What’s New –

AR System 7.1
Atrium CMDB 2.1
Atrium Integration Engine 7.1
7/6/2019
Agenda

› Overview: The Focus of AR System 7.1 & Atrium CMDB 2.1

› The Big Things In The Release
› Features by Category

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Overview: Release Focus

› Simplification
– Streamline the user experience as well as backend processes
› Enhancing the capability of the platform
– Incorporate the latest leading edge technologies
› Performance
– Speed up the server and mid-tier
› Application enhancements
– Allow new capabilities for applications

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 Big Things In The Release

› License Entry Simplification

– Software enforced License keys removed
– License Usage Report required
› Password Management
› Mid-tier Performance Improvements
– Pre-fetch and Persistent Cache
› Server/CMDB Performance Improvements
– Multithreaded Escalations
– Disabled Status History
› Workflow and API Changes
– Native Java API
› Java Plug-in Server
› CMDB
– CI Viewer Enhancements
– EIE Packaging Changes and Enhancements

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 Feature Specifics

Enterprise Features

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 License Entry Simplification

› License Purchase Requirements Unchanged

› License Entry Method Is Changed
› Why?
– Decrease time to ROI
• Less time spent waiting on paperwork to clear or keys to be generated
– Reduced Customer Frustration
• License input process simplified
• Fewer issues when license maximums are reached
– Increase ability to monitor license usage
• Customers can self monitor
• BMC can audit

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 License Entry Changes

› Old license file removed

› New “AR System Licenses” form
– Accessible via AR System Administration Console
– Only AR Server license requires a key
• One license for each server in a Server Group
– Other license entries can be added or modified at any time
• Only one entry per license type
› License Usage is tracked
– Counts server and app licenses
– Floating user licenses in use (maintains “high water mark”)
– Fixed user licenses assigned (regardless of usage)
– License report data is updated every 45 minutes (not configurable)

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 License Entry Simplification – cont.

› Upgrade support
– Optional import of current licenses (v6 +)
• Import of license file during install
• Combines similar license type entries
• Manual import of license file at any time
– Data import to AR System License form
› If you only remember one thing, remember this:
– Licenses are not going away – only KEYS

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 Level Setting

Integrity Cheaters

Trusted Customer

› Provide tools and flexibility for Trusted Customers

– Executive decision
› Supported infrastructure for customer compliance concerns
– Reports may be sent to BMC for reconciliation

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 License Entry

› Most changes take effect on Save

– Un-licensing a server requires a restart

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 License Usage Report

› Produse.exe creates CSV file from tracked data

– Accessible from Administrator Console> System > General >Add or Remove Licenses
• Also available from command line on the server
– Summarizes license usage in CSV format

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 Password Management

› Out-of-the-box User Password Management

– Works for User accounts stored in AR System Only
– User will be able to change password anytime (require password)
– Changeable by the administrator group members at any time
– Not changeable by users other than the administrator or account holder
– Ability to force password reset of first login
– Enforceable Policies and Restrictions
• Includes at least one uppercase alphabetic character
• Includes at least one lowercase alphabetic character
• Requires a minimum of configurable number of characters
• Includes at least one non-alphanumeric (special) character
• Expires after xx number of days (account disabled)
› Why?
– Improved Security
– Frequent RFP requirement

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 Password Management Configuration

•When you check the box

and save a timestamp sets
the effective date for all
existing User form records

•Timestamp for new entries

is set from time you save the
record in the User form.

•Password restrictions are

enforced at the time of
password change

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 Password Management Additional Information

› Passwords that were created before policy enforcement will work until the
next scheduled required password change.
› The password reset can be configured to enforce based on individual
users.
› The settings on the user form will take precedence over the global settings.
› There are no group level settings, but workflow can be used as a
workaround to create group level settings by changing the user form
settings for all the users in a group.

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 Password Change Dialog

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 Escalation Pools

› Added ability to run multiple escalation threads

– Configured in the escalation queue (390603)
› Escalation definitions have a pool number property
– Pools are a logical entity that correspond to escalation threads
• i.e., Pool 1 escalations run on the “1st” thread
› Behavior is designed to default to the old model if only one thread is
defined
› Why?
– Improved performance
– Ability to create threads that are open for a specific function without conflict

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 Escalation Pool Assignment

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 Mid-tier Performance: Pre-fetch

› What is it?
– Enables an administrator to cache forms on the Mid-Tier when AR System starts up
• That way, the form is already loaded when the first user needs it
› Why?
– Increases performance for the user by removing the delay of loading the form when
first accessed.

› Additional info
– No more perl script
– Pre-fetch runs as Java thread at server start
– Configure using Mid-Tier Configuration Tool

Tips
› prefetchConfig.xml needs to be in WEB-INF/classes
› Can use external XML editor

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 Mid-tier Performance: Persistent Cache

› What is it?
– An option to write forms in memory to disk
› Why?
– Increases performance for the user because forms do not need to be re-cached from
the server if the Mid-Tier memory cache is lost (e.g. if the Mid-Tier is rebooted)
› Works in conjunction with pre-fetch
– has server content changed? If yes, reload; if not, use serialized files.
› Fine tune serialization policy in config.properties

Tips
› We use ehcache, so all fine tune properties are inherited from ehcache
› If Tomcat is running as a service on Windows, use the Tomcat Configuration Tool to
configure and start the service

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 Web Services Enhancements

› Web Services plug-in now supports SOAP 1.2

– when loading WSDL in WAT, it now shows ports that use SOAP 1.2
– minor changes when sending the SOAP message, like the namespace and
HTTP headers (SOAPAction and Content-Type)
› Created web services on User, Group, and Roles forms.
› AR Server’s API log now shows the schema name when a web
service is invoked.
› Why?
– Improved fit in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environments

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 New Browser and Server Support

› Safari 3.0 support

– Not supported until Mac OSX 10.5 is released
› 64-bit AR Server on HP Itanium (controlled release)
– 64 bit addressing, not 64 bit interger
– Shipments must be authorized through Product Management
• Contact your Sales Person
› Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
› SuSE Enterprise Linux 10
› HP-UX 11iv3
› DB2 9.x
› Vista support for Admin Tool
› FYI - Previously added in 7.0.01
– Firefox 2.0
– Internet Explorer 7
– Vista support for User Tool

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 Feature Specifics

Usability Features

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 Usability Enhancements

› Automatically detect popup blocker

– At login time
– Why?
• Reduces administration costs by directly
informing users if application is blocked
› Wait Cursor
– Enabled by default
– Can be disabled in config.properties
– arsystem.show_waiting_cursor=false
– Initial page loading
– Use for time consuming calls to server
• Submit, Modify, Modify All, Search, Refresh
– Why?
• Assures users that AR System is correctly
processing their request

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 Usability Enhancements

› Contextual Menus
– Table

– Attachment Pool

› Why?
– Enables more users to move to the web client
– Decreased administration of clients
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 Feature Specifics

Server Features

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 Enhanced Java API & New Java plug-in Server

› Significant revision of the AR System Java API

– Simplified interface
– Staging for “pure” Java implementation, thus remove native implementation
underneath
› New plug-in server implementation
– Completely Java based
– Existing plug-ins can be hosted, without having to re-write them
– Native plug-in server and Java plug-in server can co-exist
› Note: Java 5.0 is now the required minimum version of Java
› Why?
– Faster integration with Java based applications

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 Disable Status History

› Specified at the form level

› Status History table still exists when disabled
› Upon the act of disablement all existing H table entries are deleted
› When disabled no H table entries are inserted, updated, or read.
– Requests for status history field value return NULL
› Why?
– Increase performance on high throughput applications (e.g. CMDB)

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 Disable Status History Option Selection

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 Feature Specifics

Client Features

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 Table/Tree Enhancements

› Color in tree
– Similar to Results Color for Tables
– Color determined by value of an Enum field
– Color applied only to leaf nodes
– First leaf node determines the color

› Why?
– Users will be drawn more quickly to items of importance
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 Table/Tree Enhancement

› Customizable background color (Table only)

› Why?
– Users will be drawn more quickly to items of importance

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 Table/Tree Enhancements

› Locale aware table fields and tree fields

– Localize server
• Server Info
– Select the Localize Server check box.
• If set, shows only locale related data
– Field 160 “Locale”
• Add this field to a form to localize search menus.
• The system uses this field to search for requests matching the user’s locale.
• User’s locale pulled from Preference Server entry
– The server automatically appends a query to the search statement, in which
the special field value equals the user’s locale.
– Not applicable for Results List
› Why?
– Allows users to focus on items specific to their locale

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 Web UI Enhancements

› Page Holder Scroll Tabs

7.0.1

7.1

› Why?
– Ensure users see that more fields/tabs are available within their form
– Same look and feel as browser tabs

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 Web UI Enhancements

› Change label on Navigation bars through workflow

– Both horizontal and vertical Navigation
– Only applies to labels
– Cannot change Separator
– Gives more freedom to application designers to create informative and guiding labels
during workflow
› Open window maximized
– Admin Defined at the view level
– Applies anytime the form is opened except in Dialog mode
– Overwrites user preference
– Ensures users see all available fields upon opening an application
› Rounded corners for Trim Boxes
– Disabled by default
– Limitations
• Depth Effect has to be “None”
• Thickness <= 2
– arsystem.field.roundedCorners=true
– Provides a more pleasant look and feel
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 AR System Administration Console

One Stop Shopping for

Administration

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 Feature Specifics

CMDB 2.1 Features

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 CI Viewer

› Grouping Threshold
– Defines the max number of related CIs of the same class to show
– If greater than the threshold, the CIs will automatically be grouped
• Grouped Items displayed together as a folder icon
› Enhanced Tree Control
– Select items to show
– Show all items
– Hide all items
– Group Items
› Why?
– More granular control over viewing of CIs with many relationships

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 CI Viewer

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 CI Viewer

Patch CIs are shown as a Folder Icon since more than 2

are related to Computer System PC F5

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 CI Viewer

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 CI Viewer

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 CI Viewer

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 CI Viewer

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 CI Viewer

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 CI Viewer

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 CI Viewer

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 CDM Changes

› Several Bug Fixes, Attributes added

› New Classes to be used by Data Center Release Management
– CI – BMC_Settings and various product specific subclasses
– Relationship – BMC_SettingsOf

BMC_BaseElement

BMC_Settings

BMC_DatabaseSetting
(product-generic)
PortNumber

BMC_DatabaseMSSQLSetting
BMC_DatabaseMSSQLSetting BMC_DatabaseDB2Setting
BMC_DatabaseMSSQLSetting BMC_DatabaseOracleSetting
BMC_DatabaseMSSQLSetting
(product-specific) (product-specific) (product-specific)
Cursor_Sharing

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 Enhanced Documentation

› Two new product documents will ship with CMDB 2.1

– BMC® Atrium™ CMDB 2.1.00 Troubleshooting Guide
• Information about resolving issues with BMC Atrium CMDB components, including
API, filter, and console error messages and their solutions.
– Mapping Your Data to BMC Atrium CMDB Classes
• Mappings of common IT objects to the appropriate class in which to store them,
whether part of the Common Data Model or an extension. Also includes
information about further categorizing instances using key attributes.

› Class Descriptions and CDM Help Documentation has been updated

with more details of class and attribute usage.

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 Definitive Software Library

› Now ships with CMDB

› No longer requires the Dedicated Server License
› No longer dependant on installing another ITSM application
› Why?
– For use by discovery products
– DSL is part of the extended platform now

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 Feature Specifics

Integration Engine Features

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 Big Changes

› New Name – “Atrium Integration Engine”

› Packaging
– Ships with Atrium 2.1 to integrate with our CMDB (no additional cost)
– Can be purchased for integration with any other applications
• $25,000
– One product, multiple adapters
• Oracle (No longer a separate product)
• SQL (No longer a separate product)
• DB2 New!
• XML New!
• Flat file Improved!
› Why?
– More robust connectivity to CMDB
– Simplification of Licensing
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 Caveats

› XML adapter only supports class based relationships (not vendor)

› Remedy Link for SMS is not included
– Suggest customers migrate to using the SLQ adapter and mappings
– Customers can continue to use the 7.0 version of the SMS adapter

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 User Interface Improvements

› User Interface Improvements

– Clearer labeling
– Cleaner flow
› Updated Consoles
– DataExchange Console (EIE:Startup)
– CI Class Mappings Console
– Relationship Class Mapping Console
– AR System Form Mappings Console
– Connections Console (formerly Vendor Configuration)
– Database Field Menus Console (formerly Rule Helper)
– Integration Engine Application Console (formerly Apps setting)
– Instances Console (formerly EIE:Backupload)
– About Integration Engine Console

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 Other Features

› Flat File now supports CSV and Custom Delimited

› Detection of Hardware to suggest number of threads
› Improved Logging
› Supports IF THEN ELSE statement

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 Availability

› These products were released for download via BMC Electronic

Product Download

https://webapps.bmc.com/epd/

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