BMC Helix ITSM applications and modules
The overall organization of the BMC Helix ITSM has three layers: modules, applications, and supporting subsystems.
The top layer consists of modules that provide the interface to users, such as the Requester Console. The Requester Console interacts with a back-office application, such as the Incident Management feature of BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk or BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management.
Applications include the main BMC Helix ITSM applications: Incident Management feature of BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk, BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management, Problem Management feature of BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk, and BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management. These applications contain logic and user interfaces specific to those application areas.
The final layer consists of supporting systems. The common set of systems supports the application. These supporting systems contain generic logic that is specific to an application's function without embedding the functionality from other applications that use its services. Examples of supporting systems include Task Management, Cost module, and Contract Management.
The following figure illustrates the relationships among the BMC Helix ITSM applications and modules.
Deployable application structure model
The AR System platform provides the structural component used in the BMC Helix ITSM applications to define the deployable application architectural structure. Deployable applications provide functions that support a component architectural model:
- Licensing enforcement
- Encapsulation of permissions
- Definition of entry points
- Ability to import and export as a whole component
Deployable applications are used to wrap each of the different applications and modules that are provided in the BMC Helix ITSM applications. Deployable applications contain applications, modules, and helper components.
Applications | Modules | Helper components (Subcomponents) |
|---|---|---|
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Command Automation Interface module
The Common Automation Interface (CAI) module provides a common infrastructure that can be shared across applications including the BMC Helix ITSM applications and the BMC Configuration Automation for Clients application.
CAI plug-in
The primary purpose of the CAI plug-in is to transmit events to back-end applications.
Due to the dynamic nature of the field mappings for each command, and because it is not possible to use workflow to push values to dynamic fields, the CAI plug-in provides a mechanism to dynamically map data to fields. For example, the command to generate a back-end request consists of dynamic field values that can be mapped to any field on the back-end interface forms. Additionally, the CAI plug-in helps address problems that arise with incompatible permission models.
The CAI provides event delivery to the target applications. CAI is a back-end component that does not provide a front-end user interface. Additional user dialogs can be defined for each integrated component to push data into the CAI forms. The functionality of CAI is based on the current implementation for SRMS framework command events and the requirements of the Task Management and Data Management.
Functions of CAI in the BMC Helix ITSM applications
The following table lists the functionality that CAI provides for each application or module:
Application or module | Functionality provided by CAI |
|---|---|
Communication with BMC Helix ITSM applications | |
Phases of use with Task Management
The following overview describes how the CAI module is used by the Task Management.
Phases | Description |
|---|---|
Definition phase: Application registration and command definition | Application registration defines the integration attributes to the external applications, such as application name, connection information, and interface form names. Command definition describes the commands and the command parameters for each integrated component. For example, the Requester console has a set of defined commands for interaction with back-end applications. In Task Management, a set of commands is defined for interaction with BMC Configuration Management. In addition, the CAI can include command parameter mappings to the registered applications. |
Construction phase: Instantiation of the command definition as events | Command events are instantiated based on the command definitions. The event is constructed by using the specific command name, and the command parameter values are populated by the integrated components. CAI provides the form structure and generic workflow for command instantiation. Each integrating component must implement the workflow to control its specific commands. |
Execution phase: Event delivery | The mechanism that delivers the command events to the target system depends on the protocol used.
CAI provides the generic event plug-in and each integrating component must implement the workflow to control the invocation of the plug-in, or use a specific workflow for the delivery. |
Foundation data
The Foundation module contains the common forms, workflow, and data that are needed to support the BMC Helix ITSM applications. It also provides a repository for the following data structures used by each BMC Helix ITSM application:
- Organization
- People
- Support groups
- Categorization (both organizational categorization and general categorization)
The following structures are stored in CMDB:
- Company (tenancy definition and external company definition)
- Location
- Categorization (product categorization)
For more information, see Setting-up-and-modifying-Foundation-data-by-using-Application-Administration-Console and Loading-Foundation-data-by-using-Data-Management.