Levels of integration
The following sections provide an overview of the integration points, and describe the configuration tasks in BMC Server Automation that are required to communicate with BMC Remedy ITSM.
BMC Continuous Compliance for Servers solution overview
The BMC Continuous Compliance for Servers solution increases the value of BMC Server Automation by providing an out-of-the-box integration with BMC Remedy ITSM applications, enabling an automated coordination of configuration management processes with other ITIL processes, such as incident management and change management. This automation not only saves organizations time, but also reduces errors commonly associated with the manual coordination of change and configuration management.
The BMC Continuous Compliance for Servers solution automates the integration of BMC Server Automation monitoring, auditing, compliance, and remediation processes with IT management systems such as BMC Remedy ITSM. The integration of BMC Server Automation with BMC Remedy ITSM is accomplished through standard application programming interfaces (APIs).
For more information about the BMC Continuous Compliance for Servers solution, see Using-continuous-compliance-for-servers in the BMC BladeLogic Automation Suite online documentation.
Benefits of the integration
Implementing the BMC Continuous Compliance for Servers solution enables compliance to the change process without requiring IT personnel to manually create change tickets. The solution reduces the risk of unauthorized and unplanned changes through enforced change tracking and automated documentation of all changes.
If you implement the solution, you can:
- Facilitate BMC Server Automation operator-initiated change
- Ensure continuous compliance for servers
- Enrich BMC Remedy ITSM incidents with server configuration information
To enable the integration of BMC Server Automation and BMC Remedy ITSM, you must perform several configuration tasks. These tasks are described in Enabling-BMC-Remedy-ITSM-integration-for-job-approval.
Several additional installation and configuration tasks that involve other BMC products are required to enable the solution. For an overview of these tasks, see #Requirements for integration. For complete details on installing and configuring BMC Atrium Orchestrator and setting up the BMC Remedy ITSM templates and filters, see Using-continuous-compliance-for-servers in the BMC BladeLogic Automation Suite online documentation.
Facilitate BMC Server Automation operator-initiated change
When operations changes are implemented, operators need to document these changes in BMC Remedy ITSM Change Management. To automate this change tracking process, a change request is automatically created in BMC Remedy ITSM when a BMC Server Automation operator submits a job that requires BMC Remedy ITSM tracking and approval. After the change is approved in BMC Remedy ITSM, the job is scheduled for execution in BMC Server Automation.
After the job has run, the BMC Remedy ITSM change task is closed with an associated completion status and any changed configuration items (CIs). The BMC Remedy ITSM user can launch the job details report from the task to verify the change actions.
The main benefit of this integration is to enforce continuous compliance to the change process without introducing labor intensive activities. The integration reduces the risk of unauthorized and unplanned changes through enforced change tracking.
Ensure continuous compliance for servers
This integration involves automatically creating incidents and change requests if non-compliant servers are detected, or if deviations from a master server configuration are detected. The server auditing and server compliance capabilities in BMC Server Automation involve:
- Detecting discrepancies between specific servers or component configurations against a baseline server or configuration
- Monitoring and detecting compliance violations between specific servers or component configurations against specific rules related to operations, security, and governance
BMC Server Automation integrates the remediation of discrepancies and compliance violations in BMC Server Automation to the change management processes facilitated by BMC Remedy ITSM management system.
Enrich BMC Remedy ITSM incidents with server configuration information
This integration involves automating the addition of information from various relevant sources (such as BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and BMC Server Automation servers) to the incident ticket when a server-related incident is detected in BMC Remedy ITSM. These details added to the workinfo note of incident include things such as:
- Audit trails
- Basic server configuration information
- Historical deployments in the past 24 hours
- Links to BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation reports
Requirements for integration
To integrate BMC Server Automation with BMC Remedy ITSM, you must have several BMC products installed and configured:
- BMC Atrium Orchestrator
- BMC Remedy ITSM
- BMC Server Automation
- BMC BladeLogic Integration for Atrium
The BMC Server Automation solution integrates the BMC Remedy ITSM and the BMC Server Automation systems, using BMC Atrium Orchestrator as the enabling technology. To implement the solution, you must complete the following configuration tasks in BMC Atrium Orchestrator and BMC Remedy ITSM:
Tasks for integration with BMC Remedy IT Service Management:
- Create the user ID which is used for monitoring the BMC Remedy alerts.
- Review default BMC Remedy templates — The BMC Atrium Orchestrator workflows create incidents, change tickets, and tasks using BMC Remedy ITSM templates.
Tasks for integration with BMC Atrium Orchestrator:
- Configure and deploy the required Operations Actions (OA) management modules
- Configure BMC Atrium Orchestrator Run Book modules
For details on installing and configuring BMC Atrium Orchestrator and setting up the BMC Remedy ITSM templates and filters, see Using-continuous-compliance-for-servers in the BMC BladeLogic Automation Suite online documentation.
To complete the integration tasks associated with BMC Server Automation, see Enabling-BMC-Remedy-ITSM-integration-for-job-approval.