BMC Helix IT Service Management deployment architecture

BMC Docker registry that stores the container images.

Logical entity that is used to deploy BMC Helix IT Service Management in your environment. 

For more information, see Setting up BMC Deployment Engine.

Enables access to container images.

For more information, see Deploying BMC Helix Platform services for BMC Helix IT Service Management .

Applications that enable you to access the server tier from a browser and make web services accessible. The following applications are included in the Web tier:

• Mid Tier—Mid Tier enables you to access BMC Helix Innovation Suite from a browser. The  Mid Tier contains components and add-in services that run on a web server, enabling users to view applications on the web.  Mid Tier translates client requests, interprets responses from the server, handles web service requests, and runs server-side processes that provide BMC Helix Innovation Suite functionality to web and wireless clients.
  A browser is a generic client that has no inherent knowledge of any application that might run within it. By acting as an interpreter, the  Mid Tier allows a browser to become a fully functional BMC Helix Innovation Suite client.
• Smart IT—Smart IT user interface makes it easier for you to perform basic BMC Helix ITSM processes reducing the number of steps involved in performing the tasks. Smart IT sets a new standard for the modern, collaborative workplace with an intuitive, social, and mobile service desk experience to users.
• BMC Helix Digital Workplace—BMC Helix Digital Workplace enables you to request IT, HR, and other company services through a social media-like interface. Administrators enable self-service features for end users.
• Live Chat—Live Chat provides a self-service solution for users to resolve their issues by chatting to support agents.

• Platform integration and user services:

  • REST API traffic support to the AR System server.
  • Service used by the applications for interacting with the AR System server.
    

  Learn about BMC Helix Innovation Suite architecture at BMC Helix Innovation Suite architecture .

• Support Assistant Tool—Enables you to view and collect BMC Helix Innovation Suite and service management application logs. For more information, see Viewing and collecting logs by using the Support Assistant tool.
• Fluent Bit—Enables you to collect critical logs from your pods running in the BMC Helix Innovation Suite namespace. For more information, see Fluent Bit documentation .

BMC Helix Platform is a microservices-based SaaS platform, you can use foundational services such as user management, tenant management, and single sign-on. 

BMC Helix Platform consists of the following components:

• AISM—AI-driven Service Management (AISM) capabilities enable IT service and operations teams to predict issues better, resolve them faster, and provide always-on service. 
• BMC Helix Dashboards—BMC Helix Dashboards is a SaaS service on the BMC Helix Portal that offers unified reporting and gives you a consolidated view of data from applications across your environment.
• BMC Helix ITSM Insights—BMC Helix ITSM Insights is a module of BMC Helix that delivers value by providing AI Service Management capabilities to use in combination with your BMC Helix ITSM instances. For more information about BMC Helix ITSM Insights, see Orientation in BMC Helix ITSM Insights documentation.
• BMC Helix Portal—BMC Helix Portal is a SaaS solution with built-in common services on a microservices-based architecture and a set of integrated BMC Helix products from a single, unified view for an improved end-user experience.
  
• BMC Helix SSO—BMC Helix Single Sign-On enables users to present credentials for authentication only once in a multi software environment.
• Identity Management—Identity Management Service (IMS) is a common service of BMC Helix Portal that enables you to set up role-based access control and data-level access control. These actions cannot be set up by end users.

• Tenant Management—Tenant Management Service (TMS) is a common service of BMC Helix Portal that enables the BMC SaaS Operations team onboard and offboard tenants and perform associated actions; for example, configure an external identity provider, configure the data retention period for a tenant, and so on.
  

For more information about the components, see the Orientation in BMC Helix Portal documentation.

The Data tier holds data that applications can create and manipulate. The Data tier consists of the following data stores:

• Kafka/Zookeeper— Used for asynchronous communication and ingestion queues.
  
• PostgreSQL— Used for structured data across the BMC Helix Platform.
• Elasticsearch—Used to store ingested events and logs.
  
• Redis—Data structure store that is used for ephemeral data and caching.
  
• VictoriaMetrics—Offers built-in tools to take backups of all data and is used to store time series metrics and aggregations.
• MinIO—Server-side storage stack that is used for file storage and backups.

 Expand to view the data store usage in BMC Helix Innovation Suite, BMC Helix ITSM Insights, and BMC Helix Dashboards

The following table describes the data store usage in products:

Data store	Data store usage in the product
	BMC Helix Innovation Suite	BMC Helix ITSM Insights	BMC Helix Dashboards
Elasticsearch	Used for Full Text Search (FTS) Uses logs cluster	Used for AISM tickets Uses logs cluster
Kafka/Zookeeper		Used for ticket ingestion	Used for user and team notifications
PostgreSQL	Used for BMC Helix Single Sign-On metadata	Used for models and training schedules	Used for Grafana metadata, organizations, users, dashboards metadata, and permissions data
Redis		Used for platform and user sessions	Used for user sessions
VictoriaMetrics		Used for ITSM Insights metrics
MinIO		Used for object storage to train models Used for branding	Used for branding

Storage for data that applications can create and manipulate. The data tier uses PostgreSQL (Linux), Oracle, or SQL Server database platform.

The following databases are included in the data tier:

• BMC Helix Innovation Suite database—Stores definitions and data for AR System server, Mid Tier, and BMC Helix ITSM applications.
• BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT database—Stores definitions and data for BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT.
  
• BMC Helix Single Sign-On database—Stores definitions and data for BMC Helix Single Sign-On.