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This documentation supports an earlier version of BMC Helix IT Service Management on-premises deployment.

To view the documentation for the latest version, select 22.1.06 from the Product version picker.

BMC Helix IT Service Management Deployment 21.05 Planning

System requirements

Before you deploy the product, make sure that your environment meets the hardware and software requirements.

Related topics

BMC Helix IT Service Management deployment architecture

Setting up BMC Deployment Engine

Sizing and scalability considerations

System requirements

Make sure that your environment meets the following requirements:

ComponentSupported Versions
Container Orchestration
  • Kubernetes 1.18.x – 1.21.x
    Note: BMC Helix IT Service Management does not support Kubernetes version 1.22 and later.
  • Kubernetes management tools
    • VMware Tanzu with underlying Kubernetes 1.18.x – 1.21.x
    • Rancher Kubernetes with underlying Kubernetes 1.18.x – 1.21.x
    • Nutanix Karbon with underlying Kubernetes 1.18.x – 1.21.x
  • OpenShift 4.6 – 4.8
  • Public Cloud Managed Kubernetes: Oracle Kubernetes 
  • OKD  (Community Edition OpenShift) with underlying Kubernetes 1.18.x - 1.21.x
    Due to a lack of vendor support, BMC recommends that you do not use OKD for enterprise production usage.
    Refer to additional system requirements for OpenShift in Preparing to install in an OpenShift cluster.
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Container Engine for Kubernetes (OKE) with underlying Kubernetes 1.18.x – 1.23.x 
  • Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) with underlying Kubernetes 1.18.x – 1.23.x
  • Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with underlying Kubernetes 1.18.x – 1.23.x
JavaJava 11 and later for AR System clients, such as Developer Studio, AI, and Kaazing.
Package ManagerHelm 3.2.3
Ingress
nginx-ingress-controller 0.32
server-name-hash-bucket-size1024
ssl-redirectfalse

The default namespace of ingress controller is ingress-nginx.

Review the following parameter value requirements in the nginx-configuration configmap in the ingress-nginx namespace:

  • enable-underscores-in-headers—true
  • proxy-body-size—256m
  • proxy-connect-timeout—300
  • proxy-read-timeout—600
  • proxy-send-timeout—600
  • use-forwarded-headers—true

You can use the following command to view the parameters in the nginx-configuration configmap:

kubectl describe cm nginx-configuration -n ingress-nginx
Container Host OS

BMC Helix Innovation Suite has no specific dependencies on the underlying Linux OS or release running on your Worker Nodes.

You can use any x86_64 GNU/Linux OS supported by your Kubernetes or OpenShift platform and release version.

Host OS Bash ShellBash Shell 4.2 or later
Persistent or Elastic Storage

BMC supports a Bring-Your-Own-Storage-Class model, for any block storage supporting high performance IOPS.

CephRBD is certified by BMC

Load Balancer

F5 Load Balancer or other Load Balancer: 

The following load balancer SSL methods are supported:

  • SSL Offloading at the load balancer
  • SSL Passthrough to offload at the Ingress Controller
  • SSL Full Proxy
  • Allow X-Forwarded- Headers Upstream of Ingress
  • Reverse Proxy http back to https

Important: Make sure that you configure the following headers for SSL Offloading at the load balancer:

  • X-Forwarded-Proto—https
  • X-Forwarded-Host
  • X-Forwarded-Port—443


Security Certificates

DigiCert and R3 certificates.

Other CA signed certificates and self-signed certificates are not supported.

Docker RegistryDirect access to BMC's Docker Trusted Registry (DTR) at https://containers.bmc.com
OR
Local Harbor 1.8 and later synchronized with BMC's Docker Trusted Registry
DB Support
  • Oracle Database 19c
  • Oracle Database 12.2
  • Oracle Database 12.1
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2019
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2017
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2016 (SP2)
  • PostgreSQL 13

Notes:

  • You must set up the database server outside the Kubernetes clusters on a physical or virtual machine.
  • In general, BMC recommends running on the latest Service Pack, Maintenance Level, or other such update to listed databases.
  • AR System server and BMC Helix CMDB support 'AlwaysOn' for Microsoft SQL Server.
  • Remedy AR System and BMC Helix CMDB server support Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) feature of Oracle Database.
  • Oracle database pluggable/un-pluggable are supported.
  • PostgreSQL supported configuration includes case sensitive and Unicode implementation.
Email Engine

Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 (64-bit) and Microsoft Office 365 Exchange

Notes:

  • BMC internally certifies Email Engine with Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office 365 Exchange. Because Email Engine makes use of JavaMail API that is capable of working with other SMTP servers, SMTP servers that are not listed in this table might still operate correctly with AR System. You might be able to run AR System in a configuration not listed as supported. However, BMC has not certified the integration of Email Engine with such SMTP servers in their labs.
  • Microsoft has discontinued MAPI support in Microsoft Exchange Server 2016; Support for EWS (exchange web service) is available for Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 only.
    See, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/new-features/discontinued-features?view=exchserver-2016.
  • OAuth 2.0 based authentication is required for Microsoft Office 365 Exchange starting with 20.02.01 and later
  • Starting with AR System 20.02.01 (also known as 20.02 Patch 1), Email Engine supports OAuth 2.0 based authentication for the Exchange Web Services (EWS) protocol to access Microsoft Office 365 Exchange.
    For more information, see AR System 20.08 enhancements Open link in the AR System online documentation.
Metrics Server

BMC Helix uses the HorizontalPodAutoscaler (HPA) for its services so that the product can scale based on the customer usage. For the HPA to function, Kubernetes must expose metrics that are used to trigger scaling activities, for which a Metrics Server is required.

For information about the HPA, see this page in the Kubernetes documentation Open link .

For information about the Metrics Server, see this page in the Kubernetes documentation Open link .

sshpass program

The sshpass utility helps administrators use the 'ssh' connection type with passwords. Install the sshpass program to easily manage SSH connections in scripts.

For more information, see To install sshpass.

Jenkins server requirements

Review the following requirements for the Jenkins server: 

Component

Node

vCPU

Operating System

RAM (GB)

Disk (GB)

Jenkins server14
  • Cent OS 7.x and RHEL 7.x are certified.
  • Equivalent releases of Fedora and Oracle Linux are supported.
Minimum 16 GB200

For information about setting up BMC Deployment Engine, see Setting up BMC Deployment Engine.

To install sshpass program

Install sshpass, if not already installed by using the following steps:

  1. Verify that sshpass is not already installed in your system. The following command checks if sshpass is available in any of the available repositories.

    # which sshpass

    If sshpass is not found on any of the available repositories, the following response is returned:

    /usr/bin/which: no sshpass in

  2. Use the following command to know the possible repositories in which sshpass is available on the system:

    # yum provides sshpass

  3. Install sshpass by using the following command:

    # yum -y install sshpass

  4. Verify that sshpass is installed in your system by using the following command:

    # which sshpass

Harbor repository requirements

Make sure that your system meets the following requirements to access images from a local Harbor repository:

RequirementDescription
Hardware

Minimum 4 CPU with 8 GB memory and 500 GB disk space

Software
  • Docker Engine version 20.10.7
    To install Docker Engine, see Install Docker Engine Open link .
  • Docker Compose version 1.29.2
    To install Docker Compose, see Install Docker Compose Open link .
  • OpenSSL latest version
  • Operating system CentOS 7/Red Hat 7
Network port
Harbor installation uses the following ports as the default ports:
  • Port 443 with HTTPS protocol
  • Port 4443 with HTTPS protocol
  • Port 80 with HTTP protocol

Learn about Harbor installation network port requirements at Harbor Installation Prerequisites Open link

For information about setting up Harbor repository, see Setting up a Harbor repository.

Browser support

 Operating System

Browsers

All supported operating systems and platforms

Firefox

Chrome

Windows 7     

Firefox

Chrome

Windows 8

Firefox

Chrome

Windows 10

Firefox

Chrome

Microsoft Edge

HARMAN Packaged Browser (See notes below)

Macintosh OS X 10.5

Safari 6.3.x

For information about system requirements for BMC Helix Platform deployment, see System requirements Open link .

Namespaces

Review the following requirements for the namespaces in your cluster: 

  • Namespace to install the common services provided by BMC Helix Platform.
  • Namespace to install EFK for logging.
    For information about creating namespaces to install BMC Helix Platform services and EFK, see Setting up the installation environment.
  • Namespace to install BMC Helix IT Service Management.
    Make sure that the namespace name consists of only lowercase alphanumerics and hyphens. Example, 'bmc-itsm'.

The actual namespace names are specific to your environment.

Important

To support Elastic deployment, increase the maximum number of memory maps on each worker node by running following command:

 # echo vm.max_map_count=262144 > /etc/sysctl.d/es-custom.conf

 # sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144

 For more information, see https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current//vm-max-map-count.html.

Was this page helpful? Yes No Submitting... Thank you
Last modified by Poonam Morti on Aug 02, 2022
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Comments

  1. Eric Wuensche

    Hi, I'm missing the system requirements for the "deployment engine" in this area.

    Jul 13, 2021 08:11
    1. Ariel Manka

      Hi Eric,

      it's here https://docs.bmc.com/docs/brid2105/setting-up-bmc-deployment-engine-1012762678.html

      Sep 22, 2021 08:27
  2. Andreas Mitterdorfer

    I'm missing information on the number of required nodes? Are there recommendations on number of nodes depending on planned customer size?

    Sep 30, 2021 02:51
    1. Ariel Manka

      Hi Andreas,

      As a general rule any odd number of 3 or more should be able to do the trick. If you take the specs from here https://docs.bmc.com/docs/brid2105/system-requirements-1002902065.html you will see that recommended number of CPUs on worker node is 8. When you unzip "Helix on prem deployment manager" you will find configuration files in the ./helix-on-prem-deployment-manager/configs. For instance poc.config has an entry for TOTAL_REQUIRED_CPU=150 which means that you need 150 CPU cores available on all worker nodes in total. This is a ridiculous number and means that you need at least 19 worker nodes. I have three worker nodes with 16 CPU each and I edited that file to more reasonable 50 total CPUs. Perhaps someone from BMC could review the requirements here? It will be joy explaining why production large environment needs 600 CPU cores. Similar scenario with RAM: TOTAL_REQUIRED_RAM=327798360 (327MB or am I converting something wrong?)

      Ariel

      Oct 05, 2021 01:57
      1. Robin Ashford

        This page does not currently show the sizing information for an overall deployment. We expect to be able to publish guidance on approximate sizing for Innovation Suite deployments in the coming few weeks.

        Until then we are able to provide provisional sizing estimates for customers who urgently need this information in order. You can reach this service by contacting your partner or account manager.

        Until we have issued formal sizing guidance, please do not plan sizing based on the data in this configuration file!

        For the avoidance of doubt:

        • An odd number of worker nodes is not a requirement, this typically applies to Master or Control nodes.
        • 8 CPU is listed as the minimum for a worker node. You may have any number or profile of worker nodes as long as you meet the overall compute requirements, which we will publish.
        Oct 11, 2021 09:03
  3. Gerardo Ramirez

    Hi,

    Could you please specify if the requirements: The storage of 60gb is that a separate disk from the OS boot disk? Or same boot disk plus 60G per node?

    Oct 01, 2021 01:29
    1. Poonam Morti

      Hi Gerardo,

      The storage of 60 GB can be same disk. However, the 60 GB storage is in addition to OS.

      Thanks,

      Poonam


      Oct 27, 2021 03:28
  4. Jani Myllymaki

    Is RHEL 8 supported it is show as RHEL 7 not RHEL 7+ in the table of supported OS

    Nov 03, 2021 10:59
    1. Poonam Morti

      Hi Jani,

      RHEL 8 is not supported. The supported version is RHEL 7.

      Thanks,

      Poonam


      Nov 11, 2021 04:02
      1. Heine Ness

        Can we gat a list of verified Linux distros?

        Feb 23, 2022 05:45
        1. Andy Spiers

          https://customerapps.bmc.com/spac/o/welcome.html BMC Helix Innovation Suite OnPrem 21.05.02 Documentation:Release Notes

          Feb 23, 2022 06:19
    1. Michael Ashall

      Please utilise the latest 21.3.02 Documentation https://docs.bmc.com/docs/brid213/home-1046256397.html

      see the section https://docs.bmc.com/docs/brid213/system-requirements-1046256509.html BMC Helix Innovation Suite has no specific dependencies on the underlying Linux OS or release running on your Worker Nodes.

      Feb 23, 2022 11:17
  5. Balaji Kumbhar

    Hi Team - How many worker nodes (VMs) are required for the lower environment and production environment any rough sizing?

    Nov 10, 2021 07:37
    1. Kanchana Iyer

      Hello Balaji Kumbhar,

      Thanks for your query. Kindly refer to Sizing and scalability considerations for sizing guidelines.

      Regards,

      Kanchana

      Dec 28, 2021 02:16
  6. SudeepKumar Chandrasekaran

    How many machines are totally needed ? is it one for jenkins and one for Harbor repository ? totally 2 ?

    Aug 09, 2023 02:47
    1. Poonam Morti

      Hi SudeepKumar,

      Yes. Two machine are sufficient.

      Thanks,

      Poonam

      Aug 22, 2023 03:28

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