Integrating with BMC Helix Remedyforce

You can integrate BMC Remedyforce with TrueSight Operations Management to create incidents in BMC Remedyforce using the events that are generated in TrueSight Operations Management. This integration enables you to create incidents based on the events generated in TrueSight Operations Management. Data in the events are mapped to the fields in the Incident object. You can integrate TrueSight Infrastructure Management with BMC Remedyforce using generic Salesforce APIs to create and update an incident. You can access the Salesforce APIs using the Partner WSDL. For information about using the web service, see Force.com Web Services Connector.

Integrating BMC Helix Remedyforce with TrueSight Infrastructure Management server

Using a sample scenario, the following diagram illustrates the information flow from TrueSight Infrastructure Management to BMC Helix Remedyforce.

1. TrueSight Infrastructure Management detects a degradation in the response time of a router.

2. An alert is triggered and routed to TrueSight Infrastructure Management.
3. An event incident is created through the transport mechanism based on the event and the relevant operational categories. 
4. BMC Helix  Remedyforce creates an incident through the Partner WSDL and sends a unique ID back to TrueSight Infrastructure Management as an acknowledgment.
5. TrueSight Infrastructure Management creates an IncidentInfo event after receiving an acknowledgment from BMC Helix  Remedyforce.
6. The router issue is fixed.
7. The event in TrueSight Infrastructure Management is closed.
   The IncidentInfo event is closed as the original event is closed in TrueSight Infrastructure Management.
   Event closure details are sent to BMC Helix  Remedyforce.
8. A Service Desk technician needs to close the incident in BMC Helix  Remedyforce. Note that this is an independent event.

Configuring the integration between TrueSight Infrastructre Management and BMC Helix Remedyforce

After you install BMC Service Resolution, you must configure the integration between TrueSight Infrastructure Management and BMC Helix Remedyforce.

To configure the integration

1. Open the TrueSight console.

2. Click Administration > Integrations.

3. Click the Configure Service Resolution integration menu and then click Edit.
4. In the BMC Helix Remedyforce tab, click Add Integrations.
5. Do the following:
   1. Select the TrueSight Infrastructure Management server where you want to configure the integration.
   2. Enter the Remedyforce user name, password, and security key.
      The security key is the encrypted key that is provided for your BMC Helix Remedyforce account.
6. Click Save.
   You can see the integration added in the BMC Helix Remedyforce tab on the Service Resolutions Integrations page.

Customizing the integration between TrueSight Infrastructure Management and BMC Helix Remedyforce

BMC recommends that after you configure the integration, you perform certain customizations in TrueSight Infrastructure Management so that information exchanged during the incident life cycle is consistent between TrueSight Infrastructure Management and BMC Helix Remedyforce. If you do not perform these customizations, the values provided in the RemedyForceDefaultMapping.map will be considered for incident urgency, impact, category, and status and if this does not match with the values used in BMC Helix Remedyforce, it might result in inconsistency.

To perform the customization

1. In a text editor, open and edit the RemedyForceDefaultMapping.map located in the <ibrsdHome>\conf directory.
2. For the following slots, update the slot information with that of the information as customized in BMC Helix Remedyforce.
   • Urgency
   • Impact
   • Category

   • Status
     For example, for Category, enter the database and network values shown in the box in the following image: 
     

3. (Optional) By default, when an event is closed in TrueSight, its incident status in RemedyForce is set to Completed. If you want set the status as Closed, do the following:
   1. Go to the <TrueSight Infrastructure Management installed directory>pw\integrations\ibrsd\conf directory.
   2. In the RemedyForceDefaultMapping.map file, under the MapName (BEMUseCaseMOD) section, change Completed to Closed.

4. (Optional) To use a template during incident creation, specify the Template ID in the Template property under the MapName (BEMUseCaseNEW) section. 
   For example, change the following line:
   #Template=<name of template>
   to 
   Template==”Server Request Template”

5. (Optional) To automatically close incidents, change CLOSED -> COMPLETED to CLOSED -> CLOSED.

6. Save the file.

7. Restart the Service Desk Integration Gateway process.

Configuring TrueSight Infrastructure Management to send additional slots to BMC Remedyforce

By default, Infrastructure Management sends details (slot values) of status, priority, message, and impact. With version 11.3.03 of TrueSight Infrastructure Management and version 2019.02 of BMC Remedyforce, Infrastructure Management can send additional event details to BMC Helix Remedyforce. These details are updated in the incident on BMC Remedyforce.

To send these additional slots from Infrastructure Management to BMC Helix Remedyforce, perform the following configuration steps.

Before you begin

On Remedyforce, add the new (or custom) fields for the slots that you want to send.

To configure additional event slots on Infrastructure Management 

1. Go to <install_directory>\TrueSight\pw\integrations\ibrsd\conf and edit the RemedyforceDefaultMapping.map file.

2. Based on whether you want to update slots in a new incident or update an existing incident, proceed as follows:

   1. Update slots in a new incident: Under the MapName=BEMUseCaseNEW section, add the additional slot details (from the .baroc file) and save the file. 

   2. Update slots in an existing incident: Under the MapName=BEMUseCaseMOD section, add the additional slot details (from the .baroc file) and save the file.

   Slot examples:
   • Event_Severity=slot.severity

   • Mc_ueid=slot.mc_ueid

3. Go to <install_directory>\TrueSight\pw\integrations\EventIntegrator and edit the intelligentticketting.properties file.

4. Based on whether you want to update the out-of-the-box or custom fields in BMC Remedyforce, do one of the following and save the file:

   • Update out-of-the-box fields: Locate and update the remedyforce.oob.fields=<RemedyforceOOTBFieldNames> property and save the file. The value can be a comma-separated list. 

     Example: remedyforce.oob.fields=shortDescription,incidentDescription

     
     

   • Update custom fields: Locate and update the remedyforce.custom.fields=<RemedyforceCustomFieldNames> property and save the file. The value can be a comma-separated list. The value can be a comma-separated list. 

     Example: remedyforce.custom.fields=Incident_Unique_ID,object_class_name

     


5. Based on your operating system, restart one of the following services:

   • (Windows) Service Desk Integration Gateway (SDIG)

   • (Linux) ./ibrsd.sh start