Re: Slightly OT: Saas vs On Premise...
he death of the product. (I only mention that because I met such a customer once ...) > Disadvantages: > 1) Onsite administration – You usually face higher maintenance and > running costs. > 2) You risk downtime during maintenance or upgrades or bug fixes even > with a good rollback strategy. These all seem to be the reverse of the above. > Any other advantages and disadvantages to the two strategies that I may have > not listed here? How about cost? I read an amazing statistic – I still do not know how to verify its validity – on the average cost per user per month by ITSM product and SaaS offerings (including BMC's) came out looking pretty good compared to on-premise. Remember, the cost of SaaS is pretty much an all-inclusive price (infrastructure, security, database, etc.) so most people don't account for those costs as they are already sunk in their organizations. How about allowing the business to focus on their core competency? SaaS usually also means PaaS and IaaS come along with it. As with data security, network reliability and systems management skill sets come at high costs. Part of the cloud concept is the move to data centers, where highly specialized skill sets can cover much larger computing operations. If your company makes machine parts you might not see providing world-class services in those areas as part of your core business. It might just make sense to let someone else do it better, cheaper. How about scaling computing resources to need and paying only for what you consume? Granted, in the ITSM space this is still a pipe dream, but true cloud computing (versus simple virtualization) promises that as demand goes down – say, during the evening, weekend, and holiday hours – the resources allocated contract. As the intent is to pay only for the computing resources that you use, this automatic contraction (and expansion, when demand is unusually high) can result in significant cost savings. But again, for our space that just isn't there yet. We are not really "in the cloud", but simply virtualized. Remedyforce comes the closest however, as it is a fully multi-tenant model, unlike all of the other offerings I have looked at. (I suspect we will start to see interesting things from that quarter in a year or so.) Just my $0.02. Regards, Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: Target Attack and BMC Software ITSM?
Just so we are all using the same terminology, a backdoor is intentionally hidden (although it may be discovered), so anything documented, like Demo, is not a backdoor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdoor_(computing) > Doug Mueller wrote: > > Now, there are a bunch of other security settings that I encourage you to use > -- > > -- restrict where run processes can run processes > -- control the shell under which processes can run > -- use the password management feature to enforce password rules > -- use the feature that disables an account after x bad password attempts > (and make x a relatively small number like 5 or at most 10) > -- disallow blank passwords (except for AREA cross-reference situations) > -- and a number of other things I am sure all of you have used arcache to insert a new admin account into the system because [cough] someone ELSE changed the password of the admin account and forgot it. That is not a backdoor either, but a well-documented front door in breaking into the ARS server. I haven't had to use this in a while, so I don't know if the security parameters have changed, but you used to be able to install arcache on your laptop and run it against a remote server. One of the security measures NOT mentioned above is to secure arcache by using "Disable-User-Cache-Utilities: T" in the ar.cfg. This then requires that anyone wishing to use the utility must have access to the file ON the server, thus providing another layer of security. > Doug also wrote: > > Remedy should not be vulnerable to attack of the kind described unless you > have > opened your systems to the outside Unfortunately, firewalls don't always help in this regard. Still waiting for details (that may never come), but malware inserted inside the firewall, and unfortunately masquerading as another BMC product (Bladelogic), was used as an intermediary between the POS malware and dumping the data outside. At least if I read the preliminary forensics report correctly. http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/analyzing-the-target-point-of-sale-malware > From the above link > > Note: The reference to “bladelogic” is a method of obfuscation. The malware > does not compromise, or integrate with, any > BMC products in any way. The executable name “bladelogic.exe” does not > exist in any piece of legitimate BMC software. Regards, Dale Hurtt SPEC IT LLC Contractor for US Army Information Systems Engineering Command (USAISEC) ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: Recruiters Odd NDA
> Scott Hallenger wrote: > > I've been goig back and fourth with a recruiter on a position that is totally > remote. Yes, I have seen this sort of "non-compete" agreement before, but I think this is the first I have seen where they specify the damages. > Did I over react? Does it matter what we think? In the end you have to assess what it is about the document that bothers you enough that you will not sign it (and thus will not get the chance at the job … at least through this recruiter). If I were being asked to sign the document, I would amend it in the following ways: 1. The specific company you will be interviewing with must be stated in the letter. I know they will get paranoid about letting you know the name but you can counter that in two ways: a. Knowing the name of the company does not tell you which Division/Department/Branch/whatever needs the work done, nor does it tell you the contact information of the hiring manager. b. You need to protect yourself, to ensure that ANOTHER recruiter does not also claim to "introduce" you to the same company, putting you in double jeopardy. 2. Limit the recruitment on your behalf to just this one opportunity. If he really has an opportunity… 3. Spell out that "introduction" means that you obtain an interview. The recruiter sending your resume to someone does not count, as that is a one-way introduction. 4. Cut the penalty down to $1,000, unless he is willing to spell out exactly how the damages are "significant". Put another way, he has to prove, either in writing before the fact, or in court after the fact, that the damages and expenses are material. 5. Cut the time down to one month after the last interview date. No one looking to hire is going to wait more than one month for you to come on board, so why should you be on the hook longer? I love the stuff people put in contracts and agreements. You probably took him aback by actually reading it! Good for you. Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: Unique Company Names
I did find the reference that operating companies need to be unique, but have still not found one regarding customer companies, or any other. Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Unique Company Names
We are looking at moving to ITSM 8.1 using the new "hub-and-spoke" architecture and we are getting conflicting information from BMC Professional Services. Can anyone verify that, in the architecture and version indicated above, that Company names must be unique to a spoke, if the company type is "Operating Company" or "Customer". Put another way, can I have a customer company "ABC Corp" that exists in two different spokes? (I realize that it will exist in both one spoke and the hub, as the hub contains the set of all companies defined in all spokes, plus those of the type "Service Provider".) Any references would also be appreciated. The answer to this will heavily influence our foundation data model. Thanks in advance. Regards, Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: RKM federation to Sharepoint possible?
I found this: The document library shared by SharePoint server is not a real Shared Folder; it is shared through Web folders. In order to access the web folder you need to have WebClient service installed and running on the machine which you want to access the web folder from. By default Windows Server 2008 does not have that service installed. To install the WebClient on Windows server 2008 , do the followings: 1. Start the server manager on your server >2. Select the Feature node from the left hand side nodes. >3. On right hand side, select Add Feature. >4. On the popup screen, select “Desktop Experience” checkbox then click on >Next. >5. Click on Install, the installation process will take like 5 min (that >depends on server hardware) >6. After installation process finish, close the dialog box >7. After installing the Service, you need to restart your server. Hope that helps with both of your issues. Dale Hurtt > > From: Tauf Chowdhury >To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG >Sent: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 1:40 PM >Subject: Re: RKM federation to Sharepoint possible? > > > >** >Matt, >I was unsuccessful with this with Analytics but the same concept applies. Even >though share point looks like it can be accessed using UNC, there is some >security or other translation done in the background. >I ended up using WinSCP to push the files from share point to a normal network >share so I could consume the data. > >Sent from my iPhone > >On Jul 2, 2013, at 4:22 PM, Matthew Perrault >wrote: > > >** >>All, >>Has anyone managed to get the Remedy 7.6 Knowledge Management to federate and >>pull in a Sharepoint site? >> >>We are running ARS 7.6 >>MS SQL 2012 >>Windows Server 2008 >> >>I have tried setting up the access on the sharepoint directories, but it >>still fails at the plugin level: >>Caused by: ERROR (8753): Error in plugin; RMDY.ITSM.RKM.FILESYSTEM A RKM File >>System source is corrupted.The path [\\\x\xx\x\x\xx\] >>does not exist or you don't have read permission to this folder. >> >>I’ve gone through the documentation, but don’t see any place where you can >>federate to a website, and sharepoint has some strange permissions and access >>around it’s directories when trying to access it as a file share. >> >>Thanks, >>Matt P. _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ _ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" and have been for 20 years_ > > ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: need help about integrating ITSM with Service now
Amar, Those plugins are on the ServiceNow side. SN allows you to indicate which plugins you have in your environment; these allow you to consume and publish web services. Much as you would integrate with Remedy ARS using web services, you do the same, in concept, with SN. To start, you have to ensure that these plugins are loaded in your environment. If you are unsure how to do this, call SN customer support and they can turn it on and a matter of minutes. When integrating between any two ticketing systems you will need to develop a mapping from the source form to the target form. As SN's incident form is usually customized, that mapping could look like anything and probably will not be reusable with another customer's SN instance. By reading Remedy's integration guide you should get a good idea of how to integrate ticketing systems using web services. Understanding the Remedy side will go a long way towards integrating with any ticketing system using web services. Regars, Dale Hurtt - Hello All, Thank you for your suggestions. As i said in my previous mail that We are trying to integrate ITSM with service now ,it means we would like to send incidents from ITSM to Service now system as there are few vendors who are using Service now as a ticketing tool. I have gone through the Service now wiki and i found that there are 2 plugin which needs to be installed .Plugin name are as follows : Web Service Consumer Plugin (com.glide.web_service_consumer) Web Service Application Plugin (com.glide.web_service_application) Does it means we need to install these two plugin on Remedy server ? Correct me if i am wrong. If answer is yes then could you please let me know how i can download these plugin ? Amar ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: Can't create unique index in 8.1 on overlay forms?
After you change the index to unique, and if you have the ability to do so, you might check to see if you can import the changes into another system. I once had a def that could not be imported because it indicated that the base forms had a conflict. The problem was more complex than this, but the bottom line was that the overlay I was trying to import did not like that the base forms were different on the two systems. Also, I wonder if the overlay will contain the index information, given that you added it to the base. If it is not in the overlay, you will probably have to make the change to the base form on the other systems by hand. Let us know what you find out. Regards, Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: ServiceNow as SRM replacement?
> All, > A little birdie was chirping the other day and I heard something about > SNow having an integration or some type of implementation scenario > where it is taking the place of SRM But still have AR and ITSM on the > fulfillment side. I'm sure it's possible but my question to you folks > is: > 1. Have you done it > 2. If so, what gives? How'd it go? > > I understand the drawbacks so we don't have to go there but feel free > if you'd like :) > > Sent from my iPhone Interesting rumor. Although I cannot say I disbelieve it – I have seen customers throw away $10M in Tivoli work, so getting one competitor's ITSM system to replace the module of another competitor's is certainly within the bounds of believability – it does seem likely to fail. My background: I have a customer considering moving to ServiceNow (and many other products have been considered, and they are still on Remedy, so don't try to imply anything from this statement) for a number of reasons. I decided to understand what ServiceNow was truly offering, because their demo looked damned good. So, I went out and got my own development instance of ServiceNow will all the modules on it. ServiceNow came up recently when what appeared to be a troll made a statement (then ran) about how much better SNOW was than BMC Remedy ITSM. Doug M. came online to refute the parts of what he said about BMC's product. One statement he made about the competitor was that its *application suite* was much less mature than Remedy's. He is absolutely correct. If you want to "do ITIL" with their ITSM product, you likely have a bit of coding to do. SNOW's philosophy is the "build up" from the base applications. Currently they are in a state much better than the old "Help Desk templates" (if you remember them), and probably even Help Desk 3.0 – but not much more. They can show you a bunch of bells and whistles, but when it comes to the richness of the relationships between modules, it is just not there. Now that may be good for your customer. Maybe they are the types that like to kid themselves that they are doing "best practices" and "following ITIL" when in reality the inmates are running the asylum with management's blessing. (We have all been to that shop, 'eh?) A minimalist approach might be just the ticket. Better than taking a complex, rich app like Remedy's and cutting or turning off major chunks of it. If your customer is not even close to standard – say a government entity :^) – and they have a lot of special requirements, it might be easier to build up from SNOW without all of that clutter you might not use. Who knows? But the initial pricing, which is what so many frustrated customers who are considering switching from whatever vendor they have, are considering. How little will it cost me to get out from under what I have now. Under the covers SNOW is like Remedy ARS in many (general) respects. You put fields on forms and that creates the underlying database structure for you. You fill out forms and put in logic and it creates workflow for you. It has a fully graphical editor for some (but not all) workflow that allows admins to "develop". Neat stuff, but in the end, very similar to ARS. So, would you bet on using Remedy as a front-end to, say one of CA's modules? I don't think so. For that reason alone, I think using SNOW to front-end SRM is lunacy. Doesn't mean someone isn't trying it though. From SNOW's perspective, it is a toehold to replace one part of a legacy system. It is just one step towards replacing all the rest, and they just might be willing to take a bet on that, if the customer is big enough. Interesting idea though. For all those out there curious about SNOW, you can get on their demo servers, for free, as a full-blown admin, and start coding away. (Don't expect to find it there the next day, however, as they re-image the machines most nights.) THAT will give you a real feel for how easy - or hard - it is to develop in SNOW. When my customer first got serious about SNOW, I went to their classes in San Diego (at my own expense). I got excited about the product, purely from a developer's viewpoint. It is cool. But, implement a major customer in six months? Get serious! Dale Hurtt SPEC IT LLC ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org "Where the Answers Are, and have been for 20 years"
Re: RemedyForce VS ITSM
Remedyforce does not have the strength or richness of the application suite that ITSM has, in my opinion. I looked at it for a large customer and it was just not as comprehensive or flexible, by design. That said, for someone that does not need much, and is a small (or the low-end of mid-size) business, it looks like an e.x.cellent choice. The question is, if you own and maintain the infrastructure, how can you justify paying the cost of managed services in addition? It seems to me you would be all in with either on premises or on demand. ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: driver.exe, row counts...
> It might be faster, but it is direct SQL and may not work on any database... > > select count(*) from HPD_Help_Desk Does Remedy support a database where the above ANSI SQL won't work? I suppose if ARS implements view names for their tables differently in another database, it would not be "HPD_Help_Desk", but does anyone know of which database that would be? Just curious because the above works on Oracle and SQL Server. Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: driver.exe, row counts...
I misunderstood your question last night Rick. I did the following today: glsql select count(*) from HPD_Help_Desk [Enter] for the remaining questions If all you need are counts it is must faster to do direct SQL calls than GetListEntry, I would think. Use the names in the view instead of the T names. Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: JOB: Senior Remedy Developer needed - Brooklyn, NY
Unless I am reading it wrong, it is interesting that the City of New York considers a Master's Degree in Computer Science the equivalent of only one year of experience in industry and a Bachelor's the equivalent of only two years. Dale Hurtt 1. A master's degree in computer science from an accredited college and three years of progressively more responsible, full-time, satisfactory experience using information technology in computer applications programming, systems programming, computer systems development, data telecommunications, database administration, planning of data/information processing, user services, or area networks at least 18 months of this experience must have been in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity in the areas of computer applications programming, systems programming, computer systems development, data telecommunications, data base administration, or planning of data processing or in the supervision of staff performing these duties; or 2. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and four years of experience as described in "1" above; or 3. A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent approved by a State's department of education or recognized accrediting organization and six years of experience as described in "1" above; or ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: Running ARS on laptop - options
One of the US Army clients uses Dell Precision M6500 laptops running 64-bit Business Vista with 16 GB of RAM and the 1.6 GHz Intel i7 processor. (During installation it will complain about processor speed, but ignore it.) I run mine on the metal but others run it under VM. The latter is good if you have several configurations you want to try, but I usually do not have that requirement. Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: Is the Remedy ITSM Suite a good fit for your organization?
I was rather surprised that a stronger cost argument was not made. That seems to be what most customers that buy fear most: major cost overruns building a custom solution and having to keep developers on staff "forever". (Ironically, customers usually end up keeping developers on staff for buy also, because no one seems able to keep their mitts off of the development tools. ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: Remedy On Demand Architecture
David, Thanks for your reply. However, can you confirm that the platform is currently W2008/SS2008? Some customers *do* care if their data is not on Oracle, even if they cannot get to the underlying infrastructure. (Personally, I have never understood that, but I have never been involved in an implementation where there was a catastrophic data failure, so ...) Thanks in advance, Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: BMC Remedy ITSM Vs Service Now
> I'm not sure I've seen a case where someone goes from Remedy to ServiceNow > and stays there. I know several former Remedy/BMC consultants that moved to ServiceNow. They indicated that their prime selling point method is: "Why are you unhappy with your current vendor? Here's how we can change that." (I am not picking on BMC as the vendor here. That is apparently their pitch no matter which tool they are coming from. And everyone is coming from something.) > From a functionality standpoint, I've heard that companies used to the Remedy > suite generally end up unhappy with ServiceNow and either go back to Remedy > or look at other platforms. Supposedly AIG is such a case, but I cannot confirm that. I have heard of no other companies that went from ServiceNow to Remedy. (But, not being in the know, that doesn't mean much.) Do you know of any, by name? Just curious. > Also, I'm not sure that most medium to large companies are willing to put > sensitive data outside of protected networks. You know, I have heard this said several times on this thread. That is not an argument against ServiceNow, but an argument against Cloud Computing, which BMC On Demand and Remedyforce both represent. The US Federal Government has agencies that use ServiceNow; they just use it at certified facilities like Terramark. HP is developing the Army Private Cloud just for this purpose. Even Amazon EC2 has GovCloud. What this argument says is that you think you can secure your data better than data center professionals who do this is secure facilities. You may be right. But for many customers, that is far from true. Dale ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Remedy On Demand Architecture
Can anyone who uses Remedy On Demand verify whether BMC uses only Windows 2008/SQL Server 2008 or whether it provides its customers options? The customer I am working with is trying to get this information and is getting a run-around in sales. Also curious if anyone has any insight into why W2008/SS2008, if it is the only configuration used, when some of the architects from Professional Services we have worked with recommends Linux/Oracle RAC for scaling. Just curious. We suspect it is a way for BMC to keep their costs down and thus their price point is more competitive. Thanks in advance. Regards, Dale Hurtt ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
Re: BMC Remedy ITSM Vs Service Now
> with Service Now ITSM SaaS Solution ServiceNow's material describes themselves as SaaS and PaaS (i.e. a development platform). That is key because you will almost certainly have to develop with this product unless you have a very simple implementation of ITSM. > License Cost I cannot discuss that and I don't think anyone here can, given that they don't know what company you represent, how many seats, etc. There is no fixed price for any of the products mentioned. > Implementation timelines - Service now holds edge over Remedy ITSM since > they have instance based implementation. I cannot see how you can say that, unless you have done an implementation for ServiceNow. (As for my credentials, I have both ServiceNow and Remedy development instances, but I have not done a ServiceNow implementation.) Quite simply, ServiceNow has all of the "basic applications" available. Their is a "build up" model, whereas Remedy ITSM is a "it is in there" model. I know that for the one customer I am researching into ServiceNow for, there would be a fair bit of development to bring those basic applications up to the level of where they would want to be. Mind you, that is not necessarily a bad thing as you can put in only what you want and no more. It also means that you are stuck doing all of the documentation for those customizations. > Service Now still haven't tested ITSM upgrade roadblocks I don't think that is true. Aspen was a significant release and I spoke with a number of SNOW customers and they all said it went smoothly. (Of course, the number I spoke with cannot be assumed to be statistically significant!) Their development model was built with it in mind that you *would* use it as a development platform. Their system administration and scripting classes make it fairly clear what you are supposed to do so upgrades do not collide with your work. As with Remedy there is always the chance that the vendor will change execution order, messing up your work, or add functionality that you added in by hand, so testing will always be required. But they have figured out how not to step on your work directly. > Customization Ease - Remedy ITSM will win over this point since their ITSM > source code is open to customized for customers. It does not sound like you understand SNOW development sufficiently. Their "code" is fully accessible and form-based, as with Remedy, with the ability to inject JavaScript in almost anywhere. The majority of that code is directly accessible too. Do you have a specific example of SNOW code you wanted to access but could not? > Support and Maintenance Costs Again, a sales issue largely dependent upon who you are. Maintenance, however, comes in two forms: that paid to the vendor and that paid to employees or contractors to keep your system running. With the latter, I have been finding SNOW labor costs lower, largely because the skills are much more common (HTML, JavaScript, CSS). System Administrators should be good to go after a single 3 day class. Most can pass the certification exam after six months of working the system (and not because the exam is easy). Code maintenance could be a problem - more of a problem than Remedy - as you can stick code almost anywhere. Having a good naming convention (which the internal SNOW developers do *not* have) is a must, IMO. > What are strong selling points of BMC Remedy ITSM over SNOW? My biggest concern over the moment is "application scaling". Yes, they can scale the infrastructure but certain design elements they have selected won't scale beyond a certain point and have to be replaced. A good example are incident templates. The display/selection method is good for about 20-30 items. If you need more then you will have to replace it with your own interface. Want to do good things with SNOW? Better be up on your HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Jelly. Better buy that Web UI book on Amazon. :^) Dale Hurtt US Army Information Systems Engineering Command (contractor) http://itsm-tools.blogspot.com ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug12 www.wwrug12.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
