blog_ bmc atrium cmdb _delivering on a promise of why a cmdb part2

8/10/2019 Blog_ BMC Atrium CMDB _delivering on a Promise of Why a CMDB Part2

1/21

10/15/2014 Blog: BMC Atrium CMDB ... | BMC Communities

https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atr ium_and_foundation_technolog ies/bmc_atr ium_cmdb/blog?star t=0

Communities bmc.com search bmc.com

BMC.com> All Places> Products> BMC AtriumBMC Atrium CMDB> Blog

BMC Atrium CMDB 31 Posts 1 2 3

Share: |

In the first of the Effect-Tech CMDB webinar serieswe discussed the upfront aspects of properly setting the scope of your CMDB initiative. We

discussed the high level implementation choicesand why a use-case driven approachmight be the most optimal method to deliver value more

quickly. After discussing these options, we concluded part 1 with the introduction of a service model architecturethat can be used to initially

model your IT environment and expand over time. If you missed the first webinar yo u can watch a replay of Part 1atEffect-Tech Webinars

Please join us on October 9thas we continue the conversation in part 2 of this webinar series. We will explore the BMC Atrium classesand which

classes are most relevant to support the service model architectureintroduced in part 1. Furthermore, we will talk about the role of discovery and

how it can and cannot be leveraged to keepyour CI's up-to-date. After discussing the CMDB classes, we broach the topic of CI relationshipsand

simplifying which relationshiptypes you should use to drive meaningful value without added complexity.

With classes and relationships out of the way, we steer clear of CI attributes for the time being and introduce the need to define multiple service

model viewsthat allowsusers to better understand the numerous CI'sand their relationships that result when a complex service model is built out.

Finally, we willexplore therole of the CMDB to assist application support teams in the areas of event and incident management- and potentially

why integration to discovery tools are NOT required to provide value for these app groups.

Time permitting, we will introduce Effect-Tech's CMDB methodology and best practicesthat your organization can use to implement CMDB in a

structured and repeatable way. This methodology avoids the common implementation mistake that essentially turns your CMDB project into a data,

discovery, and reconciliation exercise. By implementing the CMDB using this systematic approach, we believe your organization will gain more value

from your CMDB project - more quickly.

This webinar series is presented by Rick Chen, Managing Principle at Effect-Tech. Rick shares from his wealth of CMDB knowledge and field experience.

Agenda:

CMDB class discussion

If it's all about relationships - what, why, and how much?

CMDB service model views - and why it matters

Addressing the needs of application support teams

Introducing implementation best practices to get more value, more quickly out of your CMS / CMDB

Date/Time:October 9th at 9am (PST)

Space is limited so reserve your webinar seat today - Register

118 Views 0 Comments Permalink Categories: Best Practices, Podcasts and Videos

Tags: cmdb, best_practices, service, service_models, service_model_architecture

Delivering on a Promise of 'Why a CMDB?'- Part 2Posted by Paul BuffingtonSep 25, 2014

CMDB @EngagePosted by Stephen EarlSep 14, 2014

0 0Google + 0 0 0Buffer

Products Market Topics Partners User Groups Customer Programs

BMC Social YouTube Channel BMC Podcasts

Social Help
https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/pbuffingtonhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/bloghttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/bloghttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/bloghttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/bloghttps://communities.bmc.com/community/abouthttp://www.youtube.com/user/BMCCommunitieshttps://communities.bmc.com/blogs/bmcpodcastshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/abouthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/abouthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/abouthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/bloghttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdnhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdnhttps://www.bmc.com/blogs/https://communities.bmc.com/community/directorieshttps://communities.bmc.com/groupshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/programshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdnhttps://www.bmc.com/blogs/https://www.bmc.com/blogs/https://communities.bmc.com/community/directorieshttps://communities.bmc.com/groupshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/programshttp://www.bmc.com/https://communities.bmc.com/http://www.bmc.com/https://communities.bmc.com/community/abouthttps://communities.bmc.com/blogs/bmcpodcastshttp://www.youtube.com/user/BMCCommunitieshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/abouthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/programshttps://communities.bmc.com/groupshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/directorieshttps://www.bmc.com/blogs/https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdnhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/flirblehttps://communities.bmc.com/people/flirblehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/14/cmdb-engagehttps://communities.bmc.com/people/pbuffingtonhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/pbuffingtonhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttp://bit.ly/cmdb-webinar-part2http://www.effect-tech.com/webinars/https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=service_model_architecturehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=service_modelshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=servicehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=best_practiceshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/25/cmdb-webinar-part-2-delivering-on-a-promise-of-why-a-cmdb#commentshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog?start=30https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog?start=15https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog?start=0https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog?start=15https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/bloghttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/bloghttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologieshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdnhttps://communities.bmc.com/placeshttp://www.bmc.com/http://www.bmc.com/https://communities.bmc.com/http://www.bmc.com/


2/21


https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atr ium_and_foundation_technolog ies/bmc_atr ium_cmdb/blog?star t=0 2

Share: |

I'm really looking forward to meeting our customers at BMC Engagein Orlando, Florida starting October 13th. I'm hoping to catch up with those of

you I have met before and also to meet those of you I haven't met yet! I hope you will catch me in the corridors or at break or meal times to talk

CMDB.

As part of my Engage activities I will be presenting Session 63 CMDB, With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility along with Darius Wallacewhere

we will be discussing CMDB Futures, Best Practices for Implementation of CMDB in your business. The CMDB is part of the core of any ITSM

implementation and implemented correctly can bring great benefits to your ITIL based processes, a great CMDB implementation can make you a

Hero. However it is easy to become so focused on the CMDB implementation that it, unintentionally, becomes the Super Villain of your environment.

We will be discussing our new Best Practices resource, how we at BMC intend to help your implementation become a Hero and discuss our

experiences in the field working with customers.This session contains information you will find useful no matter what stage your implementation is at, no matter your skill level Introductory,

Intermediateor Advanced

We look forward to meeting you all in Orlando at the Swan & Dolphin in Walt Disney World from 13th - 16th October!

176 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: bmc_atrium_cmdb, engage

Share: |

It is often said service is everybodys business. If you approach work in I.T.as a function of Business Service Management, then service is li terally at the

very center of your business and your acronym. So how do you measure your impact on service? Everywhere and always. This is a story of a personal

journey looking where to configure it, and finding it built into the very fabric of the application. Just like service in the general sense.

So, I work in support and I thought I was doing pretty good with the daily "here I come to save the day" routine by now. Meeting after meeting, knocking

out one solution after another. Life was great. Then one day I got faced with an upgrade of AtriumCore 8.1 which added a new link to the AtriumCore

console that was labeled "Service Context Administration". So, of course I had to pursue it because something new is always interesting to me and

clicked the link out of curiosity. Nothing happened. I asked about it during a meeting with some colleagues and learned "It's an Asset Management

feature, it's configured for the Asset Management console". I was fine with that and went on with my life, but a seed of curiosity was planted.

Then one night while roasting peanuts and deep frying a fish, couple dwarves from the Lone Mountain came over. OK, they were not exactly dwarves,

but my adventure with Service Context began. I think it started with someone asking about UDDI Atrium Web Services, which turned out to actually

be the AR Server Midtier UDDI which does not resolve and hence we wrote that off as "AR Server" issue. But then "Atrium Web Service" and "Service

Context" came up in the same sentence. I looked at the documentation and once again realized that this is a service provided by the AR Web Services

and dismissed it. Once again, the murky waters of lake "Service Contextia" have been laid to rest to live another day.

But then, the date is August 12th 2014. We're having a team meeting and I am showing tricks on how to check and verify functionality of the AtriumCore

console which includes Federation configuration. I noticed that Service Context was now added to my lab system's Federation Manager console where I

had installed the 8.1 SP1 patch. Suddenly a government approved light bulb went off in my head. This must be it! Service Context was staring right back at

me.

The Pulse: Finding Service Context at the

centerPosted by Daniel HudskyAug 22, 2014


https://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/22/my-challeges-with-service-context-configurationhttps://communities.bmc.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-7897-71123/Federation.JPGhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/dwallacehttp://http//bmc.g2planet.com/bmcengage2014/event_agendahttps://communities.bmc.com/community/engagehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=engagehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=bmc_atrium_cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/14/cmdb-engagehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/09/14/cmdb-engage#comments


3/21



At this point I thought that this is going to be very simple. Federation is just a matter of having a plugin configured in the ar.cfg and loaded as java

process with the Atrium Shared Java Plugin (via pluginsvr_config.xml)

I checked that all is in order and then saw the Launch link in AtriumExplorer. At this point I thought I conquered the mountain and published a Webex

recording on how to make the best of the Service Context. That recording is now available on the WebEx service site. Click the link below to play it if you

like to see the details:

"How to enable ServiceContext link in AtriumExplorer"

https://bmc.webex.com/bmc/lsr.php?RCID=9d7bd305a80e4f3a96d38f6e93ef5c10

Duration: 5 min 26 sec

At this point I thought the matter is closed. I've put on my fedora hat, flipped my rain coat collar up and walked into the rain.

Next day I got an unexpected reply: This was still not it!

So, what could this possibly be? What is this "Service Context"? Let's go back to basics and see what the documentation says about it.

I downloaded the entire AtriumCore Help Documents package from EPD and started to look for "Service Context" and also checked the iDocs:

Troubleshooting BMC Atrium Service Context - BMC Atrium Core 8.1 - BMC Documentation

And now I hit the jack pot. Finally I found what I was looking for. So, if you're still reading this you probably want to know what it really is.

Here it goes in my own words. Say that you're in Asset Management console and you're looking at a list of ComputerSystem you need to work with. You

need to know if this system has any Business Services associated with it and what impact on those services you'd have if you were to put this system in

maintenance.

So, my confusion was whether this is an AtriumCore Web Service or if it's served by the Midtier. And the answer is The Midtier!!

I've captured the service registration below:

Here you can see that the Service Context is using the midtier arsys root directory to register it.

That's it. The installer actually did this already, so there was nothing for me to configure.
https://communities.bmc.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-7897-71142/Registered.JPGhttps://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ac81/Troubleshooting+BMC+Atrium+Service+Contexthttps://bmc.webex.com/bmc/lsr.php?RCID=9d7bd305a80e4f3a96d38f6e93ef5c10


4/21



So, basically this is the outcome of the quest. Start here:

And get this "Service Context" for that computer system Dell Rack System - 517P95J:

Seems too simple in hind sight.

In summary, if you're interested in using Service Context, but making that work seems like a quest to the Lost Mines of the Lonely Mountain, then perhaps

sharing my personal experience with this module can be of some help. I think just understanding of what the "context" means can help. A ComputerSystem

can be investigated from ITSM Asset Management console for context of related business services and this is what the Service Context feature of the

AtriumCore is all about. Did you have a similar experience?

To see more like this, see BMC Remedy Pulse blogs.

409 Views 9 Comments Permalink Tags: customer_support, pulse

The Pulse: Reconciling with Identificationrules that use ADDMIntegrationID can
https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/07/the-pulse-reconciling-with-identification-rules-that-use-addmintegrationid-can-have-negative-impacthttps://communities.bmc.com/people/manipatehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/07/the-pulse-reconciling-with-identification-rules-that-use-addmintegrationid-can-have-negative-impacthttps://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-26510https://communities.bmc.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-7897-71144/ServiceContext.JPGhttps://communities.bmc.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-7897-71143/AssetConsole.JPGhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=pulsehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=customer_supporthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/22/my-challeges-with-service-context-configurationhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/22/my-challeges-with-service-context-configuration#comments


5/21


https://communiti es.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog?start=0 5

Share: |

Recently, I was involved in helping customer to resolve some data issues. There were duplicate data in different CMDB classes populated in the ADDM

dataset as well as in the production dataset. The consuming applications were impacted due to inaccurate data in CMDB. While analyzing this, we

found that the root cause of duplicate CIs in the production dataset (i.e. the asset dataset) was mainly due to improper reconciliation identification

rules. The ADDM reconciliation job was using ADDMIntegrationid as part of identification rule which caused duplicate CIs E.g. there were two identicalcomputer system CIs in the asset dataset with different ADDMIntegrationIds. This is an example of how critical the reconciliation process is to

maintaining the quality and accuracy of configuration items in your CMDB.

Before we go further on ADDMIntegrationId use, lets understand how the ADDMIntegrationID is used by ADDM and CMDB.

The ADDMIntegrationId attribute in CMDB class holds a unique key populated by ADDM as part of CMDB Sync operation. This ADDM specific key helps

the CMDB sync operation to decide whether a CI already exists in CMDB before performing the insert or update operation.

Knowing that the ADDMIntegrationid is a unique Key to identify a CI, its tempting to use it in reconciliation identification rules. This is the most

common mistake seen in CMDB data issues. This attribute has in the past been used as work around in CMDB reconciliation rules for Software Server,

Database and Cluster CI classes. But with the fix described in KA411090and this work around is no longer needed.

For reconciliation identification activity, it is very important to use attribute(s) which can provide CI uniqueness in reconciliation identification rules,

and its equally important to use discoverable CI attributes. E.g. for computer System, serial number, host name & domain attributes to determine CI

uniqueness.

Here are the few rules I follow when investigating issues like this:1) Make sure you understand why there are errors before implementing changes to RE rules.

2) Avoid using ADDMIntegrationId for strong member CIs e.g. Computer System. If I am tempted to do this, revisit rule 1 above.

3) Using ADDMIntegrationId for weak class members is less risky because they dont have sufficient information in attributes to identify CIs uniquely

e.g. Processor, Monitor, Product etc. You can learn more about how to investigate data issues here

I hope this helps. Please rate my blog to let us know if it was useful. For more like this, see BMC Remedy Pulse Blogs.

340 Views 1 Comments Permalink

Tags: atrium, cmdb, bmc, customer_support, re, pulse, identification_rules , reconciliaton, engie, addmintgrationid, cmdb_data_issues

have negative impactPosted by Manish PatelAug 7, 2014

Share: |

Hear from Amit Maity, a senior technical instructor at BMC Software.

Amit will review Federation in BMC Atrium CMDB including different types of data, provide considerations and recommendations on federating data,

review the methods of federation and provide a demo.

Federation in BMC Atrium CMDBPosted by Kim WhartonJun 24, 2014


https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/07/the-pulse-reconciling-with-identification-rules-that-use-addmintegrationid-can-have-negative-impacthttps://communities.bmc.com/people/kwhartonhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/kwhartonhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/06/24/federation-in-bmc-atrium-cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/manipatehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/07/the-pulse-reconciling-with-identification-rules-that-use-addmintegrationid-can-have-negative-impacthttps://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-26510https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ac81/Investigating+CMDB+Data+Issueshttps://kb.bmc.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KA411090&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1406679428307https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdb_data_issueshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=addmintgrationidhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=engiehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=reconciliatonhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=identification_ruleshttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=pulsehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=rehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=customer_supporthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=bmchttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=atriumhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/07/the-pulse-reconciling-with-identification-rules-that-use-addmintegrationid-can-have-negative-impacthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/08/07/the-pulse-reconciling-with-identification-rules-that-use-addmintegrationid-can-have-negative-impact#comments


6/21

Share: |

I'd like to use terminology like "age old" idea in this case, however it's bit early to call software issues "age old" just yet because software has not really

been around for ages just yet. But then again when I look at my 10 year old son there I could fit a couple "ages" of 10 year olds into the era where

software has been around. So I think I'll be OK to say that the concept of retaining software records for a specific purpose has been linked to an "ageold" problem with that type of retention. In our case, the case of BMC AtriumCore CMDB, that type of record would be an Asset record, a CI,

Configuration Item or what some may think of or understand as "an inventory".

Inventory records are definitely useful to have. Specifically for trends, cost audits, outage research and so on. Especially if the status of the record has

been tracked for historic changes and what we refer to as Asset Life Cycle (AssetLifecycleStatus). You can see when the CI was Ordered, Deployed, End

of Life'd and Deleted. All useful stuff. All of these lifecycle states have their purpose and a CI will live very happily in the BMC.ASSET dataset. But not

"ever after". Enter the arena: Mark As Deleted = Yes.

You see the last status I've listed, namely "Deleted", is actually an instruction for the CMDB workflow to purge that record and hence that record is "no

more" once BMC AtriumCore Reconciliation Engine (RE for short) reconciles that data. OK, so why is this a problem?

The issue with this is people's expectations on what these records should be and their presence in the BMC.ASSET dataset is that they are indeed

inventory records and they should be retained even if they are marked as deleted, or also known as "soft" deleted. The record is still present in the

database, but no longer an active asset in the production environment.

So, on first thought that should actually be no problem. The CI is there for me to look at historical changes that include its time of order, deployment

and removal (deletion) from production. No issues there. The problem is with the relationships that were hosted on that computer.

Let me explain why.

A typical CI is not a standalone record, it is related to other CIs and these relationships have attributes. For example we have cardinality, where the CI

relationship can be defined as one to many, many to one and many to many. Then there is Weak type relationship where the CI on the "left" side of

the relationship has to exist before the "right" side can be detected by some means of electronic discovery. This means that without the CI on the left,

usually a ComputerSystem CI, none of the hosted components on the right would exist. There may be a license cost related to the operating system

that's running on that computer, but no discovery tool could scan it if the computer is not deployed and turned on. Additionally there is a Cascade

Delete option which is not enabled out of the box but can be toggled to be enabled for Hosted System Component relationships.

So, back to "Mark As Deleted = Yes", which I am going to refer to as MAD.Y and MAD.N for Yes and No. What is not immediately obvious is that there is

The Pulse: The good and bad of inventoryretention (in BMC.ASSET dataset)Posted by Daniel HudskyApr 30, 2014

https://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/04/30/pulse-inventory-retention-in-bmcasset-dataset-good-vs-bad


7/21



workflow that will act on changes done to MAD. All relationships are removed from a CI when the MAD.Y is set. If you have the Cascade Delete on, then

MAD.Y will also propagate that MAD.Y flag to the Hosted System Component CIs. This means that the computer system will be set for deletion on the

next Purge activity as well as the Operating System that was hosted on it. This means that if you're tracking the license of that Operating System then

that record would now be gone.

This can be a problem for customers that like to retrace the license management back to the Computer System on where it was hosted. Generally end

user's Operating System would not be a big deal, but Oracle license or Server license that can easily exceed $10,000. Losing track of that CI could

present issues when Audits are conducted. So, keeping the ComputerSystem and the hosted Product CIs now becomes an inventory issue. What do

we do with these records? Once they are MAD.Y their relationship is fragmented and not backward traceable without some effort. Certainly not via

automation. However this is exactly what ends up happening when Purge activity is not performed on that data in BMC.ASSET. Eventually it will

require some clean up. And that is bad because nobody is very happy when they have to do it.

We'll have cases that arrive in our incident management tracking system where customer may complain about performance, or errors seen in

reconciliation logs related to Multiple Matches found. Many of these issues result from data retention policy where the customer does not allow Purge

of the MAD.Y records from BMC.ASSET for the reasons I've outlined above. However, it does not have be that way.

As of now, most Reconciliation jobs use this sequence:

Identify

Merge

Purge (or Delete) BMC.ADDM and BMC.ASSET (Identified Only)

Although this sequence makes the most sense, it includes the not so popular Purge of the MAD.Y records from BMC.ASSET. The truth is that if you

want your data to be healthy then it needs to include the Purge. However, not all is lost. There is a better sequence that allows record retention.

IdentifyMerge

Copy Dataset (with a qualificatn of "MarkAsDeleted = Yes" AND (ClassId = "BMC_Product" or class id of interest))

Purge (or Delete) BMC.ADDM and BMC.ASSET (Identified only)

In this scenario you can use a qualification to first copy all CIs you're interested in where the MAD.Y is set and ClassId = 'BMC_COMPUTERSYSTEM AND

ClassId = 'BMC_PRODUCT' or your asset class of interest.

Please see Jared Jones' PULSE blog on License Management:

https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_it_service_support/bmc_asset_management/blog/2013/11/08/the-pulse-getting-sta

Where covers new fe ature specific to Asset Management License Management :

" SP1 includes the expanded capabilities. If you get i t installed you wil l see qui te a few additional License Types out of the box. Essentially all

the previous License Types now have an additional "_All" type that includes the other software classes."

Your copied dataset can then hold the name like BMC.ASSETS.PURGED where you can return to at any given time and run reports on.

It would only hold records that were at one point Marked As Deleted in the BMC.ASSET dataset and purged. Keep in mind that the "License

Management" will be updated accordingly as configured in the Licensing Job related to the reconcilation job that handles the ADDM data.

That said, it just means that this is not yet fully automated out of the box or even considered as Best Practice because CMDB is not intended for asses

inventory retention, but within the parameters of capabilities of the AtriumCore and not all that complex to add as a functionality enhancement.

In conclusion, is inventory retention in BMC.ASSET dataset good or bad? Well, it's definitely not in the design of the CMDB which is supposed to keep

records of Configured items in production environments and it can cause data clean up issues. So, my vote tends to lean in the direction of "bad". You

can do better with this "age old" problem.

I hope this helps, please rate my blog below or add comments on your experiences. See more like this at BMC Remedy Pulse Blogs.

Daniel Hudsky

527 Views 1 Comments Permalink Categories: Be st Practices, Data Ma nagement, Consuming Applications, Administration

Tags: customer_support, ci_in_inventory, deleted, ci's, pulse

The Pulse: The Pre-checker becomesRemedy Configuration Check UtilityPosted by Manish PatelMar 20, 2014
https://communities.bmc.com/people/manipatehttps://communities.bmc.com/people/manipatehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/03/20/the-pulse-the-pre-checker-becomes-remedy-configuration-check-utilityhttps://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-26510https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_it_service_support/bmc_asset_management/blog/2013/11/08/the-pulse-getting-started-in-software-license-management-part-2--softwarehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=pulsehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=ci'shttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=deletedhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=ci_in_inventoryhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=customer_supporthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/04/30/pulse-inventory-retention-in-bmcasset-dataset-good-vs-badhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/04/30/pulse-inventory-retention-in-bmcasset-dataset-good-vs-bad#comments


8/21



Share: |

This post shares some diagnostic enhancements included in the Remedy Configuration Check Utility in BMC Remedy AR System Server (ARSystem)

and BMC Atrium CMDB Suite (CMDB) version 8.1.01 (Service Pack 1). The goal of the enhancements it to simplify the process of identifying, correcting,

and reporting on configuration issues in the product.

A little background

The earlier post 12 steps toward a systems approach to diagnosticsoutlines different kinds of diagnostics which may be required for products such

as BMC Atrium CMDB, and the subsequent post 7 Tools to verify BMC Atrium CMDB is working welldescribes the diagnostics available in CMDB at

the time.

In Service Pack 1, we looked at how we could automate or simplify these diagnostics so they can be executed and collected more easily when

required. We looked at the AtriumCoreMaintenanceTool Health Check and the pre-checker described in this post

BMC Remedy Pre-checker for Remedy 8.1 (unsupported)to see which would be the appropriate tool to extend. The Health Check functionality in

the Maintenance Tool is also at the completion of the installation as the Post Install check. This design limits which checks can or should be run

from it. For example, if we automated the process of checking recommended configurations they would always fail in the post install check as there

would be no opportunity to configure the product yet. So we decided the next step in the journey of automating diagnostics was to extend the Pre-

checker to provide a simplified user interface to execute diagnostics.

See the product documentationto learn more about the features of the BMC Remedy Configuration Check utility and how to access it.

The Pre-Checker was originally designed to detect environmental issues for install and upgrade, but since the scope of the tool has changed, it has

been renamed the Remedy Configuration Check utility. It can be used not only to check the environment configuration before install or upgrade, but

also to detect product configuration issues which are the causes of many post installation issues. This tool will also enable us to automate frequent

issue troubleshooting steps.

BMC Remedy Configuration Check utility

The goals are to -

1. Help administrators to troubleshoot configuration issues

2. If the administrator is not able to resolve the issue, make it easy to gather and share test results

How it works

The BMC Remedy Configuration Check Utility is included with BMC Remedy AR System 8.1.01 (Service Pack 1) media. The file can be extracted to the

system to begin using it. For more information on downloading and extracting the utility, see To Obtain the BMC Remedy Configuration Check

utility.

CMDB checks included in BMC Remedy Configuration Check utility

In Service Pack 1, the following list of checks has been added for CMDB.

1) CMDB - System Information

This feature makes it easy to collect information about the system easily. This feature may also make it easier to compare different systems

running BMC Atrium CMDB or report it when working with Customer Support.

Note - Going forward, this check will be moved in the information gathering category.

2) CMDB Metadata Check

This check detects for pending CMDB class changes. This check performs the same test which can be performed manually using the command

line cdmchecker tool with the g opt ion.

You can find more info on cdmchecker in the product documentation.

3) CMDB Class Overlay Check

Overlay on CMDB could cause issue in upgrade process. This check detects overlay on CMDB classes

4) CMDB - RE Private Port

We recommend that Reconciliation Engine private queue configuration for performance reasons. If private queue configuration is not configured

correctly, then there wont be any performance gain. This check can be used to detect improper private queue configuration.

https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ac81/Verifying+your+data+model+manuallyhttps://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ars81/BMC+Remedy+Configuration+Check+utility#BMCRemedyConfigurationCheckutility-ToobtaintheBMCRemedyConfigurationCheckutilityhttps://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ars81/Running+the+BMC+Remedy+Configuration+Check+utility+through+the+GUIhttps://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ars81/BMC+Remedy+Configuration+Check+utilityhttps://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-22946https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/08/16/7-tools-to-verify-bmc-atrium-cmdb-is-working-wellhttps://communities.bmc.com/blogs/DiagnosticSolutions/2013/08/16/12-steps-toward-a-systems-approach-to-diagnostics


9/21



5) CMDB - Index Check

This check will provide references to out of the box indexes in CMDB version 8.1.01 and validate the indexes exist. It will report error if any index

is missing.

This blog post hopefully prov ides a better way of why the Pre-check utility was renamed and some of the new capabilities added. This expanded

functionality should make it easier to diagnose issues. A few checks were added to this tool in version 8.1.01.

Stay tuned for new additions in future releases.

I hope you found this blog useful, please rate it below or add comments. To find similar information, see BMC Remedy Blog Posts.

662 Views 1 Comments Permalink Tags: cmdb, configuration, support, customer_support, check, config, checker, pulse, pre-checker

Share: |

Hi All,

I have recently joined BMC Software as the new Product Manager for the Atrium CMDB and thought I should do an introduction to myself so that you

can get an idea of what makes me tick and also understand my drive to make the Atrium CMDB a tool that can drive realisation of value for you our

Customers.

I have been part of the BMC Remedy world since 2004 when I worked for an ISP and was given the mantle of 'the Remedy guy' for the entire

organisation, I had never seen Remedy before and actually had no idea what it was. After a mild baptism by fire I immediately saw the value that the

Remedy Action Request System could give the Network Operations Centre I ran at the time and also the wider organisation, back then we were rolling

out ITSM 5.1.2.

Since that time I have been involved in many rollouts of BMC Remedy ARS based solutions, and most recently I lead the Remedy development

organisation for BlackBerry rolling out ITSM across that organisation and recently spent sometime at ServiceNow before coming to BMC Software.

My desire is to actively engage with the community (you) and have what I hope are active discussions through this forum and others in order to

ensure that we are building a tool that helps you solve your business challenges on a daily basis. Part of my role here at BMC is to ensure that your

voice is heard and that we are investing in the right areas to drive our product and your success forward.

When I'm not talking about CMDB, working on the product roadmap or out talking with you, our customers, I spend my spare time watching movies,

enjoying company of friends and a new past time of Husky Scootering, feel free to ask me more about that if you really want to know!

I'm based in the University town of Cambridge in the UK and look forward to our interactions whatever the medium as we at BMC evolve Atrium

CMDB to meet your needs and supporting your success.

Contact me via twitter @flirbleor via this community of course :-)

If you are having issues with Atrium CMDB I strongly suggest you log an issue with support and your account team before engaging me directly but if

you feel I might be able to help then I'm happy to do so where I can.

TTFN

Stephen

3845 Views 3 Comments Permalink Tags: atrium, cmdb, introduction, product_manager

Your new BMC Atrium CMDB productmanager is...... Me!Posted by Stephen EarlMar 20, 2014

The Pulse: Finding your Zen with CMDBExtensionsPosted by Daniel HudskyFeb 4, 2014

https://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/02/04/how-to-get-cmdb-extensions-installed-with-successhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/flirblehttps://communities.bmc.com/people/flirblehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/03/20/your-new-bmc-atrium-cmdb-product-manager-is-mehttp://twitter.com/flirblehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=product_managerhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=introductionhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=atriumhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/03/20/your-new-bmc-atrium-cmdb-product-manager-is-mehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/03/20/your-new-bmc-atrium-cmdb-product-manager-is-me#commentshttps://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-26510https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=pre-checkerhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=pulsehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=checkerhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=confighttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=checkhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=customer_supporthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=supporthttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=configurationhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/03/20/the-pulse-the-pre-checker-becomes-remedy-configuration-check-utilityhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/03/20/the-pulse-the-pre-checker-becomes-remedy-configuration-check-utility#comments


10/21


https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atr ium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atr ium_cmdb/blog?star t=0 10

Share: |

CMDB is great out of the box. All the classes and relationships we ship are very well inline with the business environments that our products serve.

However! Every once in a while you'll have to extend the common data model with a couple more attributes, class definitions or product data loads.

Last October, I presented a Webinar "How to unlock the potential of Common Data Model in BMC Atrium CMDB" covering how to extend the CDM

using Class Manager. You can view the recording here. In this blog post, I would like to extend on the topic to talk about products which extend the

CDM as part of an installer or by loading a CMDB Extension with the Maintenance Tool.

Several current products use extensions to the CMDB including BMC ProactiveNet Performance Manager (BPPM), Configuration Discovery Integration

for CMDB (CDI), and it is also used for loading Product Catalog data updates. The reason for the separate install step is to make all the required

changes semi-automatically, and hopefully painlessly. This takes the element of human error out of it, so it can be an either "it worked, no big deal" or

"it didnt work " what happened?" experience. Whenever I look at a failure, I always ask the question " "What was unexpected in the environment thatblocked the operations the extension was trying to perform?" I seek to understand. There is a "Zen" to it. It should be a rational exercise, not a

physical one like trying to stuff pythons in a paper bag. Below, I will highlight some of the ways the product has tried to prevent, improve, or minimize

the room for failure, and share some of the ways I think about it as I look into issues. Hopefully it leads to a more peaceful state for your CMDB and

yourself.

As far as ensuring the server is in a good state before running the install, this is a general feature. It is a good feature to have even when not running

installations, so the AtriumCoreMaintenanceTool has a Health Check feature. You can read more about it in the documentation here. You can find

more about other tools that can help in this regard in Jesses post 7 Tools to verify BMC Atrium CMDB is working wellin the section on Verifying

Product Installation and Environment.

If you've had to extend the model or planning on doing so then this is what you should know:

Extending the CDM means that you're altering tables in the database to add additional columns or maybe even creating an altogether new table to

house the data you'll be collecting from your environment. Simply said, we need to add more labels so we have to define containers for our data.

With that in mind imagine that already have a physical container defined like a cupboard or jar and you needed to add just a few things to it and youwere able to add two labels but could not fit the third because it ran out of space. This would make sense to us humans, but the installer still thinks

that 1 and 2 need to be added because it was not told otherwise. You could argue "cant the installer be made more intelligent, to examine what is

already in the cupboard or jar?". Now consider the case that the items interact with one another as they are added, and have different rules on what

can be stored multiple times.

Does that make the challenge of ensuring reliable completion more complex? You bet it does!So the extension installer follows strict orders " install,

check for errors. In case of unforeseen circumstances, wait for further instruction. Basically the extension installer is instructed to add all three items

and that is exactly what it tries to do. If it fails during the install, and the install is attempted again This causes a data structure collision because 1 and 2

already exist and hence a failure of the extension loader. Running it again will not change these results. It will keep failing on exactly the same collisions

points it failed before. So, don't run the extension loader again hoping for different results. Instead look at the logs and see where the installer hit its

first issue. There could have been a requirement to create a dataset first, either a manual step that was missed or a dependency that was violated.

When investigating issues, it is sometimes useful to look at the manifest of files in the extension to see what it is trying to load. This helps to

understand why an error occurs.

There are two types of extension loaders. One that comes with an executable e.g. simExtLoader.exe or pnExtLoader.exe) and

AtriumCore\AtriumCoreMaintenanceTool.cmd. AtriumCoreMaintenanceTool is installed with Atrium Core version 7.5 and later and provides the tool

for loading CMDB extensions, so more information about extensions and what they contain can be found in the Atrium Core documentation.

Executable loaders can use CMDBDRIVER to deliver their "payload" from each subdirectory of the loader. For example 500-SIM-CDM-Extensions

directory for simExtLoader has Class extensions as well as *OSD.txt files that have instructions on what to do. The reason for executable loaders is to

perform additional steps or checks as part of the install, but the subset which is installing CMDB extensions is largely the same.

Some loaders also add Normalization or Reconciliation jobs, Federated Launch Links and so on. These will be stored in the "arx" files in subdirectories

of the extension loader. These additional records can also be only added once and if you run the installer again they will cause further failures but this

time as a data collision rather than data structure collision. Again, here the installer is programmed to install all these things as if they never existed

and the instructions basically say:

"Create New", rather than using this logic: "If you find it there already, then update it or move on to the next".

This is so because the original need to extend the CMDB still applies and the installer just knows that it has not been completed yet.

Above, I mentioned the marching orders of the Extension loader: install, check for errors. In case of unforeseen circumstances, wait for further

instruction. The latter part of that was added in CMDB 7.6.04. If an extension is currently loading, or has attempted to load and has failed, why should

it be allowed to run again and make a mess of things? It shouldnt, so a simple mechanism was put in place to prevent that situat ion. When it runs, it

adds records to a form called "Share:Application_Properties" that reflects the version of the extension and record the Status of the installation

progress. If the installer needs to install Product Catalog data, which is also considered to be "an extension" of the CMDB then you'd be referencing the

ProductCatalogData-2012_07_03.xml. The name of this file reflects the 2013 Product Catalog data load made available in July 3rd. Its contents will have

GUID reference for Share:Application_Properties that checks the version of the PCT installed on your system.

In the case of Product Catalog that ID is "PD00C04FA081BA0SvxQgaxH66Q1wQA" and it is validated for version 7.6.04 or greater.

The next GUID it will then add to Share:Application_Properties (SAP) form is going to be "BMCPC00C04FA081BAbpfqSA9gV41Ar". This particular ID is

then used to track the progress of the data load. This is done by adding a record to SAP with Name of Status and Value of Running. If the install fails

the value will be changed to Failed.

https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/08/16/7-tools-to-verify-bmc-atrium-cmdb-is-working-wellhttps://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/ac81/Performing+health+checkhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/blog/2013/10/01/how-to-unlock-the-potential-of-common-data-model-in-bmc-atrium-cmdb-suite


11/21



At the conclusion of the install's completion this Status record is removed. If this record still exists and has Failed status then the installer is not going

to let you do it again.

@BMC Software we have designed this part specifically for the reasons described above which are:

- Run the Health Check or verify the system is in a good state before installing extensions

- Run it once only

- Evaluate reasons for failure and address them individually

- If you can't complete them manually then restore the database and fix the original condition and run the installer once. Repeat if necessary, or

identify individual component failures and complete the extension loading manually component by component.

I hope this post provides a better understanding of the rules that the extension loaders live by, and some of the thinking behind them.Hopefully thisleads to more zen-like experiences with extending the CDM. I have probably skipped something so I am looking forward to see further questions on

this topic so that we can have a full disclosure here for anyone to follow.

If you like content like this, see BMC Remedy Pulse Blogsfor more like it.

If you have ideas on ways for Customer Support work better with you to enable success, join the Customer Support Communityand provide

ideas, feedback, or suggested improvements.

Thank you for reading!

Daniel

649 Views 2 Comments Permalink Tags: cmdb, cdm_extension, atrium_cmdb_extensions;, pulse

Share: |

BMC Atrium Integrator (Practical Example of Data Transformation Using Spoon)

The Digital Voice: ETL: Practical Example of Data Transformation Using KettleKettle (K.E.T.T.L.E - Kettle ETTL Environment) has been recently aquired by the Pentaho group and renamed to

Pentaho Data Integration. Kettle is a leading open source ETL application on the market. It is classified as an

ETL tool, however the concept of classic ETL process (extract, transform, load) has been slightly modified in

Kettle as it is composed of four elements, ETTL, which stands for:

Pentaho Data Integration

Shows how to generate data warehouse surrogate keys in Pentaho Data Integration

Surrogate key generation in PDI

Data Sanitization Pentaho Data Integration (PDI) example

Data masking in Kettle Spoon

Data Allocation Pentaho Data Integration example

Data allocation example in PDI

Parameters and Variables - Atrium Integrator (Spoon)

Parameters and Variables - Atrium Integrator (Spoon)

BMC Atrium Integrator (About and Useful Links)

BMC Atrium Integrator (About and Useful Links)

BMC Atrium Integrator (Practical Exampleof Data Transformation Using Spoon)Posted by Velan RamakrishnanDec 27, 2013

https://communities.bmc.com/people/vramakrihttps://communities.bmc.com/people/vramakrihttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/27/bmc-atrium-integrator-practical-example-of-data-transformation-using-spoonhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/14/bmc-atrium-integratorhttps://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-27728http://etl-tools.info/en/examples/pdi-data-allocation.htmhttp://etl-tools.info/en/examples/pdi-data-sanitization.htmhttp://etl-tools.info/en/examples/surrogate-key_pdi.htmhttp://etl-tools.info/en/pentaho/kettle-etl.htmhttp://digiassn.blogspot.in/2008/03/etl-practical-example-of-data.htmlhttps://communities.bmc.com/groups/customer-support-communityhttps://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-26510https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=pulsehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=atrium_cmdb_extensions%3Bhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cdm_extensionhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/02/04/how-to-get-cmdb-extensions-installed-with-successhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2014/02/04/how-to-get-cmdb-extensions-installed-with-success#comments


12/21




Categories: Best Practices, Developer G uides, Source Samples, Demonstrations, Presentations, White Papers

Share: |

About Atrium Integrator

The Atrium Integrator (AI) product is, as the name implies, an integration tool that facilitates the loading of data into the Atrium CMDB. Atrium Integrator

allows for a wide variety of input sources such as JBDC, JMS, CSV, web services and complex XML. It leverages the "best of breed" ETL tool that has a very

broad range of transformation capabilities. The engine that powers AI is actually referred to as an "ETTL" tool. This s tands for "Extract, Transform,

Transport, and Load" It is based off the Pentaho Data Integration (PDI) tool with a common name of "Kettle". Kettle has a designer tool named "Spoon"

that utilizes a drag and drop UI, speeding up the design of complex jobs.

Value Statement* Simplify importing CI's and their Relationships through Wizard

based UI

* Out of the box Templates for CI field and relationship mappings

ensuring consistency

* Reduce effort and time with a Graphical, Drag and Drop Interface

* Powerful Extraction, Transformation and Loading engine

(Pentaho Spoon) for massaging of data

* Scalable for large enterprises with millions of CI's

Videos How To's

Click here

TerminologyRepository - A relational database in which jobs and

transformation are stored, along with the logs and execution

history of the jobs.

Transformation - A collection of steps and h ops that form the

path through which data flows.

Step - Minimal un it inside a trans formation. These are group

in c ategories based off of the function they provide (i.e. input,

output..)

Hop - Represents the data flow between two steps. It has a

source and a destination. A hop can only be between one

source step and one destination step, but each step can have

multiple hops ("paths").

Job - A process c ontrol compon ent. A job cons ists of Job

Entries. These can be either transformations or other jobs that

are executed in a particular order, managed by hops.

Useful LinksAtrium Integrator is based on Pentaho Data Integration (aka Kettle,

aka Spoon).Some useful links

Pentaho - Spoon User Guide- Gives you information on the steps

that are available in AI, excluding the BMC specific ones

(ARInput/AROutput)

Pentaho Community Forums- The Forums are great for asking

questions about the product.

Why not AIE?There are various shortcomings with the AIE product that forced

BMC to look into another direction. Some of the shortcomings are

listed below:

It lacks the ability to extract data from a myriad of sources that

our customers have data in (MySQL, Sybase, Excel files...)

Very limited transformation capability.

Too many calls into BMC support to get the product to work.

Need to be well versed in the CMDB in order to model the data

accurately. No wizard is available.

AIE to AI Migration coming soon

Transformation RepositoryBMC Atrium Integrator Transformation Repository(Really wish this

acronym spelled something cool...)

BMC Atrium Integrator (About and UsefulLinks)Posted by Velan RamakrishnanDec 14, 2013

https://communities.bmc.com/people/vramakrihttps://communities.bmc.com/people/vramakrihttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/14/bmc-atrium-integratorhttps://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/NP/BMC+Atrium+Integrator+Transformations+Repositoryhttp://forums.pentaho.com/forum.php?s=2e4602907b3c6a346cbe8b4bba6c36c3http://wiki.pentaho.com/display/EAI/Spoon+User+Guidehttp://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLibAMtD70sYEHsYo2Okn6S_lbZIISyD_thttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/27/bmc-atrium-integrator-practical-example-of-data-transformation-using-spoonhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/27/bmc-atrium-integrator-practical-example-of-data-transformation-using-spoon#comments


13/21



Pentaho Community- Lots of information here and you can a lso

download a community edition of Pentaho Spoon to understand

the product and it's uses... Obviously it will not be AI with the

enhancements BMC have made but nevertheless a good learning

tool.


Share: |

I ran into the issue with ADDM synching to CMDB and although it was perceived as a CMDB outage (via ARS Server) the root cause was based in

Windows configuration.

In my experience the issue is related network and If it is sometimes CMDB related, sometimes network, sometimes ARserver, it would be useful to

clarify how to determine which of those is the case.Given that the CMDB is hosted on the ARS Server, it would really have to be an outage of the ARS Server or a network issue as CMDB would never

respond with an ARERR code of 90.

First I'd like to refer to this article

https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_remedy_ondemand/blog/2013/10/14/the-pulse-optimizing-addm-to-cmdb-sync-con

So, please make sure that network access is established first by using "ping" from the ADDM appliance host, although often only specific ports are

open and the company network may block the ping port. However if all of these have been ruled out you can still do a more direct check with the

CMDB by using CMDBDRIVER or the (AR) DRIVER utility to connect.

You can ask for these binaries from the CMDB administrator although these clients will have to be executed directly from the ADDM host machine

which can be running on a different Operating System than what the CMDB is installed on. This client is OS specific. For example if CMDB is running on

an ARS Server that is hosted on MS Windows 2008 server and ADDM is hosted on Linux Red Hat then you would need the CMDBDRIVER client for

Linux RH before you can run it from the ADDM appliance host.

If there is interest then I can produce a staging area with a CMDBDRIVER client for all operating systems from a staging area. Since the version check

with the CMDBDRIVER is compatible across many versions you'll only need one version.

For convenience we've staged the 7604 version for Linux here:

ftp://ftp.bmc.com/pub/BSM/AtriumCore/utilities/cmdbbin.tar.gz

Download this to the ADDM appliance system and make sure you change execute permissions for your current user on the Linux system. ADDM only

supports Linux, hence we are only providing the Linux binary here.

Once you have this in place you can start the client create a file called "options.txt" and put this in the txt file:

init

gver

1

OB00C04FA081BABZlxQAmyflAg1wEA

q

NOTE: The linked binary above already has everything setup. All you need to do there is to run the following command with 4 arguments:

./cmdbdriver.sh

Example: ./cmdbdriver.sh bmc_arshostname Demo Demo 0

Results should look like this:

Command: INITIALIZATION

CMDBInitialization results

ReturnCode: OK

PULSE: Troubleshooting connection toCMDB issues.Posted by Daniel HudskyDec 3, 2013

https://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/03/pulse-dropping-addm-connection-to-cmdb-via-ars-that-tunnel-through-a-firewallftp://ftp.bmc.com/pub/BSM/AtriumCore/utilities/cmdbbin.tar.gzhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_remedy_ondemand/blog/2013/10/14/the-pulse-optimizing-addm-to-cmdb-sync-connections-for-remedy-ondemand-environmentshttp://community.pentaho.com/https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/14/bmc-atrium-integratorhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/12/14/bmc-atrium-integrator#comments


14/21



Status List : 0 items

Command: GET VERSION

Number of Application Versions to get (0): Id ():

CMDBGetVersion results ReturnCode: OK

Version Information: 1 item(s)

Application ID: OB00C04FA081BABZlxQAmyflAg1wEA


15/21



this is a false positive result. You'll basically see list of errors in the end where the "Success" status of the install is show giving you the option to review

the log. That log review console will have some "red" lines in it.

BPCU

BMC has produced a customization conversion utility that converts custom workflow into Overlays. For customers who have Asset Management and

other applications where the CMDB is providing data structure service and have customized workflow this utility is best used AFTER the AtriumCore

Upgrade is completed. Althoug the BPCU utility does not overlay any CMDB schemas and workflow even if customizations are found, however running

this utility sets the expectation that even if the CMDB was overlaid than this would be corrected by the BPCU. This is not true.

Please see KA380649for reference.

Bottom line for this point is - run the BPCU after the upgrade of CMDB is completed, was succesful and was not impacted by overlay issues. We've

done these upgrades now with 100% success rate and are confident to support this practice.

Custom Workflow for cmdb fields

This item is related to the previous one, but more specific to data that is being inserted into BMC.CORE CDM forms.

The installer inserts various template data into the BMC.CORE forms and this step can be blocked if additional data restrictions or attribute

requirements are enforced by custom workflow. These fields may include MarkAsDeleted, Company, Region, Site and so on. If you have

customizations in place that require a value in a field that is not already required out of the box then you should disable the workflow for those fields

before you start the installer.

The install log would have captured such failure with exit code of 1025 and log entry would look like this:

C:\Users\CurrentUser\AppData\Local\Temp\Utilities\rik\rik.exe" loadapp -x ARSALIAS -t 0 -u "Action Request Installer Account" -p -l

"D:\Program Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\" -n CMDB-RIK_Install -f "D:\Program Files\BMC

Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\en\workflow\upgrade\764patch000\wf-RIK-CMDB.xml" -L -C

Where the name of the log that actually captured the real failure codes is "CMDB-RIK_Install.log"This log would then show an error like this

INFO - Error importing record 1: ERROR (806201): ; Please supply a Category, Type and Item for this Configuration Item. Those fields require and entry

to create or modify a CI.

DATA "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "BMC_BUSINESSSERVICE" "0;" "" "" "" "" 1282162748 "BMC.ASSET" "" "" "" "" 0 "" "STANDARD" "BMC_GLOBAL_DEFAULT_SRVC" "" ""

"Demo" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" 1285101154 "BMC_GLOBAL_DEFAULT_SRVC" "" 30 "" "" "" "" "" 0 "BMC_GLOBAL_DEFAULT_SRVC" "" "" ""

"000000000000011|000000000000383" "" 10 10 "Default Service" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" 0 "1284595003Demo" "Demo" 0 "" "0" "" "" "" "" "" 0

INFO - Import Completed in 8.237 seconds. 0 records were imported to BMC.CORE:BMC_BusinessService; 1 Records were not. From File D:\Program

Files\BMC Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\en\workflow\upgrade\764patch000\.\USM_BusinessService_DefaultData.arx

[ERROR] LoadComponent- Data Import failed with code 1025 for file D:\Program Files\BMC

Software\AtriumCore\cmdb\en\workflow\upgrade\764patch000\.\USM_BusinessService_DefaultData.arx

And there would be additional records like this that fail. Exit code of 1025 can almost always be associated with a data collision of some type. Either the

record could not be imported, or it could not be deleted (code 1024) for what ever reason.

Please disable workflow that would prevent the installer from managing records in the CMDB. No customer records are deleted during the upgrade,

only CMDB template or default loads like the BusinessService data will be impacted.

Attach Size Limit

We've found that the ARDBC setting of "Db-Max-Attach-Size: 0" has impact on attachments during upgrades. If you have this setting in the ar.cfg

(ar.conf if Unix/Linux) then change the value to 200000000 (~200 MB) or just remove it from the config file altogether.

ARS also has a maximum attachment size limit that can conflict with the Data Visualization Components that need to be loaded into the Data

Visualization forms during the install. The size of these attachments varies from few kilobytes to several megabytes.

Rule of thumb is to remove the attachment size restriction for the installer to complete successfully. This means that you should set the size limit to 0

(unlimited).

Set Attachment Size Maximum to 0 for the ARDBC (ARS Data Base Configuration values a.k.a. the ARDBC metadata).

You can also run a test before the upgrade by attaching a sample file that's no more than 100 MB to see if the attachment will work. This setting is inthe AR Server Configuration Panel. You can leave it at 0 if it already is set that way.

Here is the brief explanation of attachment size topic :

Both config items Db-Max-Attach-Size and AR-Max-Attach-Size are the same. Db-Max-Attach-Size was introduced in early rele ases of AR (not

sure about version) and was specifi c to Oracle DB only. Later we introduced AR-Max-Attach-Size for all databases including Oracle. You should

remove Db-Max-Attach-Size from config fi le at this point.

Unlimited size applies if

AR-Max-Attach-Size = 0 or no e ntry exists in ar.cfg.

Warning Supression (ARS)

There are several Warnings interpreted by the installer as failures. These warning can be ingored by supressing them during the time of the

installation.
https://kb.bmc.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KA380649


16/21



You can add the following the Warning suppressions:

See : KA364458

Suppress-Warnings: 9936

Additional warnings maybe there already, so just add 9936 to the list for the upgrade to complete successfully.

Our expectation and coding of the Installer should not have this issue surface at all. However I always like to mention it here for those customers that

are using this KA for upgrading to 7.6.04 SP4 of AtriumCore where this issue has manifested itself.

For this last point please see KA405615for additional information.

A KA does e xist with content similar to this PULSE post: KA406262All Knowledge Article references require BMC Support Login.

714 Views 0 Comments Permalink Categories: Applications, Best Practices, Tec hnical News, Solution Briefs

Tags: cmdb, cmdb_upgrade, cmdb_install

Share: |

I found a way to run a query that can help diagnosing CMDB data that fails AutomaticIdentification and that is to use the AR DRIVER with GLSQL.

Syntax to login to ARS DRIVER with this client is similar to CMDBDRIVER so I am not going to go into details on that here. Instead I'll skip straight to the

point query, although to avoid any confusion I need to add that AR DRIVER is a client that is native to any version of ARS, not CMDB. CMDB driver does

not wrap ARS DRIVER. These two are different AR clients. Start AR DRIVER from ARSystem API folder on Windows or run it from bin dir on Unix. If

you're having hard time find it on UNIX then just run this command:

find $BMC_AR_SYSTEM_HOME -name driver

You'll get couple locations to chose from.Once you initilize and login to the AR DRIVER then you can take advantage of the GLSQL query to find out how many classes are failing Automatic

Identification. The results will then tell me which rules are in need of review. Now, the reason I love this is because I don't have to wait for a DBA to give

me access to the database. Keep in mind that you still need to have CMDB admin access to do this.

So, here is an example how to run a query on the BMC.ADDM dataset and group the results by ClassId. As follows:

Command: glsql

GETLIST SQL

SQL command: select count(ClassId), ClassId from BMC_CORE_BMC_BaseElement where DatasetId = 'BMC.ADDM' AND FailedAutomaticIdentification =

1 group by ClassId;

Maximum number of entries to retrieve (500):

Get number of matches? (F):

ARGetListSQL results

ReturnCode: OK

Value List List : 3 items

Value List : 2 items

Value: (integer) 51

Value: (char) BMC_COMPUTERSYSTEM


Value: (integer) 5963

Value: (char) BMC_DATABASE



Value: (char) BMC_SOFTWARESERVER

Status List : 0 items

This tells me that I'll need to review (RECON) Identification Rules for classes ComputerSystem, Database, and SoftwareServer related to my job. The

last one must have a very ineffective rule as there are 18815 failed CIs there.

PULSE: Identifying weak ReconciliationIdentification rules can be done with

ARDRIVER.Posted by Daniel HudskyNov 20, 2013

https://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/dhudskyhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/11/20/identifying-weak-reconciliation-identification-rules-can-be-done-with-ardriverhttps://kb.bmc.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KA406262https://kb.bmc.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KA405615https://kb.bmc.com/infocenter/index?page=content&id=KA364458https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdb_installhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdb_upgradehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdbhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/11/21/pulse-upgrading-bmc-atriumcore-cmdb-from-75-to-81https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/11/21/pulse-upgrading-bmc-atriumcore-cmdb-from-75-to-81#comments


17/21



Looking at the Identification rules for these classes and the source dataset I can see that I have created 3 rules:

Rule 1:

'TokenId' != "0" AND 'TokenId' != $\NULL$ AND 'TokenId' = $TokenId$

Rule 2:

'ADDMIntegrationId' != $\NULL$ AND 'ADDMIntegrationId' = $ADDMIntegrationId$

Rule 3:

'SoftwareServerType' != $\NULL$ AND 'SoftwareServerType' = $SoftwareServerType$

So, since Rule #3 is only checking for SoftwareServerType which is an enumerated field then that tells me that this identification is going to fail to

identify New CIs as soon as there is already one CI present in the BMC.ASSET dataset with the same enumeration. Recon Engine will not Auto-Identify

new CIs if any of the rules have failed and that rule would definitelly cause errors after the first merge. All subsequent jobs would find a match of most

of the SoftwareServerTypes because there can only be so many in the option list. Basically an enumerated field should never be used for unique

identification by itself. So, that would be an very ineffective rule to have and I'll need to change it.

If I combine Rule 2 and Rule 3 together to say:

Rule 2:

'ADDMIntegrationId' != $\NULL$ AND 'ADDMIntegrationId' = $ADDMIntegrationId$ AND 'SoftwareServerType' != $\NULL$ AND 'SoftwareServerType' =

$SoftwareServerType$

Then now I have a much more effective rule that should find a match and accuratelly identify existing CIs in BMC.ASSET and also Autoidentify properly.

Once I make that change to the SoftwareServer Identification rule and run the job, then I can use the same GLSQL query to see if the rule now

correctly identifies the CIs in BMC.ASSET. The CI must also not fail and Auto-Identify new CIs.

Command: glsql

GETLIST SQL

SQL command: select count(ClassId), ClassId from BMC_CORE_BMC_BaseElement where D

atasetId = 'BMC.ADDM' AND FailedAutomaticIdentification = 1 group by ClassId;

Maximum number of entries to retrieve (500):

Get number of matches? (F):

ARGetListSQL results

ReturnCode: OK

Value List List : 2 items


Value: (integer) 51

Value: (char) BMC_COMPUTERSYSTEM



Value: (char) BMC_DATABASE

This is the result I was hopping for. Next I'll need to look at Database and maybe the ComputerSystems.

I find this method most effective with RE ID Rule and Data validation.

4201 Views 3 Comments Permalink Categories: Applications, Best Practices, Tec hnical News, Data Manage ment, Solution Briefs

Tags: cmdb;, reconciliation_jobs; , pulse, reconciliation_engine;

The Pulse Understanding tools andguidelines for extending your asset andCMDB data modelPosted byJesse RichardsonOct 18, 2013
https://communities.bmc.com/people/jesse_richardsonhttps://communities.bmc.com/people/jesse_richardsonhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/10/18/the-pulse-understanding-tools-and-guidelines-for-extending-your-asset-and-cmdb-data-modelhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=reconciliation_engine%3Bhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=pulsehttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=reconciliation_jobs%3Bhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/tags#/?tags=cmdb%3Bhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/11/20/identifying-weak-reconciliation-identification-rules-can-be-done-with-ardriverhttps://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/bmc_atrium_and_foundation_technologies/bmc_atrium_cmdb/blog/2013/11/20/identifying-weak-reconciliation-identification-rules-can-be-done-with-ardriver#comments


18/21



Share: |

There have been several enhancements in recent releases of BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite, BMC Atrium CMDB Suite, and BMC Remedy

AR System Server that change where data is stored, how to customize the user interface (UI), and preserve those changes during application

upgrades. These changes include:

BMC Remedy IT Service Management moved asset management lifecycle attributes out of the CMDB to the AST:Attributes form

BMC Remedy AR System Server introduced granular overlays, see The Pulse: Using granular overlays to manage customizations

BMC Atrium CMDB Suite addressed issues with the Synchronize UI feature, also known as Sync UI to Asset or cmdb2asset

In this post, I will discuss how these changes impact the guidelines for successfully extending the data model and customizing the user interface. I will

also try to put some issues and experiences in context of their role and best usage of these features.

Adding data to AST:Attributes in relation to CIs

In Asset Management version 8.0, asset lifecycle attributes such as those that track status and costs, those were moved out of the CMDBto the

AST:Attributes form. The Data structure changeis described in more detail in the BMC IT Service Management architecture documentation. The

relationship between the CI and the AST:Attributes record is stored as a foreign key relationship where:

If the CI is not identified, Reconciliation Identity on AST:Attributes = Instance Id of the CI

If the CI is identified, Reconciliation Identity on AST:Attributes = Reconciliation Identity of the CI

The first case is temporary - once the CI is identified in the CMDB, the AST:Attributes record is updated to contain the Reconciliation Identity of the CI

and becomes available to the Asset viewer through the Asset Management application.

Below are different scenarios of how data is populated to AST:Attributes.

1. ITSM is upgraded from version 7.6.04 to 8.x

Once you upgrade to ITSM 8.x, the upgrade process moves the data from the CMDB into AST:Attributes records and removes the attributes from

the CMDB. Any workflow or integration referencing them can be updated after phase 2 of the ITSM upgrade which uses workflow to sync the

legacy attribute values to AST:Attributes. The third phase of the ITSM upgrade removes the legacy attributes from the CMDB.

2. An ITSM user adds a new CI from the Manage CIs feature, using an Asset Sandbox. (BMC.ASSET.SANDBOX)

An entry is created in AST:Attributes with the inst