Viewing the impact of CIs on change requests

You can relate configuration items (CIs) to change requests, based on a simulated impact analysis generated by the Atrium Impact Simulator tool. Additional workflow in Change Management lets you use Atrium Impact Simulator functionality to predict how a change to the availability of a CI affects other CIs and services. For example, you could run a simulation in Atrium Impact Simulator to learn what devices and applications in the network are affected if you take a specific server offline due to scheduled maintenance or lease returns.

Atrium Impact Simulator is transparently integrated into other BMC applications as an integral part of their workflow. From Change Management, Atrium Impact Simulator exposes only the features required for the user, simplifying the user experience. For more information, see Atrium Impact Simulator analysis for change requests.

To view impact of CIs on change requests

1. Open the change request, and then click the Relationships tab.
2. Relate at least one CI to the request.
   You can layer multiple requests for different types of CIs and add to the impacted list. You can use any Relationship Type except Impacts.

3. In the Relationships tab, click Impact Analysis.

   Important

   The Impact Analysis button is enabled only for CIs that belong to Production Data Set (PDS). For more information on PDS, see Relating CIs to alternate datasets.

   The Atrium Impact Simulator opens.

   

4. Click Simulate Impact to run the simulation.
   In the Simulation Progress dialog box, you can click the Cancel button to stop a long running simulation (if needed).
5. Click the Results in Table tab.
   A list of impacted CIs are listed and also the number of results is displayed in the header bar.

6. To relate the results to the change request, you can perform the following actions:

   Important

   Running an impact simulation does not relate the results automatically to the change record. You must click Execute to select the results that should be related.

   Action	Result
   Set the Relate column to Yes or No.	By default, the change results are defaulted to Yes for relate. Using the column relate, you can individual toggle the action to No or Yes for granular control. These can be set as a group, using Execute options.
   Show Only Services (click to toggle)	Lists only impacted service CIs in the view. This action has no effect on relating.
   Show All Results (click to toggle)	Lists all impacted CIs in the view. This action has no effect on relating.
   Pick list and Execute button	These options modify the relate options. They provide a quick way to select groups of CIs to relate or unrelate. You can select from the following options: Relate All — Relates all CIs and services from the change request Unrelate All — Unrelates all CIs and services from the change request Relate All Services — Relates only services to the change request Unrelate All Services — Unrelates only services from the change request Relate Selected — Based on the CIs or services you pick, relates them to the change request Unrelate Selected — Based on the CIs or services you pick, unrelates them from the change request
   Click Report	Runs a report that exports all the fields in the simulation. This report can export all fields that are in the new .csv file or any subset of them. The report file, which is attached to the change request, provides a history that can be referenced in the future.
   Click Cancel	Exits the window without make any changes.
   Click Save	Creates the CI relationships between the change request and the selected CIs. The CIs are now displayed in the Relationships tab. Work information is created for the change request, along with a simulation .csv file attached. Important The hour glass icon on the Atrium Impact Simulator keeps spinning even if the impact stimulation is completed. In this case, you need to click the hour glass icon on the screen.

7. Click Close to create the CI relationships between the change request and the selected CIs.
   The CIs are now displayed in the Relationships tab. Work information is created for the change request, along with a simulation .csv file attached.