Gridpro AB
Rev: 1.5.7919 (SCSM 2012 versions) & 2.0.7912 (SCSM 2016 & later)
Published: September 2021
Installation
The following sections will guide you through the basic installation steps required to start using Request Management for Windows Azure Pack. After completing the installation of the Admin- and Tenant Portal Extensions as well as the Request Management API you will need to connect Windows Azure Pack to the Request Management API, see section “Connect Windows Azure Pack to the Request Management API”.
|
NOTE: If your Windows Azure Pack deployment has been done through the Web Platform Installer, and if you did not de-select Request Management for Windows Azure Pack during the installation, you should already have the Admin- and Tenant Portal extensions of Request Management for Windows Azure Pack installed. |
The following actions are required on each server hosting the Admin Portal (MgmtSvc-AdminSite) to install the Admin Portal extension of Request Management for Windows Azure Pack.
Prerequisites
This can only be installed on a web server running the Admin Portal of Windows Azure Pack. No additional requirements exist.
Installation Procedure
|
IMPORTANT: Login using a user account that is a member of the local server administrator group |
|
Launch the Web Platform Installer (WebPI) If the Web Platform Installer hasn’t been installed already you can download it from here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=255386 |
|
In the top right search box, enter Gridpro and click Enter |
|
Select ”Gridpro Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Admin Extension” and click Add followed by Install to run the installation |
|
Review the License- and Privacy Terms and proceed by accepting thouse with the “I Accept” button |
|
Click Finish to complete the installation. |
The following actions are required on each server hosting the Tenant Portal (MgmtSvc-TenantSite) to install the Tenant Portal extension of Request Management for Windows Azure Pack.
Prerequisites
This can only be installed on a web server running the Tenant Portal of Windows Azure Pack. No additional requirements exist.
Installation Procedure
|
IMPORTANT: Login using a user account that is a member of the local server administrator group |
|
Launch the Web Platform Installer (WebPI) If the Web Platform Installer has not been installed already, you can download it from here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=255386 |
|
In the top right search box, enter Gridpro and click Enter |
|
Select the ”Gridpro Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Tenant Extension” entry and click Add followed by Install to proceed |
|
Review the License- and Privacy Terms and proceed by accepting thouse with the “I Accept” button |
|
Click Finish to complete the installation |
For each System Center Service Manager environment you want to connect you need to deploy an instance of the Request Management API web service.
|
NOTE: The Request Management API needs to be installed in the same domain as the targeted System Center Service Manager is installed. |
Prerequisites
The following list shows the minimum prerequisites for the Request Management API.
- The server needs to be a Windows Server 2012 or later
- System Center 2012 Service Manager Console or later
- .Net Framework 4.5 or later
The server needs have .Net Framework with the following features
o .Net Framework 4.5 or later Features
§ ASP.NET 4.5 or later
- IIS (W3SVC)
The server needs to be a web server with the following Components
o Web Server
§ Common HTTP Features
· Default Document
· Directory Browsing
· HTTP Errors
· Static Content
§ Health and Diagnostics
· HTTP Logging
§ Performance
· Static Content Compression
§ Security
· Request Filtering
§ Application Development
· ASP.NET 4.5 or later
· ISAPI Extensions
· ISAPI Filters
· .Net Extensibility 4.5 or later
Installation Procedure
|
IMPORTANT: The account used to run the installation needs to be:
|
|
Login to the Admin Portal of Windows Azure Pack |
|
|
|
Fill out the form as detailed as possible on the Gridpro web page and click Submit NOTE: Within a few minutes you will receive a download link for the Request Management API. |
|
On the server where you choose to install the Request Management API, run the downloaded file Request Management for WAP API vX.X.XXXX.exe |
|
Click Install to initiate the installation wizard |
|
Click Yes to allow the installation process to make changes to the computer NOTE: This screen will not show under certain security settings, this is perfectly normal |
|
Click Next to start the installation |
|
Enter the name of the Service Manager server that you want the service to work against Enter the name of the SQL server (and instance and port if not default) where the Service Manager database resides Click “Get Databases” Select the Service Manager database from the drop down list Enter credentials to use when communicating with Service Manager and SQL NOTE: The account needs to be a Service Manager administrator and allowed to run a stored procedure in the Service Manager database. We recommend that you use the Service Manager Service Account to guarantee the required permissions. Click Next to continue When you click next some validation will take place which might take a few seconds to complete. |
|
If you have an instance of Service Management Automation (SMA) running in your environment, add the url to the SMA WebService to enable executing runbooks from the Tenant Site
NOTE: The Service Account specified in the previous screen needs to be member of the local security group called smaAdminGroup on the Service Management Automation server if you choose to use this feature. Click Next to continue |
|
Enter an account name and password of your choice that you want to use when connecting to the service from the WAP Admin Portal. NOTE: Make sure you remember these values since they will be encrypted during the installation. Click Next to continue |
|
Read Software License Agreement carefully and if you accept the terms check I accept the terms in the License Agreement then click Next |
|
Click Install |
|
Click Finish to complete the installation wizard |
|
Click Close to complete the installation |
Update Request Management Admin/Tenant Sites
The Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: API download includes the Tenant- and Admin- Site Extension installers that are normally installed through the Web Platform Installer. These are updated more frequently than in the Web Platform Installer, you should therefore make sure you go through the steps in this chapter carefully.
This is to ensure you are running the latest versions of the Tenant- and Admin Site Extensions for Request Management for Windows Azure Pack.
Admin Site Extension Upgrade
|
Upgrade Procedure: |
|
Copy the download archive to the server(s) where you have the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Admin Site Extension installed |
|
Run the file Gridpro.WAP.SCSM.AdminExtension.Setup.msi |
|
Follow the wizard instructions to complete the upgrade |
|
Repeat the steps on all Admin Site servers if your setup includes multiple instances of these |
Tenant Site Extension Upgrade
|
Upgrade Procedure: |
|
Copy the download archive to the server(s) where you have the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Tenant Site Extension installed |
|
Run the file Gridpro.WAP.SCSM.TenantExtension.Setup.msi |
|
Follow the wizard instructions to complete the upgrade |
|
Repeat the steps on all Tenant Site servers if your setup includes multiple instances of these |
Post installation configuration
After installing Request Management for Windows Azure Pack, the following configuration is required before starting to use it on the Tenant Portal.
To start using Request Management for Windows Azure Pack you need to create your first connection to a Request Management API. Follow the steps below to create your first connection.
Configuration
|
Go to Windows Azure Pack Admin Portal |
|
Click Request Management |
|
Click Connections tab |
|
Click Add |
|
Enter the following information: Instance name: Give the connection a name Endpoint: https://<apiservername>:30033 Username: Username entered during installation of the Request Management API Password: Password entered during installation of the Request Management API
|
|
Click CONNECT to complete and you can start using Request Management in Express mode |
Upgrade
This section describes the procedure to upgrade Request Management for Windows Azure Pack from any previous version.
|
As a best practice, start by updating the Windows Azure Pack components using Windows Update |
|
To upgrade the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: API |
|
If you haven’t already received the latest download link from Gridpro, please contact sales@gridprosoftware.com to request a download link for the latest version of Request Management for Windows Azure Pack |
|
Download the current version of Request Management API |
|
Copy the download archive to the server(s) where you have the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: API installed |
|
Extract the archive and run the msi file called: |
|
Follow the wizard instructions to complete the upgrade IMPORTANT: If you are upgrading from version 1.3.9999 or earlier, please follow the below instructions to enable integration with Service Management Automation.
More information see appendix: Configuring Service Management Automation Integration |
|
To upgrade the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Admin Site Extension IMPORTANT: It is always mandatory to upgrade the Request Management Admin/Tenant Site at the same time as upgrading the Request Management API to keep versions in sync. |
|
Copy the download archive to the server(s) where you have the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Admin Site Extension installed |
|
Run the file Gridpro.WAP.SCSM.AdminExtension.Setup.msi |
|
Follow the wizard instructions to complete the upgrade |
|
To upgrade the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Tenant Site Extension IMPORTANT: It is always mandatory to upgrade the Request Management Admin/Tenant Site at the same time as upgrading the Request Management API to keep versions in sync. |
|
Copy the download archive to the server(s) where you have the Request Management for Windows Azure Pack: Tenant Site Extension installed |
|
Run the file Gridpro.WAP.SCSM.TenantExtension.Setup.msi |
|
IMPORTANT: You need to repeat the appropriate steps on all Tenant Site, Admin Site and Request Management API servers if your setup includes multiple instances of these. |
To take advantage of the full capabilities of the product you need to upgrade from Express to Premium mode.
|
NOTE: If you have multiple Admin Portal servers sitting behind a load balancing cluster you need to follow the “Upgrade Procedure (multiple admin sites)”. |
To upgrade to Premium mode, follow these steps:
Upgrade Procedure (single admin portal server)
|
If you haven’t already received a license key from Gridpro, please contact sales@gridprosoftware.com to purchase a retail key or request an evaluation key. |
|
Go to Windows Azure Pack Admin Portal |
|
Click Request Management |
|
Click Licensing tab |
|
|
|
If you have Internet access |
|
Click Activate Online |
|
Enter the license key and click the Activate button in the lower right corner |
|
Done |
|
If you don’t have internet access |
|
Click Request license file |
|
Enter license key and click the arrow in the lower right corner |
|
Copy the request data in the textbox. |
|
Send the information to support@gridprosoftware.com to request a license activation. Back in the Request License File dialog, click the checkmark to close the wizard. |
|
After receiving a license file from support@gridprosoftware.com |
|
|
|
Select the license file |
|
Click the checkmark in the lower right corner |
|
Done |
|
To validate that the license has been installed, see “Licensing status”. |
Click Install license fileUpgrade Procedure (multiple admin portal servers)
|
If you haven’t already received a license key from Gridpro, please contact sales@gridprosoftware.com to purchase retail- or request an evaluation key. Remember to state your number of admin portal servers. |
|
You need to repeat the following steps on each Admin Portal server. |
|
Extract the zip archive called “RMLicenseActivation 1.0.zip”, provided with the Request Management API download, to the Admin Portal server. |
|
Login in locally on the Admin Portal server |
|
Start a command prompt |
|
Execute the following command: NOTE: If your admin site has a custom path, please adjust to that path. |
|
If you have Internet access |
|
Execute the following command: Where the “<your license key>” should be replaced with the license key provided by Gridpro. |
|
Done |
|
If you don’t have internet access |
|
Execute the following command: Where the “<your license key>” should be replaced with the license key provided by Gridpro. |
|
Copy the output and send the information to support@gridprosoftware.com to request a license activation. |
|
After receiving a license file from support@gridprosoftware.com |
|
Execute the following command: Where the “<path to license file>” should be replaced with the path to the license file provided by Gridpro. |
|
Done |
|
To validate that the license has been installed, see “Licensing status”. |
Each plan that includes the Request Management service can be configured in a number of ways to cover a large number of different scenarios. In the image below you can see the different options available on a plan:
- Mode
o Subscription: Every user that has access to the subscription will be able to associate a request with the subscription and will be able to see all tickets associated with the subscription in the Requests view.
Note: This is what you want to use to allow users to “share” tickets.
o User: Every user that has access to the subscription will be able to associate a request with the subscription. However, a user will only be able to see the requests where he/she is the “affected user”.
Note: Each time a request is created in System Center Service Manager from Windows Azure Pack, the user logged into WAP will be stated as the “affected user” automatically. - Prompts Per Page: Decides how many questions should be rendered per page in the “New Request Wizard” which renders based on the configuration in the service catalog in Service Manager. In the case of a query result prompt being used in an offering, the query result prompt will be rendered on a separate page to avoid scrolling.
- Limit to Catalog Item Group: Choose which Catalog Item Groups, defined in System Center Service Manager, to use to limit the access to the offerings in the Service Catalog in SCSM.
|
IMPORTANT: A Request Offering will not be visible to a user unless the user has access to both the Request Offering and the Service Offering(s) it is linked to. |
- Limit to Config Item Group: Choose which Groups, defined in SCSM, to use to limit the access to configuration items in Service Manager for a subscription associated to the plan.
If you want to use the possibility to upload files in forms defined by the Service Catalog in System Center Service Manager, you need to configure Windows Azure Pack to allow sending larger data volumes than normal since the default values only allows you to send files up to 30 kilobytes.
To increase the maximum limits for data being sent through the Windows Azure Pack Tenant Portal, go to one of your servers hosting the Tenant Portal and follow these steps:
1. Open a PowerShell command prompt as Administrator
2. Enter the following commands:
3. After passing the prerequisites check, you are asked to specify the number of megabytes you want to allow being sent through Windows Azure Pack. Enter the preferred limit and press Enter.
4. After successfully completing the script, repeat the procedure on all servers running one of the following web sites:
a. MgmtSvc-TenantSite (Tenant Site)
b. MgmtSvc-TenantAPI (Tenant API)
|
NOTE: The script is only available on the servers running the Tenant Site, you need to copy the script to server running the Tenant API. |
To review your current licensing status, go to the Admin Portal and follow these steps.
1. Click Request Management
2. Click License
In the license pool you can see all installed licenses, their expiry date and the number of entities they are valid for. The status on each license is just referring to the expiry date of the license.
The usage overview shows you the amount of measured entities in your environment compared to the number of entities you are licensed for.
NOTE: If the amount of measured entities goes above the number of entities you are licensed for a message will be displayed on the portal and you will be violating the license agreement.
When a user is logged into the Tenant Portal the Request Management will try to locate that user in a number of scenarios:
- When loading current requests (when plan service settings is in “User” mode)
- When loading current activities
- When creating a new request
To locate the user object in the CMDB the login name of a user is used to search against user principal names (UPN) in the CMDB. If a user isn’t found when retrieving current requests or activities, this is treated as a perfectly valid scenario and no errors or warnings will be displayed. However, if a user is not located at the time of creating a new request a new user object will automatically be created in the CMDB.
|
NOTE: If you wish to disable the creation of users automatically you can do so by editing the file called solidNonSensitiveSettings.config on the Request Management API Site and set the key called CreateNewUserAutomaticallyInSCSM to false. |
In Request Management for Windows Azure Pack it is possible to add custom links to the Create Menu in the bottom part of the page. The links are highly configurable with properties like text, icon and description.
An example of custom links:
Adding Links
The custom links are configured on the server hosting the Tenant Site. If multiple servers are used (e.g. load balancing), these changes have to be made to all servers.
1. Open the file Customization.js located under:
<TenantSite-InstallDir>\Content\ServiceManagerTenant\Scripts\Customizations\
Typically: C:\inetpub\MgmtSvc-TenantSite\Content\ServiceManagerTenant\Scripts\Customizations
2. By default, the file contains two disabled examples of links, enabled them by removing the leading “//” them so that the file looks like:
3. This will add two links to the menu. Each link can be customized with:
- Text – The link text
- Description – The description will be shown to the right of the link when selected
- Url – The Url to open when clicked
- OpenInNewWindow – If set to true, the link will be opened in a new window/tab, if set to false, it will open in the same window/tab.
- Icon – An icon to the left of the link text (All available icons are described in the Icon section)
4. To add more links, simply add a new block like:
Note: The blocks should be separated by “,” like the example
5. After saving the file, run iisreset from a command prompt on the server(s) hosting the tenant site for the changes to take effect.
Icons
There is a set of predefined icons that can be used with the link. To set the icon, the Icon property of the link should be set to the corresponding label from the table below:
Configuring Service Management Automation Integration
This section contains useful information on how to setup the communication between Request Management for Windows Azure Pack and Service Management Automation (SMA) to enable SMA runbooks to be executed from the Tenant site in Windows Azure Pack.
Endpoint Address
The communication to SMA is performed through the Request Management API by using the address stated in the parameter called “OnPremiseAutomationUrl” (see yellow mark in the table below) which can be found in the file called solidNonSensitiveSettings.config on the server(s) where the Request Management API is installed. Normally the file has the following location:
C:\inetpub\MgmtSvc-RequestManagementAPI\solidNonSensitiveSettings.config
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!-- Appsettings and ConnectionStrings configuration is separated from web.config to retain settings during upgrade --> <nonSensitiveSettings> <add key="SMServer" value="sm3.gridpro.se"/> <add key="CreateNewUserAutomaticallyInSCSM" value="true"/> <add key="ScriptPath" value="c:\Scripts\"/> <add key="OnPremiseAutomationUrl" value="https://sma.contoso.com:9090/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"/> <add key="IgnoreCertificateValidationForAutomation" value="true"/> </nonSensitiveSettings> |
If you have upgrade from a version lower than 1.3.9999, or left the value blank during the initial installation, the url needs to be configured manually. To set the address manually, enter the address to your SMA web service (normally on port 9090) and add “/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000” after the address as the value of OnPremiseAutomationUrl in the config file.
NOTE: If you have a load balanced environment, don’t forget to update the setting on all servers running the Request Management API.
Hardening Security for Production Environment
Before moving into a production environment you should make sure you follow these instructions to secure the communications of Request Management for Windows Azure Pack.
Securing the Request Management API web service
During installation of the Request Management API a self-signed certificate is used to setup the binding for the web service (MgmtSvc-RequestManagementAPI). You should replace this certificate with a trusted certificate to make sure you secure communications between Windows Azure Pack and the Request Management API (MgmtSvc-RequestManagementAPI).
Securing communication to Service Management Automation
If Request Management for Windows Azure Pack has been setup to communicate directly to Service Management Automation (see section Configuring Service Management Automation Integration in this appendix) you should make sure you have a trusted certificate on the SMA web service and configure the Request Management API to not allow communications with endpoints using an untrusted certificate. To instruct the Request Management API to not communicate with SMA if SMA is using an untrusted certificate you need to change the value of the parameter called IgnoreCertificateValidationForAutomation to false (see yellow marking in the table below) in the configuration file called solidNonSensitiveSettings.config on the server(s) where the Request Management API is installed.
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!-- Appsettings and ConnectionStrings configuration is separated from web.config to retain settings during upgrade --> <nonSensitiveSettings> <add key="SMServer" value="sm3.gridpro.se"/> <add key="CreateNewUserAutomaticallyInSCSM" value="true"/> <add key="ScriptPath" value="c:\Scripts\"/> <add key="OnPremiseAutomationUrl" value="https://sma.contoso.com:9090/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"/> <add key="IgnoreCertificateValidationForAutomation" value="false"/> </nonSensitiveSettings> |
Tips and Tricks
This section contains useful tips and tricks for Request Management for Windows Azure Pack.
Published state “WAP”
There is now a custom published status for request offerings called WAP. Setting the custom published status on an offering will:
- Make the offering only appearing in WAP, it would not appear in the OOB SSP that comes with Service Manager
- Make it possible to skip mapping prompt answers to properties on the targeted work item
Note: Make sure you have completed the prompt configuration before exposing the offering to your users
Published state “WAP: Action Type”
In addition to the “WAP” status, there is a published status called “WAP: Action Type”. A Request Offering with this status will not show in the Create Request Wizard, but will still be available for use with Request Actions. See the chapter Action Configuration in the Operations Guide for more information on how to configure Actions.
Support for Change Requests
Request Management for Windows Azure Pack adds Change Request offerings in the Service Catalogue, these however should only be published to WAP and never to the out-of-the-box (OOB) Self Service Portal that comes with Service Manager. The OOB portal will fail on submit with such an offering.
Known Limitations
This section describes known issues with this version of the product.
- Request Offering: “DisplayOnly” mode is only supported for Query Result-, Text-, Integer-, List-, and Decimal Prompts, all other prompt types are ignored in DisplayOnly mode
- Request Offering: Unbound MPEnumeration lists will cause the request wizard to fail
Note: This can only happen when using the “WAP” publish alternative since this disables all validation normally done when using the standard “Published” status - Usage: When running in “User” mode, the usage data is displayed per subscription
- Query Result Prompt: Advanced criteria using “Generic Properties” cannot be used in combination with “Limit to Config Item Group” functionality
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.