Blackout, is a point in time in the development process when a system becomes unavailable (off-line) by design. The term comes from Electricity “blackouts”when there is a complete electric shut down.
A best practice is to take the UAT system off-line when UAT is undergoing maintenance or configuration in preparation for End User Acceptance testing. This is to prevent any unauthorized access by end users that might want to start testing the system before it’s ready, which is never a good idea. After all, you don’t call the building inspector until you’re up to code, right? Leaving UAT available during configuration can be disastrous. Don’t make this rookie ISM mistake, you will thank me later!
Presently only available to android devices, more specifically Android OS Based Scanning Devices, there are two models that have been tested by Ivanti.
Contact me to streamline your asset scanning and overall asset management operating procedures
Note: Enhancement requests have been made to include scanning ability for android smart devices (smartphone, tablet) with APP. There is a workaround for using android smart devices, contact me to find out more.
IAM Asset Scanner UI
Ivanti Asset Manager Android App Asset Scanner UI
IAM Asset Scanner Role Functionality
The Out-of-the-box (OOTB) functionality allows for scanning bar codes and looking up Asset Tags, creating and adding assets, with Asset Type, Sub Type, Asset Name, Serial Number, Location, Assigned Model, and Manufacturer. The “Scan Log” is then attached to the new/updated Configuration Item (CI, now Asset)
Sample Asset Tag and Serial Number Bar Codes
Best Practice
a19 Consulting has taken the asset scanner to the next level customized the Asset Scanner UI with an asset scanning wizard that after scanning an asset tag walks you through creating a new asset orupdating an asset, plus the ability to scan packing slips for procurement, with pictures of the packing slips, and 1 or more Assets (CI’s) attached to the packing slips, which roll up into the Purchase Order and Invoices for reconciliation.
Roles & Permissions have been become more complex with the Ivanti Asset Manager release. There are a few key roles like Asset Scanner, Storage Managers and Procurement Manager that need to be considered.
CRUD – Create Read Update Delete
A CRUD is an acronym for Create Read Update Delete, the basic four functions for record storage.
Sample CRUD
Sample CRUD Ivanti Asset Manager
Notice that the Asset Admin and Asset Manager Roles are left off by design, as the focus for existing Ivanti Service Manager implementations are the SDM, SDA roles and Asset Admin/Manager roles typically introduce unnecessary complexity.
a19 Consulting – Best Practice System – Tip
Never Ever Delete – use a status value or hide checkbox
Limit Access – add more access as needed; less is more!
K.I.S.S.– Keep It Simple Smart people
Review during UAT – It is recommended to review the CRUD during UAT as core T.E.A.M. members will have had an opportunity to use the system and get familiar with the workspaces and their relationships. Furthermore Record and Field Level access permissions by Role, Team, Organizational Unit, or other criteria can be determined at that time.
Here is a great example for “Quick Wins” which are low effort and high benefit, as discussed the other day in my post Scoping Priorities.
Project Task List – Color Coding
A best practice that you can find throughout the a19 Consulting Best Practice system is to use color coding where possible, especially with lists, so it is visually easy and quick to identify important records or columns, such as the Status, Start Date, End Date, and Owner of Project Tasks by using style expressions. Why the owner? For a meaningful project overview of project tasks.
$(if CurrentDateTime() > EndDate && Status not in (“Completed”, “Rejected”, “Cancelled”) then “RedBox” else if CurrentDateTime() > StartDate && CurrentDateTime() < EndDate then “GreenLabel” else “Default”)
Determining your actively logged in users is a little tricky in ISM.
Security History (Frs_ops_logon_history)
Security sessions are derived from the security history business object (Frs_ops_logon_history) and used the status value and logout time to determine “security session” by event type and login type.
This makes identifying the number of active sessions challenging as aggregate functions do not allow use of the distinct function. This limits the use of dashboard parts, as you will get false counts per user.
a19 Consulting – Best Practice System
An advanced workaround would be to create a summarized table similar to the a19 Consulting Best Practice System‘s implementation. More on that on a future blog post.
ISM Administration Tip
PS: Remember one of the culprits for users staying logged in is the dashboard setting for auto-refresh. Setting your security session timeout alone does not solve the issue, you must ensure that the Auto refresh (in minutes) on your dashboards is disabled or set higher than the session timeout number.
Providing Ivanti Professional Services to Fortune 500 enterprise clients and Ivanti business partners (Avante Solutions, Kifinti Solutions, DDS IT, and others), worldwide, since 1996, we have developed an Ivanti Asset Manager Best Practice System to complement our Ivanti Service Manager Best Practice System to deliver superior results by implementing simplified standard business processes and improved simplified interface that enables you to do more with less and cut implementation and consulting costssignificantly.
“It takes time to develop an overnight successful Ivanti Best Practices System. In our case over 2 decades of HEAT IT Service Management and Ivanti Service Manager experience.” says Gregor Anton, a former Kifinti Solutions Consultant, and unique and distinctive authority in the Enterprise Service Management space with his consulting and development experience and extensive insight to best practices going back to 1996 with the HEAT and now Ivanti Service Manager (ISM) and Ivanti Asset Manager (IAM) products.
Providing HEAT ITSM Best Practices and now Ivanti Best Practices, with his tried, tested, and true implementations, and upgrades, Gregor now focuses on his company, a19 Consulting, and his a19 Ivanti Best Practices System.
Gregor has been developing, streamlining, and implementing best practices and latest solutions for fortune 500 companies and Frontrange Business Partners (Change Control, Avante Solutions, Kifinti Solutions) and Ivanti Business Partners (Kifinti Solutions, DDS IT), worldwide.
The Ivanti Asset Manager Best Practices complement the already successful Ivanti Service Manager Best Practices System that Gregor has developed.
Hardware Asset Management features include improved Asset Scanning and Procurement Processes, an integration to Softchoice and many other Vendors, as well as Product Catalog Maintenance features. Software Asset Management also takes a front seat with Vendor integration, contract and entitlement management, and best practices to guide through Software version maintenance, to name just a few features.
“Gregor and a19 Consulting were able to work with us to align our working processes with the workflows within the Ivanti Service Manager tool, leveraging a19 Ivanti Best Practices and latest solutions. The implementation team from Kifinti Solutions were helpful in getting it up and running, but we needed someone that could take EXP to the next level and configure the tool so we could utilize all of its potential,” says Steven Morin, Helpdesk Manager, at EXP.
The ITxM Space (ITSM, IT Service Management, ITAM, IT Asset Management) has never been more exciting, as is the transformation to ESM (Enterprise Service Management).
Contact us for more information on the latest solutions& best practices for your Ivanti Service Manager implementation.
ITSM/ITAM/ESM Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.