For those long-time HEAT ISM clients and also new Ivanti Neurons for ITSM clients that are using the email listener to create incidents/service requests/events/etc from incoming emails, there is a new email processor available.
Advanced Monitoring
Simply put advanced monitoring allows you to add some conditions (think filters) and resulting actions based on those conditions.
With the upgrade to Ivanti Service Manager 2022.1 there is one problem that you might be experiencing with Data Import Integrations not producing Error Stats attachments.
Ivanti is aware of the issue and is actively working on Problem #89360
Note that depending on your Data Centre, your tenants (STG/UAT/Production) may have been upgraded to the latest release. For example, Australia, UK, Europe have been upgraded, while Canada USA is just starting to roll out the 2022.1 release to DEV (STG/UAT). Check your Ivanti Maintenance Notifications here
UPDATE: As of May 2022 the issue with Integration Log Errors Stats attachment creation has been resolved.
Ivanti Integrations with Ivanti Service Manager (HEAT) aka Ivanti Neurons for ITSM/ITAM are a hot topic.
Since direct database connections are not available with cloud and the majority of customers are in the cloud vs on-premise, the questions is….
File-based Integrations have been around for a long time and for that reason are great not only for older and legacy systems but also because they are simply easy to create, maintain, and troubleshoot. Flat files are usually in CSV format, although some of you might remember the pipe delimited HAF files and heat structure files, I believe HSF. These files are scheduled typically daily, hourly, or as needed.
API (Application Program Interfaces) Integrations have been a buzz since they first emerged in 2005. Still a great buzz word thrown around in sales presentations. But are they worth the effort? API integrations require a much greater technical effort to create, maintain, and troubleshoot. Arguably once set up, the API should be easy to support. Key word is “should”.
APIs are secure and real-time. This is a clear advantage, but Flat Files too are secure and can be “near” real-time. Just schedule more-frequently and push flat files for time-sensitive needs such as HR Terminations for example.
Where the lines get blurry is with support, troubleshooting, and compatibility.
Flat files are straight forward, easy to support & troubleshoot, and compatible with legacy systems. Arguably flat files are backward and forward compatible provided the structure doesn’t change. If structure changes on either end of the system (Source, Target) then flat files and APIs need to be updated. Arguably Flat Files win here too because flat files are easy to maintain and support.
But are APIs forward compatible? What if the Application changes? The API changes too. There aren’t any API standards per se across different applications. Applications change, APIs therefor change too and then there are dreaded “bugs” or “features” Something you don’t get with Flat Files. Flat files are based on structure. APIs are code. Development.
Until Codeless Integrations are available, something Ivanti is rumoured to have in the works, the hands down winner for me is Flat File Integrations!
What are your thoughts?
Thought I’d share a strange SCCM Connection issue with the Ivanti Service Manager (HEAT ISM) Integration. Cloud, VPN, SCCM 2010
The 1st connection attempt fails with error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server
The 2nd connection attempt is successful (no changes made to settings)
This is an issue for scheduled SCCM imports that are set to nightly and the import shows as complete but actually fails with zero batches and records processed.
Manually running the connection experiences similar symptoms and testing the connection sometimes gives an error the first time around but is ok the second time around.
To overcome this SCCM Integration issue, at first I attempted creating a second schedule with the same SCCM Integration but didn’t seem to work and the SCCM Integration ran, showed as completed, but had zero bathes and records.
Then created a second dummy SCCM Integration, with a filter that produced zero records, and scheduled it 15 minutes prior to the actual SCCM Integration.
That seems to have been working so far.
Ivanti finally came back and recommended to look into the “keep alive” setting on the VPN, as it may be getting in the way .
Asset Manager is a much talked about “new” product that was released with ITxM 2018.3 and actively promoted with ITxM 2019.1.
ITxM 2019 in fact consists of Ivanti Service Manager (ISM) and Ivanti Asset Manager (IAM).
Ivanti Asset Manager has been around for a while and Ivanti Service Manager, formerly known as HEAT, has done Asset Management since its early HEAT for Windows days in the 1990’s.
ITxM is a leap forward combining the best of both the Asset Manager product and HEAT’s Asset Management capabilities with a roadmap to dominate the ITxM space.
Key features
ITxM in essence becomes your single source of truth with a holistic view of your assigned assets, discovered assets, tracked against purchase orders, contracts with workflow and approval processes.
Lots of great functionality and features that on the surface provide a great demo and glimpse into what your Asset Management Strategy could look like, but overkill in practice.
For this reason I have developed an Asset Manager Best Practice System in working with dozens of clients over the last couple decades.
If you are serious about making your Asset Manager Strategy a success, be sure to contact me. I’m here to help!
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