Deploying custom flows, updated vendor mappings, and connector processes to production environments

Out-of-the-box BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker provides flow templates that can be used to create your own custom flows. You can update the flow trigger conditions or field mappings as per your organization's requirements. The customized flows can then be tested and deployed into production.

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker provides three tenants for BMC Helix Platform and Smart IT:

• Tailoring (BMC Helix Platform)/Development (ITSM or Smart IT)
• Test
• Production

All BMC Helix Integration Service tasks are executed in a single tenant. Connectors and flows for all BMC Helix Platform and Smart IT tenants for a customer are created and managed in a single instance. The flow templates deployed out-of-the-box are available to all three tenants. Integrations for different tenants must be managed by using the configurations and profiles, and name that you give to the flow. 

BMC Helix Integration Service provides three configurations for each connector that requires a configuration setting: one for each BMC Helix Platform tenant. Each BMC Helix Platform tenant uses the corresponding configuration of the connectors. 

The following table lists the connector configuration names and recommended flows names for tailoring, test, and production flows: 

For each environment, the flows are configured with the configurations and profiles for the ITSM and BMC Helix Platform instances of that environment.

Customizing flows and moving them from Tailoring to Production environments

The process of moving flows from Tailoring to Production differs based on the action you perform on the flow - set up a new set of flows, update an existing flow, or upgrade an existing flow. The goal in each scenario is the same - you complete running the flow in your Tailoring environment, then test them in your Test environment, and finally move the tested flows to your Production environment. 

Setting up a new set of flows by using a flow template and moving them to the production environment

When BMC provisions BMC Helix Integration Service for you, a set of flow templates is available for you to use. For example, if you want a ITSM incident to be brokered to your vendor, you need to use the Create Brokered Incident flow template.

The following procedure provides an example of this flow and explains how you can use the flow template to create a new flow and then move that flow to Test and finally to Production environment.

1. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Service as a tenant administrator.

2. Use the flow template to create your custom flow.
   1. Navigate to the Catalog.
   2. From the flows listed under Incident Brokering, select Create Brokered Incident.
   3. To create a new flow from the flow template, select Use this Flow. 
   4. Select the connector configurations when prompted and click OK.
   5. Navigate to My Flows and select the new flow.
   6. In the flow details page, click the Flow title and update it to Tailoring – Create Brokered Incident
   7. Make changes to the flow as per your requirements.
3. Complete unit testing for the flow. 
   If testing is successful, make use of the copy feature to copy the flow to Test.
4. Copy the flow for the Test environment. 
   1. Navigate to My Flows and select Tailoring—Create Brokered Incident 
   2. In the flow details page, select Actions and select Copy Flow.
   3. . On the flow configuration page, select the ITSM configuration for Test and the Multi-Cloud configuration for Test.
   4.  Navigate to My Flows and select Copy of Tailoring—Create Brokered Incident.
   5. In the flow details page, click the Flow title and update it to Testing—Create Brokered Incident
   6. Complete testing for the flow. 
      If testing is successful, make use of the copy feature to copy the flow to Production.
5. Copy the flow to Production. 
   
   1. Navigate to My Flows and select Testing—Create Brokered Incident.
   2. In the flow details page, select Actions and select Copy Flow.
   3. On the flow configuration page, select the ITSM configuration for Production and the Multi-Cloud configuration for Production.
   4.  Navigate to My Flows and select Copy of Testing—Create Brokered Incident.
   5. In the flow details page, click the Flow title and update it to Production—Create Brokered Incident.

Your flow is now running in production.

Updating existing flows and moving them to the production environment

Based on your business requirements, you may need to update your flows to change mappings or transformations. To update the existing flows, tailor the flow with the required changes, test it, and then move the flow to production.

1. Navigate to My Flows and select Tailoring—Create Brokered incident

2. Make changes to the flow as per your requirements and complete unit testing for the flow.
   If testing is successful, make use of the copy feature to copy the flow to Test.
3. Copy the Flow to Test. 
   1. Disable the existing testing flow, Testing—Create Brokered incident and rename it to indicate that it is an old version of the flow.
   2. Navigate to My Flows and select Tailoring—Create Brokered Incident.
   3. In the flow details page, select Actions and select Copy Flow.
   4. On the flow configuration page, select the ITSM configuration for Test and the Multi-Cloud configuration for Test.
   5.  Navigate to My Flows and select Copy of Tailoring—Create Brokered Incident.
   6. In the flow details page, click the Flow title and update it to Testing—Create Brokered Incident
   7. Complete testing for the flow. 
      If testing is successful, make use of the copy feature to copy the flow to Production.
4. Copy the flow to Production. 
   
   1. Disable the existing production flow, Production—Create Brokered Incident and rename the flow to indicate it is an old version.
   2. Navigate to My Flows and select Testing—Create Brokered Incident.
   3. In the flow details page, select Actions and select Copy Flow.
   4. On the flow configuration page, select the ITSM configuration for Production and the Multi-Cloud configuration for Production.
   5.  Navigate to My Flows and select Copy of Testing—Create Brokered Incident.
   6. In the flow details page, click the Flow title and update it to Production—Create Brokered Incident.

The updated flow has now been deployed in the production environment.

Upgrading to a new version of the flow and then moving them to the production environment

When BMC provisions a new release of BMC Helix Integration Service, there can be updates to the flow templates that are provided by BMC. You can upgrade your existing flows to the new flow template.

1. Navigate to My Flows and look for tailoring flows that have this  icon.
2. Upgrade your tailoring flows.
   1. Open the flows that are ready to be upgraded.   

   2. To review the differences between the deployed flow and the upgraded flow template, select Actions > Compare with Template. 

   3. Review the differences and determine if you need apply those changes to your existing flow.

   4. If you plan to upgrade your flow, create a backup of your flow. 
   5. Select Actions > Copy Flow. 
      Maintain the temporary copy of the flow until you verify the upgraded flow. After you verify the upgraded flow, you can delete the flow copy.
   6. To upgrade your flow, select Actions > Upgrade. 
      Your flow is upgraded from the template.
   7. Review the upgraded flow to determine if there are any change that you need to reapply to the flow.
3. Upgrade your testing flow based on the tailoring flow.
   1. To upgrade the testing flow, navigate to My Flows and select the testing flow associated with the flow you upgraded.
   2. Click Actions, select the option to Upgrade from Flow, and select the tailoring flow. The testing flow is upgraded based on the tailoring flow.
4. Upgrade your production flow based on the testing flow.
   1. To upgrade the testing flow, navigate to My Flows and select the production flow associated with the flow you upgraded.
   2. Click Actions and select the option to Upgrade from Flow and select the testing flow. The production flow is upgraded based on the testing flow.

Using a custom vendor to create new flows

If you want to use a vendor application for which flows are not provided out-of-the-box, you must create a new flow by using the BMC Helix Integration Service flow designer. Create a new flow between the Multi-Cloud connector and the vendor application connector in the development environment, and move this flow from the development environment to the production environment, as described in Setting up a new set of flows by using a flow template and moving them to the production environment.

For more information about designing a custom flow, see  Designing and maintaining flows .

Moving updated vendor mappings and connector processes from Tailoring to Production environments

BMC Helix Innovation Studio enables you to create content packages of your custom content and deploy them between environments. If you update or create custom vendor mappings, or update existing connector processes in BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, use the content package functionality to deploy the changes from your tailoring environment to your test and production environments. 

To move vendor mapping and connector process updates from Tailoring to Production environments:

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio as a tenant administrator, and navigate to the Workspace tab

2. Select Ticket Brokering Library. 

   The details of the Ticket Brokering Library are displayed.

3. Select Actions > Create Content Package.

4. In the Create Content Package window, on the tabs displayed, perform the required actions

   Tab name	Action
   Select Definitions	Select the customized definitions that you want to include in the content package, and click Next. Custom processes are listed in Processes, and vendor mapping data is listed in Records.
   Add Data	To add vendor data, click Add, search for the Vendor Metadata record definition, select it, and then click . The following options are available for the data you select: To filter the data sources that are displayed in the grid, click Click to build a global data filter expression. To filter a specific data source, select a data source and click Click to build an expression next to the data source. To prevent rules from being executed after the package is deployed to the target environment, click Ignore Rules. To define how duplicate data records should be handled, select one of the following options: Create new—Creates a new data record, regardless of whether any data records are duplicates. Ignore—Discards the duplicate data records, and creates data records only for the unique records. Overwrite—If a duplicate data record is found, replaces previous data with new data record. Merge—Combines the duplicate data records into a single data record.
   Package	Click Create Package to create the package. After the package is created, click Next. While creating a content package, you can click Close and Continue to close the window. The package creation continues in the background. You can download the package by using the Download Content Package option. If the package creation fails, see Troubleshooting codeless application issues.
   (Optional) Download Content Package	To download a content package, click this option. If the content package creation fails, you get an error message.

   For detailed instructions on using the content packages, see Creating content packages to deploy tailoring changes of applications . 

   The deployable content package is downloaded as a ZIP file. You can upload a package to a version control system and share the package with other developers and administrators, so that they can deploy the tailoring changes by importing the package.