Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement - Cause Found - Work-around possible

2009-01-29 Thread Ben Chernys
Hi Guys,
 
Just to report back.  Turns out I was staring it in the face for too long.  
Very simple problem.  There are 4 Active Links that do NOT use the by Id Push 
Fields and are instead hard coded for BMC.CORE:BMC_ComputerSystem.  No wonder 
that the Sandbox Recon job had Defer NULLs on!  The Sandbox won't work for most 
attributes in even OOTB classes.  
 
The fix is to replicate these four ALs, once for each class and include all 
fields except a few core fields much as these work now.  There is a better fix 
because the workflow is convoluted at best and could be simplified.  the ALs 
change a few fields with Set Fields including the dataset id,  do the Push 
Fields the clean the dirty bit and do not save the record.  The Push in turn 
fires more workflow (filters) resulting in a separate push with the filter 
mentioned below.
 
The ALs in Q are:
 
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_CreateModify_EnabledSandBox_NothingInSandbox
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_CreateModify_EnabledSandBox_SomethingInSandbox
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_Dialog_EnabledSandBox_NothingInSandbox
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_Dialog_EnabledSandBox_SomethingInSandbox
 
I will automate the generation of the ALs so that when fields and classes 
change, the ALs can be maintained.  Besides, it would be too much form to map 
400+ fields for each of the classes in 4 different ALs the ALs with To make the 
set of ALs
 
Note the SandBox Enabled enum values in AST:AppSettings (0: Yes, 1: No) and 
those in the AST z1G SandBox Enabled (10: Yes, 20: No). That was fixed with 
another AL.
 
Note too that Defer NULLs should NOT be on in the Sandbox Recon job.
 
So indeed, the Sandbox has been problematic, and, of course, there's also the Q 
of why the Sandbox is there in the first place!
 
Enjoy the weekend.  
 
Ben
www.softwaretoolhouse.com
 

  _  

From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of P Romain ARSlist
Sent: January 29, 2009 10:42 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement


** 

I use cmdbdriver to generate new classes so that the class guids are what I 
want them to be.

 

  _  

From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of Ben Chernys
Sent: 28 January 2009 21:46
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: FW: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement

 

That is correct.  The Class Manager console was used.  cmdb2asset is no longer 
used.  The functionality is done with other processes now.  But yes, all done 
with OOTB facilities.  The IDs were auto-assigned.  (bad!) and (worse) so where 
the class guids!  My OOTB VM seems to work as well.  BUT, I have not made any 
new classes there and done a real experiment.

 

Cheers

Ben

 

  _  

From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of Lyle Taylor
Sent: January 28, 2009 10:32 PM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement

Ben,

 

You said something that I would like clarification on:

 

any attributes (of our hand-constructed classes using default Admin defined 
field ids)

 

(italics added)  Just to be certain I’m understanding things correctly, did you 
create these classes using the CMDB console using the functionality there for 
creating classes and adding attributes to them, or did you do any of this work 
in the Admin tool?  While I haven’t added any new classes, I have added a fair 
number of attributes to existing classes (although we used IDs specified from a 
specific range of IDs that we were using, rather than letting the system 
auto-assign IDs), and we never had a problem with the system not bringing these 
attributes into the sandbox, which is something that I think should be someone 
analogous to what you’re trying to do in the end.  While I’m not an expert on 
what happens when you use a sample schema, I would expect that the fact that 
“by ID” is selected, it should bring across all fields with matching IDs 
regardless of whether or not they’re in the sample schema – which it seem would 
have to be the case or the majority of the OOB classes would have this same 
issue.

 

Well, I guess there’s no useful information in the paragraph above.  I guess I 
really just want to confirm that the classes were all created using the CMDB 
console exclusively, and that any AST forms used to work with those classes 
were created using the CMDB2Asset utility so that the IDs of the fields on the 
asset forms and the CMDB forms all match up, regardless of whether they’re OOB 
or custom.

 

Lyle

 

From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of Ben Chernys
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1:57 PM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement

 

**  

Thanks Guys,

 

I agree with you.  I noticed the part that doesn't make sense but believe it or 
not I have a reasonable reason for using it.  As for auditing, we've had 

Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement - Cause Found - Work-around possible

2009-01-29 Thread Guillaume Rheault
Thanks for the thorough update
 
Looks like the sandbox was not properly QA'ed !! I'd like to see the test cases 
the QA tester used on the sandbox. 
This feature is touted a great deal by BMC sales, so you would think with all 
the exposure and fanfare, it would be solid and ready for prime time.
yeah right
 
-Guillaume



From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) on behalf of Ben Chernys
Sent: Thu 01/29/09 3:38 PM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement - Cause Found - Work-around 
possible


** ? 
Hi Guys,
 
Just to report back.  Turns out I was staring it in the face for too long.  
Very simple problem.  There are 4 Active Links that do NOT use the by Id Push 
Fields and are instead hard coded for BMC.CORE:BMC_ComputerSystem.  No wonder 
that the Sandbox Recon job had Defer NULLs on!  The Sandbox won't work for most 
attributes in even OOTB classes.  
 
The fix is to replicate these four ALs, once for each class and include all 
fields except a few core fields much as these work now.  There is a better fix 
because the workflow is convoluted at best and could be simplified.  the ALs 
change a few fields with Set Fields including the dataset id,  do the Push 
Fields the clean the dirty bit and do not save the record.  The Push in turn 
fires more workflow (filters) resulting in a separate push with the filter 
mentioned below.
 
The ALs in Q are:
 
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_CreateModify_EnabledSandBox_NothingInSandbox
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_CreateModify_EnabledSandBox_SomethingInSandbox
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_Dialog_EnabledSandBox_NothingInSandbox
ASI:SHR:GenericSave_003_Dialog_EnabledSandBox_SomethingInSandbox
 
I will automate the generation of the ALs so that when fields and classes 
change, the ALs can be maintained.  Besides, it would be too much form to map 
400+ fields for each of the classes in 4 different ALs the ALs with To make the 
set of ALs
 
Note the SandBox Enabled enum values in AST:AppSettings (0: Yes, 1: No) and 
those in the AST z1G SandBox Enabled (10: Yes, 20: No). That was fixed with 
another AL.
 
Note too that Defer NULLs should NOT be on in the Sandbox Recon job.
 
So indeed, the Sandbox has been problematic, and, of course, there's also the Q 
of why the Sandbox is there in the first place!
 
Enjoy the weekend.  
 
Ben
www.softwaretoolhouse.com
 



From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of P Romain ARSlist
Sent: January 29, 2009 10:42 AM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement


** 

I use cmdbdriver to generate new classes so that the class guids are what I 
want them to be.

 



From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of Ben Chernys
Sent: 28 January 2009 21:46
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: FW: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement

 

That is correct.  The Class Manager console was used.  cmdb2asset is no longer 
used.  The functionality is done with other processes now.  But yes, all done 
with OOTB facilities.  The IDs were auto-assigned.  (bad!) and (worse) so where 
the class guids!  My OOTB VM seems to work as well.  BUT, I have not made any 
new classes there and done a real experiment.

 

Cheers

Ben

 



From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) 
[mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of Lyle Taylor
Sent: January 28, 2009 10:32 PM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: ITSM Issue with Sandbox Enablement

Ben,

 

You said something that I would like clarification on:

 

any attributes (of our hand-constructed classes using default Admin defined 
field ids)

 

(italics added)  Just to be certain I'm understanding things correctly, did you 
create these classes using the CMDB console using the functionality there for 
creating classes and adding attributes to them, or did you do any of this work 
in the Admin tool?  While I haven't added any new classes, I have added a fair 
number of attributes to existing classes (although we used IDs specified from a 
specific range of IDs that we were using, rather than letting the system 
auto-assign IDs), and we never had a problem with the system not bringing these 
attributes into the sandbox, which is something that I think should be someone 
analogous to what you're trying to do in the end.  While I'm not an expert on 
what happens when you use a sample schema, I would expect that the fact that 
by ID is selected, it should bring across all fields with matching IDs 
regardless of whether or not they're in the sample schema - which it seem would 
have to be the case or the majority of the OOB classes would have this same 
issue.

 

Well, I guess there's no useful information in the paragraph above.  I guess I 
really just want to confirm that the classes were all created using the CMDB 
console