Software Product Docs

Installation Guide

Introduction

The Operaio Asset Management for SCSM expands the functions of Microsoft System Center Service Manager (SCSM) and enables companies to manage their hardware assets, software assets, and contracts efficiently and sustainably. The add-on allows tracking of hardware assets during their whole life cycle, and enables companies to call up information on assets’ locations, users, or cost centers at any time. Software assets can be tracked with the purchased licenses, and you can control whether licenses are assigned to users and computers manually, or automatically based on the inventory from System Center Configuration Manager. You can also add technical installation details to your software assets, holding information about how the software can be deployed to your computers. To complete the benefits, the add-on allows different contract types, such as leasing, warranty or service contracts to be linked to the respective assets. All asset management data resides in the Service Manager CMDB, and can be visualized transparently at any time in the Service Manager console, the Operaio Analyst portal, or with the supplied reports.

Components

Operaio Asset Management for SCSM comprises the following components:

  • Asset Management Pack: a management pack for SCSM which contains the Asset Management data model and forms for the SCSM console.
  • Views Management Pack: a management pack which contains views allowing you to work with asset management using the SCSM console.
  • Workflows: a workflow assembly and management pack to add support for the asset management workflows
  • Authoring Components: samples and resources to help you customize the Operaio Asset Management data model and forms using the SCSM Authoring Tool
  • Analyst Portal Forms: forms allowing you to work with asset management using the Operaio Analyst Portal
  • Analyst Portal Tasks: tasks allowing you to work with asset management using the Operaio Analyst Portal

Installation

Some steps of the installation are performed using the management pack import functionality of SCSM. Please refer to the Microsoft TechNet Library for more information on how to import management packs:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh524269.aspx

Please unzip all installation files to a directory. The paths indicated in the installation instructions are relative to the root of the location you are unzipping the files to.

Asset Management Pack

The Asset Management Pack is the core library and is a required component in order to use Operaio Asset Management for SCSM.

Follow these steps to install the Asset Management Pack:

  1. For SCSM 2012, import the 2012\itnetX.AssetManagement.Library.2012.mpb management pack into your SCSM environment.
    For SCSM 2016, import the 2016\tnetX.AssetManagement.Library.2016.mpb management pack into your SCSM environment.
  2. Restart the SCSM Console.

Views Management Pack

The Views Management Pack adds the Operaio Asset Management wunderbar and views to the SCSM console so you can immediately start working with asset management. The views are inside an unsealed management pack. This means that you can change the views, remove views, or add new views as you like.

If you are using the Operaio Analyst Portal to work with asset management, you do not necessarily need to import this management pack. However, we recommend using it regardless of the primary frontend you choose for managing your assets.

Follow these steps to install the Views Management Pack:

  1. Import the itnetX.AssetManagement.Views.xml management pack.
  2. Restart the SCSM Console.

Workflows

Operaio Asset Management contains a set of workflows which support your asset management processes. The workflows are explained later in this document.

Follow these steps to install the Workflows:

  1. Log on to SCSM Workflow server using an account with administrative privileges in SCSM. The SCSM Workflow Server is by default the first SCSM Management Server installed.
  2. For SCSM 2012, copy the 2012\itnetX.AssetManagement.Workflows.dll, and for SCSM 20126, copy the 2016\itnetX.AssetManagement.Workflows.dll to the SCSM installation directory. By default, this is C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Service Manager\ for SCSM 2012 R2, and C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center\Service Manager\ for SCSM 2016.
  3. Import the itnetX.AssetManagement.Workflows.xml management pack.

    Important Note
    If you are updating an existing installation of Asset Management, make sure that you export the existing itnetX.AssetManagement.Workflows.xml, compare it with the new itnetX.AssetManagement.Workflows.xml from the installation package, and migrate any changes you wish to keep.

  4. Restart the SCSM Console.

Updating Asset Management from Version 1.4.0.66 or older
The Asset Management Workflows configuration method has been changed in the version 1.5.0. If you are updating from an Asset Management version prior to version 1.5.0 you need to migrate your workflows configurations.
Follow the Workflow installation steps described above (if not done already) * Execute the Upgrade-ITAMWorkflowConfig.ps1 Script on the SCSM Workflow server* with SMLets installed

Licensing

Operaio Asset Management for SCSM will not work if no license is found. To install the License Management Pack (trial or full license):

  1. Import the itnetX.SCSM.Licensing.Library.mpb management pack into your SCSM environment.
  2. Import the itnetX.SCSM.AssetManagementv1.LicenseInfo.mp management pack into your SCSM environment.
  3. Restart the SCSM Console.

Analyst Portal Forms

If you own the Operaio ITSM Analyst Portal and you want to use the portal to manage your assets, you have to install the analyst portal forms.

Follow these steps to install the Analyst Portal Forms:

  1. In your installation zip open the folder Portal\Forms and copy its contents to the following location on your ITSM Portal Server: C:\inetpub\[your ITSM Portal Folder]\Areas\Analyst\Views\Forms
  2. In your installation zip open the folder Portal\Resources and copy its contents to the following location on your ITSM Portal Server: C:\inetpub\[your ITSM Portal Folder]\Resources
  3. To merge the content of the File Portal\Settings\AnalystForms.json with the following File on the ITSM Portal Server: C:\inetpub\[your ITSM Portal Folder]\wwwroot\Settings\AnalystForms.json execute the Merge-AMFormSettings.ps1 script with the following 2 Paths as parameters:
    1. Enter the Path of the AnalystForms.json file from your installation zip
    2. Enter the Path of the existing AnalystForms.json file from your ITSM Portal installation folder.
  4. Restart IIS by running the iisreset command as an administrator on the ITSM Portal server.

Using Analyst Portal Forms with ITSM Portal V3 or V4
For the Asset Management Analyst Portal Forms to work properly with the Operaio ITSM Portal V3 or V4 you must install an additional Plugin.
Copy the GridHelper.ITSMPortal.Plugin.dll found in the Portal\Pluginv3 folder to your ITSM Portal root folder (C:\inetpub\[your ITSM Portal Folder]).
 Restart IIS by running the iisreset command as an administrator on the ITSM Portal server

Analyst Portal Tasks

If you own the Operaio ITSM Analyst Portal and you want to use the portal to manage your assets, you have to install the analyst portal tasks.

Follow these steps to install the Analyst Portal Tasks:

  1. In your installation zip open the folder Portal\JS and copy its contents to the following location on your ITSM Portal Server: C:\inetpub\[your ITSM Portal Folder]\wwwroot\lib\custom
    create the custom Folder if it does not exsist
  2. Restart IIS by running the iisreset command as an administrator on the ITSM Portal server.

Configuration

Workflows

Operaio Asset Management for SCSM contains the following workflows:

Workflow Name Short description Interval
Hardware Asset Windows Computer Mapping Workflow This workflow will periodically lookup matching Windows Computers by comparing the serial number, SMBIOS GUID, and principal name and link them to the appropriate hardware asset. Daily
00:30 am
Software Asset Installation Workflow This workflow will periodically link discovered software items to software assets based on the matching patterns, and link the windows computers that have any of the automatically or manually mapped software items installed to the software asset. Daily
02:30 am
Software Asset Licensing Workflow This workflow will periodically update the licensing status of your software assets by counting the available, installed, and assigned licenses. Daily
03:30 am
Person Workflow This workflow will automatically create and update person objects from the AD users in your CMDB Daily
06:00 am
Contract Expiration Workflow This workflow will set the ExpirationWarning flag to true when contracts are about to expire. You can then use notification subscriptions to trigger emails. Daily
00:10 am
Certificate Renewal Workflow This workflow checks if any of your certificates is about to expire by looking at the Expiring date and the "Days To Alert before" property. If a certificate is about to expire the workflow will set the certificate's "Renewal in progress" property to true and create a Service Request using the "SR - Certificate Renewal template" template, assigning it to the Owner of the Certificate and relating the certificate as affected ConfigItem to the Service request Daily
05:00 am
Yearly Review Workflow This workflow checks if a yearly review for the following items is required: Contract, Location, Person, License, Organization, Role, Vendor, Consumable, Hardware Asset, Hardware Catalog Item & Software Asset. If the "Yearly Review" date of such an item is in the past the workflow creates a new Service Request based on the "SR - Yearly Review Template" Template, assigns it to the Owner of the Item and relates the Item as affect Configuration Item to the Service Request. Daily
04:00 am

Enabling/disabling workflows

You can enable and disable the workflows by starting the SCSM Console, then under Administration – Settings, double-click on itnetX Asset Management Settings, make your selections, and click OK.

Changing the workflow schedule and interval

The workflow schedule and interval is defined in the unsealed management pack itnetX.AssetManagement.Workflows.xml. You can change the schedule to anything you like by exporting the management pack and making modifications directly in XML.

Please find the appropriate workflow by checking the ID value of the <Rule … /> tags. You will want to change the following sections in the rule definition:

<Scheduler>
    <WeeklySchedule>
        <Windows>
            <Daily>
                <Start>03:30</Start>
                <End>03:30</End>
                <DaysOfWeekMask>127</DaysOfWeekMask>
            </Daily>
        </Windows>
    </WeeklySchedule>
    <ExcludeDates />
</Scheduler>

Set the value for Start and End to the same value in the 24-hour format. Set the value for DaysOfWeekMask to a valid Days Of Week Mask value.

For more information, see: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee808920.aspx

Once you have saved your changes in the management pack XML, please re-import the management pack into your SCSM environment.

Running workflows manually

The workflows can be ran manually using the command line. Some workflows can even be run for once specific instance only.

In order to manually run workflows, please copy the workflowTestApp.exe and the itnetX.AssetManagement.Workflows.dll files to a directory on the SCSM workflow server. Then, log on to the server remotely using an account with administrative rights in SCSM and execute one of the following commands:

workflowTestApp.exe [WorkflowActivityName] [InstanceGuid]

Replace [WorkflowActivityName] with the name of the workflow activity following the table below. If you do not specify a value for [InstanceGuid], the workflow will be run for all instances. If you want to run the workflow for only one specific instance, replace [InstanceGuid] with the GUID of the desired class instance. Please note that InstanceGuid is not supported for all workflows.

Workflow Name WorkflowActivityName InstanceGuid
Hardware Asset Windows Computer Mapping Workflow HardwareAssetWindowsComputerMapping GUID of a Hardware Asset
Software Asset Installation Workflow SoftwareAssetInstallationActivity GUID of a Software Asset
Software Asset Licensing Workflow SoftwareAssetLicensingActivity GUID of a Software Asset
Person Workflow PersonActivity Not supported
Contract Expiration Workflow ContractActivity Not supported
Hardware Asset Subnet Location Mapping Workflow HardwareAssetSubnetLocationMapping Not Supported
Certificate Renewal Workflow CertificateRenewal GUID of the certificate typeprojection (default: 438270dc-d73b-853e-f2b5-64b5a3160d0b)
Yearly Review Workflow CheckYearlyReview GUID(s) of the typeprojections to check.
Can be one or multiple of the following:
Contract: 1d9af621-2708-96ce-36bc-0d28b98f2641
Location: a27d6bb4-d850-06d4-e4ba-0ace25ea04f1
Person: f570ef33-31af-7328-3123-d6c113f8b1b6
License: fe1f9afd-fb02-3ac5-077b-8647dbbda8e8
Organization: 0d30c30b-67e2-92c3-87a6-87f1a06df3e3
Role: 354843e1-137d-fc30-e4c0-7c7a3f65e4b5
Vendor: 679df9ba-b7a3-bf75-4e64-1b352895689a
Consumable: 97d829b5-f1db-794b-a519-d4883ba30d56
Hardware Asset: feb9c459-4eb3-f179-e941-4ada8867ad56
Hardware Catalog Item: f0be8655-33a9-4b58-0651-85920e517342
Software Asset: 65e3c277-0e4e-66eb-3409-cff7049625e1

The execution of the workflows will be logged in the Operations Manager event log on the server you are executing the workflow from (see Troubleshooting Workflows).

Examples

Running the Software Asset Licensing Workflow for all software assets:

.\workflowTestApp.exe SoftwareAssetLicensingActivity

Running the Software Asset Licensing Workflow for a specific software asset:

.\workflowTestApp.exe SoftwareAssetLicensingActivity 77fc900c-91a2-ce77-9527-5ef0 d2bf5d9b

Troubleshooting Workflows

The execution of workflows will be logged in the Operations Manager event log. You can find this log by opening Event Viewer on the SCSM workflow server, and then navigating to Operations Manager in the Applications and Services Logs folder. You can filter the log by source itnetX Asset Management.

Security and Permissions

Operaio Asset Management for SCSM lives in your SCSM CMDB. All classes used by asset management inherit from the configuration item class of SCSM. This means that you can use custom SCSM CI groups and user roles to configure constrained access permissions for asset management data.

This also means that your users must be in a user role (scoped or un-scoped) which is based on the Advanced Operator role profile in order to be able to save changes to the asset management data.