Integrating BMC Helix ITSM with multiple Jira instances

As a BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker  administrator, you can set up integration between BMC Helix ITSM  and multiple Jira instances. After the integration, you can broker tickets from a single BMC Helix ITSM instance to multiple Jira instances by specifying different trigger conditions or transformations in the flows.

When you integrate BMC Helix ITSM with multiple Jira instances, consider the following guidelines:

• BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker tenant can support any number of Jira instances.
• You must specify a unique name for each Jira instance for easy identification.
• You have the flexibility to define different field mappings and trigger conditions for each Jira instance.
• You can only combine BMC Helix ITSM tickets from a single Jira instance.

The following image shows the tasks that you must perform to set up BMC Helix ITSM with multiple Jira instances:

Task 1: Define a vendor for Jira in BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker

1. Log in to BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker.
2. Click Settings > Configure Vendors > Map Vendors.
3. Click +Map Vendor.
4. In the Description field, enter a meaningful description for the vendor.
5. In the Ticketing Technology Provider field, select Jira.
6. In the Instance Name field, enter a new instance name. 
   Entering a new instance name helps to differentiate the new Jira instance from the old Jira instance.
7. To generate the out-of-the-box vendor meta data, click Add Mapping.
8. Update the Instance URL field with the new Jira instance details. 
   You can use the same Jira server of the first Jira instance and specify a different project in the vendor field mapping or use a different Jira server.

Task 2: Add a connector configuration for Jira in BMC Helix Integration Service

1. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Studio.
2. Go to Catalog > Connectors.
3. Search for the Jira connector.
4. Open the Jira connector.
   You might need to click the arrow on the ribbon in the lower section of the screen to view the connector details.
5. To add configuration for the new Jira instance, click Configuration > Add Connection Configuration.

6. Add the connector configuration by referring to the following table:

   Field	Value
   Name	Enter a name for the connector configuration
   Description	Enter a description for the connector configuration
   Site	For each on-premises Jira instance, select the site that you created. For Jira instances in the cloud, select Cloud as the site.
   Number of Instances	Keep the default value.
   Protocol	Enter the protocol used by the Jira server.
   JIRA Server Hostname	Enter the name of your Jira server.
   JIRA Server Port	Enter the port number of the Jira server. Enter 443 if your Jira server is SSL enabled.
   Certificate Authority	If the Jira server is using a self-signed certificate, copy and paste the contents of the self-signed certificate from the certificate file that is in the PEM format. Best practice We recommend that in production servers, you use a certificate from a trusted certificate authority.

7. To add your Jira account to the new Jira configuration, click Accounts > Add Another Account, and enter the account details.

Task 3: Define a connector target for Jira in BMC Helix Innovation Studio

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
2. Click Administration > Configure My Server > Integration Service > Connector Configuration.
3. Click New.

4. Enter the connector target details by referring to the following table.

   Field	Value
   Name	Enter a name for the connector target
   Connector Type	Select Jira as the connector type
   Configuration	Select the new connector configuration that you created for the new Jira instance in Adding a connector configuration.
   Profile	The profile is automatically populated with the Jira account that you added to the connector configuration.

5. Click Save.

Task 4: Update the connector process for Jira

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
2. Click Ticket brokering Library > Processes.
3. Select Connector Process Jira and click Copy.
4. Update the name of the new connector process as Connector Process Jira for <new instance name>.
5. Click Save.

You can broker incidents and change requests from BMC Helix ITSM to multiple Jira instances. 

Task 5: Enable ticket brokering by configuring the flows in BMC Helix Integration Studio

You can use the flows in the following ways:

• If you want to use a single flow for multiple Jira instances, you update the existing flow. 
• If you want to define separate flows for each Jira instance, you create a new flow by using a flow template.
• If you want to broker tickets from multiple Jira instances to a single Remedy ITSM instance, you create a new flow for each Jira instance.

To broker incidents or change requests from BMC Helix ITSM to multiple  Jira instances by using a single flow

1. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Studio.
2. Depending on whether you are brokering incidents or change requests, search for one of the following flows:
   • Create DevOps Incident
   • Create DevOps Change
3. Open a flow and click the edit icon .
4. To open the mapped fields, click Edit Field Mapping.
5. Based on the flow that you are using, perform any of the following actions:
   • Click to view steps for the Create DevOps Incident flow

     1. In the Technology Service field, click to add transformations to broker the tickets into the appropriate Jira instance based on any field.
        In the out-of-the-box mappings, the Resolution Category field is used.
        
        
        
     2. Click Add new, as shown in the following image:
        

     3. In the When is equal field, enter value of resolution category tier 2 field, that you created in BMC Helix ITSM. In the Then Technology Service equals field, select the appropriate Jira instance.

        Important

        You must create a new resolution category for the new Jira instance in BMC Helix ITSM before setting the transformation in the flow.

   • Click to view steps for the Create DevOps Change flow

     1. In the Technology Service field, select Source Fields instead of Target Values and remove the hardcoded mapping.
        

     2. Select Categorization Tier 2 as the source field and click the transformation icon.

        Important

        In the out-of-the-box mappings, the Categorization Tier 2 field is used. However, you can use any other field.

     3. Click Add new.

     4. In the When Categorization Tier 2 is equal field, select the value of the categorization tier 2 field that you created in BMC Helix ITSM. In the Then Technology service equals field, select the appropriate Jira instance.

        Important

        You must create categorization fields for the new Jira instance in BMC Helix ITSM before setting the transformation in the flow.

        

6. Click Save and Close.

To broker incidents or change requests from BMC Helix ITSM to multiple Jira instances by using a separate flow for each Jira instance

1. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Studio.
2. Go to Catalog, and search for the Create DevOps Incident or Create DevOps Change flow template.
3. To create a flow from a template, click Use This Flow.
   
4. To create the flow, enter the account details.
   
5. Edit the flow, and update the trigger condition and technology service.
   
   
   

To broker tickets from multiple Jira instances to a single BMC Helix ITSM instance

When brokering tickets from multiple Jira instances to a single BMC Helix ITSM instance, you can create incidents or change requests. Depending on whether you are creating an incident or a change request, you must create a flow. To view the list of supported flows, see Using-BMC-Helix-Integration-Service-to-integrate-BMC-Helix-ITSM-with-third-party-applications.

1. Log in to BMC Helix Integration Studio.

2. Create new flows from the Catalog.
   For example, Create Change is a Jira to Remedy flow. If it is created for one Jira instance, you must create a new flow for the second Jira instance by using the Catalog. While creating the flow, you must select from which Jira instance you want to broker the ticket to Remedy.

   Important

   When you create flows for multiple Jira instances, we recommend that you specify the flow name by using the following format:
   Name of the flow and the instance name
   For example, Create Change from Jira Instance 1, Sync Jira Issue from Jira Instance 2, and so on.

3. After you have created all the new flows, open the flows.
4. Click the edit icon to edit the flows.
5. To open the mapped fields, click Map Fields.
6. In the Vendor field, change Source Fields to Target Values and replace the hardcoded JIRA value with the new Jira instance from which you want to broker the tickets to BMC Helix ITSM .