Working with service templates

A service template is a representation of the resource footprint of a service, and is similar to system templates that represent the footprint of a single physical or virtual server. A service template contains one or more system templates that represent the systems required to run a service in BMC Helix Capacity Optimization.

You can use service templates to run what-if analyses on Time Forecasting Models, and can answer critical questions related to SOIs. You can also use them to simulate the deployment of new service instances and the decommissioning of already deployed service instances. For example, you can use service templates to assess the effects of provisioning 10 additional instances of Service A on a Cloud Pod C.

There are special kinds of templates that specify the demand of a hypothetical service implemented on one or more systems. There are three types of service templates in BMC Helix Capacity Optimization:

• Business service template
• Technical service template
• Service Offering Instance (SOI) service template

You can use these templates in what-if events in a time forecasting model.

Service templates allow you to easily evaluate the impact of a forecast, which is determined by adding a service instance based on a service template.

For information on system templates, see Working-with-system-templates.

For more information, refer to the following sections:

• • Creating service templates
    • Creating a service template from a service instance
    • Manually creating a new service template
  • Visualizing service templates
  • Using service templates in a Time Forecasting Model
  • Use case illustrating the use of a service template
  • Refreshing a service template based on an existing service
  • Related topics

Creating service templates

You can create service templates in the following ways:

• Selecting an existing service instance from the BMC Helix Capacity Optimization catalog by using the Save as service template button in the console. For more information, see Creating a service template from a service instance.
• Manually creating the service template by selecting one or more system templates from a user-defined catalog by using the Add > Add service template option in the Workspace console. For more information, see Creating a new service template manually.

To use service templates in Time Forecasting Models and What-If events, see Using service templates in Time Forecasting Models and What-If events.

Creating a service template from a service instance

Perform the following task to create a service template from a service instance by using the Save as service template button:

1. Navigate to Workspace > All Domains > Domain and select the service instance under the domain you want to create a service template from. The service instance must either be a Business Service, Technical Service or a Service Offering Instance (SOI). For example, Workspace > All Domains > Business Services > VSAT Services.
   

   Note

   The service tree (hierarchy) can be built using different sources, such as CLM, CMDB or manually.

2. In the SOI details page displayed on the right, click Save as service template, and enter the following information:
3. Click Save.
   
   Some key observations at this stage:
   
   • After you click Save, the service template is saved in the specified domain, and the service template details page is displayed.
   • The domain under which you saved this new service template is expanded in the navigation panel, and is currently active.
   • New templates are created for each system present in the original domain. So, if the original template had 5 systems, the service template will also contain 5 systems.
   • For each system, the profiles are carried over (saved as) to the new template as well.
   • The names of the newly saved templates are appended with template_.

The following image shows an example of a service instance under a domain in a demo environment, and also shows the Save as service template option.

Manually creating a new service template

To create a new service template manually, that is, by selecting system templates from a user-defined catalog using the Add service template button, perform the following task.

1. Navigate to Workspace > All Domains > Domain and select the domain under which you want to create a service template from a user-defined catalog.

2. In the domain details page displayed on the right, click Add > Add service template and enter the following information:
3. Click Save.
   A new service template has been added to the selected service domain along with all the specified instances.
   From this template, you can choose to Edit, Move or Delete your service template, and also click on individual service template links to view their current associations and metric allocations.

The following image is an example of the details page for a selected domain, displaying the Add > Add service template option.

The following image shows an example of the Add service template page.

Visualizing service templates

In the Workspace console, the service template page displays the capacity footprint of the service. A service template is composed of multiple service templates, and this page shows aggregated data that is derived from all the system templates it contains.

The following image shows an example of the service template visualization page in the console Workspace.

Example: Service template visualization

Using service templates in a Time Forecasting Model

Use the Add what-if event option available in the Time Forecasting model scenario page to simulate the addition of a certain number of service instances based on the given service template. For example, Commission/decommission 5 Service Offering Instances together.

The following image shows an example of the scenario page.

Example: Adding service instances on a given service template

Use case illustrating the use of a service template

Follow the steps given below, to forecast the series of events that will occur, when you add numerous defined services to a cluster, at a certain point in the future:

1. Save a preferred service as a service template by choosing one of the following methods:
   1. Save an existing service domain as a service template and specifying an appropriate time filter.
   2. Create a new service domain by manually importing a set of system templates and specifying the number of instances for each.
      In both these scenarios, the output is a new service template that contains a set of system templates and a specified number of its instances.
2. Create a time forecasting model and also add a Whaf-If event in order to specify the number of instances of service templates to add to a cluster, and when to add them.
3. After you run the forecast, you can review plots and a report that tell you if the system (and its resources) will saturate after a certain number of services are instantiated.
   This Time forecasting model can also be used at the Service level, summarizing information for the selected service templates and letting you know which particular system (or its resource) will saturate.

Refreshing a service template based on an existing service

To refresh a service template based on current data of an existing service, click the Refresh on current data link displayed as part of the information box in the service template details page. 

The following image shows an illustration of the Refresh link.

Example of a Refresh link

Related topics

Working-with-system-templates

Working-with-time-forecasting-models