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This document summarizes the main features added to the 7.1.00 version of BMC
Remedy Action Request System (AR System).
The following topics are provided:
! Enterprise features
! Customer-driven license enforcement system (page 3)
! Server security attack prevention (page 3)
! Mid-tier security attack prevention for Tomcat installations (page 4)
! Forcing and allowing password changes (page 5)
! Web client IP address logging (page 5)
! Safari browser support (page 6)
! BMC Remedy Mid Tier performance (persistent cache) (page 6)
! Prefetching specified forms (page 7)
! Web services enhancements (page 8)
! Multiple escalation pools (page 6)
! HTTP tracing in the mid tier (page 9)
! Broadened operating system support for Full Text Search on UNIX and Linux
(page 9)
! Server features
! Java plug-in server and plug-in API (page 9)
! Updated AR System Java API (page 10)
! Filter error handling (page 10)
! Multiple Field API Calls (page 10)
! Store database views with schema definitions (page 11)
! Service workflow condition and active link action (page 11)
! Disable status history recording and retrieval (page 11)
! Simplified System Form Handling (page 14)
! IBM DB2 9.1 support (page 15)
! HP-UX 11i v3 support (page 15)
! Novell SuSE Enterprise Linux support (page 15)
! Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 AS/ES support (page 15)
! Enhanced support for Mozilla Firefox 2.0 support (page 16)
! Enhanced support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 support (page 16)
! Client features
! BMC Remedy AR System Administration Console (page 16)
! Data visualization field updates (page 18)
! Results color in tree fields (page 21)
! Page holder enhancements (page 21)
! Ability to change labels for navigation bars (page 22)
! Locale-aware table fields (page 22)
! Customizable background color on rows (page 22)
! Table refresh on interval (page 22)
! Automatic maximizing of windows on target location for web clients
(page 23)
! Usability features
! Displaying version information (page 23)
! Pop-up blockers (page 23)
! Wait cursor (page 24)
! Context (right-click) menus (page 24)
! Rounded corner option for trim boxes (page 24)
! BMC Remedy Migrator features
! Enhancements to Differences report (page 25)
! Enhancements to Results report (page 25)
! Ignore Prefix option (page 26)
! Packaged view migrations (ability to migrate a specific view and its fields)
(page 26)
! Option to keep or delete dependency and database files (page 26)
! Minor miscellaneous changes (page 27)
Enterprise features
Customer-driven license enforcement system
Unlike previous versions, AR System 7.1.00 does not use license keys to enforce
limits for any license types except AR Server licenses. Instead, customers must self-
enforce limits for all other AR System and application license types, such as AR
User Fixed, BMC Remedy AR FTS Fixed, BMC:Asset Mgmt Application, and
BMC:Change Mgmt User Floating. Regardless of the type or number of licenses
purchased by a customer, AR System 7.1.00 administrators can add an unlimited
number of most licenses to their systems through the Add or Remove Licenses link
in the AR System Administration Console.
Using this link, administrators can also modify and remove licenses whenever
necessary. This enables them to meet users’ AR System licensing needs
immediately without waiting for BMC Software to provide a key.
NOTE
In AR System 7.1.00, license information is not stored in a license (.lic) file.
Instead, it is stored in the AR System database. Customers who upgrade to
AR System 7.1.00, however, can import data from their existing .lic files into their
7.1.00 systems so that they do not have to reenter the data manually.
IMPORTANT
If you upgrade to AR System 7.1.00 from a pre-6.0 release, you need to get a new
AR System server license key from BMC.
multilicense.lic file
In AR System 7.1.00, the multilicense.lic file is obsolete.
! Adds an index.html file to the ROOT directory. This file appears if the
administrator goes to http://localhost:8080 in a browser and Tomcat is
running properly. (See the steps that follow for more information.)
! Removes the tomcat-docs directory from the
<Tomcat_installation_directory>/webapps directory.
! Removes the two default web applications (host-manager and manager) from the
<Tomcat_installation_directory>/server/webapps directory.
! Removes the two deployment descriptors for the host-manager and manager
applications. These descriptors are the host-manager.xml and manager.xml files
in the <Tomcat_installation_directory>/conf/Catalina/localhost folder.
! Removes all unused ports from service (in particular, port 8080)—that is, it
strips the default server.xml configuration file under the Tomcat installation
directory so that the installation supports the mid tier only.
These tasks make the Tomcat installation more secure, but because they remove all
extraneous services, it can be difficult to determine if the mid tier or if Tomcat
failed to install properly. To ease this problem, an index.html page that displays
whether Tomcat is running is also installed.
If the mid tier fails to run after you install it, complete the following steps to
determine whether the problem is the Tomcat installation or the mid tier
installation:
1 Stop Tomcat.
2 Open the <Tomcat_installation_directory>/conf/server.xml file, and
uncomment the Connector entry at port 8080.
3 Restart Tomcat.
4 In a browser on the same computer as the Tomcat installation, go to http://
localhost:8080.
If Tomcat is running properly, the following message will appear in the browser:
Tomcat is running.
This message indicates that the problem is isolated to the mid tier installation.
If Tomcat is not running, the browser displays an error message such as “The page
cannot be displayed.” Review the Tomcat log files in the
<Tomcat_installation_directory>/logs directory to determine the cause. The mid
tier cannot run if Tomcat is not running properly.
Background
When a user opens an AR System on a server for the first time, the mid tier must
download the form and its workflow objects. It must then construct a Java object
from these items. This object is used to generate the Dynamic HTML needed to
display the form in a browser. The initial construction of this Java object is time-
consuming, but once it is built, the mid tier caches it in memory and accesses it for
all users who open the same form from that point on.
Any changes made to the file will also appear in the Prefetch text box the next time
the Configuration Tool is opened.
! If you flush the cache in the Configuration Tool, any prefetched forms you
specified beforehand are flushed from the memory cache. The prefetch process
is performed again for these forms the next time the web server is restarted.
! If you specified an invalid form name (for example, if a form name is misspelled
or a form does not exist on the specified server), that form will not be prefetched.
The mid tier log notes the names of forms that were not prefetched.
For more information, see the Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
guide.
Form Description
SLM:Console Main SLM console
SLM:DashboardSLMgr Dashboards
SLM:ServiceTarget Service Target definition
SLM:SLADefinition Agreement definition
WARNING
The mid tier has no control over the host application server. If the host server is not
configured to have HTTP TRACE disabled, then the information that the host
discloses still exists.
Server features
Java plug-in server and plug-in API
This release includes a new, Java-based implementation of the AR System Plug-in
Server. The AR System 7.1.00 Plug-in Server has new configuration requirements.
It supports all the functionality of the earlier C-based Plug-in Server plus the
following:
! Supports Java-based plug-ins using a new Java plug-in API.
! Supports more than one Java-aware plug-in.
! Supports more than one instance of the same plug-in.
! Uses the Java Native Interface (JNI) to supports C-based plug-ins using the same
C plug-in API as earlier versions of AR System.
The release also includes example Java plug-ins.
The user can set and clear a check box, labeled “Disable status history,” on the
Basic / Entry Points tab of the Form Properties window to control this property.
See the Form and Application Objects guide for details.
An API program can set or clear this property by setting or clearing a bit in a new
bitmask object property, AR_OPROP_CORE_FIELDS_OPTION_MASK, recognized for
schemas (forms) and used for core field options. The program can OR in
AR_CORE_FIELDS_OPTION_DISABLE_STATUS_HISTORY to set the property to disable
status history maintenance. See the C API Reference guide for details.
! Distributed Pool
! Distributed Mapping
Status history was disabled because:
! The first six forms see a large number of entries being created and deleted. Each
of these operations includes a SQL database call to maintain the status history,
so disabling the status history will improve performance. Also, an AR System
process (the AR System server or an accessory engine like the Approval Server)
maintains the entries for these forms, so the status history need not be
maintained.
! For the remainder of the forms, the status history is not considered essential as
it does not add any value to the installation.
WARNING
Disabling status history on a form with existing entries causes all existing status
history for the form to be deleted.
If you do not need status history on the following forms, disable it on them as well.
The first three forms list have the highest volume and provide the greatest
performance improvement.
! FB:Alarm Events
! FB:History
! FB:History Summary
! Alert List
! AR System Administrator Preference
! AR System Searches Preference
! AR System User Central File
! AR System User Preference
! Data Visualization Definition
NOTE
You do not need to specify the directory name for the User table (USERSPACE1).
NOTE
You do not need to specify this information for DB2 8.2 SMS tablespaces.
Client features
BMC Remedy AR System Administration Console
The following windows were available in previous versions of BMC Remedy
Administrator and are now unavailable:
! Manage User Licenses (choose File > Licenses > Manage User Licenses)
! Add/Remove Licenses (choose File > Licenses > Add/Remove Licenses)
Additionally, all tabs (except for the Source Control tab) are hidden in the Server
Information window (choose File > Server Information).
The information that was in these windows and tabs is found in the BMC Remedy
AR System Administration Console, the recommended tool for configuring
servers and licenses.
If you want to make this information available in BMC Remedy Administrator, see
“Unhiding tabs in Server Information window” on page 17 and “Displaying the
Licenses windows” on page 17.
Console concepts
The BMC Remedy AR System Administration Console gives you access to many
administrator functions in AR System. The console is part of the AR System Server
Administration plug-in, which consists of a library file and a deployable
application. (The plug-in is installed as part of the AR System server installation.)
To use the BMC Remedy AR System Administration Console, you must configure
the AR System Administration application properly because it is a deployable
application.
By default, deployable applications are imported in the Maintenance state. When
an application is in the Maintenance state, only members of the Administrator
group have permissions to use it. Before you change a deployable application’s
state from Maintenance to Test or Production, you must map groups to roles to
give users access to the application.
Two roles are defined in the AR System Administration application:
! AR System Admin Server Manager—Is applied to the Server Information form
and the Delete Licenses button on the Add/Remove Licenses form. Only users
who belong to groups mapped to this role have access to these items.
! AR System Admin User Manager—Is applied to Manage User Licenses form.
Only users who belong to groups mapped to this role have access to this form.
For more information about roles, groups, and application states, see the Form and
Application Objects guide.
You can open the console by either of the following methods:
! In a browser, go to the following URL address, log in, and click the AR System
Administration Console link.
http://<Mid Tier server>/arsys/forms/<servername>
! In BMC Remedy User, open the AR System Administration Console entry point.
NOTE
The Data Visualization forms are installed with the AR System server. For the Data
Visualization System Files form to function, the AR System and mid tier servers
must be version 7.1.00 or later.
NOTE
Entries are indexed by the Name and Platform fields.
6 In the Version field, enter the version number of the binary file that you are saving.
Use the following format:
<major version>.<minor version>.<subminor version>.<patch>
You can omit the trailing numbers. For example, for version 2.1.00.000, you can
enter:
2.1
If the same file is available on a different server with a new version, AR System
matches the version string. Then, it uses the latest version.
7 Add the file to the attachment field.
8 Click Save.
NOTE
When searching for a class name, remember that each class is in the
com.remedy.arsys.plugincontainer package. So, the Plugin class is named
com.remedy.arsys.plugincontainer.Plugin.
NOTE
When you update to new APIs, make sure you make the appropriate changes (as
described in the Javadocs).
Usability features
Displaying version information
Version information is included in the following places in the product:
! In the About dialog box (from the Help > About menu option)
! In the binary that is displayed in file properties (Windows only)
! At the beginning of all server and client log files
! In global variable for shared objects (UNIX only)
! In the manifest file of JAR file modules (Use WinZip or jar to extract and view
the manifest file)
On Windows, all AR System background processes support the -version
command-line switch. With this switch, a command can write the application’s
version string to its standard output and exit.
Shared objects on UNIX hold the version information string in a global variable so
that it can be displayed using a utility such as strings with the grep command, as
follows:
strings <file name> | grep “ProdVers”
For example:
strings libar.a | grep “ProdVers”
If grep “ProdVers” is not used, strings displays all the global strings, and it is
difficult to determine the version string from the output.
Pop-up blockers
When users log in, the mid tier prompts users if the popup blocker is enabled and
warns them to disable it. If they do not disable the popup blocker, the mid tier will
fail to open a new window or dialog box (this includes expand boxes and currency
dialog boxes).
Wait cursor
Users will see a “wait cursor” for the following actions:
! Submit
! Modify
! ModifyAll
! Search
! Table Refresh
Additionally, users will see a “Loading…” message when a page is loading.
For more information, see the Installing and Administering BMC Remedy Mid Tier
guide.
This property determines whether to send the charset property in the content-type
header of outgoing mail. For example, an outgoing mail’s text part header might
look similar to this:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
If you do not want charset=UTF-8 string in the Content-type header, set the
com.bmc.arsys.emaildaemon.ContentTypeWithCharset property to False. (The
default is True.)
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