Importing configuration sets to a production organization from its sandbox - BETA

You can use the Configuration Sets feature to import configuration from a sandbox organization to its production organization. Configuration set comprises service request and its underlying elements such as business services, templates, and categories.

In your production organization, the Configuration Sets (BETA) option is available on the Remedyforce Administration tab under the Content Management tile as follows.

Note

The Configuration Sets (BETA) option is available only in the production organizations. For sandbox organizations, we have the Smart Sync feature.

For more information about importing the configuration sets, see the following sections:

Use case

You might have a situation where you build the configuration of an IT service in your sandbox. Once you complete the testing in sandbox, you might want to move the configuration to the production organization.

Earlier, it was not possible to promote Remedyforce configuration from the sandbox to the production organization. The configuration had to be recreated on the production organization when ever it was required. From the 20.20.01 release, you can use the Configuration Sets feature to promote configuration from the sandbox to the production organization.

Migration specifications

Following are some specifications that you should know when you are importing configuration sets from a sandbox to its production organization:

General

Import can be performed from the production organization's sandbox only.

To import configuration sets from the sandbox, provide the Remedyforce Administrator's sandbox credentials. Note that these credentials are not saved.

While importing from the sandbox, a list of last top 50 modified request definitions that are not present in the production organization are shown. You can select and import 10 request definitions at a time.
All Salesforce metadata objects or fields used in request definitions should be imported using Salesforce Change Sets, else configuration set import will fail.
Post migration logs are available that provide information such as whether the records were created, updated, or reused. This information will be available as a report.
Do not to use image in Rich Text Description and Instructions fields that you want to import.

Service request definitions

New request definitions are created with the values of Status and Online same as what is in the sandbox. Imported request definitions are entitled only to the Remedyforce Administrator permission set user. Administrators must review all Remedyforce metadata like category, template, and services, and then appropriately update the entitlement of service requests and also that of imported templates. For more information about what metadata must be reviewed, see Post migration review.
Settings such as Submit for Approval, Mobile, Price, and Quantity are same as they are configured in the sandbox organization.
For the selected request definitions, existing Service and Service Offering should be related in the production organization. If they are not related, then the import will fail.

Base Elements

While migrating Base Elements, the Service Hour field, if set in the sandbox organization, is set only if the business hour is present in the production organization.
Records for Model, Location, and Primary Client or Users are not imported on the production organization and they are not linked on the Base Element record.
While migrating Base Element data to the production organization, following fields (with user reference) are not imported: Primary Client, Supported By, and Service Owner.
For an imported Base Element, if a CMDB class does not exist on the production organization, then by default it is set to BMC_BaseElement. For example, if some custom class instances are mapped to Service or Configurations Item fields under Incident/Task/Change Request templates and these templates have been used in Request Definition created in the sandbox organization, then after migrating this Request Definition to the production organization these custom class instances are created under BMC_BaseElement class if the same custom classes are not available in the production organization.
The administrator needs to associate Primary Client, Supported By, and Service Owner on the imported Base Elements.

Template

Mappings created on the custom lookup and input lookup fields are imported in the production organization provided that the custom object is present in the production organization and data exists.
For existing templates of the selected request definitions, Type should be same in both the organizations.
For the selected request definitions, if templates and the linked templates exist in the production organization, but the linking record does not exist, then the import will fail. If either of them is not present, then the Template and its linking record are created.

Categories

In the production organization, any existing data except for Category is not modified. For Category, Applies to information is updated for request definitions.
If an Urgency which is associated with a category already exists in the production organization, it is reused, else it is not created if not present in the production organization.
Existing categories of the selected request definitions are updated so that they apply to the service request if not applied.

Metadata that is imported

While importing request definitions, the following metadata is also imported.

The following list provides a list of resources that are imported:

Only service and the related service offering, category, incident template and its related service request template, configuration item/asset, and non-lookup fields are imported.
A category and its parent tree is imported.
A Base Element and its immediate parent is imported.
Records for request definitions related objects listed in the following table are imported from a sandbox to the production organization. Only those records that satisfy the respective conditions are pulled from the sandbox organization.

	Object name	Conditions to fetch records	Upper limit
1	Category	Inactive = false Based upon IDs received in request	5000
2	Base Element	Based upon IDs received in request
3	Template	Inactive = false Based upon IDs received in request

Metadata that is not imported

The following metadata is not imported:

Any image that contains request definition icon, category icon, and Rich Text Box field images.
For Self Service and Remedyforce Console, the account selection in the Entitlement section is not imported and will be blank. The administrator must update entitlements after the import.
Fulfillment inputs on custom lookup fields.
Lookup filters.
Impact, Urgency, Account, and Status fields.
Base Element fields: Primary Client, Supported By, and Service Owner
Salesforce metadata.
Fulfillment Criteria - CMDB
If some profiles are selected for an underlying template, these profiles are not imported. After the import, the profile section for the imported template will be blank and are required to be set by the administrator.

Before you begin

It is recommend to create a fresh sandbox from the production organization.

Import should be performed by a user with Remedyforce administrator permission set and the sandbox user should also be a Remedyforce administrator only.

There must be request definitions on the sandbox available for import. Create the required request definitions on the sandbox that you want to import. Ensure that you assign such names to these request definitions that do not already exist in the production organization, else they will not get listed for selection during the import process.
If you are using the feature for the first time, it is recommended that you should begin with importing one or two request definitions to get an appropriate hands-on of the feature.

BMC Helix Remedyforce major version must be same on both the production and sandbox organizations.
Before you start the import, all the following primitive metadata that you plan to use in the imported request definitions must be present in the production organization:
- Status
- Urgency
- Impact
- CMDB Class
- Custom object in case lookup input related to custom object is present

To import the service request definitions

From the Remedyforce Administration > Content Management tab, click Configuration Sets (BETA).
In the pop up, enter the credentials of the sandbox organization from which the configuration sets are to be imported and click Login.
Verify the sandbox details in the popup and click Proceed.
From the list of request definitions, select the ones that you want to import to the production organization and click Import.
Once the process completes, you can view the details of import by clicking the View log link in the import result popup.

Post migration tasks

If the import is successful, the administrator must perform the following actions:

Review import logs using the View log link.
On the production organization, verify the imported request definitions.
Review all Remedyforce metadata like category, template, and services, and then appropriately update the entitlement of imported request definitions on the production organization. By default, it is set to the Remedyforce Administrator permission set.
Update Entitlements for imported templates. By default, imported templates are be available for any profile.

If the import fails for any reason, a few request definitions still might get created in the production organization. The administrator must delete such request definitions, fix the errors, and try re-importing.

Post migration review

The following table lists the metadata that must be reviewed.

What needs to be reviewed	Object/Module	Action to be taken in the production organization as applicable
Request Definition icon	Request Definition	Add icon for the imported Request Definition.
Rich Text Description of Request Definition	Request Definition	Add images and text in Rich Text Description of the imported Request Definitions.
Rich Text Instructions of Request Definition	Request Definition	Add images and text in Rich Text Instructions of the imported Request Definitions
Category icon	Category	Add icon for the imported categories
Request Inputs with lookup filter criteria	Request Definition	Create lookup filters manually for Request Inputs created during import.
Fields of imported services and service offerings	Base Element	Values of these fields are not imported. You need to update the following fields manually. Model Manufacturer Name Primary Client Location Is Cloud Supported BY Model Name Model Manufacturer Vendor Sub-Service of Service Owner Service Provider
CMDB Class of imported instances used in the Template field mappings.	Base Element	If imported Templates have field mappings with the CMDB custom class instances and that class was not present in the production environment during import, such instance gets associated with the Base Element class by default. Correct the class and update the template field mappings.
Service Request Entitlement Accounts Profiles or Permission Sets	Request Definition	After review is completed, update Entitlements for the imported request definitions.
Templates – For Use By	Template	After review is completed, select Profiles under “For Use By” section of Templates.

The following table lists the modules that can be optionally reviewed.

What needs to be reviewed	Object/Module	Action to be taken in the production organization as applicable
Relationships of imported services and service offerings	Base Element	If your service and service offerings have related configuration items in the sandbox, create those configuration items manually.
Details of imported Service and Service Offering	Base Element	If your service and service offerings have related records (such as Accounts, Clients, Agreement) under the Details tab in the sandbox, create those records manually.
Supporting Information of Category	Category	If the imported category has child categories in the sandbox, then those should be manually created/linked to category imported to Production Environment. If the imported category has child categories in the sandbox, then those should be manually created/linked to the imported category.
Fulfillment Criteria - CMDB	Request Definition	Manually add Fulfillment Criteria – CMDB.

Viewing import logs

Import logs are available and you can view them in either case whether the import succeeded or failed. Once the import is over, the import result popup shows the options to view the log. You can click the View log link to view the import details. Note that the View log link is not clickable if you do not have the permission to view the report. You can also view the Configuration Set Log report later from the Report module.

Import logs contain the following information:

Metadata name
Metadata ID
Metadata type such as category, base element and template
Operation that can be either created or reused based on whether the metadata was created during the import or already existed in the production organization and is being reused
Date of log creation

The following image shows a snapshot of the import log.

Known limitations

Salesforce metadata is not imported from a sandbox.
For migration, a maximum of last top 50 modified request definitions that are not present on the production are shown, but you can select and import only 10 request definitions. If you need to import more than 10 request definitions, you have to do it in the batches of 10.
Records for Model, Location, Primary Client, or Users will not be imported to production organization and will not be linked to the Base Element record.
Lookup filters, custom objects, or fields will not be imported to the production organization.
Image, such as request definition icons, category icons, or Rich Text Box images, will not be migrated.

The text added after an image in Rich Text Instructions and Rich Text Description fields are not imported, therefore not displayed on a service request form in Self Service 3.0.