Troubleshooting Change Management approvals

• Verify whether the Approval Server is up and running.
• Verify whether the issue occurs for any particular approval phase (for example, the Implementation phase) or if it exists for all phases.
• Verify the approval process configuration by using the APR:SYS-Approval Definition form:
  • Review the company-specific records or the global company records on this form to make sure that the details on all the tabs are correct. Compare the records with the out-of-the-box or working environment.
  • On the Status Flow tab, verify whether the Change Process Flow is default (Standard Process) or custom. If you have used a customized status flow, make sure that you create an end-to-end flow across all the approval phases. Additionally, make sure that the change request is created by using a change template that has the same custom process flow attached to it. For more information, see Configuring-process-flows-and-their-approvals.
  • Make sure that the information on the Additional Qualifications tab is the same as that on the change request.
  • If any specific approval phase is affected, review all the records of that specific phase.
• Verify the approval mappings by using the APR:Approver Lookup form:
  • If you are using a non-individual mapping, make sure that at least one user of that support group has the respective functional role added in the People profile with the value of Assignment Availability set to Yes. For example, for support group mapping, the functional role is Infrastructure Change Approver. If the value of Assignment Availability on the mapping is No, contact BMC Support.
• Verify whether the change request meets the criteria defined in the configured approval mapping.
• Create a new mapping with minimum criteria and verify that the approvals get attached to the change request. If yes, verify the affected mapping to make sure that it is correctly configured.
  Tip: Remove as much criteria as possible from the affected mapping and then add the criteria back individually to find out which criteria has an issue.
• From the result list in the Approval Process Configuration form, note the Approval Definition IDs for the affected approval phase. Review the approval mappings for these respective Approval Definition IDs.
  Tip: Sort the approval mapping result list on the Approval Definition ID column and verify the respective approval phase records.
• To identify whether there is a data issue, create an identical mapping and verify that it is working.
• Monitor the Application Pending form, to make sure records are not accumulating. To process the records that are stuck, restart the Action Request System to re-initiate the dispatcher process. If the records keep accumulating and are not being processed, seeTroubleshooting when Approval Server fails to process records from Application Pending form .

Duplicate approval signatures are created for a change request

The approval configurations are enabled on more than one Action Request System

For a standalone server, make sure that the Approval-Server-Suspended parameter located in the ar.cfg or the ar.conf file is set to False.

In a server group environment, note the details of the server, which is designated as rank 1 for the Approval Server operation in the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form (for example, server A). Make sure that the Approval-Server-Suspended parameter located in the ar.cfg or the ar.conf file for that server (server A) is set to False.

Make sure that the Approval Server is enabled only on one admin server, for example, the primary server, which is designated as rank 1. For the other admin or secondary servers, make sure that the approval operation is suspended in the configuration files and set the value of the Approval-Server-Suspended parameter to True.

Important: Set the value of the Approval-Server-Suspended parameter to either True or False on every Action Request System.

• On the Approval Administration Console (AP:Administration), from the Process tab, verify all the CI-IA level processes to make sure that their status is Active.
• If the approval records are stuck due to unprocessed records of the Application Pending form, seeTroubleshooting when Approval Server fails to process records from Application Pending form .
• If this is a one-time data issue, see the Reset the active approval flag utility article on BMC Communities.
• If the issue is randomly reproducible, verify that you can replicate the issue by creating a Copy Change of the affected change request.
• If you can reproduce the issue, capture the log files, and contact BMC Support.

The Approval Preview functionality for Future Approvers and All Approvers in the Show menu of the Approval table never displays any result

• For all the Action Request Systems (default port 9999), in the ar.cfg or the ar.conf file, make sure that the ARSYS.ARDBC.PREVIEW plug-in exists and that it is not commented. If the plug-in does not exist, manually add the plug-in and restart the Action Request System.

• Make sure that the ARSYS.ARDBC.PREVIEW preview plug-in entry exists in the pluginsvr_config.xml file.
  Important: If the Approval Server runs on the default plug-in server (port 9999), the file location is <ARSystemInstallDir>/pluginsvr /pluginsvr_config.xml. If the 

  Approval Server

   runs on a separate plug-in server (port 9800), the file location is <ARSystemInstallDir>/Approval/bin/pluginsvr_config.xml.
  For more information, seeTroubleshooting when Approval Server fails to process records from Application Pending form.

• Locate the ARSYS.ARDBC.PREVIEW plug-in entry in the pluginsvr_config.xml file. Make sure that all the included JAR files exist on your Action Request System environment in the same directory location where the pluginsvr_config.xml file points to.
• Run a test on the AP:PreviewInfo form to find out whether the issue is at the application or workflow level or on the Approval Server side. Open the form and search with the Request ID (Field # 1) field of the change request for multiple processes (separated with a semicolon) and verify that the search results are displayed:
  
  
  If the test returns the results, review the errors from the workflow side and verify why the workflow is not passing these values properly. If no results are returned or if any error is displayed when you are searching, review the errors on the Approval Server end.

• Capture the arjavaplugin.log plug-in log and the approval debug log file along with the Filter, API, and SQL transactions log files.

The Approval Preview functionality for Future Approvers and All Approvers does not work.

Important: This issue is random.

This issue can occur when the approval server is not configured correctly on all the Action Request Systems in a server group environment.

1. Set the value of the Approval-Server-Suspended parameter to either True or False in the ar.cfg file of every Action Request System in the server group environment.
   Although the approval feature is enabled on a single admin server, the approval preview requests can get routed to any of the servers.
2. Make sure that the ARSYS.ARDBC.PREVIEW plug-in exists, and that the related entry is not commented in the ar.cfg file.

For more information, see Form to create role definitions for approval processes .

For more information about how to configure the If Multiple Approvers field, see the Working with "If Multiple Approvers" article on BMC Communities.

You cannot view and approve change requests that are submitted for approval in Smart IT.

As a change request approver, you must have permission to view and approve change requests in Smart IT. You will not be able to view and approve change requests in the following scenarios:

• You belong to Company A, but have received a change request for approval from Company B. You do not have permissions to approve for Company B.
• You do not have permissions of a change agent, but you were added as an ad hoc approver for a change request.

Depending on the reason for not being able to view and approve change requests, ensure that the administrator provides you with the following access:

• Other company (Company B) and the specific support group of that company.
• Hierarchical group permission to the specific support group of your company (Company A). 
• Permissions of a change agent.

Irrespective of the permissions required to approve change requests, you can still approve them through Approval Central in BMC Helix ITSM.