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This documentation supports the 20.02 version of BMC Digital Workplace Advanced.

To view the latest version, select the version from the Product Version menu.

Upgrading BMC Digital Workplace


The BMC Digital Workplace installer supports direct upgrade to BMC Digital Workplace  20.02  from BMC Digital Workplace 18.05 Patch 1 or later.

Available upgrade paths

Upgrade_1808

Considerations prior to upgrading

The following table provides information about specific scenarios that you should consider prior to upgrading to BMC Digital Workplace  20.02 :

ScenarioConsideration or action requiredAdditional information
You are using BMC Remedy ITSM 9.1.x or later.

Upgrading to BMC Digital Workplace 20.02 restarts the BMC Remedy AR plug-in server process.

The server restart causes a downtime of a few seconds. This allows you to schedule a planned downtime.
You are using BMC MyIT 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 or BMC Digital Workplace 3.3, 3.5, or 18.02.

You plan to upgrade to BMC Digital Workplace 20.02 .

Before upgrading to BMC Digital Workplace 20.02 , you must upgrade to BMC Digital Workplace 18.05 Patch 1 or later.

The AppZone integration is removed when you upgrade to BMC Digital Workplace 18.05.

Best practice

Install BMC Digital Workplace on a dedicated server. To avoid performance issues, do not install BMC Digital Workplace on servers that host other applications, such as BMC Remedy Mid Tier.

For more information, watch the following BMC webinar. (Go to 29:07 in the video to learn about the upgrade process.)

 https://youtu.be/nAt58AZpuxw

Upgrade recovery

The installer provides the option to recover from an upgrade failure. If the upgrade fails, the installer rolls back all the changes made to the database and configuration files. Rerunning the installer resumes the upgrade process from the point where the upgrade failed in the previous attempt.

Notes

  • Do not exit the installer while the upgrade is in progress.
  • Take a backup of the BMC Remedy AR server and BMC Digital Workplace database, indicated as a step in the upgrade process.


Stage 1: Prepare to upgrade BMC Digital Workplace

TaskActionAdditional information
1

Review system requirements.

Make sure that you meet the system requirements for this release.
2Review known and corrected issues.
3Complete the upgrade worksheets.Before you start installing the products, you must gather information about the parameters that the installer requires for each product. The planning spreadsheet provided in this section helps you gather these parameter values. To avoid installation errors, refer to this spreadsheet when you run the installation.
4Download the BMC Digital Workplace installation files.This topic explains how to obtain the files that you need for the upgrade from the BMC Electronic Product Distribution (EPD) site.
5

Take a backup of the BMC Remedy AR server database, and BMC Digital Workplace database.

To recover from any unexpected upgrade failure and resume an upgrade from the last executed stage, take a backup of the following databases:

  • BMC Remedy AR Server
  • BMC Digital Workplace

For more information, watch the following BMC webinar. (Go to 22:39 in the video to learn about data migration.)

 https://youtu.be/nAt58AZpuxw

Stage 2: Upgrade BMC Digital Workplace

Note

If you are on BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) 9.1.x and later, upgrading to BMC Digital Workplace 20.02 restarts the AR System plug-in server process. The server restart causes a downtime of a few seconds. Make sure to schedule this planned downtime.

TaskActionAdditional information
1Resolve issues indicated by the installer, if any

Ensure that all the following pre-install checks run by the installer are successful before proceeding with the installation:

  • Disk space
  • JAVA runtime version
  • Database version
  • Directory permissions
  • BMC Digital Workplace installed version
  • Components operation status

Installation does not proceed if the pre-install check detects inconsistencies in the required components.

2

Performing the BMC Digital Workplace upgrade

Do not use Xming to install the BMC Digital Workplace server. It might not perform reliably during installation. Instead, use VNC, MobaXterm, or any other client.

3Verifying the BMC Digital Workplace installationVerify whether the upgrade is successful.

Stage 3: Review BMC Digital Workplace configurations 

TaskActionAdditional information
1Configuring SSL for the Tomcat server

To provide communication security among applications, configure SSL for the Apache Tomcat server. If you enabled SSL as part of the installation, SSL is already configured.

2Modifying ports for BMC Digital Workplace

After the upgrade, you might need to change the ports if you did not specify an open port during installation, or if these ports are in use. These ports are used to connect to the BMC Digital Workplace server.

3Upgrading BMC Digital Workplace


This topic describes how to configure the integration of Remedy Single Sign-On with BMC Digital Workplace.

Remedy Single Sign-On authentication applies to desktop and mobile devices. When a user logs in to a mobile device, the user is prompted to enter the host name and port. If the server has Remedy SSO enabled, the mobile device opens a browser to the Remedy Single Sign-On login page. The Remedy Single Sign-On server sets the SSO cookies after authentication on to the device browser. When the user relaunches the application, if the cookies are not expired, the mobile device displays the application. If the cookies are expired, the user is shown the login page again for authentication.

4

Setting up administrator authentication

The BMC Digital Workplace server supports user and administrator logons. Both types of logons are authenticated with BMC Remedy Action Request System (Remedy AR System). To assign BMC Digital Workplace administration permissions to Remedy AR System users, you add the users to the MyIT Admin group in Remedy AR System. The system creates this group automatically during installation.

5

Assigning administrator permissions

Administrators can grant or restrict access to the areas of the BMC Digital Workplace Admin console for other administrators.

6

Setting up service requests through BMC Service Request Management

If you use BMC Service Request Management to process requests and incidents submitted by BMC Digital Workplace users, you must create a series of service request definitions (SRDs) specifically for use with BMC Digital Workplace. You configure SRDs in the BMC Service Request Management Console.

7

Localizing titles and messages

  • Contact options that appear when a user selects Account Problems on the Login screen or IT Contact Information from the Assistance screen.
  • The name of the screen that lists a user’s appointments and the instructions that tell users what to enter when creating an appointment.
  • The names of asset actions that appear when a user clicks an icon on a floor map. Using a similar procedure, you can edit asset actions.
8

Configuring the labels used in BMC Digital Workplace

BMC Digital Workplace enables you to customize the names of items that appear on your users' desktop browsers and mobile devices. For example, you can update the name of the service desk to My Company Service Desk.

9

Enabling end user features

Within BMC Digital Workplace, you can enable and disable features that you might not want to use immediately in your deployment. For example, if you are not set up to support location services, you can disable that functionality. You can also configure the settings for features such as the Contact IT button and Virtual Chat cross-launch. 

10

Making configuration changes to integrated applications

You can change the settings that BMC Digital Workplace uses to connect to the following applications:

  • BMC Service Request Management
  • BMC Remedy IT Service Management (BMC Remedy ITSM, the enterprise application)
  • BMC Remedy Action Request System (BMC Remedy AR System, dedicated to BMC Digital Workplace)
11Configuring multitenancyThe multitenancy feature of BMC Remedy ITSM provides the ability to segregate data by operating company and customer company. 
12Configuring email notifications

To allow BMC Digital Workplace users to accept email notifications for services, you must configure your company's mail server information and verify that users have valid email accounts with the specified server. Users can then select email notifications for specific services.

13Setting up VM requests through BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management

After integrating BMC Digital Workplace with BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, BMC Digital Workplace users can view and request available VM offerings as part of the Unified Catalog. Create sections and then add BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management offerings to the section.

14Setting up service requests through BMC Service Request Management

To create a service catalog, BMC Digital Workplace pulls in services, apps, VMs, and other resources available to employees from different sources, including BMC Service Request Management. 

15Integrating BMC Digital Workplace with BMC HR Case Management

Self-service users use BMC Digital Workplace to open HR cases and to search HR knowledge articles. BMC HR Case Management can be installed on the same server with BMC Remedy ITSM or on a separate server.

Note: The BMC HR Case Management server requires BMC Remedy Action Request System 9.1.

Also review the following configurations:

TaskActionAdditional information
16Enabling a maps license

Review the configuration. The BMC Digital Workplace Admin console, end user console, and Android mobile device will show location maps only if the maps license is enabled.

17Integrating BMC Digital Workplace with BMC TrueSight Operations Management

If you enable the integration of BMC TrueSight Operations Management, services monitored by TrueSight Operations Management are listed in BMC Digital Workplace, and the availability status is updated by BMC TrueSight Operations Management.

18Enabling and configuring the enhanced catalog for BMC Digital Workplace

BMC Digital Workplace Catalog enables you to collaborate with others within your organization or external third parties, to onboard, manage, deliver, and analyze the use of IT and business services from multiple sources.

Stage 4: Deploy BMC Digital Workplace to users

TaskActionAdditional information
1

Deploying clients

IT users access BMC Digital Workplace through desktop and through Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices.

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