Creating Jira issues from problem records via BMC Helix Integration Service

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker helps facilitate DevOps practices in organizations that use multiple tools. You can integrate BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker with Atlassian JIRA Software and manage problem tickets across multiple applications and teams more effectively. Whenever a problem ticket is created in BMC Helix ITSM, a corresponding issue is created in Jira. You can also synchronize data between a BMC Helix ITSM problem ticket and a Jira issue.

BMC Helix ITSM to Jira data flow

The following image illustrates how BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker creates a bug or a user story in Jira from a BMC Helix ITSM problem record:

Before you begin

Complete all preconfiguration tasks before you enable the integration.

To select the integration option for DevOps between Jira and BMC Helix ITSM

Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Suite.
On Workspace, click Multi-Cloud Broker.
To launch BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, click Visit Deployed Application.
Tip

You can access BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker directly by entering the URL https://hostName:portNumber/helix/index.html#/com.bmc.dsm.mcsm/login and logging in as a tenant administrator.
To open the configuration page, click Settings .
Select Start Here > Quick Configuration Guide.
In the Step 1: Choose configuration tab, perform the following steps:
1. From the Choose configuration list, select the Helix integration service.

b. For the the DevOps Integration feature for Jira and ITSM, under DevOps Integration, select ITSM Problem to Jira Issue (requires Remedy IT Service Management Suite (Remedy ITSM Suite) and Smart IT version 1808 patch 1), and click Next.

The Perform configurations tab displays a list of the common configurations, connectors, flows, and connector targets and processes that you need to configure as described in the next tasks.

To map Jira vendor data to BMC Helix ITSM or Smart IT

Configuring vendor data includes setting up a vendor organization and defining vendor mappings for the technology provider. Vendor mapping is the metadata of the vendor that is used to define dynamic field mapping between ITSM and Vendor application fields. Vendor mapping metadata is required to send ITSM ticket to the vendor application. Vendor mapping ensures that notifications about changes made to the ITSM fields are added as a comment to the corresponding vendor application ticket. If you are integrating with multiple instances of Jira, create a vendor mapping for each instance of Jira.

Best practice

We recommend that you set up the vendor organizations before starting the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker configuration. For more information about adding vendor organizations, see Performing common preconfiguration tasks.

If required, to create or modify a vendor organization, in the Perform configurations tab, click Manage Vendor Organizations under Configure Jira .
To add or update the vendor mapping, in the Perform configurations tab, click Manage Vendor Metadata under Configure Jira.
1. On the Map Vendors page, click .
2. Enter a Description that makes it easy for you to identify the vendor metadata configuration.
3. Select the Ticketing Technology Provider.
  The technology provider is the organization that develops the vendor application. For example, Amazon is the Ticketing Technology Provider for AWS.
4. If you have multiple Jira instances, enter a Instance Name that BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Brokercan use to identify each Jira instance.
  The recommended format for an instance name is \ instanceName instance instanceNumber
5. Click Add Mapping.
  BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker displays the default Instance URL, Vendor Field Mapping, and Display Field Mapping.
6. Update the Instance URL with the server name and the port number for the Jira instance that you are mapping.
  This URL represents the URL for connecting with your Jira server.
7. Click { } to open the JSON editor, and modify Vendor Field Mapping and Display Field Mapping to add or delete values.
  - Vendor Field Mapping — Defines how BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker maps ITSM fields to vendor application ticket fields.
    Update the value of fields.project.name with the name of your Jira project for ticket-brokering-lib:Problem.
  - Display Field Mapping — Defines how vendor application ticket fields are displayed on the Smart IT console.
If you do not want the Problem ticket to be automatically resolved when the corresponding vendor application ticket is resolved, select for Resolve Problem Ticket When Vendor Closes it. By default, the ticket is resolved when the corresponding ticket is closed in the vendor application.
From the Integration Platform list, select Integration Service.

To configure connectors for integrating ITSM and Jira with BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker

For each feature you selected, complete the following procedure for the connectors listed on the Configuration Links page.

To navigate to BMC Helix Integration Service, on the Configuration Links page, click Configure connectors in Integration Studio under Required Common Configurations.
You must configure the connectors listed for each feature, in addition to the connectors listed under Required Common Configuration.
To enter field values, select a connector, such as ITSM, and click Configuration.
You might need to click the arrow on the ribbon in the lower section of the screen to open the Configuration pane.
To update the configuration defaults, enter the appropriate field values by referring to the list of connectors at the end of this procedure.
To add or update the user account that is used to access the vendor application, click Accounts.

List of connectors for integration with JIRA

ITSM

Configuration
If you are integrating BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker with an on-premises instance of ITSM, enter the following values:
Field Value
Site Select the site that you created for Remedy.
AR server Enter the name of your on-premises AR System server.
AR server port Enter the port number for your on-premises AR System server.

Account
Add a ITSM user account that has permissions to view business service requests and permissions to update incidents, change, or problem requests.

Multi-Cloud

Configuration
While activating BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, BMC configures the Multi-Cloud connector. Do not modify the default Multi-Cloud connector configuration.

Account
BMC sets up the account for the Multi-Cloud connector.
Click to re-authenticate after you have changed the password for your tenant administrator user account in BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
For information about changing the user password, see Creating or modifying People data .

SMTP Email

Configuration
To send email notifications for errors, specify values for the following fields:
Field Value
Name Enter a name for the connector configuration.
Site Select the appropriate site for your email server.
Connection type Select the type of connection for your email server.

Account
Add an email account to be used for sending error notifications.

Jira

Configuration

If you are integrating with an on-premises instance of ITSM, enter values for the following fields:

Field	Value
Name	Enter a name for the connector configuration
Site	For each on-premises Jira instance, select the site that you created. For Jira instances in the cloud, select Cloud as the site.
Jira Server Hostname	Enter the name of your Jira server.
Jira server Port	Enter the port number of the Jira server. Enter 443 if your Jira server is SSL enabled.
Protocol	Enter the protocol used by the Jira server.
Certificate Authority	If the Jira server is using a self-signed certificate, copy and paste the contents of the self-signed certificate from the certificate file that is in the PEM format. It is not recommended in production Jira servers, and only a certificate signed by a trusted certificate authority must be used.

If you need to integrate with multiple instances of Jira, add a Connector Configuration for each instance.

Account
- Add the account of a Jira user who can view and update Jira issues.
- If you need to integrate with multiple Jira instances, add an account for each of the Jira instances.

To configure flow triggers and field mappings between ITSM, BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, and Jira

For each feature you selected, complete this procedure for the flows listed on the Configuration Links page.

To navigate to BMC Helix Integration Service, on the Configuration Links page, click Configure flows in Integration Studio under Required Common Configurations.
You need to configure the flows listed for each feature, in addition to the flows listed under Required Common Configuration.
To open the flow template page, on the Catalog tab in Integration Studio, click the flow you want to configure.
To create a copy of the flow template, click .
Select the appropriate accounts for the end-point connectors of the selected flow.
You specify the connector accounts when configuring connectors.
To update the name of the flow that you have copied from the flow template, select My Flow, open the flow that you copied, and update the title.
Specify the trigger Conditions and Field mapping, and click OK.
For more information about trigger conditions and field mappings, see the list of flows at the end of this procedure.
Click My Flows and select the flow that you created from the flow template.
To verify the target values for the trigger conditions and the field mappings, in the right pane, click Details.

List of flows for integration with JIRA

Send Error Notification

Trigger
Field Value
Flow Target Multi-Cloud

Field Mapping
Field Value
To
Enter the email account that will receive the error notification.
Subject
Flow Title
From
Note: The value of this field is set to Integration Service. NA
Note
You can change the following out-of-the-box field mappings:
- Subject
- From
However, BMC recommends that you retain the existing mappings.

Create DevOps Problem

Trigger
You need to set a trigger condition for this flow to determine which Problems should be sent to Jira. For example, you can use the following triggers:
- Operational or Product Categorization fields in ITSM
- Assignment of the problem
- Add a custom field as per your requirement.

Field Mapping

The following values are mapped out-of-the-box:

ITSM field	Jira field	Description
	Project	In the Vendor Field Mapping of the Map Vendor definition, the value of Jira project is set under fields.project.name . By default, project is set to MultiCloud. You should change this value to the appropriate project name. If you have a corresponding field in ITSM for the project name: Change the project field type to dynamic. Select the Field ID on the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker record definition of the field that stores the ITSM project value. Define the mapping from the ITSM value to the Jira value. You can add the transformations to select the appropriate project based on the value received from ITSM.
Priority	Priority	Default field mapping
Summary	Issue Summary	The Problem ID is included as a part of the Summary.
Category Tier 3	Issue Type	In the Vendor Field Mapping of the Map Vendor definition, the value of Issue Type is set under field.issuetype.name for the instance of Jira you are integrating with. Jira provides several issue types out of the box and also enables users to create their own custom issue types. There are various options to indicate which issue type should be created. The example template uses the Categorization field to decide the issue type. Using the third tier of the problem request categorization, we indicate which issue type to create in Jira. You can use other fields or transformations to define this. However, the value passed to the Issue Type must match the name of the issue.
Description	Description	Default field mapping
Problem ID	Label	The Problem ID is included in the Summary and also added as a label on the issue.
Technology Service		The Create DevOps Problem flow can be used to send problem records to other DevOps vendors like Jira. You can use one of the following options: Use the Target Values option and select the Technology Service from the list. Target Values shows the list of vendor mappings that you add in the vendor metadata configuration earlier. For the Jira integration, from the Target Values list, select JIRA or the name of your Jira instance (if you have provided an instance in the vendor metadata configuration). This determines that the connector process is invoked in BMC Helix Innovation Suite to create or update Jira issues. Use the Source Fields option and map it to one of the existing field from ITSM, for example, the Service field. Then, you can use the transformation option to map different ITSM Services to different technology services. For example, if the value of the ITSM Service field is Jira Service, then, add the data transformation to map Jira Service to JIRA or JIRA.InstanceName.

Create Problem Activity Note with Author

Trigger
Field Value
Broker Vendor Name
is not empty

Field Mapping

Do not change the following out-of-the-box field mappings.

Field	Value
post_type	comment#vendor
ticketNumber	Problem ticket
Attachment Object 1.name	Attachment 1 filename
Attachment Object 1.content	Attachment 1
Attachment Object 2.name	Attachment 2 filename
Attachment Object 2.content	Attachment 2
Attachment Object 3.name	Attachment 3 filename
Attachment Object 3.content	Attachment 3

Note

You can change the out-of-the-box field mapping for the text field. Default value is set to Notes.

However, BMC recommends that you retain the existing mapping.

Sync Jira Issue

Use this flow when you do want to make direct data updates between a Jira issue and ITSM ticket.

Trigger
Retain the values that are available out-of-the-box.

Field mapping
Do not change the following out-of-the-box field mappings.
Field Value
Vendor Jira
Vendor Ticket Id Issue Key
Vendor Ticket Properties Retain the out-of-the-box properties mapping.

Sync Jira Issue Comment

Trigger
Retain the values that are available out-of-the-box.

Field mapping

Do not change the following out-of-the-box field mappings.

Field	Value
text	Retain the prefix Comment Body
post_type	comment#remedy
Vendor	JIRA
Vendor Ticket Id	Issue Key
commentId	Comment ID
Attachment Object 1	Attachment Object 1
Attachment Object 2	Attachment Object 2
Attachment Object 3	Attachment Object 3

To define connector targets to enable DevOps between Jira and ITSM

BMC preconfigures the out-of-the-box connector targets for all BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker features. If you want to update the connector configuration or account information, update the connector target for the feature.

Warning

Do not delete the out-of-the-box connector targets.

To navigate to BMC Helix Innovation Suite, in the Configuration Links page, click Configure Connector Targets in Innovation Studio under Required Common Configurations.
You need to configure the connector targets listed for each feature on the Configuration Links page, in addition to the ones listed under Required Common Configuration.
Click the connector target you want to configure or click to configure a new connector target.

Enter or update the following values and save the configuration.

Field	Instructions
Name	Enter a unique name for the configuration. The name is associated with the process that is related to the connector you are configuring.
Connector Type	Select the connector type from the list of connectors available to you in BMC Helix Integration Service.
Configuration	Select a configuration from the list. For example, if you select qradar as the Connector Type, all the configurations that you have made for qradar are displayed in the Configuration list.
Profile	Select a profile. For example, if you select qradar as the Connector Type, all the profiles that you have created for qradar are displayed in the Configuration list.

To copy connector processes for each Jira instance

When you are integrating with multiple instances of Jira, create a copy of the Connector Process Jira process for each instance and name them, Connector Process Jira for <instance name> . Then, complete the following steps for each Jira instance.

Important

Make a note of the instance name and use the same name for your Jira instance when configuring vendor data.

For updating existing connector processes to support problem integration if you are using an older version where it is not enabled by default, see Enabling Problem Management for multiple instances of JIRA Software.

On the Configuration Links page, click Copy processes in Innovation Studio to navigate to BMC Helix Innovation Suite for the process configuration.
Important

The Copy processes in Innovation Studio option is displayed only if you have configured the vendor mapping for multiple instances of Remedy ITSM.
For each process listed on the Configuration Links page, select it from the Processes list and click Copy.
A copy of the process is created, and all the connectors and components of the selected process are displayed.
Enter the name suggested on the Configuration Links page in Name field of the General tab.
Click Save.

After you create a copy of the process, contact BMC Support to set up the connector configuration for the processes that you have created. Complete this procedure for all the Connector Targets listed on the Configuration Links page.

List of connector targets for integration with Jira

MCSM Remedy ITSM

For the MCSM ITSM connector target, define the connection configuration and profile required by the connector process.

MCSM JIRA

For the Connector Targets, define the connection configuration and profile required by the connector process in BMC Helix Innovation Suite.

When you complete the configuration for all the components,verify the incidents are being brokered from ITSM to Jira.

To enable mapping between ITSM fields and custom fields created in Jira

When integrating with Jira, you can send and receive the value of custom fields created in Jira to a field in ITSM by specifying the appropriate mapping for the fields. After you create the custom field, you need to update the Jira connector, flow and vendor data configuration.

Create the custom field in Jira.
1. Log in to Jira and add the custom fields that you need.
2. Ensure that the custom fields are available on all the screens and issue types that you want to integrate with.
  For information on adding custom fields, see the documentation for Jira.
Synchronize the Jira connector.
1. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Studio.
2. Navigate to Catalog and click Connectors.
3. Select the Jira connector and click Custom Fields in the Configuration pane.
  You might need to click the arrow on the ribbon in the lower section of the screen to open the Configuration pane.
4. Select the connector configuration that you want to update for custom fields and click Generate or Re-Generate.
Update the Sync Jira Issue flow to synchronize the new field.
1. (Optional) Get the internal ID from Jira for your custom fields:
  Important
  
  You must install a utility for non-interactive download of files like wget and then run the commands using the command line prompt.
  1. Run echo -n username:password| base64
    to generate base64 encoded string for subsequent requests.
  2. Run wget --no-check-certificate --header='X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest' --header='Authorization: Basic [base64 encoded username:password]' --output-document applications.json 'https://[host]/api/v1.0/apps/search?lower_case_name=[connector name]'
    This command creates applications.json file that contains response from the BMC Helix Integration Service. Copy value from id field from the json file. This is application Id field that you can use in the next command. Find from the list of appConfig your configuration by name and copy value from Id field. This is configuration Id value that you can use in next command.
  3. Run wget --no-check-certificate --header='X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest' --header='Authorization: Basic [base64 encoded username:password]' --output-document app_triggers.json 'https://[host]/api/v1.0/apps/[application Id]/configs/[configuration Id]/triggers'
    This request creates app_triggers.json file with available triggers. Each trigger object contains a fields field that is an array of available fields. Copy value from systemName field. Use this value in step f.
  4. Run wget --no-check-certificate --header='X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest' --header='Authorization: Basic [base64 encoded username:password]' --output-document app_actions.json 'https://[host]/api/v1.0/apps/[application Id]/configs/[configuration Id]/actions'
    This request creates app_actions.json file with available actions. Each action object contains a fields field that is an array of available fields. Copy the value of systemName field. These fields can be used as Vendor field mapping properties.
2. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Studio.
3. Navigate to My Flows and select the Sync Jira Issue flow.
4. On the Details tab, click .
5. Select the Edit Field Mapping tab.
6. In the Vendor Ticket Properties section, click Add Property for each custom field that you want to use.
7. Enter the systemName field and select the field in which the value of the custom field needs to be populated.
To display the custom field, update Display Mapping in Vendor Data configuration.
1. Log in to BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker and click Settings .
2. Navigate to Configure Vendors > Map Vendors.
3. Select the Jira metadata that you want to update and click Edit.
4. Add new vendor specific values for the custom fields that you need.
  - Vendor Field Mapping defines how BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker maps ITSM fields to vendor ticket fields.
  - Display Field Mapping defines how vendor ticket fields map to the fields on the Smart IT console.
    
    The configuration enables you to send data from the custom Jira field to the ITSM field mapped in the Vendor Field Mapping.

To map a custom field in BMC Helix ITSM with Jira

You can create a custom field in BMC Helix ITSM and map it with a field in the Jira ticket. To learn more, see Updating configurations to send and receive data from custom BMC Helix ITSM fields.