HCL Workload Automation, Version 9.4

Integrating with the Change and Configuration Management Database

This scenario describes what benefits you can gain by implementing the integration between HCL Workload Automation and dynamic workload broker with Change and Configuration Management Database. The integration facilitates the discovery and impact analysis of change management activities on the underlying system on which HCL Workload Automation is installed and on its resources. The administrator can perform these operations from a centralized access point instead of having to combine and integrate data from independent products.

This section contains information about integrating HCL Workload Automation with Change and Configuration Management Database.

For information about integrating dynamic workload broker with Change and Configuration Management Database, see Integrating dynamic workload broker with Configuration Management Database.

When a new version of a product is released, or an urgent security patch is to be installed, the Change and Configuration Management Database administrator must address a number of Requests For Change (RFC) on some of the workstations in the environment. She must meet a service level agreement that requires security patches to be installed in 0.5 days. To this end, the administrator uses the combined information from Change and Configuration Management Database and Tivoli Application Discovery Dependency Manager (TADDM) to obtain a detailed view of the environment and to manage changes in the state of the workstations.

She obtains information about the current workload on all the involved workstations. For example, she can see which HCL Workload Automation jobs are currently running. When the integration between Change and Configuration Management Database and HCL Workload Automation is in place, she can use the Change and Configuration Management Database GUI to select a workstation that is impacted by the RFC, and then open the Dynamic Workload Console to view and act upon the HCL Workload Automation jobs running on that workstation.

From the same Change and Configuration Management Database GUI, she can also start Tivoli Provisioning Manager and start a workflow to install the patch on all the impacted workstations.

Roles and skills

The following roles and skills are necessary to run the scenario:
Network Administrator
Manages the network.
Change Administrator
Administers the change management process and designs workflows to implement the change process. Required skills include Change Management Process Manager knowledge.
Configuration Administrator
Administers the configuration process management applications in Change and Configuration Management Database, including administering the configuration management security groups and their access to applications. Required skills include Configuration Management Process Manager and TADDM knowledge.
HCL Workload Automation Administrator
Manages HCL Workload Automation workload. Required skills include HCL Workload Automation knowledge.
HCL Workload Automation Operator
Runs HCL Workload Automation operations. Required skills include HCL Workload Automation knowledge.
Tivoli Provisioning Manager Administrator
Creates and manages workflows. Required skills include Tivoli Provisioning Manager knowledge.

Hardware and software requirements

Install the following software before starting the scenario:
  • Change and Configuration Management Database 7.2.1
  • Tivoli Application Discovery Dependency Manager 7.2
  • IBM Tivoli Integration Composer 7.1
  • HCL Workload Automation 9.3 and later
  • Dynamic Workload Console 9.3 and later
  • Tivoli Provisioning Manager 7.2.1

Setting up the environment

When the required software is installed, the users involved in the scenario must complete the following tasks before starting the scenario:
  1. The network administrator configures the environment to support Single Sign-On between HCL Workload Automation and Dynamic Workload Console, so that authentication is required just once for each user involved in the scenario.
  2. The Configuration administrator performs a detailed discovery of the network by using TADDM sensors. For more information about performing discoveries using TADDM, see https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSPLFC_7.2.1/com.ibm.taddm.doc_721/AdminGuide/c_cmdb_overview.html
  3. The HCL Workload Automation administrator specifies in the localopts file, located in the product installation directory, and the path where the IdML book must be created. The parameter CCMDB_BOOK_PATH is set by default to TWS84_HOME_DIR/CCMDB. IdML is the Discovery Library XML schema specification. IdML books, also known as Discovery Library books, are XML files containing details about resources and resource relationships written to conform to the IdML schema.
  4. The HCL Workload Automation administrator exports the workstation definitions from the HCL Workload Automation database into an IdML book using the dataxtract command on the master domain manager. No parameters are necessary for this command because all the required information is retrieved from the localopts file and useropts file. To set user credentials in the useropts file, see 'Setting user options' in the Administration Guide.
  5. The TADDM administrator configures the ${COLLATION_HOME}/etc/bulkload.properties file. This file gives the bulk load program the information that it needs to load the IdML book into the database.
  6. The TADDM administrator imports the IdML book into the TADDM database by using the loadidml command, as indicated in the example:
    loadidml -f path_to_idml_file -h hostname -u userid -p passwd
    For more information about the bulkload.properties file and the loadidml command, see https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSPLFC_7.2.0/welcome_page/kc_welcome-444.html
  7. The Configuration administrator uses IBM® Tivoli® Integration Composer to move the actual HCL Workload Automation CI data from TADDM to the Change and Configuration Management Database database. To enable the integration with HCL Workload Automation, the Configuration administrator must enable the following CI types, which are specific to HCL Workload Automation:
    • SYS.COMPUTERSYSTEM
    • APP.TWSAGENT
    • SYS.OPERATINGSYSTEM
    The Configuration administrator can also transform the CI types into actual CI types so that they can be managed directly in the RFC. For more information about importing data from TADDM, refer to IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database Integration Adapter for Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager Implementation Guide available at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS2GNX_7.2.1/com.ibm.tivoli.tpm.doc/welcome/kc_welcome-tpm.html.
  8. The Configuration Administrator configures the Launch in Context (LiC) parameters needed to start Dynamic Workload Console from the Change and Configuration Management Database GUI (Maximo®). Use the LIC framework to launch the user interface for an external application with the context of the source application. Perform this operation only once, unless the parameters change.
    Following the Launch In Context Guidelines, define a launch entry for all the context defined for HCL Workload Automation. When specifying a launch entry for an HCL Workload Automation action, use the following parameters for OMP product name and OMP version:
    • HCL Workload Automation
    • 9.3

    The specific URL to be defined in the launch entry and parameters for connecting to the Dynamic Workload Console are as follows: 

    https://WebUIHostname:https/DASH_context_root/xLaunch.do?pageID=
    com.ibm.tws.WebUI.External.navigation&showNavArea=
    false&action=Browse_Objs&ccmdb={sourcetoken}
    where:
    WebUIHostname
    Is the fully qualified hostname or the IP address of the Dynamic Workload Console.
    https
    Is the port on which the Dynamic Workload Console is listening.
    DASH_context_root
    It is the Dashboard Application Services Hub context root defined at installation time. The context root determines the URL of a deployed application and by default is identical with the application directory or archive structure. In this case, the default is ibm/console.
    Browse_Objs
    Indicates the objects you want to browse in the Dynamic Workload Console. Supported values are as follows:
    BrowseJobs
    Specifies that the Dynamic Workload Console displays information about the jobs running on the selected workstation.
    BrowseJobStreams
    Specifies that the Dynamic Workload Console displays information about the job streams running on the selected workstation.
    {sourcetoken}
    Is substituted with the value of MODELOBJECT_SOURCETOKEN taken by the attribute of the APP.TWSAGENT actual configuration item representing the HCL Workload Automation system on which you run the launch in context action.
    For example, the string {source token} is changed at runtime to a value with the following syntax:
    TWSServerHostname:TWSServerSOAPport/TWSMasterDomainName
    The following optional parameters are also supported.
    workstation
    The name of the workstation to which the job stream belongs. This parameter is an alternative to the user of the {source token} keyword.
    status
    Filters the jobs or job streams to be displayed according to their status. Supported values are:
    W
    Waiting
    O
    Successful
    H
    Held
    R
    Ready
    E
    Error
    U
    Undecided
    S
    Running
    C
    Cancelled
    B
    Blocked
    columns
    Specifies the number of columns you want to display. Supported values are:
    Min
    Displays a minimal set of columns
    All
    Displays all columns
    The following is an example to show job on the system specified by {sourcetoken}: 

    https://WebUIhostname:https/ibm/console/
    xLaunch.do?pageID=com.ibm.tws.WebUI.External.navigation
    &showNavArea=false&action=BrowseJobs&ccmdb={sourcetoken}
    The following is an example to show job streams on the system specified by {sourcetoken}:

    https://WebUIhostname:https/ibm/console/
    xLaunch.do?pageID=com.ibm.tws.WebUI.External.navigation
    &showNavArea=false&actions=BrowseJobStreams&ccmdb={sourcetoken}
    The following is an example, that uses the full set of options, to show jobs on a predefined HCL Workload Automation instance identified by TWSServerHostname, running on workstation TWSWorkstation, in error, undecided, running, blocked state, with all columns:

    https://WebUIhostname:https/ibm/console/
    xLaunch.do?pageID=com.ibm.tws.WebUI.External.navigation
    &showNavArea=false&action=BrowseJobs&hostname=TWSServerHostname
    &port=TWSServerSOAPport&workstation=TWSWorkstation&status=EUSB&columns=All

    Using this last syntax, leave the OMP product name and the OMP version blank in the corresponding launch entry because it does not refer to a configuration item.

  9. The Configuration Administrator configures the Launch in Context (LiC) parameters needed to start Tivoli Provisioning Manager from the Change and Configuration Management Database GUI (Maximo). Perform this operation only once, unless the parameters change.

    For more information about configuring LiC parameters for Tivoli Provisioning Manager, see https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS2GNX_7.2.1/com.ibm.tivoli.tpm.doc/welcome/kc_welcome-tpm.html.

Figure 1 describes the integration components.
Figure 1. Integration environment