ALTIRIS Notification Connector Configuration Guide

ALTIRIS Notification Connector Configuration Guide

Notice Altiris Notification Connector Configuration Guide 2007 Altiris, Inc. All rights reserved. Document Date: February 27, 2007 Information in this document: (i) is provided for informational purposes only with respect to products of Altiris or its subsidiaries ( Products ), (ii) represents Altiris' views as of the date of publication of this document, (iii) is subject to change without notice (for the latest documentation, visit our Web site at www.altiris.com/support), and (iv) should not be construed as any commitment by Altiris. Except as provided in Altiris' license agreement governing its Products, ALTIRIS ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES RELATING TO THE USE OF ANY PRODUCTS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY THIRD-PARTY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. Altiris assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions contained in this document, and Altiris specifically disclaims any and all liabilities and/or obligations for any claims, suits or damages arising in connection with the use of, reliance upon, or dissemination of this document, and/or the information contained herein. Altiris may have patents or pending patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights that relate to the Products referenced herein. The furnishing of this document and other materials and information does not provide any license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any foregoing intellectual property rights. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written consent of Altiris, Inc. Customers are solely responsible for assessing the suitability of the Products for use in particular applications or environments. Products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, life sustaining, critical control or safety systems, or in nuclear facility applications. *All other names or marks may be claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Notification Connector Configuration Guide 2

Contents Preface............................................................... 4 Knowledge and Experience Assumptions........................................... 4 Contacting Us............................................................. 4 Corporate Headquarters and Sales............................................ 4 Support and Maintenance.................................................. 4 Customer Support.................................................... 5 : Installing and Using Notification Connectors................................. 6 What is a Notification Connector?................................................ 6 Installing the Altiris Helpdesk Connector........................................... 6 Installing the Remedy Help Desk Connector......................................... 7 Configuring the Altiris Helpdesk Connector......................................... 8 Configuring the Remedy Help Desk Connector....................................... 9 Connection Parameters.................................................... 9 Index................................................................ 10 8.5x11 Master Template 3

Preface Welcome to Altiris Notification Connector Configuration Guide. This guide explains how to install and configure notification connectors that enable the audit application to communicate with customer-relationship management (CRM) systems. Knowledge and Experience Assumptions This guide assumes that you are experienced in: auditing using Altiris products using one of the supported CRM systems Contacting Us Altiris, Inc. is a pioneer of IT lifecycle management software that allows IT organizations to easily manage, secure and service desktops, notebooks, thin clients, handhelds, industry-standard servers, and heterogeneous software including Windows, Linux, and UNIX. Altiris automates and simplifies IT projects throughout the life of an asset to reduce the cost and complexity of management. Corporate Headquarters and Sales 588 W. 400 S. Lindon, UT 84042 USA http://www.altiris.com Toll Free: +1 888 252 5551 Outside the US: +1 801 226 8500 Fax: +1 801 226 1812 Ask to speak to a sales representative about any sales issues, including the latest products, training, upgrade options, prices, and your software purchase. E-mail: security-sales@altiris.com If you have a technical question, however, please contact customer support. Support and Maintenance Annual support contracts include e-mail and telephone support. Annual Upgrade Protection, or AUP, allows registered software users to upgrade to any version of the registered product that is released during the coverage period without paying an upgrade charge and includes a subscription to the Policy File Library. This service is distinct from, and designed to work in conjunction with, customer support to give you the best possible experience with our products. Pricing and additional information about support and maintenance is available at http:// www.altiris.com/support. Altiris Notification Connector Configuration Guide 4

Customer Support We provide e-mail and telephone support to those who purchased a support plan. Before you contact customer support, please collect the following information: The version number of the software. The operating system on the computer running the software. Include the number of the last service pack installed, if applicable. The name and version number of the relational database you use with the software. The name and version number of the SIF file or SPF file involved, if applicable. The software s license key. A brief description of the problem with steps on how to reproduce it. Error messages you received, if any. E-mail: support@altiris.com Phone: +1 801 225 8500 Altiris Notification Connector Configuration Guide 5

Installing and Using Notification Connectors What is a Notification Connector? A notification connector is a middle layer between the audit application s notification engine and a customer-relationship-management (CRM) system. It implements a COM interface to convert a notification s incident information into a form understandable by the CRM system your organization uses. The audit application sends notification data to the connector in the form of XML documents. The connector converts the data from XML to the correct format and sends it to the CRM system. From there, the CRM system uses that data to create an incident or modify an existing one. Each notification connector is designed to connect to a specific CRM system. We offer notification connectors for the following systems: Altiris Helpdesk 6.0 or later Remedy Help Desk 5.1 or later Installing the Altiris Helpdesk Connector The Altiris Helpdesk notification connector is installed by default when you install the console audit application. If you think this connector didn t get installed, you can install it by performing a custom installation and selecting the Altiris Helpdesk connector as a component to be installed. To install the connector 1. Download the latest release to the computer you plan to use as the console. 2. Extract all installation files from the ZIP file to the computer where you ll be installing the software. 3. Double click on Setup.exe to start the installation wizard. The Setup wizard appears. 4. Click Next to continue. The End-User License Agreement dialog box appears. 5. Read the agreement and select the I accept the Terms of the License Agreement radio button. Then click Next. 6. In the Choose Setup Type dialog box, click the button. The Custom Setup dialog box appears. 7. In the tree, click the + next to Notification Connectors to expand the branch. This displays the different notification-connector Setup programs available. 8. Click the icon next to Altiris Helpdesk and select Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive from the drop-down menu that appears. Notification Connector Configuration Guide 6

Installing and Using Notification Connectors 9. Click the icon next to all other components and select Entire feature will be unavailable from the drop-down menu that appears. Then click Next. The Ready to Install dialog box appears. 10. Click Install to begin the installation. A status bar appears, showing the progress of the installation. 11. When the installation is complete, the Completing the Setup Wizard dialog box appears. Click Finish to close the wizard. Note In some cases, you need to restart the computer after installing. If you do, a message appears after you close the wizard, informing you to do so. Before you proceed, don t forget to restart the computer. Installing the Remedy Help Desk Connector If your organization uses the Remedy Help Desk CRM system, you ll need to install the Remedy Help Desk connector on the same computer as the console audit application. You ll also need to install Remedy s API DLL files on that same computer. You can install the Remedy Help Desk connector by running the console audit application s Setup program and selecting the Remedy Help Desk connector as a component to be installed. To install the connector 1. Download the latest release to the computer you plan to use as the console. 2. Extract all installation files from the ZIP file to the computer where you ll be installing the software. 3. Double click on Setup.exe to start the installation wizard. The Setup wizard appears. 4. Click Next to continue. The End-User License Agreement dialog box appears. 5. Read the agreement and select the I accept the Terms of the License Agreement radio button. Then click Next. 6. In the Choose Setup Type dialog box, click the button. The Custom Setup dialog box appears. 7. In the tree, click the + next to Notification Connectors to expand the branch. This displays the different notification-connector Setup programs available. 8. Click the icon next to Remedy Help Desk and select Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive from the drop-down menu that appears. 9. Click the icon next to all other components and select Entire feature will be unavailable from the drop-down menu that appears. Then click Next. The Ready to Install dialog box appears. 10. Click Install to begin the installation. A status bar appears, showing the progress of the installation. Notification Connector Configuration Guide 7

Installing and Using Notification Connectors 11. When the installation is complete, the Completing the Setup Wizard dialog box appears. Click Finish to close the wizard. Note In some cases, you need to restart the computer after installing. If you do, a message appears after you close the wizard, informing you to do so. Before you proceed, don t forget to restart the computer. To install Remedy s API DLL Files Remedy distributes these files, not Altiris. Since the Setup program for Remedy User s includes these DLL files, the easiest way to install them is to install Remedy User. 1. Install Remedy User on the same computer as the console audit application. See Remedy s documentation for instructions. Note If you do not install Remedy User in its default installation path, write down the path where you installed it. 2. Modify Altiris Remedy connector configuration file to indicate the version of Remedy User you installed and the installation path. The configuration file, installed when you installed Altiris Remedy connector, is in c:\program Files\Altiris\Security Management\consoleapp\Connectors\Remedy\remedyHDConfig.xml where consoleapp is either SecurityExpressions or AuditExpress. a. Open the XML file for editing. b. Modify the <arapi-dll> tag to indicate the version of Remedy User you installed and the path where you installed it. Example: <arapi-dll>c:\program Files\AR System\User\arapi63.dll</arapi-dll> c. Save and close the XML file. Configuring the Altiris Helpdesk Connector The Altiris Helpdesk configuration file, installed when you installed the Altiris Helpdesk notification connector, was written to recognize all of Altiris Helpdesk s default fields. If your organization uses custom fields in Altiris Helpdesk, you ll need to modify the configuration file to include these custom fields. To add custom fields to the configuration file 1. Open the configuration file, located in c:\program Files\Altiris\Security Management\conesoleapp\Connectors\AltirisHelpDesk\altirishelpdeskconfig.xml, where consoleapp is either SecurityExpressions or AuditExpress. 2. Much of the XML file is a series of <field> tags indicating the type, ID, name, and other parameters of the field. Within the <fields> section, add a <field> tag containing the appropriate parameters for the custom field. Notification Connector Configuration Guide 8

Installing and Using Notification Connectors Configuring the Remedy Help Desk Connector The Remedy Help Desk configuration file, installed when you installed the Remedy Help Desk notification connector, was written to recognize all of Remedy Help Desk s default fields. If your organization uses custom fields in Remedy Help Desk, you ll need to modify the configuration file to include these custom fields. We provide a tool, called deftocfg.vbs, that automatically generates the XML code for your organization s custom fields, which you can add to the configuration file. Like the configuration file, this tool was installed in c:\program Files\Altiris\Security Management\consoleapp\Connectors\Remedy\. To add custom fields to the configuration file 1. Open a DOS prompt. 2. Run the following command: cscript deftocfg.vbs < HPD%HelpDesk1.def > fields.xml This creates a file called fields.xml in c:\program Files\Altiris\Security Management\consoleapp\Connectors\Remedy\. This file contains the XML code for the custom fields. 3. Open fields.xml and copy the contents to the Clipboard. 4. Open remedyhdconfig.xml and paste the code within the <fields> section. Connection Parameters In addition to the <arapi-dll> tag you modified when you installed Remedy s API DLL files (see To install Remedy s API DLL Files on page 8), the <connect> section of the configuration file contains some tags you might have to modify if your Remedy system requires certain connection parameters. These tags are: <authentication> - parameter used by all Remedy versions <language> - parameter used by Remedy versions prior to, but not including, 6.3 <locale> - parameter used by Remedy 6.3 and later <time-zone> - parameter used by Remedy 6.3 and later To learn more about these parameters, see Remedy s documentation. Notification Connector Configuration Guide 9

Index A API DLL files from Remedy 7, 8 audit application 7 C COM interface 6 configuration files 8 9 connection parameters, Remedy 9 console audit application 7 customer support 5 customer-relationship-management (CRM) system 6, 7 D deftocfg.vbs 9 F fields, adding custom to Altiris connector 8 fields, adding custom to Remedy connector 9 I incident 6 S support 5 T technical support 5 Z ZIP file 6, 7 8.5x11 Master Template 10