Performing an impact analysis on an incident request

You can run an impact analysis for an incident from the Network impact analysis console or through the Initiate network impact analysis option.

When you run the impact analysis from the Network impact analysis console, you have the option of selecting the input configuration items (CIs) and their impact weight. When you run the impact analysis by using the Initiate network impact analysis option (quick impact analysis), the impact analysis process uses only the input CIs with the association type other than impacts and the default impact weight.

As a user with incident master or incident user permissions, you can rerun the previous impact analysis by using the same set of CIs. The ability to rerun an impact analysis without needing to reconfigure the input streamlines the execution process, promoting faster validation of updated impact results. It is particularly valuable after a service model update or when a prior analysis fails or is partially successful.

Before you begin

Run a SmartGraph Sync Schedule from BMC Helix CMDB.
For more information, see Scheduling a DSM Sync to share impact attributes with BMC Helix NetOps in the BMC Helix CMDB online documentation portal.
You must have BMC Helix Telco Extensions license.
For more information, see Setting-up-and-going-live.
As an administrator, configure the Impact Weight Mapping values for the different impact levels.
For more information, see Configuring-the-impact-analysis-settings.
As an administrator, create a rule to automatically run impact analysis on incidents.
For more information, see Configuring-the-impact-analysis-settings.
To run the impact analysis, make sure you have the Incident Master or Incident User permissions.
For more information, see Roles-and-permissions.
Associate CIs to the incident as input CIs with the Association type other than Impacts. When an incident is automatically created by using an alarm, check if the CIs are automatically associated to the incident.

To run an impact analysis by using the Impact Analysis Console

When you run the impact analysis by using the Impact Analysis Console, you can select the input CIs and their impact weight. Additionally, after the process is successfully completed, based on the results, you have the option to relate the impacted CIs back to a new or existing incident request.

Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
From the right corner, click + Impact analysis run.
On the Select input CIs tab, enter the Description, and from the list of CIs, select the required CIs.
Click Add selected.
Select the new impact weight (%) for the selected CIs and click Save.
Confirm the list of CIs and the impact weights.
You can also select the required CIs and click Remove or Change impact weight.
Click Run analysis.
After the impact analysis process starts, the following message is displayed:
Success. The impact analysis process has started successfully.

After the impact analysis process is completed, whether it is successfully, partially successful, or failed, an email is sent to the user who initiated the process. This email includes details about the outcome and relevant information about the impact analysis.

Example:
The impact analysis run initiated by <username> for the INC000000000001 has been completed.
Incident details:
————————————————————————————————————
Incident ID: INC000000000001
Priority: High
Status: In progress
Summary: Broken fiber optic cable
————————————————————————————————————
From the Impact analysis window, for the impact analysis that you have performed, click the More icon and select one of the following options. Perform the corresponding steps added against the option:
- Create incident— In the Create incident window, create a new incident and click Save.
- Create change— In the Create change request window, create a change request and click Save.
- Relate to incident— In the Relate to incident window, select the required incident, and click Relate.
- Relate to change— In the Relate to change window, select the required change request, and click Relate.
After creating or relating the incident to the impact analysis you performed, open the incident and navigate to More > Logs to view detailed audit and notification logs.

To run impact analysis for an incident by using the Network impact analysis console

From an existing incident, select More > Network impact analysis console.
Click Create new impact analysis run.
Select one of the following options:
- Use associated CIs—You do not have the option of selecting CIs. Only the CIs associated with the incident are considered with their default impact weight. After the impact analysis process starts, the following message is displayed:
  Success. The impact analysis has been started using the associated CIs and default impact weight. You can view details in the impact analysis console.
- Select input CIs—You have the option of selecting the required CIs and deciding the impact weight.
(For the Select input CIs option only) From the New impact analysis run window, select one of the following options:
- Select CIs from ticket—This ticket analysis option retrieves all the associated CIs related to the incident.
- Select from all CIs—This what-if analysis option retrieves all the CIs from the BMC.ASSET dataset in BMC Helix CMDB.
  The description field is automatically populated based on the selection, which you can modify.
Select the required CIs and click Add selected.
Select the new impact weight (%) for the selected CIs and click Save.
Confirm the list of CIs and the impact weights.
You can also select the required CIs and click Remove or Change impact weight.
Click Run analysis.
After the impact analysis process starts, the following message is displayed:
Success. The impact analysis process has started successfully.

After the impact analysis process is completed, whether it is successfully, partially successful, or failed, an email is sent to the user who initiated the process. This email includes details about the outcome and relevant information about the impact analysis.

Example:
The impact analysis run initiated by <username> for the INC000000000001 has been completed.
Incident details:
————————————————————————————————————
Incident ID: INC000000000001
Priority: High
Status: In progress
Summary: Broken fiber optic cable
————————————————————————————————————

To run an impact analysis for an incident quickly

Important

Make sure that the incident has at least one associated CI with the Associate type other than Impacts.

To run an impact analysis quickly without manually selecting any additional CIs, from an existing incident, select More > Initiate network impact analysis.
The impact analysis process starts and the following message is displayed:
The impact analysis has been started using the associated CIs and default impact weight. You can view details in the impact analysis console.

The process automatically selects the input CIs from the associated CIs with their default weights (100%), except the CIs with the Association Type as Impacts.

To view the progress of the impact analysis process for an incident

Run the impact analysis process.
For more information, see To run an impact analysis for an incident by using the impact analysis console.
From the Network impact analysis console, click Successful from the Status column.
Click Close.

To relate impacted CIs back to an incident

Run the impact analysis process by using the Network impact analysis console > Select input CIs > Select CIs from ticket option.
For more information, see To run an impact analysis for an incident by using the impact analysis console.
From the incident for which you performed the impact analysis process, select More > Network impact analysis console.
Click the required number from any of the following columns:
- CIs impacted
- CIs with LoS
- Services impacted
- Services with LoS
- CIs degraded
- Services degraded
From the Impacted CIs window, select the required CIs.
Important
The tick mark under the Input CI column represent input CIs.
The link icon under the Already related column represents the CIs that are already associated with the incident.
Click Relate selected CIs.
Alternatively, you can also select all CIs and click Relate all CIs.
The following message is displayed:

The related CIs are displayed under the Configuration Item tab of the incident with the Association type as Impacts.
If the number of related CIs is more than 100 (default value), an email notification with the following information is sent to the service desk agent who has related the CIs:
The relationship of the impacted CIs for INC000000000001 that is initiated by <username> has been completed.

CIs related successfully: 501
CIs already related: 0
CI relationship creation failed: 0
Incident details:
————————————————————————————————————
Incident ID: INC000000000001
Priority: High
Status: In progress
Summary: Broken fiber optic cable
————————————————————————————————————
Important
An administrator can change the default value (100) for the number of CIs. For more information, see To configure the value for the number of CIs.
To rerun an impact analysis for an incident
Rerunning impact analysis helps to re-execute a completed, failed, or partially successful impact analysis by using the same input configuration items (CIs).
1. Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
2. In the Impact analysis console, click the More icon next to the incident request, then select Rerun impact analysis.
  A message, an impact analysis process has started successfully is displayed.
You can track the progress and results of the rerun from the same incident request.
To relate the CIs back to the incident from a rerun impact analysis
1. Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
2. In the Impact analysis console, click the More icon next to the incident request, then select Show related runs.
  
  A list of all reruns associated with the original incident request is displayed.
3. To view the lists of CIs, click the number shown in the following columns:
  - CIs impacted
  - CIs with LoS
  - Services impacted
  - Services with LoS
  - CIs degraded
  - Services degraded
4. Perform one of the following steps:
  - To relate CIs, select specific CIs and click Relate Selected CIs.
  - To relate all the CIs, click Relate All CIs.
A summary of successfully related CIs is displayed.
To summarize the network impact analysis results for an incident
1. Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
2. In the impact analysis console, click the more icon next to the incident, then select Impact summarization using HelixGPT.
When the summary is generated, you can select the View summary button to review the summarized insights.