BMC Service Level Management preinstallation procedures

Review the information provided in this topic before installing BMC Service Level Management, and perform the necessary procedures. This topic provides the following information:

To prepare BMC Remedy AR System for installing the application

1. Ensure that you have installed and licensed (or have upgraded to) the required version of BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System on all servers.
   Review the most current product compatibility information at http://www.bmc.com/support .
2. To install the application, ensure that you are a member of the Administrator group in the BMC Remedy AR System User form.
3. To use email notifications, install the BMC Remedy Email Engine.
   For information about the email engine, see  Controlling BMC Remedy AR System through email  in the BMC Remedy AR system documentation.
4. Disable BMC Remedy AR System server encryption.
   For more information, see Temporarily deactivating BMC Remedy Encryption Security.
5. Because BMC Remedy AR System can restrict the size of attachments, verify that your setting for attachments is set to at least 500k during the installation. If you want to change this setting to a smaller limit after the installation (the default is zero), you can do so.
6. For improved performance if you are using the application with the BMC Atrium CMDB, run your BMC Remedy Reconciliation Engine on a private RPC socket with the following values:
   • Microsoft Windows:
     • RE-RPC-Socket 390698 (for the Reconciliation Engine)
     • Private-RPC-Socket 390698 10 10   (for the BMC Remedy AR System Server)
   • UNIX:
     • RE-RPC-Socket 390698 (for the Reconciliation Engine)
     • Private-RPC-Socket 390698 6 6 (for the BMC Remedy AR System Server)

   Note

   You can use port number 390699, but the port numbers for the BMC Remedy Reconciliation Engine and the BMC Remedy AR System Server must match.

7. To allow BMC Service Level Management run on a private server, configure the BMC Remedy AR System server to run on a private server first.
   For more information about private servers, see  Configuring the AR Server Settings page  in BMC Remedy AR System documentation.
8. Enable escalations on the AR System server:
   1. Log on to your BMC Remedy System AR System server in a browser.
   2. Open the AR System Administration Console.
   3. Choose System > General > Server Information.
   4. From the Server Information form, click the Configuration tab.
   5. Ensure the Disable Escalations option is not selected.

9. If you configured the AREA plug-ins after installing BMC Remedy AR System, open the AR System Administration: Server Information form, click the EA tab, and ensure that the Authentication Chaining Mode field is set to ARS – AREA before installing or upgrading the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite. You can set the field value back to AREA – ARS when the installation or upgrade is complete.

   Note

   You must restart the BMC Remedy AR System Server after making these changes.

10. Ensure that the value of the server_port parameter in the <ARInstallDir>/pluginsvr/pluginsvr_config.xml file is the same as the value of the TCD-Specific-Port parameter in the <ARInstallDir>\Conf\ar.cfg file (Windows) or the <ARInstallDir>/conf/ar.conf file (UNIX).

To prepare an application for installation

1. Make sure the application users have the correct permissions. See  User roles from BMC Service Level Management online documentation.

2. For Linux systems, configure the operating system to allow long file names to be read and copied.

   You might find operating system configuration issues in installing directly from a DVD. In some cases, the DVD mount might cause long file names from the DVD not to work.

3. Check the websites of the suppliers of the platforms in use at your site to verify that they are still supported. BMC Software does not support platforms that are no longer supported by the vendor. Carefully read the system requirements for your particular operating system, especially the patch requirements.
4. Ensure that no application is using port 12333. The installer uses port 12333. 
5. You may choose to add an FTS license if none exists, as described in Adding FTS licenses from the BMC Remedy AR System online documentation. The installer disables FTS indexing before the installation (if it is already enabled) and enables FTS indexing before the end of installation.
6. Activate the appropriate BMC Service Level Management license on the AR System server before you start the installation.