Event Manager. LANDesk Service Desk

Event Manager LANDesk Service Desk

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE This document contains information that is the proprietary and confidential property of LANDesk Software, Inc. and/or its affiliated companies ("LANDesk"). This document and its contents may not be disclosed or copied without the prior written consent of LANDesk. Nothing in this document constitutes a guaranty, warranty, or license, express or implied. LANDesk disclaims all liability for all such guaranties, warranties, and licenses, including but not limited to: fitness for a particular purpose; merchantability; noninfringement of intellectual property or other rights of any third party or of LANDesk; indemnity; and all others. LANDesk products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining applications. The reader is advised that third parties can have intellectual property rights that can be relevant to this document and the technologies discussed herein, and is advised to seek the advice of competent legal counsel, without obligation of LANDesk. LANDesk retains the right to make changes to this document or related product specifications and descriptions at any time, without notice. LANDesk makes no warranty for the use of this document and assumes no responsibility for any errors that can appear in the document nor does it make a commitment to update the information contained herein. Copyright 2011, LANDesk Software, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. LANDesk and its logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of LANDesk Software, Inc. and its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others. Document number LDSD\011 Issue 1.0 2

Contents Contents 3 LANDesk Event Manager 5 Event Manager concepts 6 Event Manager components 7 Setting privileges for Event Manager 8 Configuring Event Manager 11 Setting up Event Manager 12 Using the Event Manager component 14 Automated round-trip request fulfilment 21 Automated request fulfilment overview 22 Creating the Service Request object 23 Setting up attributes to pass information to MAP 25 Designing the MAP workflow 26 Creating the Integration Process Source 28 Adding a Process Action 29 Defining the event 29 Mapping the event attributes 30 Troubleshooting 33 Message logging 34 Testing the Event Manager Web Service 34 Index 35

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LANDesk Event Manager This chapter describes the basic concepts of Event Manager, including an overview of the separate components that comprise the application. It also describes the additional installation steps you need to complete before you can configure it. You can find out about: Event Manager concepts on page 6 Event Manager components on page 7 Setting privileges for Event Manager on page 8

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Event Manager concepts LANDesk Service Desk Event Manager enables you to configure Service Desk so that events from systems outside of the LANDesk Service Desk Suite can create and progress Service Desk processes. Event Manager can integrate with any third party application that can launch an application using a command line or URL with parameters when an event is required. NOTE: A list of third party network management tools tested by LANDesk is provided in the Other integrated products section of the Supported Platforms Guide. These can either be events that were triggered independently of Service Desk, such as from your network monitoring tools, or events that were initially triggered by Service Desk and then handled by another tool such as LANDesk Management Automation Platform (MAP). These two types of event are described separately. Network source events You can configure Event Manager so that if it receives a System Down event for a known Configuration Item (CI) from a Network Management System, then Service Desk creates a new incident for that CI. If Event Manager subsequently receives a System Reboot event for the CI, then Service Desk could add a note to the incident. You could, if required, then configure Event Manager to resolve the incident in Service Desk if it receives a System Up event although you might prefer an analyst to be notified of the System Up event to provide further investigation of what had happened. If Network Management System gives... System Down event for CI#1 System Reboot event for CI#1 System Up event for CI#1 then LANDesk Service Desk... Creates new incident for CI#1 Adds note to incident Resolves incident Service Desk maintains a list of active events so that it can identify and match updates to existing processes. Rules are put in place to manage the list of events to prevent the list filling with unwanted data. You can configure these "housekeeping" rules within the Event Manager component of Service Desk. NOTE: Event Manager is highly configurable, so it is very important that you take great care when configuring both your external system and Event Manager to make sure you are getting the results you expect. Advice is given throughout on how to validate your system. For further information, see Troubleshooting on page 33. NOTE: Event Manager will not reopen processes. If a process for a CI is closed (at an End status) and Event Manager receives an event that tries to update that process, then that event is ignored - even if the action is available at the End status. If Event Manager receives an event that creates a new process for the CI, then it creates a new process rather than re-opening an existing process. You need to put in place mechanisms to identify CIs that repeatedly fail. Event Manager provides two modes of operation: a synchronous "Send Event" that processes the event when it is received, and an asynchronous "Post Event" that is queued until the Event Service next polls. If you want the event to be processed immediately, use the slightly less efficient Send event; if the event does not need to be processed immediately, use the Post event. The method that is used is defined by which Event Manager command line executable you call from your third party application. NOTE: For more information about configuring Event Manager for network source events, see Configuring Event Manager on page 11. 6

LANDESK EVENT MANAGER Integration process source events In addition to processing events that were initiated in external applications, you can also configure Service Desk to call an external application and then to listen for that application to reply that is has completed the requested tasks. For example, you can create a Service Desk process that has an action that asks LANDesk MAP to deploy some software or create an Active Directory account. MAP handles this request, and then sends back information to Service Desk that Event Manager uses to identify the original process and the subsequent steps to take to complete the Service Desk process. This enables you to create automated Service Requests. Service Desk identifies which user requires which service, and handles any authorisations required. This information is then passed to MAP, which manages the request. When MAP has completed the request, it sends this information back to Service Desk so that the Service Request can be completed, and any links between users and services can be updated. NOTE: For more information about configuring Service Desk with Event Manager to provide request automation using integration process source events, see Automated round-trip request fulfilment on page 21. Event Manager components Event Manager uses several components in addition to the external system it is integrated with. The diagram below gives an overview of Event Manager's system architecture. 1 Database server, hosts the Event table 2 Web server, hosts the Event Manager web service application 3 Service Desk Application server, hosts the Event Manager Service 4 Third party application server, hosts the third party application and the LANDesk Event Manager Event Logging executables 5 Service Desk client, hosts the Event Manager Configuration component NOTE: Apart from the Event Logging executables, all of the LANDesk components are installed using the Service Desk Suite installer (for more information, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Setup Guide, and Setting up the Event Logging executables on page 13). 7

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Event table The Event table in the Service Desk database records all events that are received from the external source. A query is provided to enable you to view the contents of this table for troubleshooting purposes. Post events are added to the table when they are received; Send events are added after the corresponding event has been processed by Service Desk. Event records remain in the Event table to enable subsequent events for a CI to be matched to open processes. The event records are removed from the Event table either when the corresponding process reaches an end status (for example, Incident closed), or after a configurable amount of inactive time (up to one month) if there is no associated process. Event Manager Web Service application The Event Manager Web Service application on the Web Server passes Send or Post events from the external application to the Event table. Event Manager service The Event Manager Service running on the Service Desk Application server controls the polling of the Event table and the housekeeping of the entries within the table. Event Logging executables Two command line executables are provided with Event Manager that Send and Post events as defined by the parameters passed to them. You need to copy these files to the third party application server during the setup of Event Manager. NOTE: You need to configure your third party application to send a suitable command line string for these executables. The configuration of this will depend on the third party application that you are using. Refer to the documentation provided with your third party application for details about configuring the broadcasting of events as command lines. For information about the command line parameters, see Setting up the Event Logging executables on page 13. NOTE: You can also use a URL to log events. For more information, see Logging events using a URL on page 14. Event Manager component You run the Event Manager component from the Service Desk Console. This component enables you to configure Event Manager. Setting privileges for Event Manager Access to the Service Desk component that you use to configure Event Manager is privileged using the Service Desk Administration component. You can give the Event Manager privilege either to a group or a role. NOTE: For more information about users, groups, roles, and privileges, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Administrator Guide. To set the Event Manager privilege: 1. From the Administration shortcut group in Service Desk, start the Administration component. 2. At the bottom of the Administration panel, click. The User Management tree appears. 3. From the User Management tree, select the required group or role, then in the Actions list, click Privileges. The Privileges panel appears. 8

LANDESK EVENT MANAGER 4. On the Privilege tree, expand the Configuration Components branch, then double-click Configuration. The Configuration privileges appear. 5. Set the required privilege for Event Manager Configuration, then click. The privilege is set. NOTE: To change a privilege from (available) to (unavailable), double-click it. Adding the Event Manager component to the Shortcut bar The Event Manager component might not be added to the shortcut bar in Service Desk. To add the Event Manager component to the console Shortcut bar: 1. Right-click the Shortcut group that you want to add the Event Manger component to, then click Add Component. The Component Maintenance dialog appears. 2. In the Select Component list, select Event Manager, then click OK. The Event Manager component is added to the Shortcut bar. 9

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Configuring Event Manager This chapter describes how to configure Event Manager to log and update processes in response to external events. You can find out about: Setting up Event Manager on page 12 Scheduling and house keeping on page 15 Configuring the Network Event Source on page 16 Adding further process actions on page 17 Mapping event attributes to process attributes on page 17 Setting the conditions that trigger an action in a process on page 19

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Setting up Event Manager Before you can use Event Manager, there are certain additional steps you need to take to complete its setup: 1. The Event Manager Web Service application needs to be created on the Service Desk Web server. 2. The Event Manager Service needs to be created on the Service Desk Application Services server. NOTE: These first two items are part of the LANDesk Service Desk Suite installation see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Setup Guide for more information. 3. The Event Manager Web Service application needs to be configured to log on using a System user account. NOTE: For information about configuring the Event Logging web service, see Configuring the Event Manager Web Service application on page 12. 4. The third party application needs to be configured to broadcast events for the Event Logging executables to use. NOTE: For information about configuring your third party application, refer to the documentation provided with that application. For information about installing the Event Logging executables, see Setting up the Event Logging executables on page 13. 5. Privileges to use the Event Manager component in the Service Desk console need to be given to the appropriate groups or roles. NOTE: For information about setting this privilege, see Setting privileges for Event Manager on page 8. Configuring the Event Manager Web Service application To enable the Event Manager Web Service application to access the Service Desk Framework, you need to configure its connection details using the Service Desk Configuration Centre. To configure the connection details for the Event Manager Web Service application: 1. In a web browser, open http://server_name/servicedesk.configurationcentre. Where server_name is the name of the server where you installed Service Desk. The LANDesk Service Desk Configuration Centre login page appears. 2. Enter the login details, then click Log On. By default, the User Name is sa, and the Password is administrator. NOTE: For more information about the LANDesk Service Desk Configuration Centre, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Setup Guide. 3. Open the required Service Desk instance, then under Configured Applications, click Edit next to Event Manager Web Service. The Edit Application dialog appears. 4. Complete the Configuration parameters group box as required, then click OK. The Event Manager Web Service application is configured. 12

CONFIGURING EVENT MANAGER Setting up the Event Logging executables To enable your third party application to communicate with the Event Manager services, you need to copy two *.exe files from your Service Desk Web Server to the third party system. There are two executables available to run from your network management tool: PostEvent.exe and SendEvent.exe. PostEvent.exe creates an event that is processed when the Event Manager service next polls, SendEvent.exe processes the event immediately. We recommended that you use PostEvent.exe in normal use. To set up the Event Logging executables: 1. From the C:\Program Files (x86)\landesk\service Desk\WebApp\EventManagement\EventLogging folder on the Service Desk Web server, copy the following files to a location on your third party application server that the user account running the third party application can access. PostEvent.exe PostEvent.exe.config SendEvent.exe SendEvent.exe.config EventSender.dll 2. In a text editor, open PostEvent.exe.config and SendEvent.exe.config. 3. In both of the config files, edit the line: <value>http://localhost/eventlogservice/eventlog.asmx</value> so that it points to the URL for the Event Manager web application that was installed with the Service Desk Suite. This is usually on your Service Desk Web server. 4. Configure your third party application so that it sends a command line string to call either PostEvent.exe or SendEvent.exe. NOTE: For information about configuring command line outputs from your third party application, see the documentation provided with that application. The command line is of the form: PostEvent "<Event Source>" "<Event Type>" "<Event Title>" "[<Description>]" "[<Configuration Item>]" "[<Priority>]" "[<Status>]" "[<Parameter1>]" "[<Parameter2>]" "[<Parameter3>]" IMPORTANT: The parameters must be in the order specified above. Event Source, Event Type, and Event Title are mandatory parameters. The remaining parameters, shown in [square brackets], are optional. For example: PostEvent "SolarWinds" "SystemDown" "Server Down" "Server is Down" "WebServer1" "" "Status_BAD" Uses the PostEvent executable, and sets values for Event Source, Event Type, Event Title, Description, and Configuration Item, sets no value for Priority, and then sets a value for Status. The Event Source, Event Title and Description parameters can be any text of your choice to describe the event. These are then used in the event conditions you configure in the Event Manager component. 13

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Logging events using a URL If your third party application cannot run the Event Logging executables (for example from a Linux server), you can generate events using a URL that contains the parameters required for the event included in it. There are two URLs you can use: PostMessage.aspx and SendMessage.aspx. PostMessage.aspx creates an event that is processed when the Event Manager service next polls, SendMessage.aspx processes the event immediately. We recommend that you use PostMessage.aspx in normal use. NOTE: For information about configuring URL outputs from your third party application, see the documentation provided with that application. The URL required is of the form: http://server/eventlogservice/postmessage.aspx?source=<event Source>&type=<Event Type>&title=<Event Title>[&desc=<Description>&ci=<Configuration Item>&priority=<Priority>&status=<Status>&p1=<Parameter1>&p2=<Parameter2>&p3=<Parameter3>] where server/eventlogservice is the name of the server and virtual directory that host the Event Logging web service (usually the Service Desk Web server). NOTE: All parameters from <Description> onwards are optional. For example: http://server/eventlogservice/postmessage.aspx?source=nagios&type=server Down&title=Server is Down&ci=WebServer1&status=Status_BAD NOTE: The easiest way to launch a URL from a Linux application is to use the wget command. The syntax to run the request silently and not save the result is as follows: wget -q "http://server/eventlogservice/postmessage.aspx?source=..." -O /dev/null Using the Event Manager component The Event Manager component in the LANDesk Service Desk console enables you to configure Event Manager. The Event Manager component When you start the Event Manager component, a query list appears on the right of the console. This query is the default query that is set for the Event Management module. If no query list appears, you need to use the Query Designer to create a query based on the Event Management module, then set this as the Default Query in the Properties grid for the Events object under the Event Management module in Object Designer. NOTE: For more information about creating queries and specifying a default query for an object, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Designer Guide. 14

CONFIGURING EVENT MANAGER Scheduling and house keeping If you are using Post events, you need to set how frequently the Events table is monitored for new events that need processing. Also, you can configure how the house keeping of the Events table is managed. (The house keeping rules define how unneeded entries are removed from the Events table.) To configure the Event Manager scheduling: 1. In the Event Manager Configuration tree, select Schedule, then in the Actions list, click Modify Schedule. The Event Manager Schedule dialog appears. 2. If you are using any Post events, select the Enable polling for event check box, and set the Poll Period (in minutes). 3. If you want to enable Event Manager's house keeping features, select the Enable House Keeping check box, then complete the remaining House Keeping options: House Keeping Period (in minutes) how frequently Event Manager deletes unneeded entries from the Event table. Remove Entries from Closed Processes select this to delete entries in the Event table that correspond to Service Desk processes that have reached an End status. Remove Processed Integration Events select this to delete processed integration events. You will usually select this check box, except when trying to identify issues with your setup. Keep Unprocessed Events for (in days) how long entries that have no Service Desk process associated with them are kept before being deleted. You can use this period to identify entries in the Event table that either need actions creating for them (see Setting the conditions that trigger an action in a process on page 19), or adjust your third party application so that these entries in the Event table are not created. NOTE: We strongly recommend that you implement the house keeping features of Event Manager, and that you also monitor the Event table regularly. This will help you to avoid a large number of entries that will not be processed remaining in the table. This is particularly important after the initial setup or after making changes to the system. 15

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Configuring the Network Event Source You need to create a Network Event Source that defines which entries in the Event table constitute a single Service Desk process. For example, which external events are all part of the same incident. Typically, an Event from the same third party application for the same CI would correspond to a single Service Desk process: for example, if your network management system logged an event for Server_01, and then logged another incident for Server_01, then these two events would be considered to be a part of the same Incident. To configure a Network Event Source: 1. Select the Event Manager node at the top of the Event Manager Configuration tree, then in the Actions list, click Create Network Source. The Event Source dialog appears. 2. In the Event Source Name box, type the name that you want to use to identify it by. 3. In the Module list, select the required Service Desk module. NOTE: For example, Incident Management. 4. In the Process list, select the process that you want to associate with the Event Source. 5. Optionally, in the Template list, select the process template that you want to associate with the Event Source. NOTE: For information about designing processes and templates, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Designer Guide. 6. In the Event Identification list, select the attributes that will define an instance of a process. Typically, this will be Event Source and Configuration Item. 16

CONFIGURING EVENT MANAGER 7. When you want to activate this Event Source, select the Enable this Event Source check box, then click OK. A new branch for the Network source is added to the Configuration tree in Event Manager with the icon. All events must have a Create Process event definition, so one of these is also created beneath the new Network source branch. NOTE: You can modify and delete Network sources from the Configuration tree using the appropriate actions from the Actions list. However, after you have created a Network source, you cannot change the process that is associated with it, because this could invalidate any attribute mappings that had previously been configured. Adding further process actions When you create a new Network source, a process action called Create Process is created automatically for the event, because each event source must have a create process associated with it. However, you will often want to define further process actions to progress the process that was created by Event Manager. For example, if your external system reports that the CI is not responding, Event Manager could log an incident for this event. If your external system later reports that the CI is working again, you could configure Event Manager to automatically resolve the incident it logged earlier, or to add a note or assignment to it. To add further process actions: 1. In the Event Manager Configuration tree, select the required network source, then in the Actions list, click Add Process Action. The Add Process Action dialog appears. 2. In the Process Action list, select the action that you want to add, then click OK. A new process action is added to the Configuration tree beneath the selected Network source branch. WARNING: You can select ANY of the actions that are available at ANY status for the Event Source's process. If you choose an action that is unavailable at the process's current status when Event Manager tries to run the action, then the action will fail. We recommend that you design a specific process for use by Event Manager that has all of the actions that you specify in Event Manager available at every status, or that in Event Manager you choose only optional actions that are available at every status. Mapping event attributes to process attributes When you have created an event action, you need to map the Event Manager attributes that have been added to the Event table by your external system to attributes on the business object for the Service Desk process. To map event attributes to process attributes: 1. In the Event Manager Configuration tree, select Mapping beneath the required process action, then in the Actions list, click Modify Mapping. The Mapping dialog appears. 17

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE 2. Drag the Source attributes (from the external application) to the corresponding Target (Service Desk) attributes. WARNING: Make sure you map Source attributes to Target attributes that are of the same data type. WARNING: Certain attributes on both the Target and the Source are unsuitable for mapping, because they have special meanings within the application. From the Source attributes, DO NOT map: Creation Date Exception Guid Is Processed Last Update Process DO NOT map to Target attributes that have special properties in Service Desk, such as: Reference Number Status Raise Date and so on. NOTE: When you map Source attributes to Target attributes that are on related objects, you can map only to the "Is Name" attribute on the Target (Service Desk) object. 3. When you have configured the required mappings, click OK. 18

CONFIGURING EVENT MANAGER Setting the conditions that trigger an action in a process When you have specified what events define a single instance of a process, and specified the Target to Source attribute mappings, you need to define the conditions that cause a record in the Event table to log a process or trigger an action in a process. To set the conditions for an action: 1. In the Event Manager Configuration tree, select the required process action, then in the Actions list, click Define Event. The Event Definition dialog appears. 2. Type an Event Name for identification. 3. Under the Conditions list, click Add. The Event Conditions dialog appears. 4. Complete the Attribute, Condition, and Value for the event condition, then click OK. The event condition is added to the Conditions list on the Event Definition dialog. The only conditions available are Equals and Contains; the Value is not case-sensitive. 5. Use the Add, Modify, and Delete buttons to complete the set of conditions that define the event. The conditions are combined using the AND operator - that is ALL of the conditions that you specify have to be met to trigger the process action. NOTE: The Test button enables you to view a list of the Event table entries that will be selected by the conditions you have set. You can use this to confirm that you have configured the conditions correctly. 19

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE 6. When you have set the required conditions, click OK. The Event Definition is added to the Configuration tree, beneath the appropriate Process Action. 7. Add other Event Definitions for the Process Action as required. It could be that several different sets of event conditions result in the same action in Service Desk. 20

Automated round-trip request fulfilment This chapter describes how to configure automated round-trip request fulfilment in Service Desk. This enables you to design Request processes that integrate with LANDesk Management Automation Platform (MAP), which then fulfils the request and reports back to Service Desk, so that the Request process can be completed. You can find out about: Automated request fulfilment overview on page 22 Creating the Service Request object on page 23 Setting up attributes to pass information to MAP on page 25 Designing the MAP workflow on page 26 Creating the Integration Process Source on page 28 Adding a Process Action on page 29 Defining the event on page 29 Mapping the event attributes on page 30

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Automated request fulfilment overview Service Desk provides extensive integration between itself and LANDesk Management Suite (LDMS) through LANDesk Management Automation Platform (MAP). Together, these applications enable you to include features such as automated request fulfilment and software deployment as part of your standard service delivery: LANDesk Service Desk provides a customer-centred process to manage service requests from endusers. MAP takes these requests from Service Desk and provides interfaces to tools such as LDMS to automate the delivery of the service request. It also passes results back to Service Desk to enable Service Desk to provide feedback to the end-user and to enable the analyst to close the service request. LDMS provides automated software and patch deployment. To enable this integration, you add a behaviour to a Service Desk object so that each time an instance of that object is created, updated, or deleted, an entry is added to a Queue table (tps_event_queue). This table can then be read by MAP, which processes this data and acts on the information provided. When MAP has completed its workflow, it returns a set of values to the inbound Events table (ev_event). These values include data to identify the original process, so that Event Manager can progress the original Service Desk process appropriately. In the previous chapter (Configuring Event Manager on page 11), you learned how to configure Event Manager to integrate with external applications (such as the SolarWinds Orion network management tool) to create and then progress Service Desk processes. In this chapter, you learn how to configure Event Manager to progress processes that it had not created itself by creating an Integration Process Source that identifies and processes values in the inbound Events table that originate from MAP. 1 in Service Desk, a user clicks an action that creates an object with the behaviour Event Generator. This automatically adds an entry into the tps_event_queue queue table that includes an identifier for the specific process instance and other configurable information that can be used to direct MAP. 2 a MAP database listener reads the queue table entry. 3 MAP fulfils the service request using the data sent to it, either using Active Directory actions or by using other products that have MAP web interfaces, such as LANDesk Management Suite. 22

AUTOMATED ROUND-TRIP REQUEST FULFILMENT 4 MAP calls the Service Desk Event Manager web service, which then adds an entry to the inbound Event Manager queue table (ev_event). This entry identifies the original process instance in Service Desk and provides other appropriate data that Event Manager can interpret and act on. 5 Service Desk reads the Event Manager queue table entry and processes the data returned by MAP. 6 the Service Desk process continues according to the information passed back by MAP. For example, you could design the process to proceed via different paths depending on whether the MAP actions succeeded or not. There are four steps to configuring Service Desk to integrate with MAP: 1. Create and configure the Service Desk object and action that will be used to initiate the service request. For more information, see Creating the Service Request object on page 23. 2. Design the Service Desk process that you want to use with the above object. For more information, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Designer Guide. 3. Set up MAP to have the required database listener, workflows and integrations with LANDesk Management Suite. For more information, see Designing the MAP workflow on page 26 and refer to the documentation provided with MAP and LANDesk Management Suite. 4. Set up the Integration Process Source in Event Manager. For more information, see Creating the Integration Process Source on page 28. NOTE: Request Management processes and queries that incorporate examples of much of this functionality are described in the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Default Configuration document; the rest of this section describes how to implement request functionality in the Request Management module. Creating the Service Request object The first stage of setting up the integration between Service Desk and MAP is to create an appropriate object in Service Desk that will initiate the service request. To provide request fulfilment as part of a Service Desk process, the object needs to be related to the Top Level object for the module, and have the Event Generator behaviour. Whenever an instance of an object with the Event Generator behaviour is created, updated, or deleted, an entry is added to a Queue table that can be read by MAP. To set up an object for integration with MAP: 1. In Service Desk, start the Object Designer component and select the module that you want to use for the service request, for example, Request Management. 2. In the Actions list, click New Business Object. The Behaviour Selection dialog appears, asking if you want to specify a behaviour. 23

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE 3. Click Yes. The Behaviour Selection dialog appears. 4. In the Available Items list, select Event Generator, then click. Event Generator moves to the Selected Items list. 5. Click OK. The Behaviour Selection dialog closes. 6. Type a name for the object, for example, Service Request, then click to save the changes to the object. You are asked if you want to create the Name attribute. 7. Click Yes, then add any further attributes you require to the object. NOTE: Unlike most behaviours, you can remove the Event Generator behaviour from a saved object at a later date. Click alongside Behaviours in the Properties grid to redisplay the Behaviour Selection dialog, then select Event Generator in the Selected Items list, and click. When you have created the object, there are two further steps that you need to complete before you can use it as part of a request fulfilment process. You need to relate it to the Top Level object for the module, and set the Is Owner value to true for that relationship on your new object. This enables Event Manager to relate the business object with the instance of the process that created it. NOTE: You can add the Event Generator behaviour to any object, not only those related to a top-level object. However, we recommend that you use this behaviour only as part of a Service Desk process, as described in this document. In particular, avoid adding this behaviour to objects that are automatically updated by Service Desk, such as User. The User record is updated every time the user logs in, so if you add the Event Generator behaviour to the User object, then a new row would be added to the Queue table every time a user logs in. To relate your object to the Top Level object: 1. In the Business Objects tree of Object Designer, select the Top Level object for the module that contains your new object. (For example, Request in the Request Management module.) 2. Drag this object onto the new Service Request object that you made in the previous procedure. You are told that a relationship has been created, and asked if you want to be able to access all related instances of Service Request from Request. 24

AUTOMATED ROUND-TRIP REQUEST FULFILMENT 3. Click Yes. A relationship to Incident appears on the Service Request object ( ), and a collection of Service Requests appears on the Request object ( ). We now need to set Request as the owner of Service Request, so that when you create a Service Request, MAP knows the specific Request identifier that corresponds with each Service Request. 4. In the Business Objects tree, double-click the Service Request object you have just created. The attributes for the object appear in the Attributes tree. 5. In the Attributes tree, select the Request relationship ( ). 6. In the Properties grid, set Is Owner to True, then save the changes. You now need to create the action that will be used in the Service Desk Process Designer to create the Service Request. To create the Service Request action: 1. In Object Designer, display the Request object. 2. In the Attributes list, select Service Request Collection, then in the Actions list, click Manage Actions. The Manage Actions window appears. 3. Click Add. A new action is added. 4. In the Title box, type the name of the action that will create a new Service Request item on the Request. For example, type Create Service Request. 5. In the Action type list, click Create Related. 6. Click OK, then save the changes to the object. Setting up attributes to pass information to MAP You can configure a Service Desk object that has the Event Generator behaviour to pass some of its attributes as parameters to MAP. MAP can then use these parameters to control its workflows. To do this, you add Event Attribute Index values to attributes on objects that have the Event Generator behaviour, such as your Service Request object. To configure the Event Attribute Index for your object: 1. In Object Designer, select the attribute that you want to pass as a parameter to MAP. 2. In the Properties grid, type a number between 1 and 20 in the Event Attribute Index field. NOTE: The parameters will appear in MAP as tps_attribute1 (for the object where the Event Attribute Index field is set to 1) through tps_attribute20. NOTE: Strings with Max. Length set to -1 must have an Event Attribute Index set to 16 through 20. Because of this, in MAP, tps_attribute1 through tps_attribute15 can contain up to 100 characters, whereas tps_attribute16 through tps_attribute20 can contain unlimited nvarchar values. NOTE: The Event Attribute Index property is not available for the data type Attachment. WARNING: Do not use the same index number more than once on the same object. 3. Repeat for any other required attributes, then click. 25

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Designing the MAP workflow This section provides information about configuring MAP to work with Service Desk. For more detailed information, refer to the documentation provided with MAP. There are three basic steps to designing a MAP workflow to integrate with Service Desk: 1. Create the workflow layout 2. Create a database listener to read information from LANDesk Service Desk 3. Configure the properties of a Web service action to pass information back to Service Desk To create the MAP workflow layout: 1. In the Workflows explorer, create a new folder, then right-click it and click New workflow. 2. Create the required workflow, as described in the LANDesk Management Automation Platform User's Guide. 3. Use Web service actions from the System group as the end points for the workflow. To create the database listener: 1. In the Event listeners explorer, create a new folder, then right-click it and click New database listener. 2. Display the properties dialog for the new database listener. 3. On the Details tab, select the workflow that you created above as the workflow to start when the conditions of the event listener are met. 4. On the MAP Core Server, create an ODBC data source for the Service Desk database, then enter the details for this data source on the Settings tab. 5. In the Select query box, type the select statement that will identify the Service Desk event. This query will be of the form: select * from tps_event_queue where tps_process_status = 0 and tps_class_type_guid = '{md_guid}' in this query, md_guid is the guid stored in the md_guid column of the Service Desk database table md_class_type for the row where md_title is the name of the collection that you created for the business object that creates the event (see Creating the Service Request object on page 23). 6. Click Get database columns. This makes the database columns from the Service Desk Event Queue table available to MAP. 7. In the Update query box, type: update tps_event_queue set tps_process_status = 1 where tps_id = 8. With the cursor at the end of the update query, click Insert column. The Insert from columns dialog appears. 9. Click tps_id, then click Insert. The column is added to the query, and reads: update tps_event_queue set tps_process_status = 1 where tps_id = { tps_id } 10. On the Mappings tab, in the External unique system identifier list, click tps_id. 11. Click Autogenerate field mappings. 12. Save the database listener. 26

AUTOMATED ROUND-TRIP REQUEST FULFILMENT Event Manager provides a web service for MAP to use to integrate back to Service Desk, so make sure that all of the end points in your MAP workflow end with a web service action. The following procedure describes how to set up a MAP web service action to communicate with Service Desk. To configure the MAP web service actions: 1. Display the properties for the web service. 2. Set the required password, timeout, and user name. 3. Click alongside Endpoint URL. A wizard starts. 4. In the Web service URL box, type: http://server/eventlogservice/eventlog.asmx?wsdl where server/eventlogservice is the name of the server and virtual directory that host the Event Logging web service (usually the Service Desk Web server). 5. Click Next. 6. In the Method to call list, select PostIntegrationEvent, then click Next. The Input parameter field mappings page appears. 7. Edit the field mappings as follows: EventSource type the name that you will use for the Integration Process Source Name in Event Manager (see Creating the Integration Process Source on page 28) EventType type the name that you will use as the Event Type attribute when you define events in Event Manager (see Defining the event on page 29) Title set a value ProcessGuid insert the field mapping for tps_process_guid ClassTypeGuid insert the field mapping for tps_class_type_guid ObjectInstanceGuid insert the field mapping for tps_object_guid Parametern insert the field mappings for all of the tps_attributen values 8. Save the workflow. The MAP web service action enters values into the Event Management module's Event table in Service Desk. These entries are then processed by Event Manager. The first few web service field mappings you configure above enable Event Manager to identify the appropriate instance of a Service Desk process (for example, which specific Incident the event relates to). The Parametern mappings above enable you to pass configurable information from MAP to the Event table, which can then be mapped in Event Manager to specific Service Desk attributes. 27

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Creating the Integration Process Source After you have configured MAP to use the data sent from Service Desk and then return data to the Events table, you are ready to set up Event Manager to progress the original Service Desk process. To create an Integration Process Source: 1. In Service Desk, start the Event Manager component. 2. Select the Event Manager node at the top of the Event Manager Configuration tree, then in the Actions list, click Create Integration Process Source. The Integration Process Source dialog appears. 3. In the Integration Process Source Name box, type the name that you specified in the EventSource mapping in the MAP web service (see To configure the MAP web service actions: on page 27). 4. In the Module and Process lists, select the Service Desk module and process that you used to create the process in MAP that is now returning to Service Desk. NOTE: The event is inactive until you select the Enable this Integration Process Source check box. We recommend that you finish setting up the event before selecting this check box. 5. Click OK. The new event is added to the Configuration tree. 28

AUTOMATED ROUND-TRIP REQUEST FULFILMENT Adding a Process Action When you have created the Integration Process Source, you need to add the appropriate Service Desk action that will be launched by the event. For example, you might want to resolve the relevant Request, completing the Resolution window with parameters provided by MAP. To add a Process Action: 1. In the Configuration tree, select the Integration Process Source node you created. 2. In the Actions list, click Add Process Action. The Add Process Action dialog appears. 3. In the Process Action list, select the required action, then click OK. A new process action is added to the Configuration tree. WARNING: Make sure you choose an action that is available at the status that the Service Desk process will be at. Defining the event When you have created a process action, you need to define the event that triggers that action. To define the event: 1. In the Configuration tree, select the process action that you want to define the event for, then in the Actions list, click Define Event. The Event Definition dialog appears. 29

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE 2. In the Event Name box, type a name to identify the event. You now need to provide Event Manager with a set of conditions that will define the event. These are typically the Event Source and Event Type. 3. Click Add. The Event Conditions dialog appears. 4. In the Attribute list, select Event Source. 5. In the Condition list, select Equals. 6. In the Value box, type the name that you specified for the EventSource field mapping when you configured the MAP web service (see To configure the MAP web service actions: on page 27). 7. Click OK. The event condition is added to the Conditions list on the Event Definition dialog. 8. Add another Event Condition where the Attribute called Event Type equals the name that you specified for the EventType field mapping in MAP. 9. Use the Add, Modify, and Delete buttons to complete the set of conditions that define the event. All of the conditions that you specify have to be met to trigger the process action. 10. When you have set the required conditions on the Event Definition dialog, select the Enable Event check box. 11. Click OK. NOTE: Remember to select the Enable this Integration Process Source check box on the Integration Process Source dialog when you finished configuring the event. Mapping the event attributes When you have defined the conditions that define the event, you can map the parameters sent from LANDesk MAP onto attributes on the Service Desk object that corresponds to the action that the event triggers. For example, if you chose the process action Resolve, you could map the LANDesk MAP parameters to attributes on the Resolution object. To map LANDesk MAP parameters to Service Desk attributes: 1. In the Event Manager Configuration tree, select Mapping beneath the required process action, then in the Actions list, click Modify Mapping. The Mapping dialog appears. 30

AUTOMATED ROUND-TRIP REQUEST FULFILMENT 2. Drag the Source attributes (which correspond to MAP parameters) to the corresponding Target (Service Desk) attributes, then click OK. 31

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE 32

Troubleshooting This section provides some advice on troubleshooting Event Manager. You can find out about: Message logging on page 34 Testing the Event Manager Web Service on page 34

LANDESK SERVICE DESK EVENT MANAGER GUIDE Message logging You can configure Event Manager so that it stores messages from the Event Manager services in a dedicated log file. This is particularly useful during setup and when debugging issues that arise with your Event Manager configuration. To configure Event Manager message logging: 1. In the Event Manager component, click Event Manager at the top of the Configuration tree, then in the Actions list, click Advanced Settings. The Advanced Settings dialog appears. 2. In the Log File box, type the path and file name for the log file you want to create. NOTE: The log file must be set to a folder that can be written to by the Windows user account that is running the Event Manager services. If you have the two Event Manager services running on separate servers, and you set this location to a folder that is on a local drive, then a log file will be created on each server for the service running on that server. 3. In the Log Level list, select the appropriate logging level: Normal choose this setting when setting up and configuring Event Manager Off switches off logging Everything records all messages; select this only when asked to by LANDesk support 4. Click OK. The Advanced Settings dialog closes and the message logging is set. WARNING: Make sure you view this file occasionally. New messages are added to the end of the file, so it can become very large unless you routinely delete its contents or disable message logging. Testing the Event Manager Web Service You can test the Event Manager Web Service independently of the Event Manager command line executables, which may be helpful when debugging your configuration. This can help you to decide whether any problem is with the configuration of Event Manager, or with the configuration of the external application. NOTE: Make sure that you have configured the Event Manager web service correctly, as described in Configuring the Event Manager Web Service application on page 12. To test the Event Manager Web Service: 1. In a web browser, open http://server/webservice/eventlog.asmx?op=postevent. Where server is the name of the server hosting the Event Manager web service, and webservice is the name of the virtual directory. 2. Add some values to the fields displayed, then click Invoke. The values should appear in the Event Manager query list. NOTE: You can test the Send event by replacing PostEvent in the URL with SendEvent. 34