management through REST-based web services. The following list of scenarios describe the behavior of a change event when there is a break in communication between BMC Change Management and Operations Management.

1. Scenario:Communication breaks before the BMC Change Management change request reaches SCHEDULED state.
   Outcome: Operations Management does not receive any change event and as a result, does not create a Blackout policy. The change event will persist in BMC Change Management.
2. Scenario: Communication breaks before the BMC Change Management change request reaches the IMPLEMENTATION IN PROGRESS state.
   Outcome: Since Operations Management receives the change event when the change request is is SCHEDULED state, it configures a Blackout policy for that event. When the change request changes to the IMPLEMENTATION IN PROGRESS state and the communication breaks, no change event is sent to Operations Management, and the original change event in Operations Management will not update its state. However, there will be no impact on the Blackout policy.
3. Scenario: Communication breaks before the BMC Change Management change request reaches COMPLETE state.
   Outcome: If there is a communication failure between BMC Change Management and Operations Management before the change request reaches COMPLETE state, the event will not reach Operations Management, and the event's state will not be updated. However, there will be no impact on the execution of the Blackout policy. Ensure that you delete the Blackout policy manually from the Infrastructure Management administrator console.
4. Scenario: Communication breaks before the BMC Change Management change request reaches CLOSED state.
   Outcome: Since this is the final handshake between BMC Change Management and Operations Management, there is no impact on the execution of the Blackout policy as the event is deleted in Operations Management. However, since the event's state is not updated to CLOSED, the event remains open until you close it manually.