Creating BMC Helix ITSM incidents for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager alerts by using Jitterbit Harmony

BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit provides a pre-built integration template to create BMC Helix ITSM incidents for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (Microsoft SCOM) alerts. To use the integration template with the values defined out of the box, you update the project variables with details of your systems and deploy the integration template. 

The template provides the following capabilities: 

Microsoft System Center-Operations Manager to BMC Helix ITSM data flow

The following image gives an overview of the data flow for creating or updating a BMC Helix ITSM incident from Microsoft SCOM: 

Before you begin

You require the following items to successfully set up and use this integration: 

Task 1: To download and import the integration template project file

1. Download the  Sync Microsoft System Center - Operations Manager (SCOM) Alerts with BMC Helix ITSM Update 2022-07-01 project file to your system. 
   This file contains the BMC Helix iPaaS Cloud Studio project SCOM_ITSM.
   

   Important

   Your ability to access product pages on the EPD website is determined by the license your company purchased.

2. As a developer, log in to BMC Helix iPaaS and navigate to the Cloud Studio.
3. On the projects page, click Import.
4. Click Browse and then select the Sync Microsoft System Center - Operations Manager (SCOM) Alerts with BMC Helix ITSM Update.json file you downloaded. 
   The Project Name and Organization fields are automatically populated depending on the values defined. 
5. From the Environment list, select the environment to which you want to import this integration template, and click Import.
   The project opens after the integration template is imported.
6. To open the project file at a later time, select the environment where the integration templates are available, select the SCOM_ITSM project and click View/Edit.

Task 2: To set up the Microsoft SCOM alert notification

1. To subscribe to SCOM alerts and post them to BMC Helix Platform, and retrieve the Incident ID from BMC Helix ITSM, create a PowerShell script on the server where Microsoft SCOM in installed. The script retrieves the Alert ID and details from Microsoft SCOM, creates the data for Jitterbit API. The Jitterbit API response gets the ITSM ticket ID and is updates it in the corresponding Microsoft SCOM alert.
   For example, 
   
   

2. To trigger the PowerShell Script event when a new alert is generated or an alert is modified, create a Notification Command Channel in Microsoft SCOM. For more information about creating a Notification Command Channel, see  How to enable a command notification channel . Enter the following values on the Settings dialog: 

   Field name	Value
   Full path of the command file	Enter the path to the Powershell executable file. For example, C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
   Command line parameters	Enter parameters that you want to run with this command. For example, to provide the Alert ID to the script enter the following value: "C:\SCOM\scom.ps1" "$Data[Default="N"]/Context/DataItem/AlertID$
   Startup folder for the command line box	Enter the path to the directory where you created the Powershell script. For example, C:\SCOM

   

3. To define the list of users who should receive the notifications, create notification subscribers. For more information on how to create notification subscribers, see  How to create notification subscribers .
   When creating the channel, select Command and enter the Notification Command Channel you created as the Command Channel.

4. To specify the criteria for sending notifications, like the type of alert, create notification subscriptions. For more information about creating notification subscriptions, see  How to create notification subscriptions . 
   

Task 3: To update the project variables for the integration template

1.  Next to the Environment name, click the ellipsis ... and select Project Variables.
2. Update the following project variables:

   • Access points and authentication details for BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix iPaaS applications

     Project variable	Action
     BMC Helix ITSM
     ITSM_Endpoint	Enter the URL of the BMC Helix ITSM instance.
     ITSM_Username	Enter the user ID to access BMC Helix ITSM.
     ITSM_Password	Enter the password for the user ID to access BMC Helix ITSM.
     BMC Helix iPaaS
     BHIP_Url	Enter the BMC Helix iPaaS instance URL where you want to run this project. Important: Make sure that you do not enter any leading and trailing spaces in the URL.
     BHIP_User	Enter the user ID to access the BMC Helix iPaaS instance.
     BHIP_User_Password	Enter the password of the user ID to access BMC Helix iPaaS.

   • Webhook API variables

     Project variables	Action
     BHIP_API_Project_Name	Enter the name of the project imported to BMC Helix Platform.
     BHIP_API_Name	Enter the name of the Webhook API to create in the API Manager. By default, the value is set to SCOMtoITSM.
     BHIP_Operation_Name	Enter the name of the operation to trigger when the Webhook API is triggered. This value is added to the BMC Helix iPaaS API. By default, the value is set to Integration API Flow Controller.
     BHIP_API_Security_Profile_Type	Enter the name of the security profile type.  Valid values include: BASIC (Default) ANONYMOUS A security profile type defines the authentication type to be used by the Webhook API to access the Microsoft SCOM API added in BMC Helix iPaaS. Important: For profile types supported by Microsoft SCOM, the integration template automatically creates the security profiles when you enable the integration.
     BHIP_API_Security_Profile_Name_Suffix	Enter the suffix to be added to the name of security profiles created.
     BHIP_API_Security_Profile_BASIC_Auth_Username	For security profile type BASIC, enter a user name to be used to create and access the security profile. This user name is used for authentication by the BMC Helix iPaaS API and the Webhook API.
     BHIP_API_Security_Profile_BASIC_Auth_Password	For security profile type BASIC, enter the password for the security profile created.  This password is used for authentication by the BMC Helix iPaaS API and the Webhook API.
     BHIP_API_User_Roles	Enter comma separated values of the user roles assigned for the BMC Helix iPaaS Jitterbit API. Only users with these roles can access the APIs. Leave value blank to restrict access only to administrators.
     BHIP_API_TimeOut	Enter a value, in seconds, for an API timeout. The minimum value must range between 30 and 180. By default, the value is set to 90.

   • BMC Helix ITSM fields 

     The following field values must be populated before you run the integration:

     Project variable	Value
     ITSM_Company	Enter the name of a valid BMC Helix ITSM company for which the incident should be created.
     ITSM_Assignee	Enter a valid BMC Helix ITSM user to whom the incident is assigned.

   • Email notification configurations

     Project variable	Value
     BHIP_SMTP_Hostname	Enter the SMTP host details for emails configuration.
     BHIP_To_Email_Address	Enter the email address to which you want to send the notification emails.
     BHIP_From_Email_Address	Enter the email address from which the notification emails should be sent.
     BHIP_Email_Summary	Define if notification emails with a summary log should be sent if workflow is successful. By default, this value is set to true. To disable email notifications for successful operations, set the value to false.
     BHIP_Email_Enabled	Define if notification emails should be sent. By default, the value is set to true. If you want to disable email notifications, update the Default Value to false.
     BHIP_Email_Data_Error	Define if emails should be sent if the workflow is unsuccessful. By default, this value is set to true. To disable email notifications for errors, set the value to false.

Task 4: (Optional) To review and update out of the box field mappings

Out-of-the-box field mappings are defined in the transformation elements of the Create ITSM Incident and Update ITSM Incident operations in the SCOM to ITSM workflow. For additional information about the workflow, see Workflows included in the integration template.

The following out of the box fields and corresponding values are mapped in the transformation elements:

You can edit the default field mappings provided by the integration template. To do so, you need to update the transformation element in the workflow and map the fields. 

To update out of the box field mappings

1. Open the SCOM to ITSM project.
2. Scroll through the workflow, and select the appropriate transformation element and select View/Edit:
   1. To update field mappings for the Create Incident operation, click the Prepare ITSM request transformation element.
   2. To update field mappings for the Update Incident operation, click Map SCOM to ITSM incident data transformation element.
      
3. In the Target pane, select Mapped from the View menu.
4. On the Variables tab, click Use Variables.
5. From the variable list, drag the variable to the field mapping you want to update in the Mappings section.

6. Click Return To Workflow.

   Note

   If the integration template is already deployed, you must deploy it again after you make changes to the mappings.

   For more information about deploying the project, see Task 5: To deploy and enable the project.

Task 5: To deploy and enable the project

Deployment is a one-time activity that initializes the integration configurations. The UI displays a message for the deployment status.

To deploy the project and then enable the integration:

1. To deploy the project, next to the project name, click the ellipsis ..., and select Deploy Project.
2. To enable the integration, next to the Enable Integrations workflow, click the ellipsis ..., and select Deploy. 

The following image shows the steps to deploy the project and enable it by deploying the workflow:

After you enable the integration, Microsoft SCOM alerts are triggered when an incident with the specified Alert criteria is created or updated.

(Optional) Task 6: To set the time for API debug mode

By default, the debug mode is set to 2 hours after you run the integration. Debug logs are updated for the time set for the debug mode. To increase the debug mode for a longer period of time, perform the following steps:

1. In BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit, select API Manager > My APIs.
2. Open the API created for the integration. The API name is the value defined in the BHIP_API_Name project variable.
3. Select Enable Debug Mode Until: and set it for the required date and time.
4. Save and publish the API.

Workflows included in the integration template

The following workflows are defined as a part of the integration template. This section describes the details of the operations and configurations defined within each workflow.

Enable Integration

Set up the required details for the integration.

Create and Publish Custom APIs

This workflow defines the operations required to enable the integration after all the required project configurations are completed. The following operations are included in this workflow:

SCOM To ITSM

This workflow creates or updates the BMC Helix ITSM incident with details of the Microsoft SCOM alerts generated when the incident created or updated. The following operations are included in this workflow: