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    BMC Change Automation 2.0

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    Use the information provided in this topic to understand how a Request For Change (RFC) is created for an automation job when an external automation system integrates with BMC Remedy Change Management system.

    By integrating with BMC Change Automation integration, for every automation job, you can create a corresponding change record in the BMC Remedy Change Management system. For an automation job to run, the change record must be approved by the change manager. For this purpose, a robust, service-oriented interface called CHG_ChangeServiceInterface is available. The interface of the web service that can be accessed using a web service client.

    You need to first access the web service and then create an RFC.

    About the CHG_ChangeServiceInterface web service

    This web service is provided specially for requests from an automation system. Using this interface, an automation system can send job details along with the requested schedule to the change management system to create a change record for the job. The change record created using this interface always has an automatic task associated with it. This task corresponds to the job in the automation system and holds the job details.

    A back end form called CHG:ChangeServiceInterface is created for this inbound communication. This is the form that holds the job attributes received from the web service and the information required to create a change record.

    The CHG_ChangeServiceInterface web service enables you to perform the following actions:

    • Create a RFC with minimal information supplied by the automation system. For example, if you specify only the job summary, a change record gets created with relevant default data.
    • Add resilience to the change creation process. For example, if the automation system does not send the scheduled start date, the system calculates the date for the job based on the server timestamp value.
    • Update relevant forms that are associated with the change creation process. For example, the web service updates relevant entries in the Change, Task, and Worklog forms.
    • Create CI associations if the CI information is included in the change creation request.

    The following sections describe the web service fields and operations.

    CHG_ChangeServiceInterface field descriptions

    The fields available in this web service hold the job attribute values and the information required to create a change record.

    The following table describes only the important fields available on the web service:

    FieldDescription
    InfrastructureChangeIDThe unique ID of the RFC.
    TaskIDThe unique ID of the automation task.
    SourceIDA unique ID of the source automation system that is creating the RFC.
    JobIDA unique ID of the automation job.
    JobInstanceIDScheduled ID of the automation job.
    JobTypeThe type of the job.
    JobNameThe name of the job.
    JobDetailedDescriptionThe detailed description of the automation job that includes information about the derived values such as JobName, JobType, Schedule and Priority.
    SummaryThe description of the automation job. This is a mandatory field.
    AdditionalNotesAdditional information about the job such as the policy that is executed and so on. For example, This job will be executed as part of XYZ policy of the company to have latest 'ABC' software on all machines. 
    ImpactThe impact of the change being performed.
    UrgencyThe Urgency of the change being requested.
    StatusThe status of the change record. Completed or Cancelled can be the possible values in this field. This field is populated with the status if the change record is updated.
    StatusReasonThe reason of the change record status.
    ChangeClassThe class to which the change belongs. For example, the values for a change class can be Normal or Emergency.
    ChangeClassReasonThe reason to set the change class. For example, for an urgent job, the change class is set to Emergency.
    ChangeEnvironmentThe environment to which the change applies — Production, Model Office, Hot Backup, or Development.
    ReasonForChangeThe reason for change. For example, if the change class is Emergency, there are four reasons — Customer/Business Need, Insufficient Lead Time, Known Error Correction, or Scheduling Conflict.
    StartDateThe scheduled start date of the change. This value populates the requested_start_date, scheduled_start_date on the change record and schedule_start_date on the task created for the automation job.
    EndDate

    The scheduled end date of the change. This values populates the requested_end_date, scheduled_end_date on the change record and schedule_end_date fields on the task created for the automation job.

    If End Date is not provided by the automation system, end date is calculated based on the change duration defined on the Global Rules Configuration form.

    CINameList

    List of names of the configuration items applicable to the change record. The values must be separated by a semicolon. For example: CI1;CI2;

    If the automation system is NOT integrated with a CMDB, CI names are sent to the change management system instead of reconciliation IDs.

    CIReconIDList

    List of reconciliation IDs of the configuration items applicable to the change record. The values must be separated by a semicolon. For example: O1-asdfasfsafasfasfas;O2-wetgwcsdvwegtwecswerfq;

    If the automation system is integrated with a CMDB, the reconciliation IDs of the CIs are sent to change management.

    ChangeWorkInfoNotesWorklog information containing updates to the change attributes based on the job details received from the automation system.
    LocationCompanyThe location of the company; used for supporting multitenancy. If you do not provide any input, the value is defaulted to logged in user's company.
    TemplateIDThe unique ID of the template.
    TemplateNameThe template name.

    Fields for customization

    The following 10 additional character fields are provided in the web service to:

    • Facilitate data mapping
    • Include additional data
    • Enable customization on the Change form
    Character fields to accommodate customization

    Character01

    Character02

    Character03

    Character04

    Character05

    Character06

    Character07

    Character08

    Character09

    Character10

    CHG_ChangeServiceInterface operations

    The CHG_ChangeServiceInterface web service contains the following operations:

    1. Change_ProcessInterfaceData
    2. Update_SourceInformation
    3. Log_ErrorInformation

    Change_ProcessInterfaceData

    This operation performs the following functions:

     

    This function populates the People details for two types of people profiles in change management: 

    1. Requested By
      • If user details are received from the automation system, a people search is performed by calling the People Lookup function.
        Input values include [Requester Person ID / Requester Login ID / Requester Corporate ID / Requester Internet E-Mail / Requester First Name / Requester Last Name / Requester Middle Name]
      • If user details are not received from the automation system, the $USER$ value is used to get the people details.
    2. Requested For
      • If user details are received from the automation system, a people search is performed by calling the People Lookup function.
        Input values includes [Customer Person ID / Customer Login ID / Customer Corporate ID / Customer Internet E-Mail / Customer First Name / Customer Last Name / Customer Middle Name]
      • If user details are not received from the automation system, the Customer details are updated to include Requested By details. [Requested By becomes Requested For].

    This function populates the CHG:ChangeServiceInterface form fields.

    • If TemplateID and Template Name are received from the automation system, the change management systems searches the CHG:Template form and applies a relevant template to populate the required details for the change record.
    • If TemplateID and Template Name are not received from the automation system, a suitable template is applied based on the template selection rules. For more information, see Scenarios for applying change templates.

    When a change record is created, an automatic task is associated with the change record using the Change template that has the associated task template.

    If a suitable change template is not applied, the web service associates an automatic integration task to the change record. The task details are mapped to the job details as follows:

    Task form fieldMapped job parameter
    Task NameJob Name
    Task SummaryJob Description
    Task NotesJob Detailed Description

     

    Job values such as Job ID, Job Version, Job Instance ID, and Job Type are added to the Job Details tab of the Task form. This tab is visible only if the task type is Automatic and automatic command is either Integration Job or Scheduled Job.

    For more information about viewing these details, see Viewing job details of an automatic task.

    For information about the automatic commands, see Automatic commands Open link in the BMC Remedy Change Management 9.1 online documentation.

    This function transforms the data in a format that is accepted by the change management system. For example, if the RFC contains date in UTC format, the date is changed to Epoch format.

    Scheduled dates (Start and End dates) are derived from the requested start date and requested end dates of the job. For more information, see Data transformation and remediation.

    This function performs data validation if the required job attributes are not provided in the RFC or if the job attributes are in a format that is not acceptable for creating change records. The change record is created after the data is validated and modified in a format that is acceptable. The change record work log is updated with updates. For example, if a RFC is received from the automation system with Impact as High and Class as No Impact, the Class is changed to Normal.

    For more information about work log updates, see Viewing worklog updates.

    This function searches for relevant data and replaces the old data with the new value and updates relevant forms.

    When a RFC is created from the automation system, a default worklog entry is added in the CHG:WorkLog form. This worklog contains data errors or validation error messages. Additional Work log entries are added in the WorkInfoNotes field. For more information, see Viewing worklog updates.

    When a record is created or updated, this function associates relevant configuration items (CIs) with the RFC. An automation system can send either the names or reconciliation IDs of the CIs. This data is captured in the CINameList and CIReconIDList fields of the web service depending upon whether the automation system is integrated with CMDB.

    This function creates a change record even with minimal information available in the RFC. For example, a change record is created if only job summary is provided. In this case, the change record is created with default values for change class, impact, and urgency.

    Depending on the values defined in the RFC, relevant template is applied and a change record is created.

    This function provides row-level security and multitenancy by using the following fields:

    • Customer Company — If customer company details are not received in the RFC, the value of the requester company is copied to Customer Company.
    • Location Company — If location company details are not received in the RFC, the value of the customer company is copied to Location Company.

    This web service enables an external system to integrate with change management and create a change record. For example, a Service Request Management system can integrate with a change management system to create a change record by using this web service.

    Update_SourceInformation

    This operation updates of the source information when there is a physical change in the automation host. If the host information changes, the change management system must be notified so that the new host is used in all future communications. This operation replaces the old source ID with the new Source ID in the following forms: 

    • TMS:TaskTemplate
    • TMS:Task
    • CHG:ChangeOutboundInterface

    Log_ErrorInformation

    This operation logs the error messages when an error is received for following input parameters:

    • Action
    • SourceID
    • InfrastructureChangeID
    • TaskID
    • ChangeWorkInfoNotes

    The Task Worklog is updated with error message. You can see the worklog information in the Work Info tab of the Task form.

    Accessing the CHG_ChangeServiceInterface web service

    You can access the CHG_ChangeServiceInterface web service by using a web service client such as the SoapUI client.

    To access the web service

    1. Open the SoapUI client.
    2. Enter the web service URL in the following format to connect to the web service.

    http://<midtier_server>:<port>/arsys/WSDL/public/<ARservername>/CHG_ChangeServiceInterface

    For example,

    http://myMidtierServer:8080/arsys/WSDL/public/myARServer/CHG_ChangeServiceInterface

    The contents of the web service are displayed.

    Creating a Request For Change

    You can create a change record by sending only the job summary as the input in the web service.

    To create a Request For Change

    1. Access the web service.
    2. In the Summary field, enter the job summary.
    3. Click Submit.

    A change record with default values is created. The following default values are added to the change record:

    ParameterDefault value
    Change ClassNormal
    Impact4-Minor/Localized
    Urgency4-Low
    PriorityCalculated based on Impact and Urgency values.

    Related topics

    Service-oriented interface

    Receiving change record updates

    2 Comments

    1. Ashwini Mathad

       

      1. Mokshada Shivarekar

         

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