Limited support

 

This version of the product is in limited support. However, the documentation is available for your convenience. You will not be able to leave comments. Click here to view the documentation for the current version.

BMC Digital Workplace and Smart IT installation worksheets

Before you start to perform the installation, use the attached installation spreadsheet to gather the installation parameter values that are required by the installers.


Additional explanation for User Experience patch installer prompts

During installation, you install the User Experience patch on BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) to enable the application for  BMC Digital Workplace , Remedy with Smart IT (Smart IT), or both.  The attached installation spreadsheet provides example values and a brief explanation of the User Experience patch installer prompts. The following sections provide additional information for the following prompts:

Import only BMC Digital Workplace  definition files

This option imports data for the BMC Digital Workplace  application only. Smart IT data is not imported.

Do not select this option if you plan to use Smart IT.

Remove Leading Zeros from IDs of new tickets

Warning

Removing zeros is not reversible.

This option reduces the incident ID to INCxxxx and applies to all new incident requests created either from Smart IT or BMC Remedy ITSM. Select this option if you want to eliminate the preceding zeros from an incident ID when creating and viewing tickets (such as incident requests and work orders) in Smart IT.

If you have existing incidents, applying this patch means that you will have a mix of ID types until all incidents with longer IDs (with leading zeros) are closed. However, applying this option leads to shorter, simpler IDs. If you remove leading zeroes, to search for both ID types, you can use the % wildcard in place of the leading zeros; for example, INC%31425 or %31425.

Truncating leading zeroes prevents worklogs from getting updated in BMC Remedy IT Service Management (BMC Remedy ITSM) when you update worklog entries via Rule Based Engine (RBE) for incidents. To troubleshoot this issue, in the RBE:Configuration form in BMC Remedy ITSM, enter the following values:

  • Setting name – Request prefix
  • Setting value– INC

Enter CCS Server Details if CCS Server and AR Server not same

Smart IT 2.0 stores configuration parameters in the centralized configuration server (CCS). Previously, these parameters were stored in the Share Application Properties and the database. The centralized configuration server can be the same server as the AR System server or a different server. For more information about the centralized configuration server, see Centralized configuration in the Remedy AR System 9.1 documentation.

Additional explanation for BMC Digital Workplace  and Smart IT installer prompts

The attached installation spreadsheet provides example values and a brief explanation of the Digital Workplace and Smart IT installer prompts. The following sections provide additional information for the following installer prompts:

BMC Smart IT Server and Cluster Selection

When you install BMC Digital Workplace  and Smart IT in a cluster, you must run the installer on each server in the cluster.

Whether you are installing BMC Digital Workplace  and Smart IT on a single server or in a cluster, you must select In a New Cluster for the initial installation

When you select the In a New Cluster option, the installer performs the following tasks:

  • If you do not use a pre-created database schema, create the BMC Digital Workplace or Smart IT database schema.
  • Install BMC Digital Workplace and Smart IT data in the database.
  • Install files and servers on a local machine.
  • Import metadata into BMC Remedy ITSM (if a Remedy AR server has been configured).

If you are installing BMC Digital Workplace  and Smart IT in a cluster, on secondary servers, select In an Existing Cluster. Ensure that you enter the same database and AR System server details as you did when installing on the first server in the cluster. The installer installs the files and services only on the local machine.

BMC Smart IT / Digital Workplace License Selection

Select one of the following options based on the license that your organization is entitled to:

  • Digital Workplace Basic - Sets up a self-service catalog for your company and enables you to take requests.
  • Upgrade existing MyIT Digital Workplace / MyIT Premium - Updates to the latest version of Digital Workplace and includes everything in Digital Workplace Basic, plus the ability to manage locations and monitor service health. Note that this option only applies to MyIT customers who are at version 3.3.01 or prior. It does not apply to 3.3.02 and later versions.
  • Digital Workplace Advanced - Sets up advanced features in addition to the ones available with the BMC Digital Workplace license. The advanced features enable you to customize your self-service catalog, manage locations, and broker services from multiple resources. To broker services from other resources, you need to install the BMC Digital Workplace Catalog .

BMC Smart IT / Digital Workplace RDBMS Selection

Smart IT and BMC Digital Workplace  store information in a relational database. This data is separate from the BMC Remedy ITSM data that is stored in the AR System server database.

The installer prompts for the following information:

Type of information promptedExplanation
Type of relational databaseSelect whether you use Oracle or Microsoft SQL server.  The attached installation spreadsheet provides separate tabs for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, because the installer prompts are different, depending on which relational database management system you are using.
New or pre-created database

A DBA can pre-create the database schemas, as described in Precreating the database. If you use pre-created database schemas, the data is loaded into these existing schemas.

If you select the New option, the installer creates the database schemas and loads the data into the schemas that it creates.

Database configuration details

Specify details about how to connect to the database. If you are creating new database schemas, you must specify the name and password for a database administrator (or a user with permissions to create users and schemas, and to insert data).

The following additional options are available for Microsoft SQL Server databases:

  • Use SSLSelect this check box if the Forced Encryption option is set to true for Microsoft SQL Server database. 
  • Use AlwaysOn Availability Group feature—Select this check box if you have the AlwaysOn feature enabled on your MS SQL server.
Database schema details

Note: Smart IT and Digital Workplace require two schemas: one for business data and the other for system data.  

For a precreated database, enter the credentials for the schemas. For the New database option, enter schema names that do not already exist in the database; the installer will create the schemas. BMC recommends using the names populated in the installer screen. If the installer creates the schemas, the installer creates both the user name and the schema with the same name as the user name.

 If you use Windows authentication for MS SQL database, you do not need to provide credentials for multiple schemas; you must provide credentials of a pre-existing user. This same user name must be used for business schema, system schema, and Openfire. This user must be logged on to the server (via RDP to this server) on which you want to install Smart IT and Digital Workplace.

Select this flag to install BMC Digital Workplace without integration with BMC Remedy ITSM

This checkbox in the AR System Server Information section of the installer determines whether the installer integrates BMC Digital Workplace  with BMC Remedy ITSM.

Note

Only select this check box in either of the following scenarios:

  • You want to integrate with BMC HR Case Management without BMC Remedy ITSM
  • You want to install BMC Digital Workplace without integrating with BMC Remedy ITSM

Selecting the checkbox disables the fields with AR System server information.

Tomcat information

BMC Digital Workplace and Smart IT require Apache Tomcat 8.0.1 or above. In case you do not have Tomcat already installed, the BMC Digital Workplace and Smart IT installer includes Tomcat version 8.5. You will be prompted to install Tomcat during the installation process.

Best practice

To protect data, use HTTPS to communicate to the BMC Digital Workplace and Smart IT server. You can do so either through a load balancer or reverse proxy, or by enabling HTTPS on the BMC Digital Workplace and Smart IT server. See Configuring SSL for the Tomcat server for relevant information.

Note

When specifying the application server port, if you change the port from the default value of 9000, you must also modify the port as described in Modifying Smart IT or Smart IT Social server ports following the installation.

Mongo information

MongoDB is the social database for BMC Digital Workplace  and Smart IT. For more information about how MongoDB is used, see High availability deployment for production.

You can let the installer install the bundled MongoDB, or you can install  MongoDB prior to installation, as described in Installing MongoDB as a replica set. How you deploy MongoDB might depend on your environment:

  • For production environments, install MongoDB on a replica set cluster before you install Digital Workplace and Smart IT.
  • For test or development environments, you might install MongoDB on a single server before you install Digital Workplace and Smart IT
  • For proof of concept (POC), you might let the Digital Workplace and Smart IT installer install the bundled MongoDB.

If you select MongoDB authentication required, you can enter the user and password for authentication.

Smart IT Chat Feature information

The Smart IT Chat feature is used only by Smart IT.  You can choose to include - or to exclude the Smart IT chat feature.

The Smart IT chat feature uses Openfire server. You can let the installer install the bundled Openfire chat server, or you can install Openfire chat server, as described in Installing Openfire in Smart IT in the Smart IT documentation. How you deploy Openfire chat might depend on your environment:

  • For production environments, install Openfire chat in a cluster before you install Smart IT.
  • For test or development environments, you might install Openfire chat on a single server before you install Smart IT
  • For proof of concept (POC), you might let the Smart IT installer install the bundled Openfire chat server.

 When specifying the database schema name and password, be aware of the following points:

  • For Windows authentication, the schema name should be provided in <domain name>\<username> format.
  • If using Windows authentication for MS SQL database, you must provide credentials of a pre-existing user. This same user name must be used for business schema, system schema, and Openfire. This user must be logged on to the server (user must be able to RDP to this server) on which you want to install Smart IT.

Upgrading MyIT Digital Workplace / MyIT Premium

You can upgrade existing MyIT Digital Workplace / MyIT Premium to the latest version of BMC Digital Workplace by following the installer guides.

The upgrade includes all features of BMC Digital Workplace Basic, and capabilities to manage locations, and service health monitoring.

Note

The upgrade does not enable the BMC Digital Workplace Catalog functionality.

Where to go from here

Downloading the BMC Digital Workplace and Smart IT installation files

This version of the documentation is no longer supported. However, the documentation is available for your convenience. You will not be able to leave comments.

Comments