Setting up your environment to leverage agentic AI capabilities in BMC Helix AIOps

BMC Helix AIOps connects to BMC HelixGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (AI)  that enables organizations to use autonomous agents, virtual assistants, and AI-driven insights. With this capability, you get faster incident resolution, change risk analysis, intelligent chat responses, and automated operations. 

As a tenant administrator, you must set up your environment to leverage the generative AI capabilities available in BMC Helix AIOps.

BMC Helix provides the capability to bring your own GPU processing. However, you must use the fine-tuned model provided for BMC Helix AIOps.  

License requirements

ProductLicenses required
BMC Helix AIOps (includes the BMC HelixGPT for AIOps service)BMC Helix AIOps & Observability
BMC Helix ITSM (Optional; if using BMC Helix ITSM for change and incident management)BMC Helix ITSM Suite

Supported cloud platforms

You can deploy the fine-tuned model for BMC Helix AIOps on the following cloud platforms:

  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Vertex AI
  • Microsoft Azure AI

Hardware and software requirements

 Google Cloud Platform Vertex AIMicrosoft Azure AI
Machine type

a2-highgpu-1g

12 vCPUs

85 GiB Memory

Standard_NCADSA100v4 Family Cluster Dedicated vCPUs
GPUNVIDIA Tesla A100NVIDIA Tesla A100

Process overview

The following graphic provides an overview of the steps required to set up your environment:

Process overview for setting up agentic AI capabilities for BMC Helix AIOps

Before you begin

Perform the following steps before deploying the BMC Helix AIOps fine-tuned model in your cloud:

Important

These are the minimum prerequisite steps required to deploy the fine-tuned model in your cloud environment. For details, see the documentation for your selected cloud.

Google Cloud Platform requirements:

  • You have an active Google Cloud Platform subscription and a GCP project in a Vertex AI-supported region.
    All resources and artifacts must be kept in the same region. 
  • You have the Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions to perform the following tasks:

    • Write to the target Google Cloud Storage bucket (roles/storage.admin).

    • Register and deploy models: Vertex AI Adminstrator (roles/aiplatform.user) or equivalent role.

    • Access the Artifact Registry or Container Registry (if using custom containers stored in GCP).

Local host requirements:

  • Google Cloud SDK is installed, and the project where you want to deploy the model is set.
  • The gsutil tool is available. You need this tool to upload the model artifacts to the Google Cloud Storage Bucket. 
  • ​​​​Docker Engine is installed and running.

Microsoft Azure AI requirements:

  • You have an active Microsoft Azure subscription. 
  • You must be assigned the Contributor or appropriate role to upload resources in the Microsoft Azure CLI.
  • You have the Standard_NC24ads_A100_v4 quota assigned to your region:
    1. In the Azure Machine Learning studio, click Quota.
    2. Click the subscription name for the subscription where you want to host the model.
    3. Select the region.
    4. Search and select Standard NCADSA100v4 Family Cluster Dedicated vCPUs.
    5. Click Request quota.
       If the unused quota is 0 or less than 24, click Request quota and set the New cores limit to whatever the Usage is plus 24. So if Usage is 0, set Quota to 24. This quota is enough for a machine type with one A100 accelerator.  
    6. Click Submit.
      After your quota limit is approved, you must assign it to the workspace later. 

Local host requirements:

  • The Microsoft Azure CLI is installed with the Azure Machine Learning (ml) extension.
  • Docker Engine is installed and running.

Task 1: To obtain a model from BMC Helix

Contact BMC Helix support to obtain the fine-tuned model, BMC Helix AIOps version 6.2. 

BMC Helix provides a fine-tuned model by using one of the following approaches: 

  • A Docker image tarball file with all model artifacts.
  • The credentials and details to access the container registry where the model is available.

After you obtain the latest model for BMC Helix AIOps, note details such as the name of the model, the model artifact path name, and the model registry path name. This information is required when you configure the model in your cloud environment.

Task 2: To deploy the model in your cloud

Depending on the cloud environment, perform the steps to deploy the fine-tuned BMC Helix AIOps model.  

Important

These are the minimum steps required to deploy the fine-tuned model in your cloud environment. For details, see the documentation for your selected cloud.

You import a model into the model registry and associate it with a container. From the model registry, you can deploy your imported model to an endpoint.

To import the model

  1. On a local host, extract the model artifacts provided by BMC Helix: 
    tar -xzvf <helix_gpt_model_version>.tar.gz
  2. Upload the model to the Google Cloud Storage bucket:
    gsutil cp -r <helix_gpt_model_version> gs://<your-bucket>/model/
  3. Prepare the Custom Inference Docker image: 
    1. If you have a Docker image tarball, load the image file:
      docker load -i /path/to/model_container.tar
    2. If using the container registry, log in and pull the image from the registry:
      # docker login containers.bmc.com        
      (Specify the credentials provided by BMC Helix)

      #docker pull containers.bmc.com/bmc/lpade:helix-gpt-vllm-docker-<build_number>   
      (Specify the image tag provided by BMC Helix)
      ​​​​​​
  4. Push the Docker image to the Google Cloud container registry: 
    #docker tag <bmc helix image> <Google Cloud Container Registry tag>

    #docker push <Google Cloud Container Registry path>
    Now, the model and its artifacts are available in the Google Cloud Model Store and the Google Cloud Container Registry.
  5. Navigate to Model Registry from the Vertex AI navigation menu.
  6. Click Import and then click Import as new model.
  7. On the Import Model page, provide the name of the model, select the region, and click Continue.
    Select the region that matches both your bucket's region and the Vertex AI regional endpoint that you are using. 
  8. Navigate to the Model settings page and select Import an existing container.
  9. In the Custom container settings section, click Browse in the Container image field and then click the Container Registry tab to select the container image.
  10. Click Browse in the Model artifact location and select the Cloud Storage path to the directory that contains your model artifacts.
  11. In the Arguments section, specify the following parameters and click Continue:
    FieldDescriptionExample value
    Environment variables Specify the file name of the Deployment spec (without the file extension) included in the model artifacts.DEPLOYMENT_SPEC=

    zhp52uqvaxvacmt4u2tbezojfucjkf4f-helix-gpt-v6-instruct

    Prediction routeSpecify the HTTP path to send prediction requests to. /predictions
    Health routeSpecify the HTTP path to send health checks to./ping
    PortSpecify the port number to expose from the container. 8080
  12. On the Explainability options page, retain the default No explainability option, and click Import.
    After a few minutes, the model is displayed on the Models page.
    For more information about importing models in GCP Vertex AI, see the online documentation https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/docs/model-registry/import-model#custom-container.  

To deploy the model and create an endpoint

  1. Select the model and then click Deploy and test.
  2. Click Deploy to endpoint and then click Create new endpoint.
  3. Type the name of the endpoint and make sure that the region is the same as that of the model.
  4. Retain the access setting value to Standard and click Continue.
  5. On the Model Setting Page, use the following values and keep the rest as the default:
    1. Machine Type: a2-highgpu-1g, 12 vCPUs, 85 GiB Memory
    2. Accelerator Type: NVIDIA Tesla A100
    3. Accelerator Count: 1
  6. Click Continue and then click Deploy.
    After the model is deployed, note the following information. These parameters are required when you configure the model in BMC HelixGPT Manager in the next step.
    FieldDescription
    IDContains the endpoint ID.
    Region

    The region where the model is deployed.

    For example, us-central1.

    Project ID

    Contains the project ID.

    For example, sso-gcp-dsom-sm-pub-cc39921.

To obtain the API key for Google

For Google, only the API Key method for authentication is supported. You need the service account API key and other details to configure the model in BMC HelixGPT Manager in the next step.

Perform the following steps to obtain the API key for Google
  1. Log on to the Google Cloud Console with the same credentials you used while deploying the model.
  2. In the Admin account from the Main menu, select IAM & Admin >  Service Accounts.
  3. On the Service Accounts page, select the Keys tab and click Add keys, and then select Create New keys.
  4. Select the key type as JSON.
    The API key is downloaded.
    {
      "type": "service_account",
      "project_id": "redacted",
      "private_key_id": " redacted ",
      "private_key": redacted ",
      "    client_email": " redacted ",
      "    client_id": " redacted ",
      "    auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
      "    token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
      "    auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
      "    client_x509_cert_url": " redacted ",
      "    universe_domain": "googleapis.com"     ​​​

 

You can deploy the model by using the Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, however, this section explains how to use the Azure command line interface (CLI) for more control over the deployment.

Perform the following steps:

  1. On a local host, extract the model artifacts provided by BMC Helix: tar -xzvf <helix_gpt_model_version>.tar.gz
  2. Log in to the Microsoft Azure CLI: 
    az login

  3. Create a resource group:
    az group create --name <resource-group-name> --location <azure-region>

  4. Create an Azure Container Registry:az acr create

    --resource-group <resource-group-name>
    --name <name of the registry>
    --sku Basic
    --admin-enabled true
    ParameterDescription
    resource-groupSpecify the name of the resource group created in the previous step.
    nameSpecify the name of the Azure Container Registry.
    skuSpecify the pricing tier: Basic, Standard, or Premium. Most users start with Basic.
    adminSpecify true to make sure that the user can upload resources to the registry.

  5. Tag the docker image:
    docker tag <local-image>:<tag> helixgptreg.azurecr.io/vllm-vertex:<tag>

  6. Push the docker image to the Azure Container Registry:
    docker push helixgptreg.azurecr.io/vllm-vertex:<tag>
  7. Create an Azure ML workspace:
    az ml workspace create
      --name <workspace name> \
      --resource-group <resource-group-name> \
      --location <region> \
  8. Set Azure CLI defaults:
    az configure --defaults workspace=<workspace name> group=<resource-group-name> location=<region>
  9. Link the Azure Container Registry to the workspace:
    az ml workspace update \
    --name <workspace-name> \
    --resource-group <resource-group-name>\
    --container-registry
    /subscriptions/73ae88b6-0681-4b5f-839d-e331f68a59ae/resourceGroups/<resource-group-name>/providers/Microsoft.ContainerRegistry/registries/helixgptreg \
    --update-dependent-resources
  10. Create an online endpoint:az ml online-endpoint create --file <endpoint>.yml
    endpoint.yaml:
    $schema: https://azuremlschemas.azureedge.net/latest/managedOnlineEndpoint.schema.json
    name: helix-gpt-v7-25-3-endpoint
    auth_mode: key
  11. Create an online deployment:
    az ml online-deployment create --file azure.yml --all-traffic
    Sample YAML file:
    Azure.yaml:
    name: helix-gpt-v7-25-3-deploy
    endpoint_name: helix-gpt-v7-25-3-endpoint
    model:
      name: helix-gpt-v7-25-3
      path: ./helix-gpt-v7-25-3
      version: 1
    environment_variables:
      AIP_HEALTH_ROUTE: "/ping"
      AIP_PREDICT_ROUTE: "/score"
      MODEL_BASE_PATH: "/var/azureml-app/azureml-models/helix-gpt-v7-25-3/1/helix-gpt-v7-25-3"
      DEPLOYMENT_SPEC: "agaqnayhu2tstm7s3z5xmnmdugrzccsa-helix-gpt-v7_2"
      AIP_STORAGE_URI: "/var/azureml-app/azureml-models/helix-gpt-v7-25-3/1/helix-gpt-v7-25-3"
    environment:
      image:attach:xwiki:IT-Operations-Management.Operations-Management.BMC-Helix-AIOps.aiops252.Setting-up-and-going-live.Setting-up-your-environment-to-leverage-agentic-AI-capabilities-in-BMC-Helix-AIOps.WebHome@filename helixgptreg.azurecr.io/vllm-vertex:dfe4802-43
      inference_config:
        liveness_route:
          port: 8080
          path: /ping
        readiness_route:
          port: 8080
          path: /ping
        scoring_route:
          port: 8080
          path: /score
    request_settings:
      request_timeout_ms: 180000
    instance_type: Standard_NC24ads_A100_v4
    instance_count: 1
  12. (Optional) Get container logs:
    az ml online-deployment get-logs \
    --endpoint-name <name of the endpoint> \
    --name <name of the deployment>
  13. Set traffic:
    When you set traffic to 100%, all requests sent to the endpoint are routed to that single deployment.
    az ml online-endpoint update \
    --name <name of the endpoint> \
    --resource-group <resource-group-name>\
    --workspace-name <workspace-name> \
    --traffic "<workspace-name>-deploy=100"
  14. Get scoring URI:
    The scoring URI is the REST API endpoint you use to send data and get predictions from your deployed model.
    az ml online-endpoint show \
    --name <endpoint-name>-endpoint \
    --resource-group <resource-group>\
    --workspace-name <workspace-name> \
    --query "scoring_uri" \
    --output tsv

    Summary
    | Component | Value |
    | Workspace | <workspace-name> |
    | Endpoint Name | <endpoint-name> |
    | Deployment Name | <deployment-name> |
    | Region | <region>|
    | Scoring URL | https://<name>-endpoint.westus.inference.ml.azure.com/score
  15. Test the endpoint:
    az ml online-endpoint show --name helix-gpt-v7-25_3-endpoint
    az ml online-endpoint get-credentials --name helix-gpt-v7-25_3-endpoint
    To test:
    curl -X POST <scoring-uri> \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer <key>" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"input": "your input here"}'
  16. Continue to configure the model in BMC HelixGPT Manager in the next step. 

For more information about deploying models on Microsoft Azure AI, see Microsoft Azure Machine Learning documentation

Task 3: Register your BMC Helix AIOps tenant with BMC HelixGPT Manager

After deploying the BMC Helix AIOps model in your cloud, share the tenant URL, JSON Web Token, and the endpoint details with BMC Helix support or the BMC Helix SaaS Operations team. For more information about generating the JWT token, see Getting the JSON Web Token.

After BMC Helix registers your tenant with BMC HelixGPT Manager, continue to configure the model in BMC HelixGPT Manager in the next step. 

Task 4: To configure model settings in BMC HelixGPT Manager

After a model is deployed, provide the details in BMC HelixGPT Manager. 

  1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
  2. Select Workspace > HelixGPT Manager.
  3. Select the Model record definition, and click Edit data. 
    Configure model settings in BMC HelixGPT Manager
  4. In the Data editor (Model) page, click New and provide the following information about the model that you deployed in your cloud environment:
    FieldDescriptionDefault or recommended value
    Auth TypeA unique authorization key to validate secure communication between BMC HelixGPT and the model.

    Google Cloud Platform Vertex AI: API Key

    Microsoft Azure AI: API Key

    Status

    Indicates the current operational state of the model. The following options are available:

    • New
    • Assigned
    • Fixed
    • Rejected 
    • Close
    		Select New.
    VendorThe name of the organization or provider offering the model.Supported providers: Google Cloud Platform, Vertex AI, or Microsoft Azure AI.

    API Endpoint Url

    		The specific URL to access the model.

    GCP Vertex AI: Endpoint ID

    Microsoft Azure AI: Azure ML Online Endpoint 

     

    API KeyA unique key provided by the model vendor to authenticate API requests.

    GCP Vertex AI: Service account API key generated in Task 2. 

    Microsoft Azure AI: Service account API key, encoded in a Base64 format.

    Default Config

    The predefined settings or parameters applied to the model. 

    An administrator can modify the default configuration.

    GCP Vertex AI: Provide the information in the following format: 

    {
      "apiType": "vertexaimodelgarden",
      "deployedModelType": "HelixGPT-v6",
      "deploymentName": "<Google Cloud Project Name>",
      "location": "<Name of the Google Cloud region; example: us-central1>"
    }

    Microsoft Azure AI: Provide the information in the following format: 

    {"apiType":"azure_ml","deploymentName":"<Name of the deployment>"}
  5. Click Save. 
    After the model is saved, it is displayed in the Data editor (Model) page. 
  6. Click Close and continue with the next step to configure the pass-through agents for BMC Helix AIOps. 

Task 5: To configure pass-through agents

Agents in BMC HelixGPT are intelligent, generative AI entities that can automate tasks, resolve queries, and streamline workflows.

  1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
  2. Click the Application launcher 25_1_Application_Launcher.pngand select HelixGPT Manager.
  3. In BMC HelixGPT Manager, click Settings Settings icon.
  4. Select HelixGPT > Agents> Pass-through Agents.
    25_1_Add_Agent.png
     
  5. Click Add Agent.
    25_1_Add_Agent_options.png
     
  6. From the list of agents, select one or more of the following options and click Add:
    • Best Action Recommendation:
    • Change Risk Advisor
    • Log Insights
  7. Configure the connection for the passthrough agents:
    1. On the Edit Pass-through Agent panel, select the connection name.
      BMC HelixGPT Manager pass-through agents
    2. Click Edit configuration. 
    3. Specify the configuration details based on the agent that you are editing.
      For BMC Helix ITSM, no configurations are required.
    4. Click Save. 

For more information about configuring pass-through agents for Best Action Recommender, Change Risk Advisor, and Log Insights, see Adding agents for BMC Helix AIOps. 

FAQ

Can I use my own large language model for the agentic AI capabilities in BMC Helix AIOps?

No. Currently, BMC Helix provides a fine-tuned model, which you can deploy on either of the supported platforms. 

Does BMC Helix provide its own cloud platform for the model?

No. You can deploy the fine-tuned model on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Vertex AI or Microsoft Azure AI platforms.

Where to go from here

 AI agents in BMC HelixGPT

 

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