Managing sites for BMC Server Automation

BladeLogic Portal considers an application server for BMC Server Automation to be a site. Installing BladeLogic Portal lets you establish a connection to a primary site in BMC Server Automation. Using the procedures described on this page, you can set up connections to additional secondary sites.

A user can only connect to one site at a time.

Note

Threat Director and Vulnerability Manager only support a connection to a single BMC Server Automation site.

This topic includes the following sections related to sites:

Site administrators and the portal administrator

When you identify an additional site, a portal security group (PSG) is automatically created for a site administrator. Site administrators must belong to the same role or realm as the portal administrator. However, unlike a portal administrator PSG, a site administrator PSG can only make modifications to its own site. The following table compares the capabilities of portal and site administrators.

Type of administrative action	Portal administrator group	Site administrator group
Sites	Able to add, edit, or delete all sites, except deleting the primary site	Able to edit only their own site
Portal security groups	Able to edit or delete any PSG except the portal administrator's PSG. Portal administrators can only add PSGs for the primary site.	Able to add, edit, and delete PSGs for their own site except their own site administrator PSG.
Operations	Authorized to perform all types of operations. Portal administrators can only see, edit, or delete operations created by a user that belongs to their own PSG.	Authorized to perform all types of operations. Can only see, edit, or delete operations created by a user that belongs to their own PSG.

When you identify a new site and create a site administrator, the site administrator PSG is assigned a name using this format:

BladeLogic Dashboard

While managing sites, you can enable a link from BladeLogic Portal to BladeLogic Dashboard.

BladeLogic Dashboard provides a view into your BMC Server Automation environment and offers tips for optimizing the BladeLogic installation. The dashboard is not a monitoring tool. Instead, it is a mechanism for quickly assessing the health of all BladeLogic system components.

Default values

While configuring a site, you can define default values for certain options. When users perform an action that creates job or depot items, the items are placed in these default locations. You can also define default values defined at the portal security group level. Those default values take precedence over defaults defined at the site level.

Setting default values for jobs and depot items means portal operators do not have to manually select a folder when they create operations, thus shielding them from some complexity. Advanced operators can be given the ability to override folder locations when they create a new operation.

Similarly, you can choose Deploy templates for the entire site. When users set up a Deploy operation or a Patching or Compliance operation (which automatically generate Deploy Jobs for remediation purposes), the Deploy Job uses the settings in a Deploy template. By specifying Deploy templates for a site, you can limit the number of Deploy templates that a user can choose from when they are defining an operation. When you run a remediation operation for a Patching operation, you can use a Deploy template based on an advanced Deploy Job, which lets you schedule the Simulate, Stage, and Commit phases of the job individually.

Note

When specifying a Deploy template, select a Deploy Job based on a BLPackage. You cannot use a Deploy Job based on an executable software package or a File Deploy Job.

BMC recommends using a job specifically designed to define deployment options. If you choose to use a live Deploy Job as a Deploy template, scheduling for that job could be changed inadvertently in BMC Server Automation, which could cause operations in the portal to use incorrect scheduling.

Before you begin

When adding a new connection to a BMC Server Automation Application Server, you must first:

Enable web services on the Application Server.
Set up a role and user for the site administrator.

Creating or updating a site

As portal administrator, click the drop-down menu by your user name (at top right). Then, select Administration.
The Administration page opens.
Click the Sites tab.
A list of existing sites opens.
Perform one of the following actions:
- To set up a connection to a new site, click Add a new site .
- To modify the connection to an existing site, click Edit the current site .
  
  Depending on which action you select, the Create Site or the Update Site page opens. Additional options appear if you are modifying the primary site.

Enter the following information.

Option	Description
Name	Name of the BMC Server Automation site.
Site Type	Read only: Identifies whether the site is used for BMC Server Automation (BSA) or BMC Network Automation (BNA).
Description	Optional descriptive text for the site.
Server Host	The Server Host option specifies the application server in BMC Server Automation or BMC Network Automation that manages this site. Note If you have BMC Server Automation configured in a multi-Application Server mode where multiple Application Servers are pointing to the same BMC Server Automation database, then the portal considers this configuration to be one site. To achieve a seamless failover to a working BSA Application Server, you can point the site to load balancer that serves all Application Servers.
Port	Identifies the port used for web service communication with the Application Server. Typically, the Application Server is configured to use 9843 for its web service communication port. Tip If you have access to the Application Server, run the following blasadmin command to show its web service communication port: show AppServer HttpsPortNumber
Viewable File Extensions	The Viewable File Extensions option lists extensions of files that can be viewed using the portal's inventory capabilities. For example, if you want all files ending with .log and .txt to be viewable, enter .log,.txt. Use commas to separate file endings. Revision and rollover files are also matched for these extensions. For example, file.log.1. The list of file endings can include files with no extensions by including the keyword BLANK as the first extension in the list. For example, BLANK,.log,.txt matches files with no extension and files ending in .log or .txt.
Default Export Path	The Default Export Path option specifies a location to which reports on compliance operations can be exported. Specify the path using the Network Shell style, which is commonly required throughout BMC Server Automation. For example, //hostname/path/to/export/directory. See here for more information about entering paths in BMC Server Automation.
Enable Dashboard	Indicates BladeLogic Portal provides access to BladeLogic Dashboard.
BSA Dashboard Port	Port on the BMC Server Automation Application Server that provides access to the BladeLogic Dashboard. This option is only available if you have selected Enable Dashboard.
Site admin BSA role name	Specifies the role in BMC Server Automation (BSA) to which the site administrator belongs. The site administrator must belong to the same role in BSA as the portal administrator, who is identified during portal installation.
Default Depot Path	Primary site only: The Default Depot Path option specifies the location in BMC Server Automation where the portal stores depot items it creates automatically. When any portal user who belongs to this portal security group performs an operation that generates a depot item, the item is stored by default in this location. To specify a depot folder, click Browse and use the folder graphic to navigate to a location. Then click OK.
Default Job Path	Primary site only: The Default Job Path option specifies a location in BMC Server Automation where the portal stores jobs it creates automatically. When any portal user who belongs to this portal security group performs an operation that generates a job, the job is stored in this location by default. To specify a job folder, click Browse and use the folder graphic to navigate to a location. Then click OK.
Deploy Templates	Primary site only: The Deploy Templates options specifies Deploy jobs in BMC Server Automation that can be used to define settings for any Deploy jobs that the portal creates, including Deploy Jobs that are automatically created as part of auto-remediation for Patch Analysis jobs. To choose a template, click Add and browse to a job. Select it and click OK . Ctrl-click to select multiple jobs and then click OK . If you want to create Deploy operations that run advanced Deploy jobs in BMC Server Automation, use a deploy template that references an existing advanced Deploy job. See Adding-a-deploy-template for instructions describing how to set up a deploy template.

Click Create Site or Update Site.

Testing the connection to a site

As portal administrator, click the drop-down menu by your user name (at top right). Then, select Administration.
The Administration page opens.
Click the Sites tab.
Click the Edit the current site icon .
Click Test Connection.
A message tells you whether a connection to BMC Server Automation is valid.

Removing a connection to a site

As portal administrator, click the drop-down menu by your user name (at top right). Then, select Administration.
The Administration page opens.
Click the Sites tab.
On the row for the site to be removed, click Delete the current site .
A confirmation message appears.
Click Yes to confirm the deletion.