03 - Tasks Before Moving Into Production

HP Service Manager 9.
x: System Admin
The Service Manager 9.20 Administration class is derived for a HP Customer Support white paper
on the important tasks an Administrator needs to perform to setup and maintain the Service
Manager environment to ensure proper availability to its users. This class discusses the various
tasks the System Administrator should perform on an ongoing basis.
©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-1

HP Service Manager 9.x: System Admin

To better provide a high level of support, there are some cleanup activities recommended after
initial install and configuration. These activities are designed to limit the amount of Out of the box
demonstration data that remains in the system and to help keep Service Manager running
efficiently.


• The System Administrator is usually responsible for the installation, configuration and
maintenance of the Service Manager environment with access to all system capabilities and
functions. The System Administrator may also perform application administrative tasks such as
managing message groups, assignment groups, user profiles, and operator records.
• To better provide a system level of support, there are some cleanup activities recommended after
initial install and configuration. These activities are designed to limit the amount of Out of the box
demonstration data that remains in the system.
• In large organizations, Service Manager security functions, such as maintaining the operator and
contact records, profile and user roles, initiating Mandanten, folder, and security groups, etc.,
may share these responsibilities with an IT Security Officer. Functions such as password resets
and resetting a locked out user are usually performed by the Service Desk. The tasks required of
a System Administrator will vary from organization to organization and is dependent on the
Service Manager environment. This class is intended to cover some of the most commonly
performed tasks of a System Administrator and is based on a white paper regarding System
Administrator tasks distributed by HP Customer Support.
• To view a more comprehensive list of activities the System Administrator performs, search for
―System Administrator― in the Service Manager Help Server.

Database Administration
• The Service Manager Help Server contains a large amount of information about converting, maintaining,
tuning, and troubleshooting your Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). The topics are
intended for experienced HP Service Manager system and database administrators responsible for
installing and implementing databases or individuals hosting Service Manager data and assisting in
database conversion.
Other information contained in the Help Server:

• Information required to configure and use Service Manager databases
• Practical information to learn about various methods used to perform queries against information
contained in the database
• Information and steps used to import, export, purge, and archive records
• Information and steps used to run the Service Manager out-of-box maintenance utilities
• Information about how to use IR Expert
• Database tuning and troubleshooting tips
• Best practices and examples using out-of-box data

Service Manager’s System Administrator Tools
• After Service Manager has been installed, the are many Out-of the-box (OOB) tools that can be
used to help the System Administrator configure and maintain the Service Manager system.
Unfortunately, all of these tools cannot be taught in the limited time allotted for this class.
Therefore, HP Service Manager Customer Support has identified the following key tools to be
discussed in this class:
- Audits - Licenses
- Backups - Notifications
- Calendars - Numbers/Counters
- Database Dictionary - Operators
- Database Manager - Parameters
- Email Configuration - Purging/Archiving
- Global Lists - Reports
- Import/Export - Schedule record
- Inactivity Timer - System Status
- Info table - Time zones
- Loads/Unloads


• The Database Manager Utility allows System Administrators to gain access to data stored in any
table. For this reason, the Database Manager utility should be given only to those who need to
have such access.
• From the initial Database Manager prompt, you can:

– Search for a specific input form by form name or associated table name.
– Search for forms or tables using wildcard searches.
– Once a form is selected, the Database Manager utility takes control and displays the form. Searching for
records is the main priority when first entering the utility, but entering new records is also possible. Once an
individual record is selected, it can be modified or deleted.
– Some commonly-accessed tables have menu items that directly access them. Database Manager is still used to
display these records, even though the user is taken directly to the relevant form.
Note: Forms related to Service Manager applications pass control to the relevant application. To
bypass this functionality, enter the utility in Administration Mode.
• The common buttons in the editor toolbar of Database Manager include the following:
– Add – Writes a new record to the data table.
– Search – Executes a query based upon values entered into a form.
– Save – Overwrites the currently displayed record.
– Delete – Removes the currently displayed record from the table.
• The Database Manager utility is discussed in detail in the HP Service Manager Advanced class.


• Records are displayed in the Database Manager through forms. Therefore, to use the Database
Manager, the user must specify which form is to be used. Forms can be searched for by name by
filling out the Form field, or the forms associated with a table can be listed by filling out the Table
field. After entering the search criteria, the user presses the Search button to display the list of
forms that match the criteria, and select the correct form. If only one form matches, that form is
immediately displayed.
• There are two database manager modes:

– Standard Mode. Standard Mode shows the buttons that are defined for the specific Object. Security features in
this mode prevent accidental damage to data records.
– Administration Mode. Admin Mode shows the buttons defined in the db.view displayscreen (DEFAULT object).
The Administration Mode check box is visible only when the SysAdmin capability word is defined in the user‘s
operator record. If the AlwaysAdmin capability word is defined in the user‘s operator record, forms will open in
Administration Mode whether or not the checkbox is checked.

Mass Update
• Mass Update enables a System Administrator to update one or several fields in a set of records.
Mass Update consists of three related functions:
– Template Mass Update
– Simple Mass Update
– Complex Mass Update
• In a template Mass Update, a template displays a list of fields that can be updated. The user
enters a value for each field to be updated to complete the process.
• In a Simple Mass Update, Service Manager displays a record form in which the user can enter
values for selected fields. These values are then applied to all of the records selected for the
Simple Mass Update.
• In a Complex Mass Update, Service Manager displays a form in which the user enters RAD
expressions containing variables and concatenated fields to populate another field in the selected
records.
• The Mass Update function can be used with the following applications:
– Change Management
– Configuration Management
– Incident Management
– Problem Management
– Service Desk ©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-12
Unload files
• The native HP Service Manager export format is the unload file. An unload file stores the
database dictionary of Service Manager tables in addition to records. The database dictionary
embedded in an unload file determines where Service Manager loads records during import. The
unload file also specifies whether Service Manager should update or ignore duplicate records
when loading records. Service Manager can export unload files in the following file formats:
• Binary — The binary unload file format archives Service Manager tables. You can load binary
unload files only from the Database Manager.
• Text — The text unload file format is human readable but only intended to be loaded from the
Database Manager.
• Formatted text — The formatted text unload file format is intended to be compatible with external
applications, although the actual format of the file is determined by the form you select as a
template. You can create export forms to create formatted text unload files compatible with
specific applications.
• You can export records into an unload file from the following Service Manager utilities:
– Database Manager
– Unload Script Utility
– Directly from some record lists
• After you load a .unl file to import data into Service Manager, you must stop and then re-start the
Service Manager server. This ensures that the table changes are initialized.



• Note – Menu, RAD Applications, and Global List Utilities are discussed in detail in the HP
Service Manager 9.20 Advanced class.

Database Manager
• It is assumed in this class you have had the HP Service Manager Essentials class and are
familiar with the use of the command line and the systems navigator tools. However, you may
not have been exposed to the Database Manager. If you have never used the Database
Manager utility, the ―DB‖ tool can access all tables in Service Manager. It is normally restricted
to just System Administrators and Developers and is covered in more detail in the HP Service
Manager Advanced class.
Opening a record using Database Manager

• To open a record using Database Manager:
1. Click Tailoring > Database Manager.
Note: Alternatively, you can open Database Manager from the command line, by typing db,
and then pressing Enter or clicking Execute Command, the triangle to the right of the field.
2. Select a form or file by typing the name of a form in the Form field or the name of a file in the
Table field.
3. If one or both fields are left blank, the record list returns all records that match your criteria.
4. Click Search.
5. Enter your search criteria. For example, you can enter known information in key fields, such as
names of operators, names of configuration items, or incident numbers.
Note: Executing a search that includes a field that is not fully keyed slows response time.
• Copy the falcon operator record to a name such as failsafe and in the operator record‘s startup
tab, set the RAD Application to run database. This allows you to access the system in case the
menu table is unavailable or broken and will also enable the ability to load in files.
• Note: If the synchronization of the contacts to operators is set to true in the System Information record, you will
need to create a contact record for failsafe or set the synchronization to false.

• If your web browser is configured to auto-complete forms with information, this may pose a security risk for your
organization since half of the login & password can be easily surmised. You can turn this feature off by going into
the browser (in M/S Explorer) and selecting Tools > Internet Options > Content tab > AutoComplete -
Settings button > Forms checkbox and set the checkbox to false.
• Note: if you add a dropdown box for login name on the login.prompt form, you may not want
the ―failsafe‖ operator to show up in the drop down list. Therefore, in the Operators Global List,
add to the limiting sql field: name~="failsafe―. To learn more about Global Lists and how they
work, attend the HP Service Manager Advanced class.

Unload the Operator table

• Unload the operator table to your Service Manager RUN directory as operator.unl by going to
the operator table, doing a true search and selecting the export/unload option. If the operator
table is ever accidentally deleted, no-one will be able to log on. By having this unload, you will
be able to load it in from the command line using the following command:
sm file.load operator.unl NULL NULL <unix/winnt> -bg
Where <unix/winnt> represents the OS environment of the system, replace the text with the appropriate word.
For example, use the word unix if under a UNIX environment and winnt if under a Windows environment.
Note – In case the administrator‘s operator has been corrupted or the password is forgotten or
accidently changed, you can also unload just the administrator‘s operator record and reload the
record using the same syntax as above by substituting the name of the unload file. If you just
want to change the password of the Administrator and not write over the top of the record with a
load, you can also make the password change at the database level directly in the operatorm1
table.

Unload all operator records

• To unload all operator records:
1. Click System Administration > Ongoing Maintenance > Operators.
2. Click Search.
3. Click Mass Unload. The Unload/Export Utility will display.

Unload files
• The native HP Service Manager export format is the unload file. An unload file stores the
database dictionary (structure, data types, and keys of the table) of Service Manager tables in
addition to records. The database dictionary embedded in an unload file determines where
Service Manager loads records during import. The unload file also specifies whether Service
Manager should update or ignore duplicate records when loading records. Service Manager can
export unload files in the following file formats:
– Binary — The binary unload file format archives Service Manager tables. You can load binary unload files
only from the Database Manager.
– Text — The text unload file format is human readable but only intended to be loaded from the Database
Manager.
– Formatted text — The formatted text unload file format is intended to be compatible with external
applications, although the actual format of the file is determined by the form you select as a template. You can
create export forms to create formatted text unload files compatible with specific applications.
• You can export records into an unload file from the following Service Manager utilities:
– Database Manager
– Unload Script Utility
– Directly from some record lists
• After you load a .unl file to import data into Service Manager, you must stop and then restart the
Service Manager server. This ensures that the table changes are initialized.
Note: Service Manager encodes unload files in the UTF-8 format. Service Manager can import
unload files from previous versions
©2010 of ServiceCenter,
Hewlett-Packard the predecessor
Development Company, L..P. to Service Manager, but
1-23
earlier versions cannot import unload files created by Service Manager.
Load an unload file
• To load an unload file:

1. Click Tailoring > Database Manager.
2. Right-click the form and select Import/Load.
3. Fill in the following fields:
– File Name Type the name and path of the file to load or click on the folder icon to navigate a path where you
want the file to be saved. When finish navigating, type the name you wish to call the unload file.
Note – A common nomenclature for Service Manager unload files is to save the file with the suffix of .unl. This will
make it easier to distinguish Service Manager files from other files in the directory.
– Import Descriptor Type the name of the optional Import Descriptor record used to import records. Since
unloads files do not require an Import Descriptor record, leave this field blank.
– File Type Select the source operating system of the unload file.
– Messages Option — All Messages Select this option to see all messages that HP Service Manager
generates loading the file.
– Messages Option — Totals Only Select this option to see only the total number of files Service Manager
loads.
– Messages Option — None Select this option to hide all messages that Service Manager generates loading
the file.
Note: You can view the contents of an unload file before importing it by clicking List Contents.
4. Click Load FG (Foreground).
Note - Use Load BG (Background) if loading a large volume of records and you wish to continue working in Service
Manager while the records are being loaded.

Restoring the Operator Table
• If the operator table has been accidentally deleted and you cannot login to Service Manager,
you can load the backup operator file you unloaded into the RUN directory.
• Restoring a deleted operator table:
1. Open a DOS Command prompt or the Windows Run dialog box.
2. Navigate to the \Service Manager\Server\RUN directory and type the following command:
sm file.load <filename> NULL NULL winnt -bg
Where the <filename> is the name of the backup operator file stored in the RUN directory, the two nulls are empty
elements in the RAD array and OS is either the Windows or Unix Operating System. In our example, the file is called
operators.unl and the OS is winnt (if the OS is UNIX, substitute UNIX for winnt).
3. Logon to Service Manager using either a System Administrators login or the ―failsafe‖ login you
created.
- If you cannot login or you receive error messages, contact Customer Support for assistance.



• Before every startup of Service Manager, write your sm.log to sm.log.<date> as well as any other
logs you wish to maintain. This keeps the log files from growing too large.
• A recommended option is to use the maxlogsize and numberoflogfiles parameters.
Recommended are a maxlogsize of 15 to 20 MB and a numberoflogfiles of 7.
Log switching
• A system administrator can enable log switching to have Service Manager write log information
to a new file when one of the following conditions occur:
• The current log file reaches a pre-defined size limit
• The server scheduler reaches a pre-defined schedule switch over date.
• Log switching is particularly useful for systems that run continuously and do not have downtime for
system administrators to back up or delete logs. If you do not enable log switching, Service
Manager will add all log messages to the one log file defined in the initialization file. System
administrators can enable log switching by adding an entry to the initialization file and by
configuring the Log Switch schedule record.
Enable log switching

• To enable log switching:
1. Stop the Service Manager server.
2. Open the sm.ini file in a text editor, such as Notepad.
3. Type the following system parameter:
numberoflogfiles: n
©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P.

For n, type the number of log files you want Service Manager to maintain. The minimum 1-28
value
Parameters
• Parameters help control your HP Service Manager system. There are two basic types of
parameters, system parameters and web tier parameters.
– System parameters change HP Service Manager behavior. There are hundreds of parameters, each designed
to assist system administrators and users.
– Web tier parameters control the behavior and appearance of the HP Service Manager Web tier.
• Parameters set at startup keep their value for as long as the HP Service Manager server is
running. To reset a startup parameter you must stop and restart the HP Service Manager server.
You can set startup parameters from either the server's operating system command prompt or
from the HP Service Manager initialization file (sm.ini).

System parameters
• System parameters define either server or client properties.
• Some parameters are "always in effect", meaning that HP Service Manager requires them to function and
assumes a default value for them every time it starts. For example, the HP Service Manager server
assumes a value for the recordsizelimit parameter every time it starts.
• Other parameters do not have a value set, unless a system administrator chooses to set the value. For
example, the system; parameter determines the port for clients to access the HP Service Manager
server. The initial value for this parameter is set during installation and stored in the sm.ini file. If there is
not a value for system in the sm.ini file, then HP Service Manager clients do not know what port to
connect to on the server.
• Some parameters affect the server and all of the clients that connect to it, while others only affect a
particular client or connection.
• Furthermore, a particular parameter can affect all connections or a particular connection, based on
where it is set.
• Parameters provide a way to handle each of the following requirements.

– In a production environment, the system administrator may want to prevent all client connections from printing or unloading
data.
– In a production environment, a user may want to change the font within HP Service Manager.
– In a development or testing environment, the system administrator may want all developers to have certain debugging
capabilities.
– In a development or testing environment, an application developer may want additional debugging capabilities.
• System parameters change the behavior of the HP Service Manager components.

• Since system parameters can be set from a variety of locations by a variety of people, the values set may
Web tier parameters

• You can set Web tier parameters from the web.xml file provided when you deploy the HP Service
Manager Web archive file (sm.war).
• When entering parameters into web.xml, ensure that the values you enter conform to valid XML
standards. All parameter tags must be children of the servlet tag using the following syntax:
<servlet>
<init-param>
<param-name>serverHost</param-name>
<param-value>myhost.mydomain.com</param-value>
</init-param>
<servlet>
Tip: Stop and restart your Web application server whenever you make changes to the web.xml file to ensure that your Web
application server picks up the new settings.
Setting Web tier parameters from the Web client
• You can provide connection-specific Web tier parameters from the Web browser URL that override the
current web.xml values. For example, the following URL changes the connection to host mycompany on
port 13082 for this client session.
http://localhost:8080/sm/index.do?serverHost=myhost.mydomain.com&serverPort=13082
• For a list of Web client parameters, navigate to the Help Server and lookup: List: Client parameters
for Web clients
System Information Parameters
• Since our discussion of parameters began with maxlogsize and numberoflogfiles, here are some
examples of other popular system information parameters:
– License file - Defines the path to the Autopass license file containing the list of enabled modules and features for your
Service Manager server.
– Log - Defines the path to the Service Manager log file.
– reportlic - Displays the Service Manager License Report, which you can capture in a text file using standard output (stdout)
parameters appropriate to your operating system.
– Reportlocks - Displays resource locks, which you can capture in a text file using standard output (stdout) parameters
appropriate to your operating system.
– Reportshm - Displays the shared memory report, which you can capture in a text file using standard output (stdout)
parameters appropriate to your operating system.
– Reportstatus - Displays a shared memory, semaphore and process report, which you can capture in a text file using
standard output (stdout) parameters appropriate to your operating system.
– Reporttolog - This parameter allows the reportstatus, reportsem, and reportshm reports to be written to the console or
sm.log file.
• To view a more complete list of system parameters or to view a listing of the other Service Manager
parameters and their definitions, navigate to the Help Server, search for ―parameters‖ and click on the
Related Topics button.

Getting help with parameters

• HP Service Manager provides two ways to learn about parameters. Help is one of those sources. Also,
from a command line you can navigate to the C:\Program Files\HP\Service Manager 9.20\Server\RUN
directory, and issue a sm -helpall command directly on the server machine. Note that this is a sm
command with the helpall parameter. Help provides detailed descriptions of each parameter and its
use, while helpall provides a list of parameters and a brief description of each.


• Background processes that are not being used should be taken out of the info.startup record. The
―startup‖ record contains the list of all background processes that are initiated by the line sm
system.start in the sm.cfg file.
• For example, remove the despooler, agent and marquee lines, since they are no longer being
used.
• Do not remove the Sync process, since it is very important for cleaning up sessions, memory, etc.

Remove an agent from the startup agent record

• To remove an agent from the startup agent record in the info table:
1. In the Service Manager command line, type: info
or,
From the System Navigator, select System Administration > Base System
Configuration > Miscellaneous > Agent Registry
2. The info.startup.g form opens.
3. In the Type field, type: startup
4. Click Search.
The startup agent record opens.
5. In the Processor Information section, scroll to the agent record you wish to remove.
6. Clear the agent‘s Name, RAD Application, Class, Wakeup Interval (secs.), and Priority fields of
data
7. Click Save.
Service Manager updates the startup record.

System status form

• The system status form allows administrators to view and manage user sessions and processes.
• From the system status form, a user with system administrator capabilities can:
– View a list of users logged in to the server
– View a list of processes running on the server
– Schedule a process to run at a later date and time
– Broadcast a message to all connected users
– Display a list of users who are locked out of the system
– Filter the system events displayed in the status list
• View all tasks: users and processes
• View active processes only
• View inactive processes only
• View users only
• View system processes only
– View the System Monitor for information about the system resources consumed by and connection properties
used by each user and process running on the server
– View the list of system status command line options
– View the system status summary form
Note: There can be only one kmupdate process running at any time. Starting more than one kmupdate process
causes unpredictable behavior on the search engine server.
System status list

• The system status list contains the following:
– Command: The text field where you can enter the commands s for status or k for kill process.
– User Name: The login and process names currently running on the server.
– PID: The unique numeric process identification Service Manager assigns to each user and process.

Named users
• Service Manager uses the software license agreement, which provides for two types of licensed
users: named users and floating users.
• Named users are users who are always authorized to log on to the Service Manager system.
Floating users are limited to a maximum number of concurrent logins as defined by the floating
user license. The Service Manager license key password file encodes the number of named users
and floating users in the system as separate values. You can define as many named users as you
have named user licenses. Users not defined as named users consume floating licenses when they
log on. If all of your floating user licenses have been used, Service Manager denies access to
any additional floating users but lets named users log in.
• If named user licenses have been purchased, determine which users should log into the system as
named users and update their operator records with the named user checkbox. This is described
in the help section Application Setup –> Method: Controlling user access and
security –> License Tracking –> Named users.
Determine the number of named users available
Note: You must have access to the Service Manager server to perform this procedure.
• To determine the number of named users available:
1. Open a Windows Command Prompt window.
2. Change directories to©2010
the RUN folder ofDevelopment
Hewlett-Packard your Service Manager
Company, L..P. installation. 1-39
Make an individual operator a named user
• To make an individual operator a named user:

1. Click System Administration > Ongoing Maintenance > Operators.
2. Type or select optional search criteria.
3. Click Search.
4. Select the operator record from the record list.
5. Click the Login Profiles tab.
6. Select the Named User option.
Note: For named users for applications only, do not select the Named User checkbox but instead, in the Named
Applications field, type or select the application for which you want to enable operator access.
7. Click Save.



Inactivity timer
• The inactivity timer is a background process that closes user sessions that have been idle for a
specified period of time. To use the inactivity timer you must configure the following settings:
– A time limit: the time limit that users can remain inactive until the inactivity closes their user session.
– An exception list: a list of operators that the inactivity timer ignores. This list should include all operators that
should not be logged out regardless of the type of license (Named or Floating license).
– A warning interval: the time limit that users can remain inactive until the inactivity timer displays a warning
message in Active Notes.
• To start the inactivity timer you need to also start the inactive.startup process from the
Schedule file or the System Status record. We will discuss the Schedule file and the System Status
record in detail in the Daily Tasks module of this class.
Starting the inactivity timer
Note: You must have the SysAdmin capability word in your operator record to use this
procedure.
• To start the inactivity timer:
1. Click System Administration > Ongoing Maintenance > System > Start Inactivity
Timer.
The inactive.setup.g form opens.
2. Type or select the inactivity timer record information.
3. Click Start Inact.
• HP Service Manager displays the message: The inactive process has been set up to look for users
idle after <n> minutes.



Calendars
• The Service Manager calendar is an optional feature that enables the System Administrator to define
custom work schedules for each group in the organization. These custom calendars determine when alerts
and notifications occur for particular groups.
• By default, Service Manager uses a calendar with a 24-hour work day and a 7-day work week to
determine when alerts and notifications occur. In the default 24-hour, 7-day calendar, Service Manager
sends alerts and notifications without regard to operator work shifts. For example, if an operator
schedules a notification to occur in 6 hours, then Service Manager sends the notification after 6 hours
have passed regardless of whether any operator is present to receive it. A notification scheduled at 5:00
p.m. in the default calendar arrives at 11:00 p.m. the same day.
• Using a custom calendar, however, the same 6-hour delay occurs only during the defined work schedule.
For example, a System Administrator can define an 8-hour work day lasting from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m., which includes a 1-hour break from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. If an operator then schedules a
notification to occur 6 hours after 5:00 p.m., the notification actually occurs at 3:00 p.m. the next work
day, or 6 working hours after the notification start time.

Work Schedules
• A work schedule defines the work hours for one or more operators. HP Service Manager can generate a
complex 24x7 schedule that spans multiple time zones, includes all shift and break information,
accommodates any regional shift to Daylight Savings time, and automatically accounts for local or
national holidays. Service Manager uses the following information to create a work schedule:
– Shift and break information
– Holiday information (optional)
• Service Manager uses work schedule information in various calculations. One of the more important
calculations is when to trigger an alert that an incident should escalate to the next level.
• Work schedules can apply to a group, such as an assignment group, or to an individual named in the
operator or contacts table. When you create schedule records, start and stop times must not overlap, and
breaks must occur within the defined work shift.
Create a work Schedule
• To create a new work schedule:

1. Click System Administration > Base System Configuration > Work Schedules.
2. In the Work Schedule Name field, type in the name of the new work schedule.
3. In the Holiday Groups field, type or fill in the name of the group of holidays to use with the work
schedule, if needed.
4. In the Include Holiday hours in Working hours checkbox, select true or false to include or
exclude holidays as part of the working hours.
5. In the days of the week, Monday through Sunday, Full Day checkboxes, select true to set the working
hours for that day as midnight to midnight, with breaks included.
6. In the Start and End fields, type in the starting and ending time of the work hours for that day, using a
24-hour clock.
7. In the Break Start and Break End fields, type in the starting and ending time of the break time for
that day, using a 24-hour clock.
8. Click Add.
Holiday records
• HP Service Manager includes out-of-box records for common holidays in the United States. To add a
holiday, you must create a new holiday record in the calholidays table and associate that holiday with a
group in calholtable.
• Service Manager uses calholtable to organize holidays into different groups. For example, one group of
holidays might list all holidays observed in France. This group would include worldwide holidays like
Christmas and New Year's Day and those unique to France. A second group might also list the
worldwide holidays, but add those unique to North America.
Associated tables
• Service Manager uses information in these tables:
– calholidays contains a record for each holiday observed by your company.
– calholtable contains a record with the name of each group of holidays.
Add a holiday
• To create a holiday:
1. Click System Administration > Base System Configuration > Holidays. The calholidays
form displays.
2. In the Holiday Name field, type the name of the new holiday.
3. In the Start Date and End Date fields, type or select the date and time the holiday begins.
4. In the Holiday Group Name field, type or fill in the name of the holiday group, if needed.
5. Click Add.
Create a holiday group
• To create a holiday group:

1. Click Tailoring > Database Manager.Development Company, L..P.
©2010 Hewlett-Packard 1-48
2. Type calholtable in the Form field.
• System Administrators can create custom calendar records to use throughout Service Manager. The
caldutyhours table contains custom calendar records that a System Administrator can assign to Service
Manager activities:
• Change Management duty table
• Change Management group definitions
• Incident Management assignment group definitions
• Incident Management deadline alert group definitions
• Request Management target order times
• Request Management target completion times
• Service Level Agreement service hours
• Service Level Agreement availability schedules
• Service Level Agreement response time schedules
• Service Desk on call times
• Vendor schedules


• All forms used for searches, such as FilterAdvFind forms, should only contain fields that are
allowed for searches. These fields should be keys in the dbdict of the table as well as indexes in
the related RDMBS table for efficiency. For best performance, build the keys and indexes in the
dbdict field sequences rather than form field sequence. Refer to the Diagnostics and Tuning
white paper for more information.
• The debugdbquery parameter can be turned on during Service Manager prototyping to verify
that user and background queries are well supported with corresponding keys.

Database Dictionary
• HP Service Manager maintains a logical view of your RDBMS tables and columns in the
database dictionary. The database dictionary describes each table and column in your system
and how they are mapped to logical entities within Service Manager. The Service Manager
applications use the logical definitions in the database dictionary to query and manage the
actual records in your RDBMS. You must create a database dictionary record for each table and
column in your system.
• Every time you add tables and columns for Service Manager to your RDBMS system, you must
also create database dictionary records describing these new items before Service Manager can
make use of them. The best practice HP recommends is to create the database dictionary records
first, and then have Service Manager create the back-end tables and columns for you
automatically. Some environments, however, do not permit Service Manager to add or update
records in the back-end RDBMS.
• In restricted-access RDBMS environments, Service Manager can create database definition

language (DDL) describing the changes proposed by your database dictionary records. The
RDBMS administrator can then create the necessary tables and columns for Service Manager .
After the RDBMS has the necessary tables and columns, the Service Manager administrator can
then update the database dictionary records to map to the actual RDBMS objects. To simplify the
mapping process, Service Manager administrators can also import columns from an RDBMS into
a database dictionary record.
• You can access database dictionary records either from the System Definition utility or from the
database dictionary form. Both
©2010 utilities require
Hewlett-Packard having
Development the SysAdmin
Company, L..P. capability word or its 1-52
• The Database Dictionary utility allows administrators to view existing table elements and
properties, as well as provide a quick way to define new tables. The Database Dictionary utility
has three tabs: fields, keys, and SQL tables.
• Table definition information is stored in the dbdict table.

– Fields tab. The Fields tab summarizes the properties of a Service Manager table, providing information such as
type and index as well as SQL mapping information.
– Keys tab. The Keys tab describes the properties of all keys in a Service Manager table.
– SQL Tables tab. The SQL Tables tab describes the properties of all SQL mappings for a Service Manager table.

• To create a new table, navigate to the Database Dictionary Utility, type in a unique name and
click the New button as shown in the graphic above. Tables created will contain one default text
field named id, and one Unique key based on that field.
• The following is a list of reserved words in Service Manager that are not allowed to be used as
table names:
AND FOR STEP

BEGIN IF THEN
DO IN TRUE
ELSE NOT WHILE
END NULL UNKNOWN
FALSE OR

Rules for Modifying Fields in an Existing Table

• Do not change a scalar field to an array field or vice versa. (Scalar refers to any data field type
that is a single element versus an array that can store multiple elements.)
• A modification to a field can involve change in name, data type, or both.
• When modifying a field name, the associated input field on forms associated with the table must
also be changed.
• Modifying a field name does not affect existing records in the table.
• The F6 function key will open the New Field/Key window. F1 will save the new field/key. If
adding multiple fields or keys to the table, it is faster to use the function keys.
Tip: When adding a new field to a table, either enter the SQL mapping information directly or
have the system create the SQL mapping information based on default settings.

• The HP Service Manager server can push changes you make in the database dictionary, the tool that
maintains a logical view of your RDBMS tables and columns, to your back-end RDBMS. If you provide the
Service Manager server with table create-alter-drop-rights to the RDBMS, it automatically adds or updates
any tables, columns, or indexes needed in the RDBMS. If you do not provide the Service Manager server
table create-alter-drop-rights to the RDBMS, HP recommends you enable exporting your database
dictionary changes as DDL (Database Definition Language statements). This allows you to make the
necessary changes to the database dictionary and then have your RDBMS administrator review and
implement the DDL on the RDBMS.
• To trigger the automatic update of RDBMS data, you add or update a database dictionary record and
save it. When you save the database dictionary record, Service Manager consults the mapping format
for your RDBMS to create the corresponding tables, columns, and indexes required by your addition or
change. Service Manager then connects to the RDBMS with the user account you provided in the
configuration file and attempts to add or update the database. If the add or update is successful, you will
see the updated mapping for the table, column, or index after you restart Service Manager. If the add or
update fails, the Service Manager server changes the database dictionary mappings to map to null tables
and writes an error message in the Service Manager log file.
• When Service Manager has table create-alter-drop-rights to the RDBMS, the database dictionary record
contains mapping information to the actual tables and column names. When Service Manager does not
have table create-alter-drop-rights to the RDBMS, the database dictionary record contains mapping
information to the proposed table and column names. The RDBMS administrator can use Service
Manager‘s generated DDL to create the proposed table and column names. Until the actual tables and
columns exist, the database dictionary record points to a null table mapping. All null table aliases start
with an "N-" prefix, and the SQL table name maps to the value NULLTABLE. After the RDBMS
administrator has created the tables and columns for the database dictionary record, the Service
Manager administrator can use the Activate Nulltable Rows option to update the SQL mappings to
their new values. Service Manager will use the column names listed in the database dictionary record to
match it to the proper table name in the RDBMS.

• Number: Permits input of numeric data only. Example: -7.3

• Character: Permits input of any available characters. Enclose character values in double quotes in
expressions. Example: ―Mary‖
• Date/Time: Permits input of Service Manager date/time data. Enclose data/time values in single
quotes in expressions. Example: ‗12/31/2001 14:00‘
• Logical: Contains true, false, unknown, or NULL. (no quotes)
• Array: Compound data element that permits more than one value of the same data type. Enclose
array values in curly brackets in expressions. Example: {―Hans‖, ―Sasha‖, ―George‖}. After
arrays are added, the type of data stored in the array must still be defined.
• Structure: Compound data element that permits more than one value of different data types.
Enclose structures in curly brackets followed by square brackets. Example: {[―Joe‖, true, 50,
‗07:00‘]}
• Index: Shows the field‘s location or position within its parent structure.
• SQL Name: Shows corresponding Database column name.
• SQL Type: Shows corresponding Database column type.

Data types
• The Service Manager data type specifies the expected format of a field's data. The data type
determines the possible range of values of the set, the operations that can be performed on the
values, and the way values are stored in memory. Defining a data type enables the system to
manipulate the data appropriately. The values are denoted either by literals or variables. They
also can be obtained as a result of operations. Data types can be either primitive or compound.
• To view the complete list of data types, navigate to Service Manager Help Server > Tailoring
> System Language > Data Types.

A key is an index, based on an identifying field or set of fields in a table, which is consulted when
queries are processed so all fields in a record do not need to be searched for set criteria. A field
in a key must be defined as a field in the table. A key may be made up of only one field, or of a
combination of fields.
NOTE: A table cannot be saved unless at least one key is defined. Tables created from Forms
Designer will take the field in the upper left of the form and create a Unique key based on that
field.
Best Practice: Place a unique key in the first position. Service Manager uses the first key when
executing a true query (one with no specified criteria, that displays all records in the table).
Modifying a Key
You may need to modify keys in your Database Dictionary records to optimize performance. A
modification is either adding or deleting a field in the Fields list comprising the key, or making a
change in the key type definition, or making a change in the order in which fields appear in a
specific key.
Important: When you add, modify or delete a key in an existing table, Service Manager 9.20 or
later will generate the DDL statements to add / modify/ delete the corresponding index on the
RDBMS and execute them directly when appropriate rights are set.


Keys in queries
• HP Service Manager uses keys to identify fields in files to select data more efficiently. If a partially
keyed or non keyed query is detected by clicking Tailoring > Database Manager, the
operator is notified so that the search can be abandoned and thus discontinue the use of the
resources allotted to that task. The ability to perform partially keyed queries and modify search
interval parameters is controlled using capability words for partially keyed queries in combination
with other capability words. You can use these tools to control performance and eliminate
degradation due to inefficient queries.
Designing keys for queries

• Fully keyed queries typically offer the best performance. You can design keys to ensure that every
query is fully keyed, although it may not be practical in all instances. Running all queries fully
keyed requires defining a large number of keys, which in turn can cause performance
degradation when using the add, update, and delete operations. In general, the Service
Manager System Administrator should discuss query performance with the Database
Administrator and tune the system accordingly.
• Points to consider when designing keys:

– Design keys for the most used queries.
– You can optionally force users to issue fully keyed queries by not allowing partially keyed and non-keyed
queries.
– Specify the fields that are most commonly used at the beginning of the key in the query.
– Specify fields that have many possible values at the beginning of the key. A key with a Boolean field at the
beginning is inefficient, unless the majority of your queries return only a small number of records. For example,
flag=true in the probsummary table eliminates 90% of all records.
– Do not use the same field in multiple keys. If you update a record and then change the value of that field,
update all of the indexes that contain that key.
– Do not define more than 25 keys for one file. The more keys defined for a file, the more time is required to
add, update, and delete records in that file. Likewise, if you define too few keys, the operations run faster but
©2010 Hewlett-Packard
the searches on the individual file run slower.Development Company, L..P. 1-61
Key selection algorithms
• A key selection algorithm selects a key to perform a query based on the order of the fields in the
query expression, and the order of the fields in the keys defined in the dbdict. The system then
assigns a weight to each key based on the order in which the fields appear in the query for the
key, and the order in which they appear in the query and key. For example, if the first field in a
key matches the first field in the query, Service Manager assigns that key a higher weight than
one that has that field as the second field in the key. The system makes the decision for all fields
in the query and keys.

Key selection algorithms
• Example query and keys:

– query: a=1 and b=2 and c=3 and d=4
key1: b,c,d
key2: a,c,d
key3: a,b
key4: a
• In this example, the key selection algorithm selects key3. The next highest weight is key2,
followed by key4 and key1.
• Here is an example of a new key selection based on the location database dictionary record with
the keys {location}, {location,state}, {location,city}, {location.name,location}, and {location.code}:
• query: type=10 location.name#"Pere" and location#"ca"

• type=0 key#4 selected
• weight key# key fields
• 0.500000 1 type=9 {[12,{"location"}]}
• 0.500000 2 type=9 {[0, {"location", "state"}]}
• 0.500000 3 type=9 {[0, {"location", "city"}]}
• 1.200000 4 type=9 {[0, {"location.name", "location"}]}
• 0.000000 5 type=9 {[0, {"location.code"}]}

• This parameter causes the Service Manager server to write database queries, timings, and results
information that exceed the time threshold you specify in this parameter value to the log file.
Database debug
• You can add the debugdbquery parameter to the sm.ini file to allow the server to run the
database debug utility. You can then use Microsoft Excel to sort the query results.
• Examples:
• To show all database access, use the following syntax: debugdbquery:999. 999 represents a full
query. Otherwise, you can filter the query by the number of seconds, such as debugdbquery:3
• To show all queries that exceed n number of milliseconds, use the following syntax:
debugdbquery:n/.

• Output from the Database debug query parameter, debugdbquery, writes to the sm.log file. The
messages written to the sm.log file contain several fields, each separated by a caret (^) character.
The sm.log file is located in the following directory:
..\..\HP\Service Manager\Server\logs
• Sample debugdbquery 999 output to the sm.log file:
223 08/30/2010 17:39:51

DBFIND^F^scmessage(Oracle)^1^0.000000^F^0^0.000000^―syslanguage=―en‖
and class=―us‖ and message.id=―1‖‖^ ^0.000000^0.000000 ( [ 0] apm.get.inbox.by.name start)
223 08/30/2010 17:39:51
DBQUERY^F^probsummary(Oracle)^18^1.000000^F^0^0.020000^―hot.tic#true‖^
{―category‖}^0.000000^0.000000 ( [ 0] sc.manage select)
• The following table describes the output fields for the database debug query (debugdbquery)
parameter.
– Who: DBFIND or DBQUERY
– Where: F = foreground or B = background
– File: The file name followed by database type: Oracle, DB2, SQL server or LDAP, or JOIN. If you add a letter I
suffix, then the file name is case-insensitive.
– Key: The number of the selected key. If an asterisk character (*) follows the key number, Service Manager
selected that key based on sort requirements, not query requirements. The system first uses a key that satisfies
the sort criteria because a physical sort of the data is not required.
– Weight: The calculated weight
©2010 for the key Service
Hewlett-Packard Manager
Development selectsL..P.
Company, for that specific query. For additional
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information, see the Key selection algorithms Help topic.


Unload Script Utility
• Used to migrate SM objects from one SM system to another.

• Defines control for objects migrated.
• A consistent and repeatable process.
• Save records from multiple tables into a single file.
• Ability to filter records
• Ability to purge records during the unload process.
• Launch from System Navigator or Command Line:
– Tailoring > Tailoring Tools > Unload Script Utility
– Command Line: unload

• The Unload Script utility enables system administrators to create Service Manager unload files
automatically. Unload scripts enhance the standard unload creation process in many ways. You
use the Purge / Archive utility to unload and purge records from one file; and, if you use
datamaps, you can use Purge / Archive to unload and purge related records as well.
• With unload scripts you can save records from multiple non-related tables into a single unload
file, and specify a query for each source table that filters the records added to the unload file.
You can purge records during the unload process, and specify which formats to protect during a
purge process. If records related to a source file should be archived or purged as well, you can
add related records from the data map file to the unload file. As with the Purge / Archive utility,
you can schedule the unload script to run as a background process.
• The Unload Script utility is available in the Tailoring section. By default, Service Manager
includes a collection of unload scripts that you can use for common unload tasks. You can also
use the default unload scripts as templates to create your own customized unload scripts.
• To create and use unload scripts effectively, you must be familiar with the Service Manager
Database Manager. You can create a query on any field in the file, but querying keyed fields
improves system performance and response time.
• The following fields can be used in the Unload Script utility:
Field Description

• Unload Script A name or label that identifies your unload script. This name can
• Before the system goes live, all testing data records that were created and demonstration data
that is provided out of the box should be deleted. HP recommends using the PurgeOutofBoxData
unload script record that is predefined OOB to remove this data.
• To purge the data,
1. From Database Manager, open the unload table
2. Select the PurgeOutofBoxData record
3. Double check that all the listed tables should be purged.
4. If a table should not be purged, remove the line from the unload script record.
5. You can add or modify a query (for example, add name=‖failsave‖ to the operator line) as
needed.
6. It is recommended to add knownerrortasks to the list of tables to purge, if information was
entered during testing.



Sequential numbers
• The Sequential Number file is used in conjunction with Format Control to generate sequence
numbers for records in a database. The sequence number is automatically incremented or
decremented when a new record is added.
• After purging the OOB demo data, open the number table and reset the number records starting
points.
Reset the sequential number record’s starting points

• To Reset the sequential number record‘s starting points:
1. Select Tailoring > Tailoring Tools > Sequential Numbers.
2. The sequential number file opens.
3. Search for and set the Last Number field to 0 (Zero) for the following records:
– activity*
– cm3r
– cm3t
– device
– incident management
– incidents
– incdepend
– kmdocument
– kmfeedback
– knownerror
– knownerrortask ©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-73
Counters
The counters file/table is a newer, more simpler table than the numbers table. The counters table is
numeric and does not need a Format Control record to work, making it faster because it is
handled by the RTE rather than a RAD call. A number of the supporting and background tables
where prefixes and suffixes, number length, setting an increment or decrement number are not
needed and can use the faster numeric number, use counters.
Defining batch sizes in the counters file
• Administrators can allocate blocks of record identifiers for each servlet in horizontal and vertical
scaling implementations. By allocating record IDs in advance, administrators can reduce traffic
between the Service Manager server and the RDBMS, which improves overall system
performance.
Note: Setting a batch size value replaces the fastcounters parameter from previous versions.
• Administrators allocate record IDs in batches from the counters file. When you define a batch
size, Service Manager retrieves that number of ID keys from the RDBMS and stores the keys in
shared memory for later use. Each time someone creates a new record, the system assigns it an
ID key from shared memory until there are no more IDs available. Once the system exhausts its
supply of IDs, it requests the next batch of IDs from the RDBMS. Allocating IDs in advance
improves performance, because retrieving the reserved ID keys from shared memory is more
efficient than connecting to the RDBMS and requesting a new ID key with every new record.
Batch file size recommendation


• A complete Service Manager environment consists of at least three different instances of Service
Manager:
– A development instance, which is used to customize Service Manager to the exact needs of the customer;
– A test instance, which is used to test these changes in a copy of the production system before promoting the customizations
into production
– The production instance.
• Service Manager offers the system developer different tools to make the transitions from development to
test, and from test to production, easier.
• It is very important that you have a well defined and documented process for proceeding from
development through test into production. A well defined process will promote user satisfaction and
prevent delays in the development cycle. A process workflow may look like the slide provided.
• All changes are made in the development system. Making changes in the test system or directly to the
production system will cause the systems to become out-of-sync and more difficult to maintain.
• Applying changes to a system that is out of sync with the system on which the changes were based will
most likely result in broken functionality. After the customizations are completed on the development
system, a single unload will be created to apply to the test system.
Important: If you create and apply multiple unloads, you increase the possibility that records can be
overwritten or lost.
• The test system is used to apply the previously created unloads and test their functionality. If problems are
found during these tests, they can be fixed in the development system, where a new unload will be
created. This cycle continues until the test is successful.
• HP best practice says, if ©2010

it is theHewlett-Packard
first time moving from aCompany,
Development development
L..P. system to a production system,
1-76use
a database backup and restore process to move the tables and records. Or, have the DBA move the
• The tested unload can then be applied to the production system. Some companies require
training before an unload is released to production. The tested unload can be applied to a
training system first, and then to production. The benefit of having a single tested unload is that it
can be applied to as many systems as necessary.
Perform a System Unload of SM 9.20
1. Click Window‘s Start > Run.

2. In the command prompt, type cmd and press Enter.
3. Navigate to the Service Manager RUN directory. For example, type,
cd C:\Program Files\HP\Service Manager 9.20\Server\RUN
4. Enter sm -system_unload and press Enter.
When the system unload has completed, the following will be displayed,
―System unload of XXX files and XXX records complete!‖
5. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the Service Manager RUN directory. A new folder will
be created called system.unload.
Note: This file will need to be moved to the C: root directory of the production installation of
Service Manager 9.20.
•
Perform a System Load of SM 9.20
1. Copy the system.unload folder from the Development system into the root level of your
production system C:\ directory.
2. Click Window‘s Start > Run.







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©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-1

©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-2

©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-3

©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-4

©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-5

Other information contained in the Help Server:

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Service Manager’s System Administrator Tools

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• From the initial Database Manager prompt, you can:

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• There are two database manager modes:

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Opening a record using Database Manager

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©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-20

Unload the Operator table

sm file.load operator.unl NULL NULL <unix/winnt> -bg

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Unload all operator records

©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-22

Load an unload file

• To load an unload file:

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Restoring the Operator Table

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Enable log switching

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• Parameters provide a way to handle each of the following requirements.

• System parameters change the behavior of the HP Service Manager components.

Web tier parameters

Setting Web tier parameters from the Web client

System Information Parameters

– Log - Defines the path to the Service Manager log file.

©2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L..P. 1-32

Getting help with parameters

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Remove an agent from the startup agent record

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System status form

System status list

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Determine the number of named users available

Make an individual operator a named user

• To make an individual operator a named user:

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Starting the inactivity timer

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