BMC Helix Service Management deployment architecture

The system administrator performs a container deployment of BMC Helix Innovation Suiteand Service Management applications.

The BMC Helix Service Management container includes the essential components, such as the BMC Helix Innovation Suite, BMC Helix Single Sign-On, and applications developed with Developer Studio (BMC Helix ITSMapplications and Smart IT) and BMC Helix Innovation Studio (Live Chat, BMC Helix Business Workflows, and BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker).

Use the BMC Helix Service Management container to set up the BMC Helix Innovation Suite and Service Management applications on your local system.

Deployment architecture

The following diagram depicts the container deployment architecture of BMC Helix Service Management:

Deployment infrastructure

The deployment infrastructure consists of the following components:

Component	Description
BMC DTR	BMC Docker Trusted Registry (DTR) that stores the container images.
Repository	We recommend that you set up a local repository, such as a Harbor repository. Synchronize the local Harbor repository with BMC DTR, and then access the container images from the repository. Important: To synchronize the container images with BMC DTR, you can choose any container repository solution that is compatible with the BMC Helix Service Management. We do not anticipate any issues with alternative repositories. However, we do not provide support for alternative container repositories.
BMC Deployment Manager	An entity that is used to deploy BMC Helix Platform Common Services in your environment.
BMC Deployment Engine	Logical entity that is used to deploy BMC Helix Service Management in your environment.
On-premises cluster	Consists of a Kubernetes cluster that includes the following artifacts: All relevant network and storage plugin and an Ingress controller Nodes in the cluster with internet access to fetch images from the Docker registry
NGNIX ingress controller (load balancer)	This component is a specialized load balancer for the Kubernetes environment. It distributes network traffic and scales workloads. NGINX is directly used as an ingress controller. The following features of NGINX are used: Authorization Module – Used to internally handle redirects to the correct service to authenticate and authorize the service Configuration Customization – Used to intercept calls between services based on authentication criteria Mergeable Ingress – Allows separate minion ingress objects per service with a single master ingress to handle all major configurations including multi-tenant support with server-alias annotation Rewrite Target – Is regex-based and flexible. Used to map incoming URL to paths within the micro-service
Domain Name System (DNS)	This component manages the naming system all the resources connected to your private network.
BMC Helix Innovation Suite database	Stores definitions and data for AR System server , Mid Tier, BMC Helix Digital Workplace, BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog, and BMC Helix ITSM applications.
Block storage	We support a Bring-Your-Own-Storage-Class model, for any block storage supporting recommended IOPS. For more information about recommended IOPS, see Sizing considerations in the BMC Helix IT Operations Management documentation. We support ReadWriteMany file stores. The components of BMC Helix Operations Management, such as SmartGraph, and BMC Helix Continuous Optimization require ReadWriteMany storage-class.

BMC Helix Platform Common Services components

BMC Deployment manager deploys the service tier components, data tier components, and applications tier components. These components have a hierarchical dependency on each other. The service tier and data tier components are together called the BMC Helix Platform Common Services.

Common service tier

The common services tier includes the services required for the functioning and management of the applications. It consists of the following components:

Component	Description
BMC Helix Portal	BMC Helix Portal is the launchpad for all your licensed BMC Helix services. BMC Helix Portal is built on a microservices-based architecture. For more information, see BMC Helix Portal .
BMC Helix Dashboards	BMC Helix Dashboards offers unified reporting and gives you a consolidated view of data from applications across your environment. The consolidated view of dashboards helps you perform tasks such as responding to issues quickly so that system downtime is minimized. For more information, see BMC Helix Dashboards.
BMC Helix SSO	BMC Helix Single Sign-On helps to present credentials for authentication only once in a multi software environment. For more information, see BMC Helix Single Sign-On.
Identity Management (IMS)	Identity Management Service (IMS) is a common service that helps you set up role-based access control and data-level access control. You can access IMS from the BMC Helix Portal. These actions cannot be set up by end users.
Tenant Management Service (TMS)	Tenant Management Service (TMS) is a common service that enables onboarding and offboarding of tenants and associated actions; for example, configure an external identity provider, configure the data retention period for a tenant, and so on. You can access TMS from the BMC Helix Portal.

Common data tier

The common data tier includes the various databases that store the data generated by the applications. This tier is also called the data lake.

Component	Description
Victoria Metrics	Used to store: Time series metrics and aggregations. Custom dashboards.
Kafka	Kafka is a messaging service that is used for: Asynchronous communication. Ingestion queues related to metrics, events, or logs.
Zookeeper	Zookeeper is a messaging service that is used for: Asynchronous communication. Ingestion queues related to metrics, events, or logs.
PostgreSQL	Used to structure data across the product and platform about organization, users, metadata, and so on.
MinIO	MinIO is a server-side storage stack that is used for file storage and backups.
Redis	Redis is a data structure store that is used for ephemeral data and caching. It is used to store: Events Logs
Elasticsearch	Elasticsearch is used to store: Events Logs
Dynamic Service Modeling	Dynamic Service Modeling (DSM) provides topology information for devices and resources. This data is available to all BMC Helix applications.

BMC Helix Innovation Suite platform tier components

BMC Helix Innovation Suite platform tier consists of the following components:

Component	Description
AR System	AR System enables you to automate business processes without learning a programming language or complex development tools. For more information, see AR System.
BMC Helix Innovation Studio	BMC Helix Innovation Studio helps you develop, build, deploy, and use applications in your environment. It also helps you create and automate business processes without learning programming languages or complex development tools. For more information, see BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

Service Management application tier components

Service Management application tier consists of the following components:

BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog
BMC Helix ITSM	With BMC Helix ITSM suite of applications, you can create, configure, customize, deliver, and manage the Service Management requests and functions of your organization. BMC Helix ITSM streamlines and automates the processes around IT service desk, asset management, and change management operations. For more information, see BMC Helix ITSM.
BMC Helix CMDB	BMC Helix CMDB is used to store and manage the configuration items (CIs) that represent your IT environment. For more information, see BMC Helix CMDB.
Smart IT	Smart IT user interface makes it easier for you to perform basic BMC Helix ITSM processes by reducing the number of steps involved in performing the tasks. Smart IT provides modern, collaborative workplace with an intuitive, social, and mobile service desk experience to users. For more information, see BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT.
BMC Helix ITSM Insights	BMC Helix ITSM Insights is a module of BMC Helix that delivers value by providing AI Service Management capabilities to use in combination with your BMC Helix ITSM instances.
Mid Tier	Mid Tier provides access BMC Helix Innovation Suite from a browser. The Mid Tier contains components and add-in services that run on a web server, so users can view applications on the web. Mid Tier translates client requests, interprets responses from the server, handles web service requests, and runs server-side processes that provide BMC Helix Innovation Suite functionality to web and wireless clients. For more information, see AR System.
BMC Helix Digital Workplace	BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog helps you request IT, HR, and other company services through a social media-like interface. Administrators enable self-service features for end users. For more information, see BMC Helix Digital Workplace.
BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker	BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker is an add-on offering for BMC Helix ITSM that enables organizations to effectively manage IT services in a hybrid, multiprovider environment. It provides out-of-the-box integrations to address advanced service management challenges related to cloud services and to enable DevOps teams to work seamlessly with multiple applications. For more information, see BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker.
BMC Helix Business Workflows	BMC Helix Business Workflows is a case management application for all lines of business. It provides services to employees in a scalable, managed, and automated way. For more information, see BMC Helix Business Workflows.