21.02 enhancements

Review the BMC Helix CMDB 21.02 enhancements for features that will benefit your organization and to understand changes that might impact your users.

Related topics

Known and corrected issues

Release notes and notices

Additional BMC Helix ITSM enhancements Open link

Product name change for BMC CMDB

BMC CMDB is renamed to BMC Helix CMDB. While the product names have changed in 21.02, some instances in the product documentation still refer to the previous product name.

To learn about other product name changes, see AR System 21.02 enhancements Open link .

CMDB Explorer optimizations

CMDB Portal provides the following enhancements for better view and management of CIs from CMDB Explorer:

Locate CIs - Search for a CI by entering the CI name in the Locate CIs field in the CMDB Explorer.
Remove CIs - Use Select Mode to select a CI and remove it from the Explorer view.
Layout - Use the Layout toggle key to switch between Linear view and Curve view of the relationships between CIs in CMDB Explorer.

For more information about simplifying the CMDB Explorer view, see Searching and viewing CIs and relationships in CMDB Explorer.

Edit standard identification and merge rules

CMDB Portal offers the ability to edit the standard rules for identification and merge activities that are available by default. It is easier to manage the standard reconciliation jobs that have Identify and Merge activities by changing the standard rules instead of creating custom rules and custom reconciliation jobs.

For more information about editing the standard rules, see:

View and cancel queued jobs in reconciliation

From BMC Helix CMDB 21.02, the jobs that are stuck in queue are displayed on the reconciliation page in the Queued tab. You no longer need to access the queued jobs by using backend forms. You can view and cancel the jobs from the queue from the CMDB Portal. For more information about queued jobs, see Monitoring a reconciliation job.

New launch point in CMDB Portal for accessing Adobe Flash-based CMDB components

If you are using a browser that supports Adobe Flash, you can still access the Flash-based BMC Helix CMDB components from CMDB Portal. For more information about accessing the components in Flash-based UI, see Accessing components of BMC Atrium Core Console.

View audit history for related classes

After you make any changes to a CI, you can view the audit history for that class and for all the related classes. You can use the Include related records check box to view the audit history for the related records.

For more information about viewing audit history, see Viewing the history of changes to a CI.

What else changed in this release

The following table lists the changes in the product behavior:

Update	Product behavior in versions earlier than 21.02	Product behavior in version 21.02
Dataset configurations for normalization	You cannot disable normalization for a dataset. You must define the appropriate normalization job settings in the Normalization configurations for all datasets in Core configurations and on the normalization job creation page in CMDB Portal.	You can enable or disable normalization for specific datasets by using the Enable normalization option in Normalization mode. For more information about normalization modes for datasets, see Configuring normalization settings for datasets.
Reconciliation jobs with missing job definitions	You must investigate every job to understand if there are any errors in the reconciliation job definitions.	If there are jobs with missing or incorrect information, the reconciliation page displays a message with a link to the list of such jobs. The following image shows the message with a link to the list of jobs that appears on the reconciliation page: For information about troubleshooting the jobs with missing job definitions, see Troubleshooting Reconciliation Engine jobs that do not start or finish.
CMDB Explorer	You cannot specify the hierarchy levels for CIs that are displayed in CMDB Explorer	From the CMDB UI Preferences tab in Configurations, you can customize the CMDB Explorer view by configuring the following parameters: Graph Levels - Set the number of CI levels to be displayed in CMDB Explorer. Graph Limit - Limit the number of CIs to be displayed in CMDB Explorer. Graph Limit Warning Threshold - Get a warning in the Explorer view if the number of CIs exceeds the specified limit. For more information about configuring the CMDB Explorer view, see Searching and viewing CIs and relationships in CMDB Explorer
Audit	You cannot view the CI changes that affect related classes.	From the CMDB UI Preferences tab in Configurations, you can set the default view for viewing the audit history of related classes. For more information about audit history of related classes, see Viewing the history of changes to a CI.
Support for Internet Explorer version 11 is deprecated	BMC Helix CMDB supports Internet Explorer version 11.	As announced , the support for Internet Explorer version 11 is now deprecated. We encourage you to switch to other fully supported browsers listed for BMC Helix CMDB in the BMC Solution and Product Availability and Compatibility utility . For a complete list of BMC products that no longer support Internet Explorer 11, see the BMC Customer Support Communities page .
Append to lists option in custom merge precedence rules	The source dataset with highest precedence value overwrites the value in production dataset.	Use the Append to lists feature while configuring the merge precedence rules. You can specify whether the the value from the source dataset with the highest precedence appends to or overwrites the value in the production dataset. For more information about merge precedence rules, see Creating precedence sets and associations for reconciliation merge activities.
(Google Chrome browser version 80 and later) No support for active links that run on `Close window` and `Un-display` events	When you click the browser close button, the current window or all open browser windows are closed.	With Google Chrome version 80 and later, the active links that run on the `Close Window` and `un-display` event might not work as expected. Set the Execute-Window-Close-Undisplay-Activelinks parameter in Centralized Configuration to `False`. For more information about the Execute-Window-Close-Undisplay-Activelinks parameter, see Execute-Window-Close-Undisplay-Activelinks . (Default) When the Execute-Window-Close-Undisplay-Activelinks parameter in Centralized Configuration is set to `False`: The `Close Window` and `Un-display` events are disabled in Developer Studio. You cannot create new active links with `Close Window` and `Un-display` execution options. If you select `close` `Window` and `Un-display` execution options for any existing active link, the options are displayed as selected and disabled. You can modify active links for all options except `Window` and `Un-display`. When the Execute-Window-Close-Undisplay-Activelinks parameter in Centralized Configuration is set to `True`: Mid Tier tries to run the active links with `close Window` and `Un-display` execution options. This might not work as expected in Google Chrome version 80 and later. However, this might work in other browsers. The `Close Window` and `Un-display` events are not disabled in Developer Studio. You can create new active links with `Close Window` and `Un-display` execution options. The behavior of existing active links using `Close Window` and `Un-display` execution options does not change. For information about the list of modified active links, see List of active links modified in 21.02 .