Troubleshooting integration with BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT
Issue symptoms
- The request ID is not visible in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT, but it is visible in BMC Helix Digital Workplace.
- If a comment is added to a request, the comment is not visible in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT in its fulfillment record and vice versa.
- If a comment is added to a request, the comment is not visible in BMC Helix ITSM in its fulfillment record and vice versa.
Issue scope
The issue can appear in any of the following user interfaces:
- BMC Helix Digital Workplace while working on the request
- BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT while working on a fulfillment record (such as Incident Management, BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management, Work Order Management) of the request
- BMC Helix ITSM while working on a fulfillment record (such as Incident Management, BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management, Work Order Management) of the request
Steps to reproduce the issue
As an administrator, in BMC Helix ITSM, open the centralized configuration forms as described in Centralized configuration .
- From the Component Name menu, select com.bmc.itsm.sbe.
- Select *.
The * signifies the configuration parameters that are available in the global settings in the CCS.
In the Setting Value column, enter the required details:
The following table describes the available options:Option
Description
sbeDomain
BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog domain name.
sbeTenantAdminPassword
BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server password. This password becomes encrypted after applying it.
sbeTenantAdminUser
Administrator's user ID on the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server. Do not mention the domain name.
sbeUrl
BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server URL (http or https). Add a URL, but do not include an ending slash (/). For https, the default port is 443.
- Click Apply.
- In BMC Helix ITSM, open the SBE:ConnectionConfig form to test the connection.
Click Test Connection .
The Result field displays the test connection status. If the connection fails, the Result Code field displays the failure reason.If you get an error, you can check the arjavaplugin.log file, which is the standard AR Java plugin log.
In the Centralized configuration form, select com.bmc.arsys.smartit > *.
For more information about the form, see Centralized configuration.
- Set the enableSbeIntegration parameter to true.
BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT uses Action Request System vendor forms to integrate with BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. These forms are part of the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT application. The vendor forms are implemented in Java and contain the REST client code to make calls to the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server. These forms must be installed on the BMC Helix ITSM server for the integration to work. The names indicate which type of data they are related to:
The following issues can occur when a BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog and BMC Helix ITSMpatch updates the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server:
- The workflow fails to execute the remote action script (remoteaction.bat or remoteaction.sh).
- Memory issues cause the remote action script execution to fail. The remote action script will start a Java VM instance that runs a Java executable and makes REST calls back to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. The script usually fails because of too many remote action calls being made in a short time.
- The REST calls fail due to incorrect configuration in the SB:RemoteApprovalConfiguration form. (See Task 2 in the following table for checks you can make.)
- The Action Request System queries or updates of the SB:ServiceRequestStub form fail due to incorrect configuration in the SB:LocalApprovalConfiguration form. (See Task 2 in the following table for checks you can make.)
Diagnosing and reporting an issue
After you identify the symptoms and scope of the issue, use this troubleshooting guide to help the customer diagnose and resolve the issue or to create a BMC Support case.
Task | Action | Steps | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Make sure that the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced BMC Helix ITSMIntegration patch is installed on the primary Action Request System (or the one that you have defined for this). Also, make sure you have the correct BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog patch that belongs to your BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server version. | Verify whether you have a remoteaction folder on theBMC Helix ITSMserver and that it has the required files. | Action Request System workflow attempts to send the data back to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog via the remoteaction.bat file, which is stored in the $AR_SYSTEM_HOME/remoteaction folder. This file and the contents of the remoteaction folder are implemented by the integration server patch. |
2 | Verify whether the SB:LocalApprovalConfiguration and SB:RemoteApprovalConfiguration Approval forms on BMC Helix ITSMand Action Request System servers are installed and configured with the correct ports, host names, credentials, and protocol. |
The External process full path field on the Local Approval form should point to the appropriate remoteaction.bat or remoteaction.sh file (dependent on the BMC Helix ITSMserver's OS) described in Task 1 above, for example: If you have multiple servers in the server group for the BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog environments, use the load balancer name in the SB:LocalApprovalConfiguration and SB:RemoteApprovalConfiguration forms. | If the configuration is incorrect, you will see a failure message:
|
3 | In BMC Helix Digital Workplace 19.11 and later, use the SB:TestRemoteAction form to check for issues 1, 3, and 4 above. |
| If the checks are successful, you will see a success message:
When problems 3 and 4 are present, you should receive a message that indicates a problem with the configuration. When problem 1 is present, you may only see a pop-up that describes the issue. Most of the time, this is caused by defects in the script or by missing or incorrect environment variables. If the pop-up does not provide enough information, try enabling the filter logging on the BMC Helix ITSM server and check if more information is provided when the workflow tries to execute the remote action script. |
4 | See the remoteaction.log file to track the status transmission back to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. The file is enabled from the logback_remoteaction file. | Find the remoteaction.log file on the BMC Helix ITSM server, and view its output. | $AR_SYSTEM_HOME/log/remoteapproval.log The following log snippet shows a working scenario of entries in the remoteaction.log file. (A nonworking scenario shows failed RPC Calls on the Action Request System server port.) [2020-02-14 15:38:11,983] [11868@xxx-3310] INFO c.b.m.i.SendActivityLogsCommand [SendActivityLogsCommand.java:56] Creating Activity Log... |
5 | Check the BMC Helix Digital Workplace application logs. |
| BMCDigitalWorkplaceInstallationDirectory/DWP/DWP/logs |
6 | Check the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT application logs. |
| SmartITInstallationDirectory/SmartIT/logs |
Examples
Test 1 - Comments made on BMC Helix Digital Workplace
Can they be seen in BMC Helix ITSM (incidents, changes, and so on), BMC Service Request Management (Request and Work Order), and SmartIT?
- If yes, proceed to Test 2.
- If the comments cannot be seen on any of the applications, check the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog log for clues.
Comments added in BMC Helix Digital Workplace are sent to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog via REST API. BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog then sends the comment to the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog Remedy connector, which adds the comment directly to the appropriate BMC Helix ITSM application work log form.
Test 2 - Comments made on BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT
Can they be seen in BMC Helix Digital Workplace, BMC Service Request Management, and BMC Helix ITSM?
- If yes, proceed to Test 3.
If the comments cannot be seen on BMC Helix Digital Workplace, but can be seen on BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Service Request Management and you are running Smart IT 19.08, it might be related to defect SW00562843. For more information, see the BMC Support knowledge article at https://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-124063.
- If the comments cannot be seen on BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Service Request Management, make sure BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT providers are enabled and have the correct values in the Midtier URL field.
Test 3 - Comments made on BMC Helix ITSMand BMC Service Request Management
Can they be seen in BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT?
- If the comments can be seen on BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT, check Test 1 and Test 2.
- If the comments cannot be seen on BMC Helix Digital Workplace, make sure the BMC Helix Digital Workplace patches were installed on the Action Request System server.
- If the comments cannot be seen on BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT, check the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT providers, and make sure they are pointing to the correct mid tier server.
Limitations
- Social feeds on the dashboard and the user profile are not displayed for BMC Helix Digital Workplace requests; however, this information is available on the user's timeline.
- Status change updates for fulfillment take time to appear in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT.
- The following features are not supported: Follow/Unfollow, Request Again, Cancel, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
- Agents cannot search BMC Helix Digital Workplace requests in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT for IDs ranging from 1 to 99 because the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT universal client limits global search with less than three characters.
- In the Activity tab of the ticket view, filter by the activity type is not available for BMC Helix Digital Workplace requests.