This documentation supports the 23.3 version of BMC Helix Digital Workplace Basic and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced. Icons distinguish capabilities available only for the Advanced and External license levels. For more information, see License types and features.To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.

General troubleshooting

This topic offers troubleshooting tips for BMC Helix Digital Workplace issues. See the Related topics for additional troubleshooting topics.


Related topics

Working-with-logs

Troubleshooting-installation-and-upgrade-issues-in-BMC-Helix-Digital-Workplace

Troubleshooting

The following table describes general system problems:

Problem

Workaround

Reference

BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog do not start after a Java upgrade

BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog is compatible with OpenJDK 11.

If you want to upgrade Java on BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog manually, you must update the path to the new location for Java.

Optional. Perform these instructions before the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog installation.

Log in to the BMC Helix Digital Workplace server as root. Perform the following steps:

  1. Issue alternatives --config java.
  2. Choose the Java version you installed by entering a number. If you issue alternatives --config Java again, the option you selected should have a + sign.
  3. Click Enter.
  4. Export the Java path. Example: exportJAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_92.
  5. Edit  /.bashrc  
         vi ~/.bashrc 
  6. Add this to the end of the file and save: export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_92.
  7. Reload .bashrc  
       source ~/.bashrc
  8. Update the symbolic link to the new Java by using one of the following paths with your own credentials:
  • If you want to use /usr/java/latest for the Java path in options.txt—ln -s /usr/java/jre1.8.0_181-amd64 /usr/java/latest.
  • Restart BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog— ./dwpcontroller  start -u dwpadmin -p bmcAdm1n.

You can perform additional checks:

  1. Make sure that you use Oracle JDK or OpenJDK 11 for versions 19.02 and later.

  2. Make sure that /root/.bash_profile looks like:

      # .bash_profile   
    # Get the aliases and functions   
    if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then   
            . ~/.bashrc   
    fi   
      
    # User specific environment and startup programs   
      
    PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin   
      export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_92  
  3. Ensure that all configuration files in Action Request System (AR System) have the new Java directory. These files are:
Click here to see...
  /sb/env/set_script_variables.sh  
  
#!/bin/env bash   
  
export TENANT_NAME=   
export BMC_AR_SYSTEM_HOME=/opt/bmc/ARSystem   
export UISERVICE_URL=http://localhost:8008/api/myit-sb/ui   
export RX_SERVER=http://localhost:8008   
export GIBRALTAR_HOSTNAME=localhost   
export GIBRALTAR_PORT=8008   
export GIBRALTAR_PATH=/mp   
export AR_HOST=localhost   
export AR_DB_NAME=rxn:/myit-sb/   
export AR_PORT=9988   
export RAILS_PATH=/rails_vm   
export MP_FILE_ROOT_PATH=${BMC_AR_SYSTEM_HOME}/dragonfly   
export MP_SERVER=   
export MP_SECRET_KEY_BASE=802b27fd1cf5b22900da654bd13ce830610ebf2f62bf71cd30d8cb915f84a94c7fd74796ee248ba166caf305651a36cd7320f2a15c192b778c1d0e48d9ae73a8   
export MAXIMUM_PERM_SIZE=2048M   
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8   
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8   
  export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_92  
export MINIMUM_FAST_THREADS=3   
export MAXIMUM_FAST_THREADS=6   
export MINIMUM_LIST_THREADS=5   
export MAXIMUM_LIST_THREADS=7   
export PATH=$PATH:${JRUBY_HOME}/bin   
export GEM_HOME=   
export PATH=$GEM_HOME/bin:$PATH   
export BUNDLE_APP_CONFIG=$GEM_HOME   
export SEND_EMAILS=   
export EMAIL_SMTP_HOST= 

Even after logging in again, the approvals are fetched for the last configured value (search.approvals.created.since.months) due to UI or system cache not reflecting the changes immediately. This problem appears to be a result of the system caching the data temporarily.

Make sure to clear your browser cache or open a new browser to see if the new values are reflected.

The following table describes issues that you might encounter if you have BMC Helix Digital Workplace Basic:

Feature

Problem

Workaround

Reference topic

Audit

When administrators enable certain settings for BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog in the Admin console, only the information regarding the last modifications made to the configuration gets recorded.

If you want to view the audit log of configured changes, which records who implemented the change, the specifics of the alterations, and the time they were made, you can access  BMC Helix Innovation Studio. This data allows administrators to review the audit trail of configuration changes to determine whether a recent change could be the cause of any of the issues.

Localization

BMC Helix Digital Workplace installed on a Microsoft Windows 7 server is not localized in Internet Explorer 11.

Make sure you set the Format to the correct locale under Region settings.

Perform the following steps:

  1. Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
  2. Click Clock, Language, and Region, and then click Regional and Language Options.
    The Regional and Language Options dialog box appears.
  3. On the Formats tab, under Current format, click Customize this format.
    The Customize Regional Options dialog box appears.
  4. Click the tab that contains the settings that you want to modify, and make your changes.

Localization

Certain UI elements in the end-user console are displayed in English (US) despite the console being localized.

For example, the end-user console is in Portuguese, Brazil (pt-BR), but the status bar in the Request Details view is displayed in English (US).

Enable the multi-language feature in the Catalog:

  1. As a Catalog administrator, log in to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. 
  2. Navigate to Application Settings.
  3. Turn on the Multi-language toggle, and click Save.

AR System server

Issue occurs while connecting to the AR System server or SMTP.

Review and correct the connection settings in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console (go to Configuration > Application Features, and review the Providers table).

Then, restart the BMC Helix Digital Workplace server. 

Email notifications

Email notifications are not sent to end users.

The Backend URL is mandatory for enabling email notifications for end users. If the Backend URL is not configured, end users do not receive email notifications. Make sure you have configured the email notifications correctly. For information about how to configure notifications, see Configuring-the-email-server.

The How do you want to open this link? window is not shown when an end user opens a deep link in the email by using iPad.

For iPads upgraded to iOS 13, end users should disable the Request Desktop Website toggle. This toggle is turned on by default in iOS 13.

The following table describes issues that you might encounter if you have BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced:

Feature

Problem

Workaround

Reference topic

Regular expressions in questionnaires

Because the regular expression processes take too long to execute, the system might experience high CPU consumption, unresponsive pages, slowness, or sometimes even pod restarts.

  • Check whether non-ideal regular expression is used against the default value input in questionnaires. 
  • (Version 23.3.03 and later) In BMC Helix Innovation Studio > Administration > Digital Workplace Catalog > Service Request > Timeout for regex validation (seconds) make sure you have adjusted the timeout period with valid values (1 to 60 seconds)

Variables in the BMC Helix Innovation Studio page URL

The target site ignores the query parameter that is specified in the BMC Helix Innovation Studio page URL.

Check whether this query parameter works for another target site or use another parameter. If the issue does not persist, the problem is on the target site side, and BMC Helix Digital Workplace cannot fix the problem.

Service health

When viewing a service profile, the Availability status shows only the availability for the next 24 hours.

This feature works as designed for performance reasons.

Catalog page

The Browse Categories menu is not displayed on the Catalog page.

BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog is not configured.

Complete the integration between the two servers.

Catalog page

Some catalog icons are not visible or the search does not work.

From the Application Settings list, select Service Catalog > Application caches, and then click Reset Service Cache.

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Service request

Some requests for items in the enhanced catalog cannot be cancelled.

The ability to cancel requests for items in the enhanced catalog is supported only for services that generate one or more BMC Service Request Management requests or work orders. In addition, the ability to cancel a service bundle is not supported.

For requests that cannot be cancelled from BMC Helix Digital Workplace clients, these requests can be cancelled only from the fulfillment application.

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Service request

A comment is displayed twice in the service request details.

Check whether the workflow of the corresponding service has the Create Activity Log For Service Request that goes right after the Start External Activity action.

Redesign your workflow, so that the Create Activity Log For Service Request goes right after the Submit Service Request.

The comment will not be duplicated.

Tenants

Access is denied to a specific tenant because the tenant's status was Deactivated.

In the AR System Tenant form, change the tenant's status to Enabled.

Integration with BMC Helix Single Sign-On

If you restart the  BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog platform server before completing the configuration steps, you might see multiple instances of the following error:

Checking core bundles are up before running migrations. Not yet up...

You must complete the integration steps before restarting the server.

If you have completed the configuration and still receive this error, check for any exceptions in the following log files:

  • <installLocation>/db/arjavaplugin.log
  • <installLocation>/db/arerror.log


Integration with BMC Helix Business Workflows

A blank window is displayed when a user clicks Manage Catalog in BMC Helix Business Workflows.

  1. Navigate to installLocation/sb/env/set_script_variables.sh.
  2. Find the ALLOWED_CROSS_ORIGIN_SOURCES parameter in the file.
  3. Enter the URL to the BMC Helix Business Workflows application on the BMC Helix Innovation Studio server, from which cross-launch into BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog should be allowed seamlessly.
  4. Restart the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog server.


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Integration with Flexera connector

Flexera connector actions fail silently if the NT Domain process variable is not sent to the Flexera AppPortal configurations that use Active Directory.

Ensure that all workflow actions specify the NT Domain process variable configuration, as shown in the following illustration:

Flexera.png

Logs

Workflow execution is delayed if the Enable Service Request Tasks Scheduler option is enabled.

To avoid delays in workflow execution, disable the Enable Service Request Tasks Scheduler option in BMC Helix Innovation Studio.


 

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