FAQ

BMC provides services to hundreds of customers worldwide. These customers are across multiple industries and include many global customers with complex security, compliance, integration, and performance requirements.

Yes. BMC SaaS Operations monitors all customer environments. For more information, see System monitoring. 

In Support Central, select the Service Status Dashboard option within the Case Management view.

BMC frequently resolves potential issues before they are customer-impacting. Based on incident severity, issues are addressed so as to provide restoration of the service as soon as possible. If you are experiencing an issue, promptly submit an incident to BMC Support. For more information, see the BMC Helix Incident Response policy. 

For more information, see BMC Helix Upgrade policy.

Yes. You will have an opportunity in user acceptance testing to determine if those customizations still make sense. If they do not, they can be disabled so that the out-of-the-box workflow is executed instead.  For more information, see BMC Helix ITSM Customization policy.

BMC SaaS Operations supports minor adjustments made to customizations as a part of the service update process. If a significant change to logic is required, you should work with BMC SaaS Operations to understand the impact. If a major change to the customized code is required, you can choose to implement it on an "as-is" basis, implement a small workaround, or disable the customized code. Any major changes to the customization can then be scheduled for implementation after the service update through the regular change control process. For more information, see BMC Helix Upgrade policy.

BMC plans the service update and shares a schedule with you. The service update schedules are shared through email notifications 7 days prior to the update of your nonproduction environments and 21 days prior to the update of your production environment.

The service update schedule will be visible to you on the Change calendar 48 hours prior to the start of the update.

You can also request a service update. For more information, see Requesting a service update.

BMC plans and schedules the service updates. The updates are pushed in the form of automated rollouts to your environments with zero downtime. However, due to some reason, if you do not want to update your environment as scheduled, you can opt out of the scheduled service update and request a service update later. 

BMC does not recommend that you to opt out of a scheduled service update.

It takes about 12 hours to update each environment (Development, QA, and Production).

Based on a few factors, such as the size and complexity of your environment, it might require more than 12 hours to update your Production environment. Based on the observations made while updating your Development and QA environments, BMC will notify you of the time required to update your production environment.

Based on the region in which you are located, the service updates are scheduled to begin outside the core business hours during weekdays.

The following table lists the regions and their respective update start time: 

No, there are no prerequisites.

However, if you have any specific requests, such as a database refresh, make sure you get it done before the service update. Use the standard change request process or raise a support request (for customizations or configurations) to address any specific request.

BMC performs the service updates as frequently as required to make sure that you are on the latest version.

During the planning stage, an update schedule is shared with you. The service update schedules are shared through email notifications 7 days prior to the update of your nonproduction environments and 21 days prior to the update of your production environment. The service update schedule will be visible to you on the Change calendar 48 hours prior to the start of the update.

Yes, you can opt out of a scheduled service update.

BMC does not recommend that you opt out of a scheduled service update. However, due to some reason, if you do not want to update your environment, you can opt out of the scheduled service update.

To opt out of a scheduled service update, use the Support Central to submit a support case at least 4 calendar days before the scheduled service update. For more information, see Opting out of a scheduled service update.

To opt out of a scheduled service update, you must submit a support case at least 4 calendar days before the scheduled service update. 

No, BMC Helix IT Operations Management services are not updated during the service update. Currently, only BMC Helix IT Service Management services are updated during the service update.

BMC closely monitors the service update process and if there are any issues that require a rollback, then an automatic rollback is performed during the update window.

Post update, BMC will help you resolve any issues as quickly as possible. 

It takes about 12 hours to update each environment (Development, QA, and Production).

The following components are included in the service update:

• BMC Helix ITSM
• BMC Helix Smart IT
• BMC Helix CMDB
• BMC Helix Digital Workplace Basic
• BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced
• BMC Helix Innovation Suite
• BMC Helix Innovation Suite Apps
• BMC Helix Action Request System
• BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker
• BMC Helix Business Workflows
  
  

During the update of your environments (Development, QA, and Production), you can perform all end-user operations. However, admin user operations, including metadata operations, are not allowed.

For more information, see  Zero-downtime (ZDT) upgrade for BMC Helix Innovation Suite and applications

Your Development and QA environments might be unavailable for 30 minutes throughout the update window. However, your Production environment will be fully available.

At the end of each environment update, BMC performs basic sanity checks (such as availability of URLs, log in and log out). 

We recommend that you use your discretion to decide the test cases to test your environments. To accommodate testing during the update window, BMC has set aside a rest period of one week between the update of your environments.

For example, after BMC updates your Development environment, you have one week to test your Development environment before BMC begins the update of your QA environment.

You can take one week to test each of your environments. 

At the end of each environment update, BMC has set aside a week before it begins the update of the next environment. You can use this time to test your environment and reach out to the BMC Support team if you encounter any issues. 

For example, after BMC updates your Development environment, you have one week to test your Development environment before BMC begins the update of your QA environment.

Use BMC Support Central  portal, which requires registration. 

Access to the BMC Support Central portal first requires registration through BMC Support Central. You will log in using the credentials you set up during that registration process.  Your username is usually your employer-provided email address.

To register for access to the portal, see the BMC Support Central User Guide . 

If you are having trouble accessing either portal, contact your Customer Success Specialist or have a co-worker submit a support case on your behalf. You may also initiate a live chat (during business hours) from the BMC Support Central site.

BMC Support Central is available via a desktop application only.

See Change documentation for a complete list of the information you must provide when submitting a change within Support Central. Failure to provide the required information will result in scheduling delays for your request.

Scheduling is based on the date and time you request from the Requested Window Start Date and Requested Window Start Time fields. If there are any conflicts or concerns with these inputs, BMC SaaS Operations will contact you. BMC recommends a minimum of 72 hours notice for RFC scheduling.

Within BMC Support Central, you may cancel the case by opening it and selecting the Cancel button.

If you are using BMC Support Central, you have to state the related request in plain text. 

No. Email communication will continue, with the added benefit of communication through the RFC request within the portal.

No. Although you may summarize the type of change in the Summary field, BMC SaaS Operations actually determines the type of change and categorizes it in the internal change management system. Customer input is not needed for this field.

No. BMC allows you to opt-out of CRB review and approval, assuming the customization was designed and developed using BMC recommended best practice guidelines. See BMC Helix Customization policy for more information.

Yes. Customers may add a comment to the RFC form requesting an adjustment to the date and time originally requested.

No. Regardless of whether or not you have CRB approval, it is your responsibility to maintain your customizations on an ongoing basis. For additional information, see the BMC Helix Customization policy.

BMC will first review the RFC inputs for completeness. Every effort will be made to schedule the requested change based on the date and time you requested. If there are any issues with the RFC scheduling, BMC SaaS Operations will contact you with a suggested alternate date and time. You will then have the option to accept or reject the proposed change window. If you need to reject it for any reason, please provide a reason for a rejection or another alternate date and time that works for you.

You may add a comment to the original RFC request and the assigned Support Manager can contact you.

In BMC Support Central > Case Management and select the Change Calendar option to see your scheduled change in the calendar view. If the RFC is not yet scheduled, you can view it under Case Management Details menu. This menu displays all requests that you have submitted, including incidents, service requests, and change requests. Various filtering options are available from the list view.

In BMC Support Central > Case Management, select Change Calendar. This option displays a calendar view of all scheduled (past 90 days plus future) changes.