Technical bulletin — Impact of Adobe Flash end of life on TrueSight Operations Management and replacement options

Update: December 9, 2020

BMC has tested Flash-based capabilities with the HARMAN Packaged Browser application—Electron/Chromium version. For updates regarding Limited Support, see "Alternatives for customers who want to continue to use the Flash-based BMC products."

Adobe announced the end of development and distribution of Adobe Flash Player by the end of the year 2020. Flash-based capabilities will no longer work after December 31, 2020. BMC has taken proactive steps over the recent releases to manage the deprecation of Flash-based capabilities in TrueSight Operations Management. BMC has also been providing alternative capabilities for the majority of areas where Flash was used in the past.

BMC recommends that you upgrade to TrueSight Operations Management version 11.3.04 before December 31, 2020 to avoid any problems as a result of the Adobe Flash Player retirement.

Refer to this topic for the answers to these commonly-asked questions.

How can I find out if I am impacted by the end of life of Adobe Flash?

If you are using a TrueSight Operations Management version earlier than 11.3.04, the end of life of Adobe Flash will impact the behavior of your TrueSight Operations Management environment. 

The legacy TrueSight Infrastructure Management operator console uses Adobe Flash and is discontinued in version 11.3.04. However, the TrueSight Infrastructure Management Administration Console does not use Adobe Flash. Therefore, it is not impacted and is still available in TrueSight Operations Management.


What Flash-related changes can I expect when I upgrade to TrueSight Operations Management version 11.3.04?

The following table provides a comparison of the capabilities between version 11.3.04 and earlier versions:


Which features are deprecated when I upgrade to TrueSight Operations Management version 11.3.04?

  • The TrueSight Infrastructure Management operator console is discontinued in 11.3.04. Therefore, you can no longer cross-launch to the Infrastructure Management operator console from the TrueSight console. The TrueSight console, a component of TrueSight Presentation Server, replaces the operator console. 
  • The TrueSight Infrastructure Management SLO console is discontinued in 11.3.04.

  • SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager is discontinued in 11.3.04. You can now compile the MIB files by using the mib2map CLI utility.

  • Support for BMC Impact Model Designer that is used to create service models by using CIs from Atrium CMDB is deprecated in 11.3.04. You can now use the new Atrium CMDB console by navigating through the Remedy Forms to create service models.


What other enhancements can I expect when I upgrade to TrueSight Operations Management version 11.3.04?

See the11.3.04 enhancements topic for the enhancements available in TrueSight Operations Management 11.3.04.


How do I upgrade to TrueSight Operations Management version 11.3.04?

See the following topics in the TrueSight Operations Management deployment documentation:

Alternatives for customers who want to continue to use the Flash-based BMC products

HARMAN International Packaged Browser solution

HARMAN International has an exclusive agreement with Adobe to provide extended licensing and support agreements for the enterprise Adobe Flash Player until the end of 2023. For details, go to https://services.harman.com/partners/adobe.

BMC Software provides Limited Support for Adobe Flash-based capabilities in BMC products when used in combination with the HARMAN Packaged Browser application—Electron/Chromium version. Limited Support is provided temporarily until Dec 31, 2021, to cover the time period until customers upgrade to the latest BMC product version that has replaced the Flash-based capabilities.

Adobe Enterprise Enablement for legacy browser versions

Important

The ability to run Adobe Flash Player depends upon the browser vendor's support. Running BMC Software products with outdated browser versions requires you to turn off automatic updates. This approach should be carefully considered and should be in alignment with your company's security group recommendations.

With Adobe Flash Player 32.0 Enterprise Enablement, companies can allow Flash Player content to be loaded from a set of trusted URLs by performing these actions:

  1. To allow Flash to run for a BMC product, in a mms.cfg file, enable the AllowListURLPattern option and add the list of trusted URLs as follows:

    EnableAllowList=1

    AllowListUrlPattern=http://<TSIM-Server-FQDN>
    AllowListUrlPattern=https://<TSIM-Server-FQDN>
    AllowListUrlPattern=http://<MidtierServer>:<port>
    AllowListUrlPattern=https://<MidtierServer>:<port>
    For details about the AllowListUrlPattern options, the location of the mms.cfg file for different platforms, and other recommendations from Adobe, see the Adobe Flash Player 32.0 Administration Guide.

  2. Push the mms.cfg file to all browsers that need to continue to use Flash.

  3. Prevent automatic updates of newer browser versions that will not allow Flash Player to load.
    For information about Flash Player automatic updates, go to https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/flash-player-background-updates.html.

BMC Software has validated the Flash Player will continue to run with Flash Player Enterprise Enablement on these browser versions:

Tested browser version

Vendor support

Microsoft Internet Explorer 11

Mozilla Firefox 83

Google Chrome 86


Related topics

Impact of Flash Removal FAQs on BMC Communities.

Remedy and TrueSight Flash Deprecation on BMC Communities.



 

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