BMC Remedy ITSM upgrade recommendations

Unknown macro: {multi-excerpt}

Note

BMC does not support upgrades to 8.1 on single virtual CPU (vCPU) systems running the AR System server and database. You must have at least two vCPU systems and 8 GB of RAM. For BMC sizing guidelines and performance benchmarks, see [ars81:AR System hardware requirements for upgrades].

Unknown macro: {multi-excerpt-include}

BMC recommends that you perform the following steps before performing an upgrade:

Review the group IDs of any custom groups that you created.
Make sure that none of them fall [within the group IDs that are reserved by BMC Remedy AR System]. Otherwise, you will not be able to successfully import the sample data.
Disable the Object Modification Logging parameter. This reduces the time taken to complete the upgrade. To disable this parameter, click Server Information > Version Control > Object Modification Log.
Disable the Object Reservation parameter. This parameter enables users to reserve server objects. If objects remain reserved during the upgrade, the AR System Server prevents other users, such as the person performing the upgrade, from modifying them.
To disable this parameter, click Server Information > Version Control > Object Reservation.
For Oracle databases, set the value of the Oracle CLOB option to inrow.
For more information, see [ars81:Using Oracle CLOBs with BMC Remedy AR System].

Ensure that the following form fields have a listed initial database size (not zero length).

Note

Some of these fields are hidden. In Developer Studio, click Show Fields Not In View to see them.

If they do not, modify the fields before you perform the upgrade. If the AR System Server and BMC Remedy Developer Studio are at least version 7.6.04, modify the fields in Base Development Mode in Developer Studio. This will ensure that no unnecessary Overlays are created.

Form name	Field name	Field ID	Field length
NTE:Notifier Log	Notification Text	1000000820	3964
NTE:Notifier Log	Email Message Body	1000000827	3964
SYS:Action	ID01 ReconciliationIdentity	1000005892	255
SYS:Action	ID02 ReconciliationIdentity	1000005893	255
HPD:Help Desk	SLMEventLookupTblKeyword	301788500	255
HPD:Help Desk	SLMLookupTblKeyword	301610100	255

Enable the Record Object Relationship feature. This is used to detect whether any custom workflow objects use the BMC Remedy ITSM attributes that will be moved out of the Configuration Management Database.
If this feature is not enabled, the upgrade does not delete the BMC Remedy ITSM attributes from the Configuration Management Database. You can run the installer again to delete the ITSM attributes later.
Note

You must restart the AR System Server after making these changes.
Back up your overlay objects before continuing with the upgrade. If you have not previously preserved your customizations through overlays, use the BMC Remedy Best Practice Conversion utility. For more information, see [ars81:Creating overlays with the Best Practice Conversion Utility].
Before performing an upgrade, make sure that all notifications have been processed.
Archive or purge the data from the following forms that accumulate non-functional data, if the data is not required:
- NTE:Notifier
- CAI:Events
- CAI:EventParams
- CFG:Business Holidays Storage
- Business Time Holidays
- DLD:SYS:DataLoadStatus
- DLD:SYS:DataWizardStatus
- NTE:SYS-NT Process control (Remove unprocessed records only)
- NTE:SYS NT (Remove only records older than one day)
- SYS:Action
- RE:Job_Runs
- RE:Job_Events
- Server Events
- FB:History
- SLM:SLAComplianceContracts
- Classcount
- CFB:change Status
  Note
  
  For more information on archiving form data, see [ars81:Archiving data].
(Optional) Identify customer compliance requirements and remove any excess audit data.
Ensure that the DB Buffer Cache has a sufficiently large value. BMC recommends setting the value of sga_target to 1 GB or 2 GB, and the value of db_cache_size to 1.5 GB.
Disable escalations on the AR System Server under the AR System Administration Console. (Note - Enable escalations prior to go live or testing the functionality)
Comment the following application processes in the armonitor file located in the CONF folder:
- Arrecond
- Arcmdbd
- emaild
- arsvcdsp
- slmcollsvc
- slmbrsvc
  Note
  - Uncomment these application processes before you go live with the upgrade or test upgraded functionality. Writer comment - Added as a part of SW00456735 fix)
  - You must restart the AR System Server after making these changes.
Ensure that the value of the server_port parameter in the <ARInstallDir>/pluginsvr/pluginsvr_config.xml file is the same as the value of the TCD-Specific-Port parameter in the <ARInstallDir>\Conf\ar.cfg file (Windows) or the <ARInstallDir>/conf/ar.conf file (UNIX).

Comment out references to the Approval Server plug-in as follows:

In the ar.cfg (ar.conf) file, comment out the Server-Plugin-Alias entry for ARSYS.ARDBC.PREVIEW.

In the primary pluginsvr_config.xml file in the ARSystemInstallDir\ARSystem\pluginsvr directory, comment out the Approval Server plug-in.
Comment out all lines, including the <plugin></plugin> tags

 <plugin>
      <name>ARSYS.ARDBC.PREVIEW</name>
      <pathelement type="location">C:/Program Files/BMC Software/ARSystem/approval/bin/arasj80_build002.jar</pathelement>
      <classname>com.bmc.arsys.approval.main.ApprovalPlugin</classname>
      <pathelement type="location">C:/Program Files/BMC Software/ARSystem/arserver/api/lib/arcmnapp80_build002.jar</pathelement>
      <pathelement type="location">C:/Program Files/BMC Software/ARSystem/arserver/api/lib/arutil80_build002.jar</pathelement>
</plugin>

Note

You must restart the AR System Server after making these changes.

Ensure that there are sufficient resources for the following:
- Disk space
- Database space
- Database temporary space
- Logical log space
  Note
  
  As a rule of thumb, your temporary space should be 1.5 times the size of the largest table in the database.
If you are upgrading to BMC Change Management 8.0.00 or later and you have more than 10000 non-closed change requests, perform the following steps:
1. Open the Server Information page and then click the Advanced tab.
2. Set the value of Maximum Filters for an operation parameter to the number of open change requests * 50.
  For more information, see SW00445817 in Known and corrected issues.
If you are upgrading from a version of BMC Service Level Management prior to version 7.5.x. and you have created service targets, delete the join forms that were created by the application, such as HPD:HelpDesk_SLA and SRM:Request_SLA.
If you are upgrading only BMC Service Level Management (and not ITSM), this step is not necessary.
After you finish the upgrade, you will need to rebuild these join forms. (See Rebuilding join forms that were deleted before an upgrade.)
For more information, refer to knowledge article KA326142 before performing the upgrade.
If you are installing BMC Remedy ITSM in a server group environment, refer to the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite Installing and Configuring Server Groups White Paper. You can also refer to knowledge article KA323258.
Ensure that your hardware meets the minimum requirements. For more information, see System requirements.

BMC Remedy ITSM upgrade recommendations

Comments