Managing clusters

The Proactive problem management dashboard in BMC Helix ITSM Insights displays recurrent incidents as clusters. The dashboard displays these clusters as a heat map and in a list view.

As the problem coordinator, you can drill down into a cluster to view incidents. You can then create problem investigations from a cluster. You can also save a set of filters as a custom preset.

Scenario for viewing details of a cluster

The following scenario highlights one of the use cases of managing clusters in the Proactive problem management dashboard:

Colin is a problem coordinator working at Calbro Inc. He regularly views the Proactive problem management dashboard to get updates on emerging incidents that could lead to a potential problem. He notices a cluster named Email Service in the heatmap view with a significant number of emerging incidents. He drills down into the cluster and notices many incidents related to failure in email security certificate installation over the past 6 months. He selects those incidents and creates a problem investigation named email security certification installation to find out the underlying issue with the incidents. He assigns the problem investigation to a problem manager.

Scenario for downloading cluster details

Colin views the Proactive problem management dashboard and looks for clusters with large number of incidents. He comes across a cluster named Email service disruption and and needs to analyze the incidents that make up for the cluster to assess the similarity between them. He wants to run analytical operations offline and identify the root cause for the increasing number of incidents and find ways to resolve similar incidents in the future as well.
He navigates to the list view and downloads all incidents from the Email service disruption cluster in .csv file. After downloading the incidents, he opens the file in a spreadsheet application offline and analyses the incidents details to identify trends.

Before you begin

Make sure that the BMC Helix ITSM administrator has provided the required permissions to work with incidents and problem investigations.

To view details of a cluster

To view the cluster details, click a cluster in the heat map or the list view. Alternatively, on the Heat Map tab, on a cluster, click the icon and then click View details.

The drill-down view displays the cluster details. You can view the following details in the drill-down view:

Number of incidents
Trend
Total effort
Total time to resolution
Average Priority

The drill-down view shows a line chart that shows the incident trend, that is percentage increase or decrease in the number of incidents. Also, the drill-down view shows a bar chart that shows categorical field and the number of incidents.

The drill-down view also displays a table of incidents that are present in the cluster. You can filter the incidents, sort the table columns, and configure the table columns in this view.

To download incident details in a cluster

You can download the incidents in a selected cluster to a spreadsheet compatible file format for a detailed, offline analysis.

Important

You can download a maximum of 9999 incidents available in a cluster.

Perform one of the steps in the table based on the screen you are in.

Screen	Steps
Heat map	On the Heat map tab, on a cluster, click the icon and then click Export to csv. All incidents within the cluster are downloaded to a .csv file.
List view	On the List View tab, select a cluster and click Export to csv. All incidents within the cluster are downloaded to a .csv file.
Drill-down view	Select the incidents within the cluster that you want to download, and then click Export. In Export selection, click CSV. The selected incidents within the cluster are downloaded in .csv file. (Optional) Alternatively, if you want to download all the incidents in the cluster, in Export entire document, click CSV .

To create a problem investigation

After you analyze clusters, you can create problem investigations from these clusters to understand the root cause.

Perform one of the following steps to access the Create problem page in Smart IT:
- On the Heat Map tab, on a cluster, click the icon and then click Create problem investigation.
- On the List View tab, select a cluster and click Relate to Problem > Create problem.
- Drill down into a cluster, select incidents, and then click Relate to Problem > Create problem.
The following fields in the Create problem page in Smart IT are pre-filled with information from BMC Helix ITSM Insights:
- Summary: This field contains the cluster name from which the problem is being created.
  Example: Created from cluster - host-window-utilization
- Impact: The value in this field is derived from the average impact of incidents within the selected cluster.
- Urgency: The value in this field is derived from the average urgency of incidents within the selected cluster.
- Priority: The value in this field is derived from the average priority of incidents within the selected cluster.
- Company, Region, Site Group, and Site fields: Based on the logged in problem manager's settings, these fields are populated.
- Coordinator and Coordinator group: If the logged in user has the Problem Coordinator functional role, the Coordinator and Coordinator group fields display the logged in user and the associated support group.
- Related Items: All incidents associated with the selected cluster in the heat map or the list view, or selected incidents from the drill down view are related to the new problem with relationship type as Investigates.
Make any changes to the ticket, if needed, and then click Save Ticket.

The problem investigation is created in Smart IT and it goes through the problem management lifecycle.

To relate the incidents of a cluster to existing problem investigations

Get insights about problem investigations that are related to incidents in a cluster. You can also relate incidents to existing problem investigations.

Use the heat map or the list view to see the number of existing problem investigations related to each cluster. Drill down into a cluster to see the related problem investigations to each incident in the cluster.

You can relate one incident to multiple problem investigations and vise versa.

Use one of the methods to relate incidents to an existing problem investigation:
- On the Heat Map tab, on a cluster, click the icon and then Relate to existing problem.
- On the List View tab, select a cluster and click Relate to Problem >Relate to existing problem.
- Drill down into a cluster, select incidents, and then click Relate to Problem >Relate to existing problem.
Important
- You can navigate to the Relate to existing problem window from dashboard, list view and drill-down view even if there are no existing problem investigations related to any incident in the cluster.
- When you relate a cluster from the heat map or the list view to a problem investigation, all incidents in the cluster are related to the problem investigation.
Use the Problems associated with the cluster tab in the Relate to existing problem window to view the list of problem investigations that are created from BMC Helix ITSM Insights and are related to one or more incidents in the cluster.
Use the Search for existing problem tab to search and relate existing problem investigations to incidents in the cluster.

Important
You do not see the Problem associated with the cluster tab if there are no problem investigations associated with any incident in the cluster.
Use one of the following methods:
- To relate existing problem investigation created from Insights
- To search and relate existing problem investigation created in ITSM
Follow these steps to relate existing problem investigations that are created from BMC Helix ITSM Insights and are related to at least one incident in the cluster:
In the Relate to existing problem window, click the Problem associated with the cluster tab.
Select one or more problem investigations and click Continue.
Review the list of incidents and problem investigations that you want to relate, and click Save.
Follow these steps to search existing problem investigations across BMC Helix ITSM and relate them to the incidents of the cluster:
In the Relate to existing problem window, click the Search for existing problem tab.
Specify some search criteria, such as a company name, summary, problem ID or associated keywords. To search for all problem investigation records, enter the % wildcard character.
Select the relevant problem investigations from the search results, and click Continue.
Review the list of incidents and problem investigations that you want to relate, and click Save.

To save a set of filters as presets

You can create a preset, which is a predefined set of filters. You can also customize the heat map attributes and list view column switches. When you select a preset from the list of saved presets, the filters and attributes are applied to the dashboard.

To create a preset for the first time, click Create preset.
In the Save as preset dialog box, enter a preset name.
Apply the filters.
You can also specify the parameters for size and colors in the heat map, and the columns in the list view.
Click Save.
The new preset is saved and shown in the list of presets.

After you create a preset, you can perform the following actions:

To set a preset as the default, click Set as default.
To edit a custom preset, click the pencil icon beside the preset name.
To delete a preset, click the garbage can icon beside a preset name.