The CA Service Desk Manager (SDM) is designed to help IT service desk analysts improve their efficiency. A one-way integration is provided between the system and service desk incidents.

Prerequisites

  • User credentials are required to access CA SDM.
  • Configure to receive an access token in CA SDM.

CA SDM configuration

CA SDM uses two-level authentication to access the system REST services. To configure the system, access CA SDM to receive access tokens, token URL, and payload details. Also, a RESTful API call can be viewed to update a CR. Create and update CR payloads are required to add an event to the system.

Get access token

To access a token make a REST access request call:

  • Use http://<ca_sdm_server_url>/caisd-rest/rest_access to access credentials.
  • Use basic authentication and retrieve an access key from CA SDM.

For basic authentication, base64-encoded credentials are used in headers: Authorization: BASIC Base64EncodedCredentials.

With SDM, the same header is accepted: Authorization: SDM Base64EncodedCredentials.

Replace Authorization as SDM Base64EncodedCredentials.

Accept : application/json

A POST call made with these details retrieves the access token.

The access key in the response is used to make the RESTful API calls.

Example response

{
    "rest_access": {
        "@id": 406101,
        "@REL_ATTR": 406101,
        "@COMMON_NAME": 796354189,
        "link": {
            "@href": "http://<ca_sdm_server_url>/caisd-rest/rest_access/406101",
            "@rel": "self"
        },
        "access_key": 796354189,
        "expiration_date": 1585800576
    }
}

RESTful API call to create a CR

URL: <ca_sdm_server_url>/caisd-rest/cr

Example payload

{
"cr": {
  "customer": {
  "@COMMON_NAME": "System_SD_User"
  },
  "description": "Created from REST API Java Examples code"
  }
}

Headers

Access Key from the first call is used in X-AccessKey header as X-AccessKey: $access_key:

Accept : application/json Content-Type : application/json X-Obj-Attrs : chg_ref_num X-AccessKey : 730838761

Example response to a POST call

{
    "cr": {
        "@id": 677195,
        "@REL_ATTR": "cr:677195",
        "@COMMON_NAME": "REQ-265395",
        "link": {
            "@href": "http://<ca_sdm_server_url>/caisd-rest/cr/677195",
            "@rel": "self"
        }
    }
}

RESTful API call to update the CR

Update the details of a CR details for creating an integration event during configuration:

Endpoint URL: <ca_sdm_server_url>/caisd-rest/cr/677445

Headers

Accept : application/json Content-Type : application/json

Example payload

{
"description": "Update description"
}

Example request

{
  "cr": {
  "@id": 677445,
  "@REL_ATTR": "cr:677445",
  "@COMMON_NAME": "REQ-265451",
  "link": {
    "@href": "<ca_sdm_server_url>/caisd-rest/cr/677445",
    "@rel": "self"
    }
  }
}

In both cases, @COMMON_NAME in response is the ticket number used by the CA service desk. Operations on the ticket are performed with reference to @id used in the URL.

OpsRamp configuration

Install CA SDM

  1. Go to All Clients and select the client.
  2. From the drop-down menu, click Setup.
  3. From the Integrations menu, click Integrations.
  4. In Available Integrations, select Collaboration and click CA Service Desk.
  5. Click Install to install CA SDM integration.

CA SDM Integration is displayed in My Integrations after it is installed.

Because this is one-way integration, outbound settings can only be configured.

Outbound integration – system to service desk

  1. Configure notification details to trigger integration events in Basic Configuration:

    • Notification Type: REST API
    • BASE URI: <ca_sdm_server_url>
    • Authentication Type: JWT
    • User Name and Password: Credentials used in CA SDM
    • Token URL and Token Payload: Copy from the CA SDM configuration. The token used for RESTful API calls in CA SDM configuration serves as the token URL.
    • Token Header, Token Path, and Resource headers: Configure as appropriate for CA SDM
    • Click Save.
    • Tenant Id and Token: Used during the creation of integration events

  2. To add Integration Events, click Add. An action performed on an entity is defined as an event. When an event is triggered, notifications are sent to specific users.

  3. Enter a name for the integration event.

  4. Select Service Desk, select the entity, and select action.

  5. Enter endpoint URL from the CA SDM configuration.

  6. Select REST API as Notification Type.

  7. Select JWT as Authentication Type.

  8. Enter Token URL from the CA SDM configuration.

  9. Enter the User Name and Password used in the CA SDM.

  10. Enter Token Payload from the CA SDM configuration.

  11. For Token Headers, replace BASIC with SDM. The authorization header is auto-populated with both the Token Path Key and Resource Authorization values. Enter the appropriate authentication.

  12. Enter details for Token Path. Resource authorization headers are automatically configured for all RESTful API calls.

  13. Select Post as Web Method.

  14. Enter Header and select a value.

  15. Enter Payload received from the CA SDM configuration.

  16. Add response if required.

  17. Click Save. The integration event is added. Additional events may be added.

  18. Click Add again in the integration event.

  19. Enter the name and details for On field as required.

  20. Select the checkbox of Parent Configuration to have all specified properties applied to the new event. The endpoint URL and web method information automatically are displayed.

  21. Enter the header and required payload.

    • A custom field already configured as response payload attribute for a given integration is not available for configuration in any other integrations. Remove the existing mapping from the integration to make the custom field available for mapping in the response payload from any other integration.
    • To add more tokens to the payload, click the token in the placeholder list.
    • To parse the properties returned in response for the configured API payload, select the property from the drop-down menu and enter the value.
      Integration response mapping configuration:
      Response mapping configuration is mainly based on the response payload that is received in third party payload; below are a few examples for response mapping configuration -

    1. sample response payload to mapping the id in response mapping:

      {
"id":"INC0001",
"type":"incident",
"tool":"servicedesk"
}

      external ticket id = $id
      We need to append $ to the value

    2. sample response payload to mapping the id in response mapping:

      {
"result":{
"id":"INC0001",
"type":"incident",
"tool":"servicedesk"
    }
}

      external ticket id = $result.id

    3. Sample response payload to mapping the id in response mapping

      {
       "result":[
          {
             "ticketDetails":{
            "id":"INC0001",
            "type":"incident",
            "tool":"servicedesk"
      },
         "Description":{
            "display_value":"testing description",
            "value":"validating"
         }
      }
   ]
}

      external ticket id = $result[0].ticketDetails.id

    4. sample response payload to mapping the Incident Number in response mapping

          {
      "result": {
        "Incident Number": "INC0001",
    "type": "Incident"
      }
    }

      external ticket id = $result[‘Incident Number’]

  22. Click Save.

  23. Verify that the integration works as expected.

Verify integration

To validate if the integration is successful, do the following:

  1. Select the event from the drop-down menu and select payload type.
  2. Enter the payload and click Verify. A 200-OK success response is generated if the integration is successful.

Integration failures

In case of a failure in integration, a message is sent to the respective user. Select notification type Email, enter the email address, and click Save.

After the configuration is updated, the CA SDM displays alerts.