Altiris® Connector™ 6.0 SP1 for Remedy Release Notes

Article:DOC1250

Created: 2006-10-16

Updated: 2006-11-03

Article URL http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC1250

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Description

Question
What do I need to know about the 6.0 SP1 release of Altiris® Connector™ for Remedy?

Answer

Release Notes
for Altiris® Connector™ 6.0 SP1 for Remedy

Installation and Upgrade

New Features in this Release

Fixes in this Release

Known Issues

Additional Documentation

Document History

Background

Altiris® Connector™ for Remedy software allows organizations to extend their investment in the BMC* Remedy* Action Request System* platform, and BMC* Remedy* Helpdesk and Asset Management applications with inventory data from Altiris’ award winning Altiris® Notification Server™ repository. This data is a powerful supplement to problem resolution, as well as asset and change management activities, and allows Remedy users to have accurate, detailed information available at their fingertips.

The connector works on simple principles. A Notification Server policy triggers the export of XML-formatted device data files on a scheduled, recurring basis and places them in a directory on the Notification Server file system. The data files are picked up by another scheduled process that collects the data and inserts or updates it within a special Remedy schema (included), using the Remedy API. After the data is in the Remedy system, the familiar Action Request System* tools, such as escalations and filters, can be used to maintain the Remedy Asset Management or Inventory repositories.

This approach enables all Remedy customers, whether they have an out-of-the-box Remedy application or a highly customized system, to benefit from having Altiris-generated device data available to support business processes. Because it is a supported product that uses easy to understand and manage components, it speeds implementation time, eliminates the need for custom “one-off” integration projects, and reduces costs.

The 6.0 version of Connector for Remedy represents a complete rewrite of the original Connector for Remedy and replaces it by providing compatibility with Notification Server 6.0 and Remedy Action Request System 6.x. Due to the considerable changes in the Altiris data model for 6.0, it was necessary to rewrite the connector from scratch using the new XML extract format provided by the Notification Server, a new XML parsing routine within the connector, new Altiris forms within the Remedy system to house the data, and new active links and filters to move the data within Remedy as desired.

Installation and Upgrade

New Installation

Open the Altiris Console.
Click the Configuration tab.
In the left tab, click Upgrade/Install Additional Solutions.
Click the Available Solutions tab.
Click the Segments button.
Select Connectors.
Select Altiris Connector Pack for Remedy.
Click Start. This installs Connector for Remedy to the Notification Server.

Upgrading from Connector 5.5 for Remedy

Before installing Connector 6.0 for Remedy, you must first uninstall Connector 5.5 for Remedy from the Notification Server and ensure that you are running the latest release of the Notification Server. Because this new version of the connector is designed for the new 6.0 level Altiris data model and 6.x version of Remedy, it shares virtually no components with previous releases. Because the new Remedy forms are different than the forms provided with the previous version, you should be able to simply apply the new forms to their Action Request System server and create the desired Remedy Active Links and Filters to move the Altiris data relevant to their needs into the Remedy Asset Management or Atrium* CMDB forms. You can can then remove the previous version of the connector’s forms.

After Upgrading to Connector 6.0 SP1 for Remedy

Following installation or upgrade to 6.0 SP1, the .DEF files must be manually imported using the Remedy Administrator’s import utility.

The altiris_extract_application.def file is the core component that should be imported for every site deploying the connector.

The altiris_itsm_asset_inventory.def file should be imported for sites running inventory (bundled with Remedy ITSM Help Desk* 5.6 and Remedy ITSM Change Management* 5.6 solutions).

For sites running the full version of Remedy ITSM Asset Management 5.6, the altiris_itsm_asset_management.def file should be imported.

New Features in this Release

Improvements for this release include the following new features:

Feature Description

1. Support For Current Platforms

Connector for Remedy supports Notification Server 6.0 SP3 and Remedy Action Request System 6.x

2. New Computers are Now Captured in the “changes only” Export 6.x

When running a “changes only” export, new computers added to the specified collection.

3. Enhanced Remedy Workflow logic

The connector agent now includes updated .DEF files that enhance workflow logic and scalability to large environments.

Note:
These files must be manually imported using the Remedy Administrator’s import utility.

The altiris_extract_application.def file is the core component that should be imported for every site deploying the connector.

The altiris_itsm_asset_inventory.def file should be imported for sites running inventory (bundled with Remedy ITSM Help Desk 5.6 and Remedy ITSM Change Management 5.6 solutions).

For sites running the full version of Remedy ITSM Asset Management 5.6, the altiris_itsm_asset_management.def file should be imported.

4. Export Configuration Page

The Export Configuration page loads faster than it has in previous releases.

Things to Know

Minimum of Notification Server 6.0 SP3 is required

Altiris® Connector™ 6.0 SP1 for Remedy requires Altiris® Notification Server™ 6.0 SP3 to be installed.

Be sure to select the minimum amount of data needed

The connector is capable of moving a lot of data into Remedy. As a result, we recommend that customers carefully consider the data classes and resource types to extract from the Notification Server such that only those items really needed within Remedy are extracted and moved into Remedy.

The connector can create supporting tables in Remedy automatically

Note: The auto-creation of supporting forms feature is not enabled by default.

In addition to the .DEF files included with the connector, the connector itself can create the necessary Remedy forms dynamically in order to store data classes that may be desired by the customer, but are not part of the standard .DEF file. The automatically generated tables could create some friction between Altiris administrators, Remedy administrators, and database administrators. Thus a discussion of this fact with relevant parties is advisable.

Some of the short descriptions in the supporting tables may have an ‘X’ in them by default

The short description fields are not needed for each resource but are required fields in Remedy. Other purpose-built fields will hold the descriptive information for resources instead.

Fixes in this Release

The following issues were resolved in this release. For additional information regarding a fixed issue, click the Article ID link for additional information.

Fixed Issue	Component	Article ID

Known Issues

The following are unresolved issues and workaround instructions for issues in this release:

Known Issue	Article ID

Additional Documentation

Altiris product documentation is available in Microsoft HTML Help* (.CHM) and Adobe Acrobat* (.PDF) formats. To view Altiris product documentation in .PDF format, use Adobe Acrobat Reader* (available at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).

Documentation files are installed in the following directory on the Notification Server computer: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\NSCap\Help.

The following documentation is provided with Connector for Remedy

Altiris Connector for Remedy Product Guide

You can access documentation from the Altiris Console by clicking the following icons in the upper-right corner of the console:

Access the contextual online help by clicking the online help icon .
Access an index of all installed help by clicking the index icon help index .

Altiris Information Resources

Source	What Information it Includes	Where to Find it
Altiris Documentation	Information about new features, update instructions, and known issues for each release. Includes Altiris formal documentation such as Release Notes, Help, Reference Guides, Best Practice Articles, and Technical Reference Articles.	http://www.altiris.com/support/documentation
Altiris Knowledgebase	Comprehensive collection of articles, incidents, and issues for Altiris solutions.	http://kb.altiris.com/
Altiris Juice: an online magazine for Altiris users	Best Practices, tips and tricks, and articles for users of Altiris solutions.	http://www.altiris.com/juice
Online Forums	Forums for Altiris solutions and suites.	http://forums.altiris.com/

Document History

Date	Changes
10/16/2006	The initial document version was posted to the Altiris Knowledgebase
11/02/2006	The document's formal edit #1 was completed
11/03/2006	The document's technical edit #2 was completed.
11/06/2006	The document's formal and technical edit requests were applied.

Legacy ID

28612