BMC Remedy On-Demand

Notify on-call response teams when critical incidents are reported in Remedy. With the xMatters and BMC Remedy On-Demand closed-loop integration, the on-call members of resolver teams are automatically notified via multiple communication channels. When the recipient responds, notes are added to the incident work log and specific incident actions may take place depending on the response.

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Pre-Requisites

• Version 9.1 of Remedy On-Demand
• Account in Remedy On-Demand
• xMatters account - If you don't have one, get one!

Files

BMCRemedyITSMIncident.zip - download this Workflow to get started
BMCRemedyOn-Demand_defn.zip - download this zip file containing the BMC Remedy On-Demand workflow definition files

How it works

Remedy On-Demand triggers one of the xMatters filters as part of the integration. The filter POSTs the Remedy Incident ID to xMatters, and in turn xMatters uses a Remedy web service to obtain the incident properties and subsequently creates the xMatters Event targeted to the assigned resolver Group.

The notified resolver responds with ACCEPT - to take ownership of the incident, IGNORE - to escalate to the next resource in the on call schedule, or RESOLVE - to resolve the incident.

The closed loop integration annotates the incident work log with xMatters event status, notification delivery status, and user responses. Additionally, an ACCEPT response assigns the user to the incident and updates the incident status to In Progress. A RESOLVE response updates the incident status to Resolved.

Installation

xMatters set up

Create a REST user account

Import the Workflow

• Import the BMC Remedy ITSM - Incident Workflow BMCRemedyITSMIncident.zip. See the help doc for details.

Assign permissions to the Workflow and Form

• On the Workflows page, click the Edit drop-down menu for the BMC Remedy ITSM - IT Workflow then select Access Permissions
• Add the REST User
• On the Workflows page, click the Edit drop-down menu for the BMC Remedy ITSM - IT Workflow then select Forms
• Click the Mobile and Web Service drop-down menu for the Incident Alerts form
• Select Sender Permissions then add the REST User

Configure List Property Values

• On the Workflows page, click the Edit drop-down menu for the BMC Remedy ITSM - IT Workflow then select Properties
• Verify/Edit the following list property values:
  Company
  Contact_Sensitivity
  Escalated
  Impact
  Priority
  Reported_Source
  SLM_Status
  Service_Type
  Status
  Status_Reason
  Urgency
  VIP

Configure Integration Builder Constants and Endpoints

• On the Workflows page, click the Edit drop-down menu for the BMC Remedy ITSM - IT Workflow then select Integration Builder
• Click Edit Endpoints
• For the xMatters endpoint, in Assign Endpoint add the REST User then Save Changes
• For the Remedy On-Demand DEV endpoint, type the Base URL for the Remedy DEV environment then Save Changes
• For the Remedy On-Demand PROD endpoint, type the Base URL for the Remedy PROD environment then Save Changes
• For the Remedy On-Demand QA endpoint, type the Base URL for the Remedy QA environment then Save Changes
• Close Edit Endpoints
• Click Edit Constants, then edit these constants:

Constant	Description
ROD_SERVER_NAME	Domain name of Remedy On Demand server accepting Web Service calls
ROD_WS_HOSTNAME	Remedy On Demand Middle-Tier (AR) host name that accepts Web Service calls
ROD_WS_PASSWORD	Password for authorizing web service calls to Remedy On Demand
ROD_WS_PROTOCOL	Protocol to use when calling back into Remedy On Demand Web Services
ROD_WS_USERNAME	Remedy On Demand user to authenticate incoming Web Service calls
XMOD_INC_FORM_WS_URL	See below to obtain the Inbound Integration URL
XMOD_ROD_ENDPOINT_NAME	Remedy On-Demand QA or Remedy On-Demand DEV or Remedy On-Demand PROD

Get the XMOD_INC_FORM_WS_URL

• On the Workflows page, click the Edit drop-down menu for the BMC Remedy ITSM - IT Workflow then select Integration Builder
• Click the 1 Configured link for Inbound Integrations
• Click the Incident Alerts - Inbound link
• Scroll to the How to trigger the integration section then click the Copy Url link

Remedy On-Demand set up

Configuring BMC Remedy On-Demand to integrate with xMatters requires the following steps:

• Import the workflow definition files
• Configure filters
• Configure the ITSM user
• Disable automatic assignments

Importing workflow definition files

• Log in to the BMC Remedy Developer Studio, and then select File > Import
• Select BMC Remedy Developer Studio > Object Definitions, and then click Next
• Select the AR System server into which you want to upload the integration objects, and then click Next
• Do one of the following:
  Type in the location of the xm_foundation_8_1.def file
  Click the Browse button to the right of the text field and navigate to the location of the xm_foundation_8_1.def file. Select the file, and then click Open.
• Click Next
  If you have already imported a workflow definition file, ensure that you select the Replace Objects on the Destination Server check box (do not select the other check boxes), but note that any changes you have made to those objects will be lost. If you are sure the changes you made are necessary for your installation, you will be required to re-apply those changes to the new version of the files being imported unless you applied those changes to overlay objects.
• Repeat the above steps to import the xm_incident_8_1.def file.
  Note this file must be imported after the foundation file.
  Click Finish

Configuring filters

The integration includes a filter and an escalation that use the Set Fields action to consume a web service; these objects need their endpoints changed to the address of the integration agent.
Filter: XM:EI:EventInjection_100
Escalation: XM:Event Injection Retry

Configuring ITSM user

The integration requires a dedicated ITSM user to interact with incidents.

Create an ITSM user

First, create a new ITSM user with the Incident Master role in BMC Remedy; the user does not need to be Support Staff.

Note: If you specify a Login ID of "xmatters" for this ITSM user, you can skip the following two update steps.

Update the filter qualification

The XM:Incident_Re-Assigned_899 filter contains the following qualification criteria: ($USER$ != "xmatters")

This qualification prevents the integration from sending a second notification based on an incident's assignment changing because of a user response to an earlier notification. Replace xmatters with the name of the ITSM user created in Step One.

Update the default assignee

The out-of-box permissions allow the Submitter and Assignee (and BMC Remedy administrators) to search instances of the XM:Event Injection form. This allows users who modify incidents to see the corresponding XM:Event Injection instance for their update. To allow the ITSM user to also see all the Event Injection forms, modify the default value for the Assigned To field to the ITSM user you created.

Disabling automatic assignment

To allow xMatters to control assignments, you must turn off the automatic assignment feature in BMC Remedy.

Note: To perform this step, you will need to login as a user with Administrator permission.

• Log in to the BMC Remedy Mid Tier web server.
• Click Applications, and then click the Application Console left-menu item.
• Click Application Administration Console.
• In the new window, expand Incident Management, and then expand Advanced Options.
• Select Rules, and then click Open.
• Search for all existing "Configure Incident Rules".
• For each existing rule, do the following:
  Select the rule, and in the Assignment Process drop-down list, select (clear).
  Click Save.

Testing

Triggering a notification

To trigger a notification, create a new incident with a priority of High or Critical in BMC Remedy, and assign it to a user or group that exists in both BMC Remedy and xMatters:

Responding to a notification

In the following example, the notification is received on an Apple iPhone, but the process is similar for all devices.

• Notifications appear in the application Inbox

• Opening the notification displays the details

• After viewing the details, either click the respond (blue return arrow) icon at the top or scroll to the bottom of the notification

• Tap the desired response, then tap Respond now or Respond with comment

Troubleshooting

If an xMatters notification was not received you can work backwards to determine where the issue may be:

• Review the xMatters Reports tab and the specific Event Log
• If no Event was created, review the xMatters Inbound Integration Activity Stream
• If no activity was recorded, review the Remedy On-Demand logs for a POST to xMatters