Synchronizing incidents with BMC Helix Remedyforce tickets via BMC Helix Integration Service

BMC Helix Remedyforce is a cloud-enabled IT Service Management solution that delivers service desk, self-service, and inventory management capabilities. The solution is hosted on the Software as a Service (SaaS) Force.com platform from Salesforce. 

As a BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker tenant administrator, you can integrate BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker with BMC Helix Remedyforce and manage tickets across multiple service desk applications and teams more effectively. For more information about ticket consolidation, see Consolidation of tickets from third-party applications into BMC Helix ITSM. For information about brokering incidents, see Incident brokering from BMC Helix ITSM into third-party applications. For information about creating incidents in BMC Helix Remedyforce, see Incident Management  in the BMC Helix Remedyforce documentation.

For example, a customer wants to use ITSM as a single tool for ticket management. However, the customer has a large number of tickets in Remedyforce because the company uses multiple applicaitons for ticket management. The customer can enable the prebuilt integration with Remedyforce by using the out-of-the-box connectors, flows, and connector targets, and consolidate all the tickets in ITSM.

Before you begin

Complete all preconfiguration tasks before you enable the integration.

To select the integration option for Remedyforce

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Suite.
2. On Workspace, click Multi-Cloud Broker.

3. 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.

4. To open the configuration page, click Settings .
5. Select Start Here > Quick Configuration Guide.

6. In the Step 1: Choose configuration tab, perform the following steps:

   1. From the Choose configuration list, select the Helix integration service.

  b. Based on how you want to create an incident, select one of the following options and click Next:

• • • To create an incident from Remedyforce to ITSM, under Ticket Consolidation, select Remedyforce to ITSM Incident.

    • To create an incident from ITSM to Remedyforce, under Incident Brokering, select ITSM Incident to Remedyforce Incident.

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 Remedyforce vendor data to ITSM or Smart IT

Configuring vendor data includes setting up a vendor organization and defining vendor mappings for the technology provider. If you are integrating with multiple instances of Remedyforce, you must create a vendor mapping for each instance of Remedyforce.

1. If required, to monitor cloud services created in the ITSM, create or modify a vendor organization on the Perform configurations tab by clicking  Manage Vendor Organizations  under Configure Vendors.

2. To add or update the vendor mapping, on the Perform configurations tab, click Manage Vendor Metadata  under  Configure Vendors.

   Important

   For multiple instances of Remedyforce, you need to add a vendor mapping for each instance of Remedyforce.

3. On the Configure Vendor Metadata page, click  to open the Map New Vendor page.

   

4. Enter a Description that makes it easy for you to identify the vendor metadata configuration.
5. Select the Ticketing Technology Provider. 
   The technology provider is the organization that develops the vendor application. For example, Remedyforce is the Ticketing Technology Provider for Remedyforce.

6. If you have multiple Remedyforce instances, enter an Instance Name that  BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker can use to identify each Remedyforce instance.

   The recommended format for an instance name is \   instanceName  instance  instanceNumber .

7. Click Add Mapping.
   BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker displays the default Instance URL, and Display Field Mapping.
8. Update the Instance URL with the server name and the port number for the Remedyforce instance that you are mapping.
   The instance URL represents the URL for connecting with your Remedyforce server.

9. To add or delete mapped values, click  { }  to open the JSON editor, and modify the Display Field Mapping . 

   Display field mapping defines how vendor application ticket fields are displayed on the Smart IT console.

   
   
   

10. If you do not want the incident to be automatically resolved when the corresponding vendor application ticket is resolved, select for Resolve Incident Ticket When Vendor Closes it. By default, the ticket is resolved when the corresponding ticket is closed in the vendor application.

11. From the Integration Platform list, select Integration Service.

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

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

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. To update the configuration defaults, enter the appropriate field values by referring to the list of connectors at the end of this procedure.
4. To add or update the user account that is used to access the vendor application, click Accounts.

List of connectors for integration with Remedyforce

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

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

1. 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.

2. To open the flow template page, on the Catalog tab in Integration Studio, click the flow you want to configure.

   
3. To create a copy of the flow template, click .
   
   
   
4. Select the appropriate accounts for the end-point connectors of the selected flow.
   You specify the connector accounts when configuring connectors.
5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Click My Flows and select the flow that you created from the flow template.
8. 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 Remedyforce

List of connector targets for integration with Remedyforce

After you complete the configuration for all the components, verify that incidents are being brokered from Remedyforce to ITSM.

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

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

1. Create the custom field in Remedyforce.
   1. Log in to Remedyforce 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.
2. Synchronize the Remedyforce connector.
   1. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Studio.
   2. Navigate to Catalog and click Connectors.
   3. Select the Remedyforce 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.
      
3. Update the  Sync Remedyforce Incident and  Create Incident from Remedyforce  flow to synchronize the new field. 

   1. Get the internal ID from Remedyforce for your custom fields. 

      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 the applications.json file that contains the response from Integration Service. Copy the value from the id field from the json file. You must enter this value in the application Id field in the next command.  Also, find from the list of appConfig your configuration by name, and copy the value from the Id field. You must enter this value in the configuration Id field 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 Remedyforce Incident flow.
   4. On the Details tab, click Field Mapping, and navigate to Vendor Ticket Properties.
   5. Click Add Property for each field that you want to use.
      
   6. Enter the systemName field and select the field in which the value of the custom field needs to be populated.
      
   7. Similarly, update the Vendor Ticket Properties for  Create Incident from Remedyforce flow.

4. To display the custom field, update the Display Mapping in the 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 Remedyforce metadata, click Edit, and update the field.

   4. Click the JSON icon and edit the Display Field Mapping.

      

   5. Add new vendor specific values for the custom fields that you need. 

      

      The configuration enables you to send data from the custom Remedyforce field to the ITSM field mapped in Vendor Field Mapping.

To map a custom field in BMC Helix ITSM with BMC Helix Remedyforce

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

Related topic

Configuring BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker