BMC Software Confidential

BMC Knowledge Management

9.0

Home

Date: 30-Apr-2015 02:52

URL: https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/knowledgemgmt90/Home
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Contents
What's new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Featured content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Where to start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
About BMC Knowledge Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Other resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Release notes and notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Known and corrected issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Locating white papers, guides, and technical bulletins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
What has changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Technical bulletins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Release notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Flashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Version 9.0.00 enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Separate online documentation for installation and upgrade information . . 18
Enhanced Online help implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Related to pic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Getting started with BMC Knowledge Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Key concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Business Service Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Business value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
End-to-end process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Product architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
User roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
User goals and features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Knowledge search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
User permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Related topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Permissions required to perform actions in BMC Knowledge Management . .
38
Functional role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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Configuring after installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Quick start process overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Configuration overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Analyzing organizational requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Setting up the framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
About the Application Administration Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Configuration prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Configuration tasks and reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Managing standard configuration data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Performing a standard configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Defining the application administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Running a post-installation health check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Migrating user permissions from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Converting XML-based articles from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases . . . . . . . . . . 71
Converting articles from external file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Managing knowledge sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Configuring approvals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Adding status transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Configuring application settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Configuring feedback strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Configuring system settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Configuring Submitter mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Managing notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Enabling localization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Setting the tenancy mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Configuring the default web path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Changing the database schema sort order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Configuring the BMC Remedy Notification Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Changing the time zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Integrating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Integrating with BMC Service Desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Integrating with BMC Service Request Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Accessing the interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
To log in and access the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite applications . . . . . . . 135

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Navigating the interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

IT Home page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Navigating consoles, forms, and modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Status groups and types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Status transition workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Using the Knowledge Management Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Functional areas of the Knowledge Management Console . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Managing custom searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Modifying your profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Receiving notifications about changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Creating and publishing knowledge articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Knowledge article functional areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Creating a knowledge article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Managing knowledge article metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Editing a knowledge article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Changing the status of a knowledge article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Assigning a knowledge article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Reviewing a knowledge article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Managing knowledge article approval requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Revising knowledge articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
To create a new version from a Published article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Submitting a cancellation request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
To submit a cancellation request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Related topic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Working with reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Generating a standard report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Using qualifications to generate a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Using advanced qualifications to generate a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Showing or hiding Crystal Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
BMC Knowledge Management predefined reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Managing broadcasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Creating broadcast messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Viewing broadcast messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Limiting the number of broadcasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Controlling the timing of broadcast pop-up messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Searching for knowledge articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

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Types of knowledge search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Accessing the search page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Knowledge search guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Performing simple searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Performing advanced searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Using knowledge search to resolve incidents and investigate problems . . 210
Using knowledge search to resolve requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Understanding search results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Using search results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Using watch lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Watch List scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Managing knowledge articles on your watch list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Managing watch list rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Managing update requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Update request status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Using the Update Requests tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Update Request scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Creating update requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Replying to update requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Sending a knowledge article by e-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
To send a knowledge article by e-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Submitting and viewing feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
To add feedback to an article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
To view feedback for an article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Tagging a knowledge article as a favorite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
To tag a knowledge article as a favorite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Using Global Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
To use Global search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Limitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Special characters and boolean expressions in Global search . . . . . . . . . 223
Administering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Archiving knowledge articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Why archive? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Related topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Accessing the Application Administration Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
To open the console from a browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

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Developing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Adding relevancy boost parameters to searchable forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
To view, use, or send events to the interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Modifying the default names for optional review statuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Modify default review status names in configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Modify default review status names in form customization . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Modifying the way searchable articles are opened from search results . . . . . 231
To customize the open mode and view of searchable articles . . . . . . . . . . 232
To open a different form than the returned form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Using web services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Web services for BMC Knowledge Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Troubleshooting failed conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
No results when searching. FTS or RKM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Empty Knowledge form opens after search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Support Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Contacting Customer Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Support status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

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This space contains information about the BMC Knowledge Management version 9.0.00 release,
which is a part of the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite 9.0 release.

PDFs | Help

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What's new
Announcement

BMC Remedy with Smart IT version 1.1 is released. For more information about Smart IT
see, Getting started with BMC Remedy with Smart IT .

For a summary of all announcements, see Release notes and notices.

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Featured content
For the latest updates for this release, see Release notes and notices
Known and corrected issues
Business value
Documentation updates

For complete information about what's new or changed, see Version 9.0.00 enhancements.

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Where to start
End users: Using
Administrators: Configuring after installation
Developers: Developing

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About BMC Knowledge Management

BMC Knowledge Management is a framework for creating, publishing, reviewing, and searching IT
knowledge articles. It provides service desk analysts with a knowledge base of easy-to-find
solutions and give users self-service search options to help them resolve issues on their own.

The Consortium for Service Innovation, which created and maintains Knowledge-Centered Support
(KCS), shares recommendations for capturing, structuring, evolving, and reusing knowledge. BMC
Knowledge Management leverages these recommended practices to improve service levels by
helping organizations to maintain what their employees, partners, and customers know and reuse
this knowledge to gain value.

Knowledge, typically comprising different types and formats, is stored as separate knowledge
articles contained in a knowledge-based repository. Storing knowledge articles in a repository
allows control and life cycle management. Organizations that are starting to build their own
proprietary content, require examples of content, or want to expand the organizational knowledge
base can import prepackaged knowledge for immediate use.

The authoring process enables authorized users to use rich HTML authoring and extensive editing
tools to create and maintain interactive, template-based knowledge articles and manage the
knowledge article life cycle within a defined sequence of stages.

Powerful index and search capabilities across multiple sources, including incidents, problems, and
known errors, enable users to search the repository and locate the requested knowledge. The
robust search engine enables users to search for solutions using natural language or Boolean
searches.

BMC Knowledge Management shares a common foundation with BMC Remedy IT Service
Management (BMC Remedy ITSM) and BMC Service Request Management — all applications are
built on BMC Remedy Action Request System. BMC Knowledge Management leverages
foundational elements, such as notification and email, of the integration platform to simplify and
reduce management costs.

BMC Knowledge Management provides the following functionality:

Helps IT and customer service personnel and other service providers to guarantee a quick
and accurate response when solving problems
Enables organizations to provide users with the option to perform an ad hoc search for
knowledge by themselves
Provides a means to create knowledge goals and monitor articles through reports

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Other resources
BMC IT Service Management Suite online technical documentation
BMC Change Management online technical documentation
BMC Asset Management online technical documentation
BMC Service Desk online technical documentation
BMC Service Level Management online technical documentation
BMC Service Request Management online technical documentation
Knowledge Management on BMC Communities

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Release notes and notices

This section provides information about what is new or changed in this space, including urgent
issues, documentation updates, service packs, and patches.

To stay informed of changes to this space, place a watch on this page.

Date Title Summary

6th Jan, BMC Knowledge Management 9.0 Documentation for the Beta release of BMC Knowledge Management
2015 Beta version 9.0

For information about the enhancements, corrected issues, and common features in BMC
Knowledge Management 9.0, see Version 9.0.00 enhancements.

Tip

Ready-made PDFs are available on the PDFs page. You can also create a custom PDF.

Click here to see the steps.

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1. From the Tools menu, select Export to PDF.

PDF export

The Export to PDF menu is displayed with preconfigured export settings.

Export to PDF menu

2. Perform one of the following steps:

Choose an export setting and click Start Export. (The recommended setting
for most exports is Branch (this page and its children).) You will be
prompted to download your completed PDF when the export process is
completed.
Choose Customize Settings and continue to follow these steps if you want
to perform advanced PDF customization.

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3. Select a template (for example, BMC Standard).

Templates with the designation (with child pages) export the current topic
and all child topics in that branch. If you are on the Home page, you will
export all topics in that space.
For best results, export using a BMC Standard template. Others are not
optimized for docs.bmc.com content.
4. If you want to customize your PDF export, choose Customize Settings.
To restrict your export to pages with a certain label, select This page and
all children with label … and enter the desired labels to add (or exclude) in
the General tab.
To add a title and other information to the exported PDF, change the
settings in the PDF Properties tab.
To change how some dynamic content is exported, change the settings in
the Content Processing tab:
TOC macros includes a Table of Contents that list headings in longer
topics.
Children macros includes a list of links to child topics on some
top-level topics.
Export images as original resolution expands the images that are
shown in a small size in a topic.
To automatically generate full URLs after links (useful if you will print the
PDF), check the appropriate check boxes in the Linking tab. Note that links
containing long URLs may cause formatting issues with some tables if this
option is selected.
5. Click Start Export to begin the export process.

Your last export settings will be remembered and you will be able to create another export
with those settings without having to reconfigure your PDF.

Known and corrected issues

The included page could not be found.

Locating white papers, guides, and technical

bulletins
This topic explains how the organization of BMC Knowledge Management documentation has
changed now that it has moved to docs.bmc.com and helps you find information based on specific
documents you are familiar with from previous releases. It contains the following sections:

What has changed

Technical bulletins

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Release notes
Guides
Flashes

What has changed

BMC formerly delivered documentation for its Enterprise Service Management products in PDF
format, as separate documents such as guides (manuals), release notes, white papers, technical
bulletins, and flashes. In 2011 we began migrating to web-based documentation delivered on this
site, docs.bmc.com.

In most cases the documentation for a given release is provided in a single partition, or space, on
this site. For more information about spaces, see About BMC Online Technical Documentation in
the help for this site.

For product and solution releases whose documentation was initially delivered here: There
are no separate documents, so you won't see the "Release Notes" or the "Installation Guide."
Instead, the documentation for such a release is provided as pages, or topics, which appear in the
navigation tree on the left organized by subject so that you can look for the particular topic you want
without having to know which PDF it is in.

For releases whose documentation was initially delivered as PDFs but is now found here:
Those PDF documents are available from the "PDFs" topic in the navigation tree on the left. New
information delivered after the original release of those PDF documents is provided in other topics.

Technical bulletins
Technical bulletins contained information delivered after a product was released, often in
conjunction with a service pack or patch for that release.

Where to find information previously provided in a technical bulletin

Type of technical bulletin Found here in

Contents of a service pack or patch and

instructions particular to it The child topic for that service pack or patch under Release notes and
notices
For issues corrected in the service pack or patch, sort the table in Known and
corrected issues by the "Corrected in" column

Other information Placed in context throughout this space, but listed and linked to in Documentation
updates

Release notes
Where to find information previously provided in release notes

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Type of information Found here in

New features (enhancements) and other information Version 9.0.00 enhancements

Known and corrected issues

Issues corrected by the base release and its service packs and patches
Issues that are currently open

Guides
Where to find information previously provided in a guide or manual

Document title Found here in

BMC Remedy IT Service Management Installation Guide Planning

Installing
Upgrading

BMC Remedy IT Service Management Configuration Guide Key concepts

End-to-end process
BMC Remedy IT Service Management Administration Guide
Functional role
BMC Remedy Knowledge Management Administration Guide User permissions

Configuring after installation

Configuring after installation

Data Management
Administering

BMC Remedy Knowledge Management User Guide Using

Flashes
Flashes contained urgent information about product issues and are delivered after a product is
released. On docs.bmc.com this information is delivered in an "Urgent issues" topic, under Release
notes and notices. If this topic does not exist for a given product release, no urgent issues have
been discovered for that release.

Version 9.0.00 enhancements

This section contains information about enhancements in version 9.0.00 of the BMC Knowledge
Management product.

Separate online documentation for installation and upgrade information

Enhanced Online help implementation
Related topic

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Separate online documentation for installation and upgrade

information
Starting with the 9.0.00 release, the installation and upgrade information of BMC Knowledge
Management is available through the new BMC Remedy ITSM Suite 9.0 Deployment online
documentation.

The BMC Remedy ITSM Suite 9.0 Deployment online documentation contains consolidated
information of installation and upgrade procedures for all the components in the BMC Remedy IT
Service Management (ITSM) Suite. This online documentation categorizes the components as:

Platform components: BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System components and BMC
Atrium Core components
Application components: BMC Remedy ITSM core components, BMC Service Request
Management, BMC Service Level Management, and BMC Remedy ITSM Process Designer

The installation and upgrade information for BMC Knowledge Management is no longer available in
the BMC Knowledge Management online documentation.

Continue to refer to the BMC Knowledge Management documentation for information about
configuring the application after installation.

Enhanced Online help implementation

The online help implementation for BMC Knowledge Management 9.0.00 has changed. The
implementation for customers behind a firewall and customers outside a firewall is different. For
more information, see Enhanced Online help documentation implementation in the BMC Remedy
ITSM Deployment documentation.

Related to pic
Known and corrected issues

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Getting started with BMC Knowledge

Management
This section provides information about getting started with BMC Knowledge Management.

As a user,

Review the Key concepts helps you understand Knowledge Management

To understand end to end change management processes, see User goals and features

If you are an administrator,

Review the deployment space to understand the installation or upgrade procedure

Review the Configuring after installation for configuration information

Related topics

Where to find more information

Key concepts

User goals and features

Installation information

Key concepts
The following topics provide an overview of the BMC Knowledge Management application, describe
user roles, and provide other general information:

Business Service Management

Business value
End-to-end process
Product architecture
User roles

Business Service Management

Business Service Management (BSM) provides a comprehensive and unified platform that
simultaneously optimizes IT costs, demonstrates transparency, increases business value, controls
risk, and assures quality of service. Delivering an "ERP for IT," BSM simplifies, standardizes, and
automates IT processes so that you can manage business services efficiently across their lifecycle

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-- across distributed, mainframe, virtual, and cloud-based resources . With BSM, your organization
has the trusted information it needs, can prioritize work based on business critical services, and can
orchestrate workflow across your core IT management functions.

BSM has been architected so that you can adopt it incrementally and in a low-risk fashion based on
the top initiatives you are already most likely pursuing, such as Cloud Computing, Data Center
Automation, and IT Service Management.

In this site, we use the following terms to explain how you can realize BSM in your organization
using BMC Software products and services:

BSM Initiatives describe the most common strategic initiatives that organizations are
undertaking to address their IT management challenges.
For each BSM Initiative, a set of value paths have been defined that capture the most
common ways to get started on an initiative with the highest impact and shortest time to
value based on BMC customer experiences.
A value path prescribes the steps, or required capabilities, that an organization will need to
realize value around a key project within each initiative.
Required capabilities map to BMC products or service offerings to address the required
capabilities for each value path.

Business value
BMC Knowledge Management provides the infrastructure for creating, storing, publishing, reviewing
, and searching IT knowledge articles to aid service desk analysts via a knowledge base of
easy-to-find solutions, and give users self-service search options to help them resolve issues on
their own.

With BMC Knowledge Management, you can:

Improve service quality through easy access to knowledge

Reduce support calls — and costs — by enabling users to search without involving the
service desk
Access third-party knowledge through integration and indexing of content
Decrease call abandonment rates and increase first-call resolution rates by improving
efficiency
Keep users and service desks up to date by providing news flashes and watch lists
Reduce training costs throughout your organization with integrated, self-help knowledge

What is BMC Knowledge Management

BMC Knowledge Management is a framework for creating, publishing, reviewing, and searching IT
knowledge articles, to provide service desk analysts with a knowledge base of easy-to-find
solutions and give users self-service search options to help them resolve issues on their own.

The Consortium for Service Innovation which created and maintains Knowledge-Centered Support (

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KCS), shares best practices for capturing, structuring, evolving, and reusing knowledge. BMC
Knowledge Management leverages these best practices to improve service levels by helping
organizations to maintain what their employees, partners, and customers know and reuse this
knowledge to gain value.

Knowledge, typically comprised of different types and formats, is stored as separate knowledge
articles contained in a knowledge-based repository. Storing knowledge articles in a repository
allows control and life cycle management. Organizations that are just starting to build their own
proprietary content, require examples of content, or want to expand the organizational knowledge
base can import prepackaged knowledge for immediate use.

The authoring process enables authorized users to use rich HTML authoring and extensive editing
tools to create and maintain interactive, template-based knowledge articles and manage the
knowledge article life cycle within a defined sequence of stages.

Powerful index and search capabilities across multiple sources, including incidents, problems, and
known errors, enable users to search the repository and locate the requested knowledge. The
robust search engine allows users to search for solutions using natural language or Boolean
searches.

BMC Knowledge Management shares a common foundation with BMC Remedy IT Service
Management (BMC Remedy ITSM) and BMC Service Request Management, as all of these
applications are built on BMC Remedy AR System. BMC Knowledge Management leverages
foundational elements, such as notification and email, of the integration platform to simplify and
reduce management costs.

BMC Knowledge Management provides the following functionality:

Helps IT and customer service personnel and other service providers to guarantee a quick
and accurate response when solving problems.
Allows organizations to provide users with the option to perform an ad hoc search for
knowledge by themselves.
Provides a means to create knowledge goals and monitor articles through reports.

A word about knowledge

Knowledge that can be captured and structured for reuse is a key asset of support organizations
and departments. BMC Knowledge Management provides a single, centralized, self-service
knowledge base for creating, organizing, categorizing, using, updating, and managing structured,
consolidated knowledge.

Different user roles provide different levels of authority in the system. Knowledge accessibility, page
elements, and tasks are restricted according to user permissions.

Knowledge is stored in units known as knowledge articles (articles). Each article captures an issue

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and, using the appropriate predefined template, documents the experience of solving a problem,
providing referential information, describing a process, or answering a question.

Once captured, article content can evolve and be improved over time, based on user demand and
usage. An article's maintenance might continue indefinitely as the knowledge evolves. Users can
submit feedback that might include suggestions for updating or improving the article, rate its
content, and indicate whether or not the article was useful. Content that becomes irrelevant,
misleading, inaccurate, or inappropriate can be revised, or the entire article can be retired and
made inaccessible to users.

Users can track changes made to articles even when they are not involved in the workflow, by
selecting specific articles or by defining rules (watch list). When these articles are changed, a
notification is sent.

Articles are registered and indexed to enable searching. All users can perform a search and view
results from within BMC Remedy AR System, in accordance with their permissions.

Users that have one of the Knowledge User roles can also perform a search from within BMC
Knowledge Management. When an appropriate article is not found in the knowledge base, users
with the appropriate permissions can create an article as required.

Articles can be related to one another when their content is related. Thus it is possible, for example,
to add a link from an article that contains information about resolving an issue to another article that
contains referential information.

End-to-end process
Every article has a lifecycle. At the beginning of its lifecycle, the article enters the pre-publish
review and approval process. If approved, the article is published. Published articles can be
reviewed and retired from use, as required. Retired articles continue to reside in the knowledge
base, and although they are not visible to end users, Knowledge users can search for them.

Statuses are used to denote the current phase of an article within the article's lifecycle. Each phase
determines factors such as:

Type of work the article requires

User or group to whom the article can be assigned
Status transition options for the article
User viewing permissions
Whether the article is searchable

The following example illustrates a typical article lifecycle:

1. The author identifies the need for new knowledge and creates an article.

2.
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2. When the author is finished, the article is promoted into the workflow. At this stage, the
article's content might be visible to some users who have been assigned a BMC Knowledge
Management user role. However, the content has not been reviewed and approved for use.
This content might change, or the entire article might be deleted
3. A Subject Matter Expert (SME) reviews the article for content but cannot approve it, so the
article is re-assigned to the author for additional work.
4. The author completes the required editing and resends the article to be reviewed again by
an SME who is a member of the same support group as the SME who originally reviewed
the content.
5. The article passes the review this time and is assigned to another reviewer who performs a
review for technical accuracy. For example, if the article contains procedural steps, this
reviewer verifies that no steps are missing.
6. After the content and accuracy have been reviewed, verified, and approved, the article is
proofread.
7. The article has passed all the reviews and is ready to be published, but must first be
approved for publishing.
8. When approved, the article is published and becomes available to all users, even those
without any BMC Knowledge Management user roles (Self-Help users). In some cases, the
content might be confidential so the article might be marked as not available to Self-Help
users.
9. A future (typically after a year) review date to ensure that the article content is still correct is
set for the article. When the review date arrives, notification is sent as a reminder.
10. Users search for and open the article, indicating whether the content has been useful.
Sometimes they send feedback or a request to update the content.
11. A Knowledge User reviews the article and needs to update some of the content. A duplicate
copy of the article is created. After the changes are made, the new version replaces the
older article.
12. At some point, the article becomes obsolete and a Knowledge User retires it, rendering it not
searchable and inaccessible to users.

Note

Managing and tracking the lifecycle through its different statuses depends on the
valid status transitions that have been configured by Knowledge Config user. The
list of available statuses for selection is sensitive to the environment (for example,
user role, current status, and company permissions). See Configuring application
settings for more information.

Article life cycle

Every article has a life cycle. At the beginning of its life cycle, the article enters the pre-publish
review and approval process. If approved, the article is published. Published articles can be
reviewed and retired from use, as required. Retired articles continue to reside in the knowledge

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base, and although they are not visible to end users, Knowledge users can search for them.

Statuses are used to denote the current phase of an article within the article's life cycle. Each
phase determines factors such as:

Type of work the article requires

User or group to whom the article can be assigned
Status transition options for the article
User viewing permissions
Whether the article is searchable

The following topics are provided:

Before publishing an article

After publishing an article

Before publishing an article

The following example illustrates a typical life cycle until the article is published.

1. The author identifies the need for new knowledge and creates an article.
2. When the author is finished, the article is promoted into the workflow. At this stage, the
article's content might be visible to some users with Knowledge user roles. However, the
content has not been reviewed and approved for use. This content might change, or the
entire article might be deleted.
3. A Subject Matter Expert (SME) reviews the article for content but cannot approve it, so the
article is re-assigned to the author for additional work.
4. The author completes the required editing and resends the article to be reviewed again by
an SME who is a member of the same support group as the SME who originally reviewed
the content.
5. The article passes the review this time and is assigned to another reviewer who performs a
review for technical accuracy. For example, if the article contains procedural steps, this
reviewer verifies that no steps are missing.
6. After the content and accuracy have been reviewed, verified, and approved, the article is
proofread.
7. The article has passed all the reviews and is ready to be published, but must first be
approved for publishing.
8. When approved, the article is published and becomes available to all users, even those
without Knowledge user roles. In some cases, the content might be confidential so the article
might be marked as not available to users without a Knowledge user role.

Note

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Managing and tracking the life cycle through its different statuses depends on the
valid status transitions that have been configured by Knowledge Config user. The
list of available statuses for selection is sensitive to the environment (for example,
user role, current status, and company permissions). See Status transition
workflows for more information.

Article life cycle and associated knowledge article review steps

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After publishing an article

The following example illustrates a typical life cycle after the article is published.

1. A future (typically after a year) review date to ensure that the article content is still correct is
set for the article. When the review date arrives, notification is sent as a reminder.

2.
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2. Users search for and open the article, indicating whether the content has been useful.
Sometimes they send feedback or a request to update the content.
3. A Knowledge User reviews the article and needs to update some of the content. A duplicate
copy of the article is created. After the changes are made, the new version replaces the
older article.
4. At some point, the article becomes obsolete and a Knowledge User retires it, rendering it not
relevant for use. The article remains searchable.

Article life cycle after publishing

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Knowledge life cycle management

The BMC Knowledge Management authoring process allows authorized users to create knowledge
articles and manage the knowledge article life cycle within a defined sequence of stages, (for
example, Draft, In Review, Published, and Retired).

BMC Knowledge Management enables users to define the different life cycle stages and the
available list of stages that a knowledge article can switch to from a given stage.

When switching between stages, BMC Knowledge Management routes the article to the next
assignee using the BMC Remedy Assignment Engine. This is performed by analyzing pre-defined
routing rules that are based on the company that the article belongs to and the article
categorization.

Some stages, such as Publish and Retire, may require an approval process. BMC Knowledge
Management uses the BMC Remedy Approval Server to define approval workflow for these stages.

Product architecture
This section describes the BMC Knowledge Management architecture, including its relationship to
the BMC Remedy AR System server.

A database forms the underlying element of the BMC Knowledge Management architecture. The
BMC Remedy AR System server is on top of the database and processes all data entered by BMC
Knowledge Management applications.

In addition, the BMC Remedy AR System server is the workflow engine between the BMC
Knowledge Management application and the database. It also verifies that a user has permission to
perform each action, thereby enforcing any access control defined in the applications.

The BMC Remedy AR System server also manages BMC Remedy Approval Server, the
Assignment Engine, and BMC Remedy Full Text Search (FTS), as follows:

BMC Remedy Approval Server — Self-contained, shared module that enables you to
automate any approval or signature process. For more information, see the BMC Remedy
Approval Server documentation.
BMC Remedy Assignment Engine — Enables you to automatically assign requests to
individuals. For more information, see the BMC Remedy Action Request System
Configuration Guide.
BMC Remedy Full Text Search (FTS) — Provides a search mechanism that is typically
much faster than the native database searching functionality for searching in long text fields.
It is also the only search method available in BMC Remedy AR System for searching text
within documents that are attached to requests. For more information, see Enabling full text
search.

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BMC Knowledge Management also uses several integrated modules and supporting applications
that extend and enhance the basic BMC Remedy AR System server functions:

BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) Foundation — Contains the common forms
, workflow, and data that are needed to support the applications. It also provides a repository
for the following data structures used by each BMC Remedy ITSM applications:
Company (tenancy and external company definitions)
Organization
Location
People
Support groups
Categorization
BMC Remedy Notification Engine — Provides a back-end workflow model for defining
which notifications should be sent, based on different events in a BMC Remedy Knowledge
Management application. Support staff uses the People form to define which notifications
they want to receive. Included predefined notifications can be turned on or off.

The BMC Knowledge Management application components as well as the relationships among the
database, BMC Remedy AR System server, BMC Remedy Approval Server, Assignment Engine,
Full Text Search, the application's BMC Remedy Foundation, Notification Engine and the BMC
Knowledge Management applications are illustrated in the following figure.

BMC Knowledge Management product architecture

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Main components of BMC Knowledge Management

The application consists of the following main components:

Self-service search interface — Entry point where users can search for knowledge from the
knowledge base without accessing the application. Direct, user-friendly access to knowledge
articles without the intervention of organizational members helps to reduce inbound call
volume.
Knowledge Management Console (KM Console) — Lists knowledge articles in various life
cycle stages that are available to you, and links to functionality according to your
permissions. This console enables users to select an article for viewing or editing content
and metadata, and to create articles-all per user permissions.

For more information on working with the application, see Using.

Application components
BMC Knowledge Management consists of the following components:

Knowledge articles
Knowledge life cycle management
Knowledge search

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BMC Knowledge Management has two types of knowledge articles:

AR form-based — BMC Knowledge Management can integrate with any AR form and turn it
into a knowledge article. BMC Knowledge Management includes a registration tool that
enables customers to define which forms and which fields on this form they would like to
integrate with the knowledge base. Using the AR form rich text fields, AR form-based
knowledge articles can include rich text formatting and can embed objects including images
and hyperlinks.
BMC Knowledge Management uses the AR based knowledge articles to define the
knowledge article templates. By default, BMC Knowledge Management provides the
following knowledge article templates:
How to
Problem solution
Known Error
Reference
Decision Tree
Since these templates are based on AR System forms, a knowledge article can have
permissions assigned by group. This creates a knowledge article that has field-level
and knowledge article-level security. Knowledge article permissions are assigned to a
knowledge article in the BMC Remedy Developer Studio. Customers can create their
own templates or modify and customize the existing templates using the BMC
Remedy Developer Studio. They should use the BMC Knowledge Management tool to
register new templates.
External Sources — Using BMC Remedy AR System platform ARDBC Plugins, BMC
Knowledge Management can connect to any external knowledge source and can integrate
that source into BMC Knowledge Management knowledge base as knowledge articles. By
integrating into the knowledge base, these external knowledge items will include information
like BMC Remedy ITSM categories, update requests, feedback and workflow life cycle
management. BMC Knowledge Management is shipped by default with a connector to file
systems. This connector enables external file system folders to be defined, and files such as
PDF articles or Microsoft Word documents to be integrated into the knowledge base as BMC
Knowledge Management knowledge articles. These knowledge articles are later indexed by
the search engine and can be searched on like any other articles in the knowledge base.

The following figure illustrates how the different types of knowledge articles are integrated into a
single knowledge base. The information that is common to all knowledge articles together with the
workflow logic required for lifecycle management of knowledge articles is stored in the Knowledge
Article Manager AR form.

BMC Remedy Knowledge Management knowledge base

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AR Join forms are used in order to integrate the common knowledge information with the
knowledge content form, that could be any other AR form (in this example the How To knowledge
article template form) or an AR Vendor form when connecting to external knowledge source (in this
example file system).

The AR Join form is the actual knowledge article that is indexed by the search engine.

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User roles
User roles Description

Knowledge The Knowledge Manager is responsible for the overall Knowledge Management database content and life cycle
Manager of the articles in the database. They have access to publish and retire articles. They also register and maintain
various knowledge sources.

Knowledge The Knowledge SME is responsible for creating the content that goes into the Knowledge Management database
Subject (they author and review knowledge articles). They address any comments and update requests for the articles.
Matter Expert They can publish knowledge articles using a configured approval process.
(SME)

Knowledge The Knowledge Application Administrator is responsible for setting up, configuring, and maintaining a BMC
Application Knowledge Management application.
Administrator

User goals and features

This page provides an overview of user goals related to creating and managing knowledge, and
how they are addressed by the features in BMC Knowledge Management.

Creating and publishing knowledge articles

Searching for knowledge articles
Managing knowledge article metadata
Working with reports

Knowledge search
BMC Knowledge Management's search module uses the BMC Remedy Full Text Search module to
search on different knowledge sources using natural language, and to present a consolidated
search result list.

The knowledge search module provides a search mechanism that is typically much faster than the
native database searching functionality for searching in long text fields. It also lets you search on
AR System form attachments.

Any AR form can be registered to BMC Knowledge Management as a searchable item. BMC
Knowledge Management will go over the records in these forms, index them, and thus enable the
application to search on these records.

The BMC Knowledge Management has the ability to filter the search results based on
characteristics such as:

Company
Product and Operational Categories
Environment

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Languages

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Planning
This section contains information about the following planning issues:

User permissions
Functional role

For more information on planning for your installation, localization, and system requirements, see
Planning in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite online documentation.

User permissions
The following user permissions are available in BMC Knowledge Management.

Permission Description Application

user
license
type

Knowledge Grants full access to the application. This permission is usually assigned to the most advanced users None
Admin and enables them (in addition to Knowledge User permissions) to generate reports, manage
knowledge sources, and migrate data from previous installations.

Users with Knowledge Admin permission can:

Create new knowledge articles

Modify all of the articles that are visible to them
Change the the assignee
Change the article status
Publish and cancel articles

Recommendation

Grant this permission to individuals who perform the role of a Knowledge Manager. Users
in this role can create system news flashes and run reports.

Knowledge Grants write, assign, and promote access to new and existing articles without administrative tasks. None
User This permission is usually assigned to senior members of a support group and enables users to
participate in the knowledge article lifecycle.

Users with the Knowledge User permission can:

Create and modify knowledge articles

Update all draft articles
Promote articles to any of the review statuses
Submit articles for Publish Approval and Retire Approval

Recommendation

Grant this permission to advanced technical users or subject-matter experts. These users
are typically involved in the content review and approval process.

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type

Knowledge Grants write access to new knowledge articles only. This permission is usually assigned to junior None
Submitter knowledge users and trainees and enables them to create and promote articles to Draft status only.

Users with Knowledge Submitter permission can create new knowledge articles and modify their own
knowledge articles that have the In Progress status.

Recommendation

Grant this permission to standard technical users who require access to create knowledge
articles from incidents or other requests.

Knowledge Grants view access to knowledge articles in any status without writing privileges. This permission is None
Viewer usually assigned to support staff who only search and view articles.

Users with Knowledge Viewer permission can:

View published knowledge articles

Review Draft and In Review articles

Recommendation

Grant this permission to all users who need to view knowledge articles.

Knowledge Grants access to configuration settings. This permission enables users to configure BMC Knowledge None
Config Management settings. Typically, an assigned user is not a member of a support group and is not
intended to create, edit, or publish articles.

Users with the Knowledge Config permission can:

Configure BMC Knowledge Management settings

Recommendation

Grant this permission to individuals who need to configure the component functions
mentioned in the preceding list of BMC Knowledge Management permissions. Typically,
you grant this permission to someone playing the role of an Application Administrator.

Note

For information about migrating user permissions from BMC Knowledge Management the
version 7.2 and 7.5 format to the version 8.0 and later format, see Migrating user
permissions from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases .

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Related topic
Permissions required to perform actions in BMC Knowledge Management

Permissions required to perform actions in BMC Knowledge

Management
The following table shows the available default actions for the different user permissions.

BMC Knowledge Management permissions with their actions

Privileges Self Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Comments

Service Viewer Submitter User Admin Config

Viewing

View articles in + + + + + + Self Service users can

simple view view knowledge articles
in simple view only if
those articles are
assigned to the
appropriate visibility
group. For more
information, see
Configuring visibility
groups and Managing
knowledge article
visibility.

View articles in + + + +
advanced view

View in-progress + + + You can see only

articles in-progress articles that
you created. You cannot
view an in-progress
article that another user
created.

View draft articles + + + +

View in-review + + + +
articles

View published + + + + + + Self Service users can

external articles view external knowledge
articles (external files
that have been
registered in the
knowledge base via the
Registration Wizard) only
if those articles are
assigned to the
appropriate visibility
group.

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Privileges Self Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Comments

Service Viewer Submitter User Admin Config

For more information,

see Registering file
system paths,
Configuring visibility
groups, and Managing
knowledge article
visibility.

View published + + + + Published knowledge

internal articles articles are approved but
not visible to Self Service
users.

View closed + + + + Closed articles are not

version returned after a search,
but can be viewed in the
revisions tab of the
advanced view.

View retired articles + + + +

View cancelled + Cancelled articles can be

articles viewed from the console.

View articles + + + + Articles waiting for

waiting for approval approval (both publish
and retire) can be
searched for and viewed.

View update + + + +
requests

View relationships + + + + + +

View Categories + + + + + +

View Revisions + + + +

View History + + + +

View Usage +

Editing

Create a new + + + After an article has been

article updated to In Progress, it
can be assigned to a
Knowledge User or
Admin.

Note: The Assignment

availability option in
your People record must
be set to Yes for you to
be able to create new
knowledge articles.

Edit In Progress + + +

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Privileges Self Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Comments

Service Viewer Submitter User Admin Config

Knowledge Submitter
users can edit only their
own articles.

Edit draft + +

Edit in-review + + The editor must be part

of the relevant reviewer's
support group.

Edit published + + This action creates a

new version in draft.

Edit closed version + + This action creates a

new version in draft if the
closed version was in
Draft.

Edit retired + + Can only edit articles

flagged as internal,
change the article status
to Cancelled, and
change the assignee.

Edit cancelled

Edit + + This action stops the

waiting-for-approval approval process and
reverts the article to the
previous status.

Workflow

Change status to + + + The status is changed to

draft Draft from In Progress.

Note: Users with

Knowledge Submitter
permission can promote
a knowledge article to
Draft status only if the
Assignee user has
Knowledge User or
Knowledge Admin
permission.

Change status to + +
review

Change status to + + Draft articles can also be

publish/retire changed to
approval retired-approval.

Change status to + Only the Knowledge

cancel Admin can cancel an
article, irrespective of the
article status, without any
approval. However,

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Privileges Self Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Comments

Service Viewer Submitter User Admin Config

Knowledge users have to

follow the approval
process to cancel
knowledge articles.

Take ownership + + User must be part of the

relevant reviewers
support group if the
article is in review. In
other statuses, the group
is not relevant.

Assign ownership + + User must be part of the

relevant reviewers
support group if the
article is in review. In
other statuses, the group
is not relevant.

Approve publish Configured in the BMC

Knowledge Management
configuration. Requires
support group
membership and
approval role.

Approve retire Configured in the BMC

Knowledge Management
configuration. Requires
support group
membership and
approval role.

Set owner/ +
owner-group

Knowledge Management Console

Open knowledge +
source
management under
Functions

Quick Actions +

View articles not + A user with the

assigned to me/All Knowledge Admin role
can view articles not
assigned to that user
when filtering 'my groups'
.

IT Home Page

Open the + + + +
Knowledge
Management
Console

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Privileges Self Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Comments

Service Viewer Submitter User Admin Config

Open configuration +
for BMC
Knowledge
Management

Open search dialog + + + + + +

box

Other

Submit update + + + +
requests

Submit feedback + + + + + +

Create reports +

Remedy fixed ( + + +
write) license

Part of support staff + + + + +

Create + + + Submitters can create

relationships relationships only for
in-progress articles.

Functional role
The Knowledge Management Approver role is the sole functional role that is provided by BMC
Knowledge Management. The Knowledge Management Approver role enables you to receive
approval requests for publishing, canceling, and retiring knowledge articles, that you can approve
or reject in Approval Central.

This functional role is usually assigned to senior members of a support group, who possess a high
level of technical knowledge.

Recommendation

Approvers should have the Knowledge Viewer, Knowledge User, or Knowledge Admin
permission to be able to view knowledge articles before approving or rejecting them.

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Installing
The new BMC Remedy ITSM Suite 9.0 Deployment documentation is now online.

This new set of online documentation contains consolidated installation and upgrade procedures for
all of the components in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) Suite.

Refer to that documentation for information about installing BMC Remedy ITSM 9.0.

This section describes the BMC Remedy with Smart IT 1.1 installation process. The following topics
are discussed:

System requirements for Smart IT

Installing the Smart IT interface

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Configuring after installation

This section contains activities that you must perform after you install the application and before
you configure the application. It also contains information on configuring the Foundation, projects,
and applications.

The following topics are provided:

Configuration overview
Analyzing organizational requirements
Setting up the framework
Quick start process overview
About the Application Administration Console
Accessing the Application Administration Console
Configuration prerequisites
Defining the application administrator
Configuration tasks and reference
Performing a standard configuration
Managing standard configuration data
Converting XML-based articles from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases
Managing knowledge sources
Configuring approvals
Adding status transitions
Configuring application settings
Configuring feedback strings
Configuring system settings
Managing notifications
Configuring Submitter mode
Enabling localization
Setting the tenancy mode
Configuring the default web path
Changing the database schema sort order
Configuring the BMC Remedy Notification Engine
Changing the time zone
About installing Adobe Flash Player
Running a post-installation health check

Quick start process overview

To perform the basic level of application configuration, perform the tasks listed in the following table
. To perform the tasks, you should have a basic understanding of performing common configuration
tasks using the Application Administration Console (for example, you know how to log into the IT

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Home Page, define users in the People form, and so on).

Quick Start Actions

Action Where to begin For more

information

1. Set up your company or organization

Perform standard configuration of your company or organization ( From the Application Administration
such as People, Company, Location, and Site information). Console, click the Standard Managing
Configuration tab. standard
configuration
Note data
Configuring
If you have already have performed this step in BMC
after
Remedy IT Service Management, you can ignore this step,
installation
except for creating assignment routing for the application.
See Configuring assignments (optional).

2. Define users

Define the application administrator. From the Application Administration Defining the
Console, click the Standard application
Configuration tab. Then, select the administrator
Create link for People.

Define the support staff with appropriate privileges. From the Application Administration
Console, click the Standard Roles and
Configuration tab. Then, select the privileges
Create link for People. Creating
support
groups
Creating
support staff
members

After the setup is finished, the application administer can perform the following tasks:

Convert articles from previous version — For more information, see Converting XML-based
articles from the 7.2 and 7.5 release.
Manage knowledge sources — For more information, see About managing knowledge
sources.
Work with reports — For more information, see Working with reports.
Work with the application — For more information, see the BMC Remedy Knowledge
Management user documentation.

After the application administrator defines the configuration administrator, the following
configuration tasks can be preformed by the configuration administrator:

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Convert approvals — For more information, see Converting articles for default or modified
templates.
Convert general application settings — For more information, see Configuring application
settings.
Convert status transitions — For more information, see Configuring application settings.

Configuration overview
This section provides an overview of what is involved in setting up the BMC Knowledge
Management system. You are essentially setting up the framework that enables users to work with
knowledge.

Analyzing organizational requirements

Before you begin administration and configuration, you need to analyze how to build the knowledge
management system. Some questions you might consider are:

Who fulfills which user role and to what support groups will they belong?
How and to whom should articles transition within the article workflow?
How will search results be displayed?
How long are intervals between indexing knowledge sources?

Note

If you are integrating with other applications, some of the services might already be
configured.

Setting up the framework

Before configuring the application, the application administrator must define users, and assign
these users the appropriate permissions and functional roles. The application administrator can
also associate them with the appropriate support groups, if necessary. BMC Knowledge
Management includes some predefined roles. Additionally, the application administrator must set
up permissions for users and groups to ensure that the appropriate people can access the
appropriate knowledge and metadata. For more information, see Roles and privileges.

Setting up approvers allows you to have requests for retiring or cancelling articles approved. For
more information, see Configuring approval mappings.

About the Application Administration Console

You use the Application Administration Console to configure BMC Remedy ITSM Suite applications
. The console provides access to the forms that you use to configure the applications that you
installed.

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Only BMC Remedy AR System administrators and BMC Remedy ITSM Suite application
administrators have access to these configuration forms. These administrators will have Master and
Config permissions. For more information about these permissions, see Permission groups
hierarchy.

The Application Administration Console has two tabs:

Standard Configuration provides steps that walk you through the standard process for
configuring your organization's information.
Custom Configuration provides access to all BMC Remedy ITSM Suite configuration forms
. Use this tab to extend the standard configuration.

Configuration prerequisites
You can set up the application to contain entries about the various people, groups, skills,
responsibilities, and geographic locations associated with your organization.

Before you begin configuring the application, verify that the following configuration prerequisites are
met:

You must have an BMC Remedy AR System write license (either fixed or floating ).
You must have a basic knowledge of BMC Remedy AR System administration tasks.

For information about setting the BMC Remedy AR System options, see Configuring after
installation.

Configuration tasks and reference

The following topics provide information and instructions for configuring BMC Knowledge
Management:

Managing standard configuration data

Performing a standard configuration
Defining the application administrator
Running a post-installation health check
Migrating user permissions from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases
Converting XML-based articles from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases
Converting articles from external file formats
Managing knowledge sources
Configuring approvals
Adding status transitions
Configuring application settings
Configuring feedback strings
Configuring system settings
Configuring Submitter mode

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Managing notifications
Enabling localization
Setting the tenancy mode
Configuring the default web path
Changing the database schema sort order
Configuring the BMC Remedy Notification Engine
Changing the time zone

Managing standard configuration data

After you configure BMC Remedy ITSM as a standard configuration, you can view the configuration
data.

When you view the data, a form appears in which you can perform additional custom configuration.
For example, if you view support groups, you can use the Support Group form to modify the data
already entered or add additional information, such as the business hours for a support group.

To view or modify standard configuration data

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
correct company.
2. Click the View link next to the category of standard configuration data that you want to view
or modify.

The corresponding form appears with search results that display all records for the selected
company. If appropriate, records applicable to all companies also appear. For example, if
you click the View link next to Support Group, the Support Group form appears, displaying
all matching support groups, as shown in the following figure.

The top part of the form displays the search results, and the bottom part displays the
selected record.

Support Group form displaying the company's support groups

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3. Select the appropriate record to view the data or make changes.

4. If you make changes to the form, click Save.
5. Close the form.

Performing a standard configuration

The following topics provide information and instructions for implementing a standard configuration
of BMC Knowledge Management:

Creating a company
Creating organizations
Creating locations
Creating support groups
Creating people information
Creating product categories (optional)
Creating operational categories (optional)
Configuring assignments (optional)
Configuring visibility groups

Creating a company
The first step in standard configuration is to configure a company. Everything else that you
configure belongs to this company. You can configure multiple companies if your company is made
up of smaller companies that are separate entities.

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To configure a company

1. On the Standard tab of the Application Administration Console, click Click here to create
and configure a new company.
2. In the Company dialog box, select or enter a Company name.
3. Select or enter a Company Type.
4. If you have configured your server as a hub or spoke, you must select the spoke server
associated with the company you are configuring. The server that you select determines
where the incident, change, and problem records will reside. For more information about hub
and spoke, see Setting up the Hub and Spoke capability .
5. Click Add.
6. Repeat 2 through 4 until you have added all the companies you want.
7. When you are finished adding companies, click Close.

Understanding companies and organizations video

Disclaimer

Although the concepts and procedures presented in this video are correct, the user
interfaces shown are not current.

View video on YouTube

Creating organizations
Organization structure is defined as Company > Organization > Department, which represents how
a company is represented from a business perspective.

To create the company and organizations

1. From the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, click the
Create link next to Organization. The Organization form appears with the company you are
configuring displayed.
2. Enter or select the organization. Enter the name of the organization to create it. After you
add the first department to the organization, you can select the organization when you add
another department.
3. Enter the department.
4. Click Add. You can continue to add organizations and departments.
5. Repeat 2 through 4 to add the organizations that you require.

6.
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6. When you are finished configuring organizations and departments for the company, click
Close.

Creating locations
The location structure within the BMC Remedy ITSM applications has a four-tiered data model,
where the second and third tiers can be optional (the fourth tier, however, is required). In effect, the
data model can be two, three, or four tiers. The Company field is the first tier, Region is the
second tier, Site Group is the third tier, and Site is the fourth tier (where a site is a physical
location with a mailing address, such as a building). When you create the location structures, the
regions and site groups are used to group sites within a company. Therefore, you must have a list
of the sites within a company, and then determine whether regions and site groups are required to
arrange the sites in an organized manner that can be used for reporting purposes.

Sites identify unique physical locations and are associated with one or more companies.
The Company field and Site field are required on all request forms.
Workflow can be defined to any level of the location structure.

This topic provides the following information:

Understanding sites and locations video

To create locations

Understanding sites and locations video

Disclaimer

Although the concepts and procedures presented in this video are correct, the user
interfaces shown are not current.

View video on YouTube

To create locations

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
correct company.
2. Click the Create link next to Location.
3. Optionally, enter or select information in the Region and Site Group fields.
You can use the Region and Site Groupfields to create a location structure with two or
three levels.
Region

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Geographic areas can be divided into regions. A company can have several regions, depending on how many
sites it has and where the sites are located. Examples of company regions are Northwest, Atlantic, and Pacific.
Creating regions under a company is done only for reporting in BMC Remedy ITSM.

Enter the name of a region to create it. After you add the first site group or site to the region, you can select the
region when you add another site or site group.

Site Geographic areas can be subdivided into site groups, which are collections of individual locations. A company
Group can have any number of site groups, depending on how many locations it has and where they are. An example
of a company site group is ABC Europe Region.

Enter the name of the site group to create it. After you add the first site to the site group, you can select the site
group when you add another site.

4. Enter the site designation in the Site field.

5. Enter or select the site address information.
6. Click Add.
You can continue to add regions, site groups, and sites. The following figure shows a
location being added.

Example of a Location being added

7. Repeat 3 through 6 to add the locations that you require.

8. When you are finished configuring the company locations, click Close.

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Creating support groups

The Support Group structure is defined as Company > Support Organization > Support Group ,
which represents how a company is structured from a support perspective. Support groups are
typically used to assign work in BMC Remedy ITSM applications.

This topic provides the following information:

Understanding support groups video

To create support groups
Related topic

Understanding support groups video

Disclaimer

Although the concepts and procedures presented in this video are correct, the user
interfaces shown are not current.

View video on YouTube

To create support groups

Note

You can only create support groups for companies that have a type of Operating
Company, Customer, or Vendor.

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
correct company.
2. Click the Create link next to Support Group.
3. Enter or select information in the Support Organization field. Enter the name of the support
organization to create it. After you add the first support group to the organization, you can
select the organization when you add the next support group.
4. Enter or select information in the Support Group Name field.

5.
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5. Enter or select the support group role. The Support Group Role field describes the role that
the support group has in the organization. For example, the support group named Internal
Support might provide the Help Desk function, while another support group provides Tier 2
support.
You choose from the following support group roles, which are levels in the support group
hierarchy:
Help Desk
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
You can also select the Line of Business support group role, which can be assigned
to a non-IT team that supports customers with a particular business need.
6. Click Add.

The following figure shows a support group being added.

Example of a Support Group being added

7. Repeat 3 though 6 to add all the support groups that you require.
8. When you are finished configuring support organizations and groups for the company, click
Close.

Related topic
Creating support groups (custom configuration)

Creating people information

You can create records for both IT support staff and non-support staff.

A support staff member can belong to many support groups.

Non-support staff members include anyone who is not a member of the IT organization, or does not
create or modify records in BMC Remedy ITSM.

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This section describes the following tasks:

Adding people records from a template

Adding non-support staff
Adding support staff

You must set up a login ID and password for anyone with access to BMC Remedy ITSM Suite,
aside from guest access. People information also includes each person's company, organization,
business and home addresses, desk location, support groups, and selected additional information.

Understanding people profiles video

Disclaimer

Although the concepts and procedures presented in this video are correct, the user
interfaces shown are not current.

Creating support staff members

You can create people records with standard settings for support staff from the Standard
Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console.

If you are using templates or want to perform custom configuration, however, complete the People
form from the Custom Configuration tab.

This topic also contains the following information:

Updating permissions for support staff

To add support staff

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
correct company.
2. Click the Create link next to People. The People form appears.
3. Complete the fields as described in Adding non-support staff with the following exception: for
Support Staff, select Yes. When you set Support Staff to Yes, the Support Groups tab
appears. For support staff, you must complete the Login/Access Details tab and the
Support Groups tab.

People form completed for support staff

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4. Give the person the appropriate BMC Remedy ITSM application permissions.
a. In the Application Permissions area on the Login/Access Details tab, click Update
Permissions Groups. The Permission Group dialog box is displayed.
b. In the Permission Group field, select a permission group to add.
c. If required, select a license type of Fixed or Floating.
d. Click Add/Modify.
e. Repeat b through d to add additional permission groups, if required.
f. You can delete permission groups by selecting them from the list and clicking Delete.
g. When you finish adding permission groups, click Close.
5. If you are restricting the access of support staff to certain companies, continue with the steps
that follow. Otherwise, select Yes in the Unrestricted Accessfield.

Note

To give an individual access to information in BMC Remedy ITSM, you must give
the individual access to specified companies or select Yes for the Unrestricted
Access field. If you specify both companies and unrestricted access, unrestricted
access overrides the specific companies specified.

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To restrict access to specific companies:

a. In the Access Restrictions area, click Update Access Restrictions. The Access
Restrictions dialog box appears.
b. In the Access Restrictionfield, select a company to which you want the person to
have access.

Note

Depending on the database you are using, if you add more than 100
companies to a person's group list, you might experience unexpected results
. This is caused by the list size exceeding the GroupList field length. The
GroupList field is limited by the maximum varchar size for your database.
This size varies for database servers and vendors and between versions of
the same database. Experience shows that for databases with a maximum
varchar size of 4 KB you can add approximately 100 entries (Companies,
Support Groups, and Permissions, or all three) to a user's group list.

c. Click Add/Modify.
d. If you want the person to have access to multiple companies, repeat b through c.
e. Click Close.
6. Relate the person to at least one support group:
a. Click the Support Groups tab. By default, the Support Groups sub-tab is also
selected.
b. Click Update Support Groups and Roles. The Update Support Group Memberships
and Roles form appears.

Update Support Group Memberships and Roles dialog box

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c. In the Add Support Group Relationship area, select the Company, Support
Organization, Support Group, and Relationship Role.
The relationship roles are informational only:
Member The person belongs to the support group.

Associate Member The person has access to modify requests assigned to that support group.

d. Click Add.

Tip

To change the relationship role, select the relationship from the Current
Support Group Relationship(s) list and click Make Associate Member or
Make Member.

e. If the person belongs to multiple support groups, select the primary support group
record from the Current Support Group Relationship(s) list and then click Set to
Default.
f. To make the person unavailable for assigning to requests or incidents, select each
related support group from the Current Support Group Relationship(s) and click Mark
Unavailable.
7. To add support group functional roles, click the Functional Role Update tab. You can use
this tab to assign functional roles to people within support groups. Functional roles extend
access granted by permissions groups, but only for specific support groups that are used
within BMC Remedy ITSM. For example, someone might be a member of two support
groups but is a support group manager for only one. However, the individual could also be a

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support group manager for all of the support groups to which the individual is assigned. For
example, one individual could be assigned all of the following functional roles: Infrastructure
Change Manager for the Change Management support group, Incident Manager for the
Incident Management support group, and Problem Coordinator for the Problem Management
support group.
8. To assign the person to a functional role in a support group:
a. Select the Company, Support Organization, and Support Group Name.

Tip

Items in these lists appear only if support groups were related to the person
on the Support Group Update tab.

b. Select a Functional Role for update.

c. Click Add. The functional role appears in the table at the bottom of the dialog box.
d. Repeat steps a through c until you have added all of the functional roles.
9. Click Close.
10. In the People form, click Add.
11. Confirm this person's password.
12. To add more support staff records, repeat steps 3 to 10.
13. When you are finished adding support group memberships and roles, click Close.

Updating permissions for support staff

Use the following procedure to add permissions permissions or to change them.

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
correct company.
2. Click the View link next to People.
The People form appears.
3. Give the person the appropriate application permissions, as listed below.
a. In the Application Permissions area on the Login/Access Details tab, click Update
Permissions Groups.
The Permission Group dialog box is displayed.
b. In the Permission Group field, select a permission group to add.
c. If required, select a license type of Fixed or Floating.
d. Click Add/Modify.
e. Repeat b through d to add additional permission groups, if required.
f. When you finish adding permission groups, click Close.
4. Click Save and then click Close.

Related topic

Adding a support staff person

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Creating non-support staff people

You can create non-support staff records for employees, customers, and vendors.

To add non-support staff

Support staff can use these non-support staff records to complete forms, such as to indicate a
customer who called the help desk to report an incident. If non-support staff have a login ID and
password, they can record their own requests on the Requester console.

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
correct company.
2. Click the Create link next to People. The People form appears.
3. Enter the person's first name and last name.
4. Select the client type. The following table lists the client types available for selection.

Client types
Client type Information required

Office-based employee, field-based employee, Select or enter a site in the Site field.
contract

Customer, prospect, vendor Site information is optional.

Home-based employee You must enter home information in addition to the site
information.

5. Optionally, you can select a contact type, such as Sales or Technical Support.
6. Set Support Staff to No.
7. Enter the phone number. Click in the phone field and press Enter. You can select a Country
Code for a phone number from the list or you can enter one manually. If you omit the phone
number, it is set as unknown.
8. Optionally, enter the email address.

Note

An email address is required to receive email notifications.

9. If this person is a home-based employee, enter the home address and phone number.
10. In the Organization Information area, select the company and, optionally, select the
organization and department.
11. In the Location Information area, select the site. You must select a site for employees, but it
is optional for customers and vendors.
12. To allow this person to log on to the system, perform the following steps:
a. Enter a login ID and password. People who have access to the People form can
change their password.

b.
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b. If this person needs access to applications, see the instructions in Adding support
staff.
Non-support staff typically do not need access to applications. They can create and
modify requests from the Requester console. From the Requester console they can
access only their own records. If you grant them access to applications and you have
multiple companies, however, you might want to restrict their access, as described in
Adding support staff.
c. If required, select a license type of Fixed or Floating.
13. Click Add.
14. If you entered a login ID and password for this person, you must confirm the password.
15. To add more non-support staff records, repeat steps 3 through 13.
16. When you are finished adding people records, click Close.

Note

If you want to enable full text search, go to the FTS tab of the AR System Administration:
Server Information form. For more information, see Enabling full text search.

Related topics
Resetting a person's password or login ID
Adding people records from a template

Creating product categories (optional)

Before creating or modifying product information, it is important to understand product relationships.

When you are creating product category information:

The Product Name or Manufacturer field is optional, but both are required if either is
specified.
One tier can be sufficient, depending on the item being created.
If you create a product that requires less than three tiers, the other tiers must be set to
"- None -."
Each product category can have more than one product model/version and more than one
product alias.
Products can be associated with one or more companies.
A product is available for selection on other forms after it has been associated with a
company or when a product category is created.
After you relate a product to a company and an application, it can be used in forms that
contain the product categorization fields.
Each product model/version can have one or more patches.

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To add a product category

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, choose Foundation > Products/Operational Catalogs >
Product Catalog, and then click Open. The Product Catalog Setup form appears as shown
in the following figure.

Product Catalog Setup form

The Product Catalog Setup form appears.

3. On the Product Category tab, click Create. The Product Category Update form appears.
4. Optionally enter or select a Product Type.
5. Select the configuration item (CI) type. The CI Type field specifies the type of CI for which
you are creating this product catalog.
6. Select or enter the Product Categorization Tiers. If you are creating a product that requires
only one tier, enter None for the other two tiers.
7. Enter or select a product name.
8. If you specify a product name, specify a manufacturer. Select a manufacturer, or click New
to add a manufacturer. If you click New:
a. In the New Manufacturer dialog box, enter a company.
b. In the Status field, select Enabled.

c.
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c. Click Save.
9. In the Product Category Update dialog box, select Enabled for the status.

Tip

You can set the status to Proposed to temporarily prevent the category from being
selected from an application.

10. In the Origin field, accept the default value of Custom. Third Party is used for products
imported from an external source.
11. Select whether this definition is to be available across all applications in the BMC Remedy
ITSM Suite.
12. Click Save. You can use the search fields in the Product Categorization Search Criteria area
at the top of the Product Catalog Setup form to view the added product.
13. To define the company and module relationships, complete the steps in the next section,
Relating a company or application to an operational category .
14. Click Close.

Creating operational categories (optional)

Operational categories list all the operational services that a typical help desk provides, such as
adding a user account and changing a server password.

Operational categories can also contain items that represent symptoms of incidents or problems,
such as application failure and network failure. You can create operational categories of services
for use in various BMC Remedy ITSM forms.

Each operational category must be unique. You might find it helpful to view existing categories
before creating new categories. For more information about viewing categories, see Viewing and
modifying standard configuration data.

To create operational categories

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
correct company.
2. Click the Create link next to Operational Category. The Operational Catalog dialog box
appears.
3. Select or enter the operational categorization tiers. After you create an operational category
with a particular tier 1 and tier 2, you can select those tiers when creating additional
operational categories. For example, if you create an operational category for Add > User >
Account, you might first enter all three categories, but when you create an operational
category for Add > User > Web Page, you can select both Add and User.
4. Select Enabled for the status.

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You can set the status to Proposed to temporarily prevent the category from being
selected from an application.

5. Select whether the category is available for the company that you are configuring, or
whether it is available for all companies.
6. Click Add. When you save the operational category, it is automatically related to the Global
company. This makes the operational category available on other forms, such as the
Incident form, for all operating and customer companies. The product category is also
available to all BMC Remedy ITSM applications.
7. To add more operational categories, repeat steps 3 through 6.
8. When you are finished adding operational categories, click Close.

Configuring assignments (optional)

You can set up assignments to select a default support group for one of the review statuses, for
assigning a knowledge article to an article reviewer. Creating assignment routing enables you to
automatically assign articles to support groups and roles by using fields as search criteria against
the Assignment Configuration form.

To create assignment routing

Creating group assignments
Creating a group assignment
Automatic assignment to individuals

To create assignment routing

1. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
company.
2. Click the Create link next to Assignment.
3. In the Event field of the Assignment form, select the type of assignment entry.
For BMC Knowledge Management, the following assignment entries are applicable:
Knowledge Optional Review 1
Knowledge Optional Review 2
Knowledge SME Review
4. In the Description field, enter a description for the assignment.
5. From the Assigned Group list, select the support group to assign.
6. In the Routing Order area, specify when this assignment entry should be used for the
automated assignment.
Company — Select the location of the article. If this routing applies to all companies,
select Global.
Operational Categorization — You can route assignments by operational services.
Product Categorization — You can route assignments by product categorization.
7. Click Add .

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Creating group assignments

The first step in creating assignment information is configuring a group assignment. You can then
use predefined assignment information for automatic assignment to an individual in the assigned
group using the Assignment Engine, if needed. Advanced administrators can also define custom
individual assignment information for the Assignment Engine.

From the Configure Assignment form, you can also modify or delete assignment information.

Creating a group assignment

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, choose Foundation > Configure Assignment >
Configure Assignment, and click Open .
3. To change the Configure Assignment form to New mode, click the New Request button on
the form in a browser.
4. In the Event field, select the type of assignment entry (for example, Knowledge SME Review
).
For more information, see Automatic assignment to individuals.
5. In the Assignment area, select the support company, support organization, and assigned
group to use for assignment.
6. In the Available Systems area, select Knowledge Management.
You can select different support groups for assignment, even if the mapping selections are
the same.
7. In the Routing Orderarea, further specify when this assignment entry should be used for the
automated assignment. (This is an advanced feature.)

Note

The Contact Company and Company fields are required.

The Assignment entry can be mapped using the following data structures:
Organization
Location
Operational Categorization
Product Categorization
When BMC Knowledge Management uses the routing order, which is a feature of
many of the main ticketing forms, it uses information from the form that it is on to find
an assignment entry, and in turn, the support group for assignment.
8. Click Save.
9. Create the group assignment for Knowledge SME Review.

10.
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10. Create the group assignments for your company.

By default, assignment configuration records were installed out-of-the-box for your use as
templates. You can copy these records for your own company.

Automatic assignment to individuals

After you have configured BMC Knowledge Management group assignments, the round robin
method of assigning articles to individuals is activated. By default, BMC Knowledge Management
uses the round robin method in the Assignment Engine to assign service requests and work orders
to the person who has gone the longest since receiving an assignment.

To remove a person from individual auto-assignment, set the Assignment Availability field on the
People record to No. For more information, see Creating assignments.

Advanced administrators can also define custom individual assignment information for articles with
the Assignment Engine. For more information about configuring the Assignment Engine for
assignment to individuals, see Assigning requests with the Assignment Engine.

Configuring visibility groups

BMC Knowledge Management uses visibility groups to restrict access to knowledge base content.
To configure visibility groups, you create a group and map it to an underlying AR group.

You can create visibility groups for a specific company or for the Global company:

When you create a visibility group for a specific company, only users who belong to both the
underlying AR group and the company can view articles that are assigned to that visibility
group.
When you create a visibility group for the Global company, the articles assigned to that
group are available for all users in the underlying AR group regardless of their company.

You can create many visibility groups for one company. When assigning visibility groups to articles,
you can set complex permissions by assigning several visibility groups from the same company or
from different companies.

For more information about assigning visibility groups to articles, see Managing knowledge article
visibility.

Note

The current version of BMC Knowledge Management supports visibility groups that were
created in BMC Remedy Knowledge Management 7.5. When you import version 7.5
knowledge articles, assigned visibility groups are also imported.

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To configure visibility groups

1. From the Knowledge console, select Functions > Manage Knowledge Visibility. The
Visibility Group Info - Mapping to AR Group form opens in Search mode.
2. To search for visibility groups, enter search values and click Search.
If your server is configured to allow unqualified searches, you can leave all fields blank to get
all the visibility groups defined on the server. If not, a message appears prompting you to
enter a search value in at least one field.

Note

When you display a group in Search mode, you can modify only the AR group field
.

3. To create a new group, click New Request, and enter values for the following fields:
Company – Select the company to which the visibility group applies.
Group Name – Enter a name for the visibility group.
AR Group Name – Select the AR group that you want to associate with the visibility
group.
AR Group ID and Long Group Name are read-only fields that display the ID and the
full name of the selected AR group.
Status – Select Active to enable the group.
4. Click Save.

Defining the application administrator

The application is installed with a default application administrator ( appadmin). Before you proceed
to set up application settings, use appadmin to log on to the application for the first time and
proceed to define yourself as the Knowledge Admin user.

The following procedure describes the minimum number of entries that you need to define and
enable the application administrator to set up the application. You should add support staff
information to the application administrator entry, as described in Creating support staff members.

To define a BMC Knowledge Management administrator

1. Log into the BMC Remedy AR System server as the appadmin user.
2. On the Standard Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, select the
company for which to define the application administrator.
3. Click the Create link next to People .

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Note

Always configure people by opening the People form from the Application
Administration Console. Information that you add or modify on the People form is
automatically updated to the BMC Remedy AR System User form, but information
updated on the User form is not updated to the People form.

4. In the People form, enter information in the required fields.

5. Enter the administrator's email address.
The default notification method is email.
6. For the application administrator (and all support staff), select Yes in the Support Staff field.
The Support Groups tab appears. For the application administrator and all support staff, you
must complete the Login/Access Details tab and the Support Groups tab.
7. Give the person the appropriate administrator permissions.
a. On the Login/Access Details tab, enter the Login ID and the Password .
b. Click Update Permission Groups.
c. In the Permission Group field on the Permission Group dialog box, select a
permission group to add (the setting for you is Knowledge > Knowledge Admin, and
click Add/Modify.
For more information about permissions, see Roles and privileges.
d. If required, select a license type of Fixed or Floating.
e. Click Add/Modify for each permission group.
f. When you finish adding permission groups, click Close.
8. If you use the Company field to restrict access to specific companies, complete the following
steps to give the application administrator access to data in the applications by assigning the
administrator to specific companies. Otherwise, select Yes in the Unrestricted Access field
(the default) on the Login/Access Details tab of the People form.

Note

Unrestricted users are able to access all knowledge articles, regardless of visibility
group assignment.

To select a specific company:

a. Click Update Access Restrictions.
b. In the Access Restriction field of the Access Restrictions dialog box, select a
company for which to add access to the person.
c. Click Add/Modify, and then Close.
9. Follow these steps to relate the person to at least one support group:
a. Click the Support Groups tab.

b.
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b. Click Update Support Groups and Roles.

c. In the Add Support Group Relationship area of the Update Support Group
Memberships and Roles form, select the Company, Support Organization, Support
Group, and Relationship Role.

Note

The relationship roles are Member and Associate Member. These values
are informational only. Member means that the person belongs to the
support group. Associate Member means that the person has access to
modify requests assigned to that support group.

d. Click Add.
A support person can belong to more than one support group. To select the primary
support group, select the support group, and click Set to Default.
To change the relationship role, click Make Associate Member or Make Member.
10. Click the Functional Role Update tab.
You can use this tab to assign functional roles to people in support groups. Functional roles
extend access granted by permissions groups, but only for specific support groups that are
used in the application. For example, someone might be a member of two support groups,
but is a Knowledge Management Approver for only one.
11. To add a functional role, complete the following steps:
a. Select the Company, Support Organization, and Support Group Name.
Selections in lists for the Company, Support Organization, and Support Group
Name fields on this tab appear only if support groups have been related to the person
on the Support Group Update tab.
b. Select a functional role (Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management
Approver) and click Add.
12. Click Close, and click Add in the People form.
13. Confirm the password.

Running a post-installation health check

After installation of BMC Remedy IT Service Management preconfigured stack is complete, you can
also run the post-installation checks through the BMC Remedy AR System Maintenance Tool using
the Health Check tab.

Using this tab, you can run the post-installation checks on the components selected during the
installation any number of times after the installation is complete.

For more information, see Running a Health Check.

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Migrating user permissions from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases

You can use the user permission migration utility to migrate user permissions from the BMC
Knowledge Management versions 7.2 and 7.5 format to the version 8.0 and later format.

Note

The user permission migration utility is provided for users who choose not to migrate
permissions automatically, while upgrading BMC Knowledge Management.

User permission mappings are defined in the permission.properties file in the following directory:

On Windows: Installation directory\Shared_Components\rkmutility

On UNIX: Installation directory/Shared_Components/rkmutility

For example, the following line maps the KMSSysAdmin permission in BMC Knowledge
Management versions 7.2 and 7.5 to the Knowledge Config permission that is available in later
versions of the product.

KMSAC-KMSSysAdmin=Knowledge Config

You can also edit the permission.properties file to customize the permission mapping. By default
the following mappings are used:

User permission available User permission available

in versions 7.2 and 7.5 in later versions

KMSSysAdmin Knowledge Config

KMSAdmin Knowledge Admin

KMSSME Knowledge User

KMSUser Knowledge User

For more information about the currently available user permissions, see User permissions.

To run the user permission migration utility

1. Launch the Command prompt, and navigate to the following directory.

On Windows: Installation directory\Shared_Components\rkmutility
On UNIX: Installation directory/Shared_Components/rkmutility
2. Enter the following command:

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On Windows:
run.bat -u user -p password -a authString -x server -t tcpPort -L
locale
On UNIX:
run.sh -u user -p password -a authString -x server -t tcpPort -L
locale
The parameters used in the command are defined as follows:
user — is the BMC Remedy AR System Administrator user name.
password — is the BMC Remedy AR System Administrator account password
.
authString — is the Authentication String that you configured for your user
on the BMC Remedy AR System Server. For more information about
Authentication Strings, see Authentication String Alias introduction.
tcpPort — is optional, if you did not specify a TCP port during while installing
the BMC Remedy AR System Server.

Do not use double quotes (") while specifying values. You can omit
any parameter that has a blank value.

The permission.log file is created in the same folder as the utility after the migration is complete.

Converting XML-based articles from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases

As of the 7.6.03 release of BMC Knowledge Management, knowledge articles are based on BMC
Remedy AR System forms. Knowledge articles that were created in BMC Knowledge Management
7.2 and 7.5 releases are based on XML templates and must be converted to the BMC Remedy AR
System format to operate properly.

The Article Conversion Tool provides an automatic conversion of the XML-based articles and
associations to AR forms. Typically, you run the Article Conversion Tool after upgrading to BMC
Knowledge Management 7.6.03 or later.

Note

The Article Conversion Tool does not migrate article relevancy. Relevancy information is
reset for all articles after running the conversion.

The following topics are provided:

Updating the migrator.properties file

Remote access conversion

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Viewing conversion details

Converting articles for default or modified templates
Converting articles for default or modified templates in Service Pack 1
Converting articles for new templates
Resuming failed conversions of version 7.2 and 7.5 articles

Updating the migrator.properties file

The migrator.properties file is installed with BMC Knowledge Management, and is located in the
InstallationHome/BMCRemedyITSMSuite/Shared_Component/plugins directory. This file
contains various parameters that are used to configure conversions of version 7.2 and 7.5 articles.

This topic provides the following information:

Migrator.properties file parameters

Mapping article statuses in version 7.2 and 7.5

Migrator.properties file parameters

The following table lists the parameters that you can configure in the migrator.properties file.

Parameter name Description

rkm.db.type Specifies the type of database server that you are using.

Possible values are:

0 = MySQL Server
1 = MSSQL Server
2 = Sybase Database Server
3 = Oracle Database Server

rkm.db.url Specifies the connection URL for the specified database server.

Possible values are:

MySQL — jdbc:msql://ServerName:PortNumber
MSSQL — jdbc:sqlserver://ServerName:PortNumber
Sybase — jdbc:sybase:tds:ServerName:PortNumber
Oracle — jdbc:oracle:thin:@ServerName:PortNumber

Note: Do not specify the DB/schema name for version 7.2 or 7.5.

rkm.db.schema Specifies the database schema or instance name for version 7.2 or 7.5.

Note: For Oracle Database Server, provide the schema ID (SID) instead of the schema
or instance name.

rkm.db.user Specifies the database administrator user name.

Note: You can clear this value after completing the conversion.

rkm.db.password Specifies the password for the database administrator's account.

Note: You can clear this value after completing the conversion.

rkm.resume.conversion Specifies whether you are resuming a conversion or starting a new conversion job.

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Parameter name Description

Possible values are:

true = You are resuming a conversion job.

false = You are starting a new conversion job.

Note: The default value of the parameter is false.

rkm.resume.ArticleMigrationBackUpFile Specifies the name and location of the backup file in which the article IDs of the
processed articles will be stored. This is used if you are resuming a conversion job.

Recommendation: BMC recommends that you select a location that does not
specifically require you to grant write access.

rkm.backUp.chunk Specifies the batch size for backing up the article IDs of the knowledge articles that
have been processed.

rkm.article.conversion.threads Specifies the number of knowledge articles that will be parsed simultaneously.

rkm.default.assignedUser Specifies the fallback value to be used if no Assignee is specified in the original
knowledge article.

Provide the value in the following format:

fullName (userName)

rkm.default.supportGroup Specifies the fallback value to be used if no Assignee Support Group is specified in the
original knowledge article.

rkm.default.author Specifies the fallback value to be used if no Author is specified in the original knowledge
article.

Provide the value in the following format:

fullName (userName)

Mapping article statuses in version 7.2 and 7.5

You can use the migrator.properties file to mapping knowledge article statuses in version 7.2 and
7.5 to statuses that are used in newer versions of BMC Knowledge Management. Refer to the
following examples that show how the default statuses are mapped:

Work\ In\ Progress=Work In Progress

Draft=Draft

Spelling=Optional Review 1

SME\ Review=SME Review

Final\ Review=Optional Review 2

KMSPublish=Published

KMS_Retired=Retired

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Note

In the examples, the combination of a backslash ( \ ) followed by a space indicates the

presence of spaces in the names of statuses in version 7.2 and 7.5.

Remote access conversion

If a BMC Remedy Knowledge Management 7.2 or 7.5 installation resides on a different machine
than the BMC Remedy AR System installation (where the Article Conversion tool is installed),
perform one of the following options before converting the articles:

Copy the content of the InstallationDirectory\data folder to the BMC Remedy AR System
machine.
Make sure that the data folder contains two subfolders and their content: kms_data and
kms_conf.
Access the files remotely over the network.
You can convert articles in the following system combinations:
Article Articles to Comments
Conversion Convert
Tool

Windows UNIX You can install a software that allows file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients, such
as Samba service, on the UNIX system.

Windows Windows

UNIX UNIX

Note

The conversion is not supported for a combination where the conversion tool
resides on a UNIX system and the articles to convert reside on a Windows system.
BMC recommends that you copy the articles folders to any UNIX machine in the
same network.

Make sure that the BMC Remedy AR System server has been started with a special domain
user, to enable access to the files. This user must have read permissions for the file system
folder that contains the knowledge articles.

To start the AR System service with a special domain user

1. Stop the BMC Remedy AR System service.

2. Right click on the service and select Properties.
3. Open the Log On tab.

4.
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4. Select This Account and enter the name of the special domain user with the permissions
for the remote directories and sub-directories.
5. Enter and confirm the user password.
6. Click OK.
7. Start the BMC Remedy AR System service.

Viewing conversion details

1. Select Functions > Article Conversion Tool to open the Article Conversion window.
Each row in the Article Conversions table is a previous conversion. To refresh the table,
click the icon. The following information is available for each conversion:
Start — Displays the conversion start time.
End — Displays the conversion end time.
Status — Displays the conversion status:
In Progress — the conversion is still running.
Ended — the conversion has completed. Events or errors may have occurred.
Double-click the row to view more details.
Failed — the conversion did not complete. For more information, see,
Troubleshooting
Summary — Displays summary details of the conversion.
2. Click the View icon or double-click a row to view detailed events information for a conversion
.
The Article Conversion Details dialog box displays the conversion details and a list of events
that occurred during this conversion.
3. Double-click an event to view a complete description of the event. You can click Delete All
to delete all the events for this conversion.

Converting articles for default or modified templates

Perform this procedure if you want to convert articles that are based on default or modified (
modified fields) templates provided with the 7.2 and 7.5 releases.

To convert articles and associations

1. In the Knowledge Management Console, choose Functions > Article Conversion Tool and
click the New Conversion icon.
2. In the General Fields tab, enter the following information:
Full path — Specify a full path to the data folder that contains the articles you want to
convert. The path can be:
A full path to a folder on the local file system such as C:\data.
A UNC (Uniform Naming Convention) for remote access in the following format
: \\ComputerName\SharedFolder\Resource.\
A full path to a shared folder on the network.

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Note

Make sure that the data\kms_data folder contains four subfolders:

templates, draft, publish, and attachments.

Owner Group — Select a user group from the list to specify the group.
Owner — Select the articles owner from the list.
Convert Only Visibility Groups--Select this option if you want to convert only
visibility groups information. This option is useful when you already converted old
articles without visibility groups information and now you want to convert the visibility
group information without converting all the articles again.
3. Click Organization and Categorization and select a company from the list.
Select one of the following conversions mode:
Use Template Fields — The conversion tool copies organization and categorization
values from the XML template into the AR form.
Use Fixed Values — You enter organization and categorization values in the fields
below and the conversion tool automatically enters these values for all the converted
articles.
Enter values for Product Categorization, Operational Categorization, Business
Service, Organization, and Location fields.
4. (Modified templates only ) Click the Mapping tab.
a. In the XML Template Name list, select the template that you have modified.
b. In the AR Form Name list, select the BMC Remedy AR System form to which the
selected XML template is converted.
c. Select a modified field from the XML Field list and review the matching BMC Remedy
AR System field in the AR Field list.
d. If required, change the mapping for the modified XML field and click Add Field.
e. After you complete mapping all the modified fields, click Save.
5. Click the Run tab and select one or more XML templates for conversion.
6. Click Run to start the conversion.
The conversion may take a while, depending on the number of articles that exist in the folder
you specified.
The tool does not provide progress indication of the conversion. You can retrieve progress
information from the arjavaplugin.log file (C:\Program Files\BMC Software\ARSystem\
Arserver\Db folder). The following text indicates that the conversion has completed.

*******************************************
*** Knowledge Article Conversion REPORT ***
*******************************************
There are types of Articles that were
selected to transfer:
There were 50 found for Migration
Migrated successfully: 50

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Failed: 0
###############END REPORT##################

Converting articles for default or modified templates in Service Pack 1

Perform this procedure if you want to convert articles that are based on default or modified (
modified fields) templates provided with the 7.2 and 7.5 releases.

Before you begin

Review the parameters in the migrator.properties file before performing this

procedure. Update the file as needed. For more information, see Updating the
migrator.properties file.
BMC recommends that you disable notifications during the conversion process to
avoid generating unwanted alerts.

1. In the Knowledge Management Console, choose Functions > Article Conversion Tool and
click the New Conversion icon.
2. In the Conversion Type field of the General tab, select the Upgrade option.
3. Enter the following information in the General tab.
Full path—Specify a full path to the data folder that contains the articles you want to
convert. The path can be:
A full path to a folder on the local file system such as C:\data.
A UNC (Uniform Naming Convention) for remote access in the following format
: \\ComputerName\SharedFolder\Resource.\
A full path to a shared folder on the network.

Note

Make sure that the data\kms_data folder contains four subfolders:

templates, draft, publish, and attachments.

Owner Group — Select a user group from the list to specify the group.
Owner — Select the articles owner from the list.
Convert Only Visibility Groups--Select this option if you want to convert only
visibility groups information. This option is useful when you already converted old
articles without visibility groups information and now you want to convert the visibility
group information without converting all the articles again.

4.
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4. Click Organization and Categorization and select a company from the list.
Select one of the following conversions mode:
Use Template Fields — The conversion tool copies organization and categorization
values from the XML template into the AR form.
Use Fixed Values — You enter organization and categorization values in the fields
below and the conversion tool automatically enters these values for all the converted
articles.
Enter values for Product Categorization, Operational Categorization, Business
Service, Organization, and Location fields.
5. (Modified templates only ) Click the Mappingtab.
a. In the XML Template Name list, select the template that you have modified.
b. In the AR Form Name list, select the BMC Remedy AR System form to which the
selected XML template is converted.
c. Select a modified field from the XML Field list and review the matching BMC Remedy
AR System field in the AR Field list.
d. If required, change the mapping for the modified XML field and click Add Field.
e. After you complete mapping all the modified fields, click Save.
6. Click the Run tab and select one or more XML templates for conversion.
7. Click Run to start the conversion.
The conversion may take a while, depending on the number of articles that exist in the folder
you specified.
The tool does not provide progress indication of the conversion. You can retrieve progress
information from the arjavaplugin.log file (InstallationHome\ARSystem\Arserver\Db
folder). The following text indicates that the conversion has completed.

*******************************************
*** Knowledge Article Conversion REPORT ***
*******************************************
There are types of Articles that were
selected to transfer:
There were 50 found for Migration
Migrated successfully: 50
Failed: 0
###############END REPORT##################

Note

To ensure that the results of the conversion job are saved to the arjavaplugin.log
file, verify that the log level parameter in the log4j_pluginsvr.xml file is set to
info, as follows:

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<logger additivity="true" name="com.bmc.itsm.rkm">

<level value="info"/>
</logger>

If you manually update the log level parameter value value to info, you must
restart the BMC Remedy AR System Server for the change to take effect.

Converting articles for new templates in Service Pack 1

Before you begin

Review the parameters in the migrator.properties file before performing this

procedure. Update the file as needed. For more information, see Updating the
migrator.properties file.
BMC recommends that you disable notifications during the conversion process to
avoid generating unwanted alerts.

Perform this procedure if you want to convert articles that are based on new templates created for
the 7.2 and 7.5 releases.

Note

Conversion of new templates is supported only if the XML schema of the new template is
identical to the XML schema of the 7.2 or 7.5 release.

To convert articles and associations

1. In the Knowledge Management Console, choose Functions > Article Conversion Tool and
click the New Conversion icon.
If you are using version 8.1.00, continue to Step 3. If you are using a later version than
8.1.00, continue to Step 2.
2. In the Conversion Type field of the General tab, select the Upgrade option.
3. Enter the following information in the Generaltab:
Full path—Specify a full path to the data folder that contains the articles you want to
convert. The path can be:
A full path to a folder on the local file system such as C:\data.
A UNC (Uniform Naming Convention) for remote access in the following format
: \\ComputerName\SharedFolder\Resource.\

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A full path to a shared folder on the network.

Note

Make sure that the data\kms_data folder contains four subfolders:

templates, draft, publish, and attachments.

Owner Group — Select a user group from the list to specify the group.
Owner — Select the articles owner from the list.
Convert Only Visibility Groups--Select this option if you want to convert only
visibility groups information. This option is useful when you already converted old
articles without visibility groups information and now you want to convert the visibility
group information without converting all the articles again.
4. Click Organization and Categorization and select a company from the list.
Select one of the following conversions mode:
Use Template Fields — The conversion tool copies organization and categorization
values from the XML template into the AR form.
Use Fixed Values — You enter organization and categorization values in the fields
below and the conversion tool automatically enters these values for all the converted
articles.
Enter values for Product Categorization, Operational Categorization, Business
Service, Organization, and Location fields.
5. Click the Mapping tab to match fields in an XML template to fields in the appropriate AR form
.
a. In the XML Template Name list, select a template for mapping.
b. In the AR Form Name list, select an BMC Remedy AR System form to which the
selected XML template is converted.
c. Select a field from the AR Field list.
d. Select a matching field from the XML Field list.
e. Click Add Field.
The matched fields are added to the Mapping box.
f. Repeat steps c to e to map all the fields in the template.
g. After you complete mapping all the fields, click Save .
6. (optional ) Repeat step 3 for all of the XML templates that you want to convert.
7. Click the Run tab and select one or more XML templates for conversion.
8. Click Run to start the conversion.
The conversion may take a while, depending on the number of articles that exist in the folder
you specified.
The tool does not provide progress indication of the conversion. you can retrieve progress
information from the arjavaplugin.log file that is located in the InstallationHome\
ARSystem\Arserver\Db folder.
The following text indicates that the conversion has completed.

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*******************************************
** Knowledge Article Conversion REPORT **
*******************************************
There are types of Articles that were
selected to transfer:
There were 50 found for Migration
Migrated successfully: 50
Failed: 0
###############END REPORT##################

Note

To ensure that the results of the conversion job are saved to the arjavaplugin.log
file, verify that the log level parameter in the log4j_pluginsvr.xml file is set to
info, as follows:

<logger additivity="true" name="com.bmc.itsm.rkm">

<level value="info"/>
</logger>

If you manually update the log level parameter value value to info, you must
restart the BMC Remedy AR System Server for the change to take effect.

Resuming failed conversions of version 7.2 and 7.5 articles

While converting knowledge articles from version 7.2 or 7.5 of BMC Knowledge Management,
errors might occur and prevent the process from completing. You can resume the conversion
where it stopped.

Note

This functionality is not available for converting knowledge articles from third party
sources.

To resume a failed conversion from version 7.2 or 7.5

1. Close any error messages and return to the General tab of the Article Conversion Tool.
2. Depending on your conversion needs, redo the steps that are described in either of the
following topics:
Converting articles for default or modified templates in Service Pack 1
Converting articles for new templates

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Note

Update the values of the rkm.resume.conversion and

rkm.resume.ArticleMigrationBackUpFile parameters in the
migrator.properties file before you run the conversion job again.
For more information, see Updating the migrator.properties file.

When you click Run, the Article Conversion Utility identifies and skips the knowledge articles that
were converted during the previous attempt, and resumes the conversion job from the point at
which it was terminated.

Converting articles from external file formats

Perform this procedure to convert knowledge articles from third-party applications to AR forms that
can be used by BMC Knowledge Management. The Article Conversion Tool supports the custom
XML, HTML, and CVS formats.

This video provides information about converting third-party knowledge articles in BMC Knowledge
Management.

View video on YouTube

Before you begin

You must prepare a configuration file that will be used to manage the conversion task. For more
information, see Creating a configuration file for conversions.

To convert knowledge articles from external file formats

1. In the Knowledge Management Console, choose Functions > Article Conversion Tool and
click the New Conversion icon.
2. In the Conversion Type field of the General tab, select the External File Format option.
3. In the Article Format field, select the type of source file that your knowledge articles use.
The following options are available:
Custom XML
HTML
CSV
4. In the Path to Config File field, enter the absolute path to the config.properties file that
you created earlier.
For more information, see Creating a configuration file for conversions.
5. In the Full Path field, enter the absolute path to the source files of the knowledge articles
that you want to convert.
6. Go to the Run tab, and click Run to start the conversion.

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The conversion may take a while, depending on the number of articles that exist in the folder you
specified.

The Article Conversion Tool does indicate the progress of the conversion. You can retrieve
progress information from the arjavaplugin.log file that is located in the located in the Installation
Directory\ARSystem\Arserver\Db directory.

The following text indicates that the conversion is complete:

*******************************************
** Knowledge Article Conversion REPORT **
*******************************************
There are types of Articles that were
selected to transfer:
There were 50 found for Migration
Migrated successfully: 50
Failed: 0
###############END REPORT##################

Note

To ensure that the results of the conversion job are saved to the arjavaplugin.log file,
verify that the log level parameter in the log4j_pluginsvr.xml file is set to info, as
follows:

<logger additivity="true" name="com.bmc.itsm.rkm">

<level value="info"/>
</logger>

If you manually update the log level parameter value value to info, you must restart
the BMC Remedy AR System Server for the change to take effect.

Creating a configuration file for conversions

If you need to convert knowledge articles from a third-party application to a format that can be used
by BMC Knowledge Management, you can create a configuration file. For more information, see
Converting articles from external file formats .

Using a text editor, such as Notepad, create a config.properties file. Depending upon your
requirements, you can provide parameters to configure the Article Conversion Tool. This topic
describes the various parameters that you can use:

Terms using in this topic

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Custom XML tag attributes

HTML tag addresses
Login and common parameters
Metadata parameters
Source parameters
Sample configuration files

Terms using in this topic

This topic uses the following terms to explain the format of parameter values that you must use in
the config.properties file:

dataLocation—Location of the required information in the original knowledge articles. The

location can be mapped to specific fields in BMC Knowledge Management. Depending on
the file format, its value can change:
Custom XML files—Specify the name of the custom XML tag that contains the required
information. Alternatively, you a tag attribute might contain the required data.
For more information, see Custom XML tag attributes.
HTML files—Specify the tag address within the HTML file that contains the required
information
For more information, see HTML tag addresses.
CSV files—Specify the name of the column that contains the required information.
(fixedValue)—Fixed text value. If the parameter value format includes both the data location
and the fixed text value, then the fixed text value is used only if the specified dataLocation
does not exist in a particular source knowledge article, or if it does not contain a value.

Note

Fixed text values must be enclosed in parentheses, as shown in the Value format
column of the tables in this topic.

Custom XML tag attributes

For Custom XML files, you can set parameter values to tag attributes. The following rules apply
when you define tag attributes in the configuration file:

Enclose the attributes in square brackets.

Add the attributes after the tag name.
Specify the values of the attributes using the equal ( =) sign
Separate the attributes with semicolons ( ; ).

Example

CTI.category = (tier one),category[id=Tier1;type=operation]

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In this example,

tier one is the fixed value.

category is the name of the Custom XML tag that contains the information.
id and type are the names of the Custom XML tag attributes.
Tier 1 and operation are the values of the respective tag attributes.

HTML tag addresses

The tag address refers to the exact location of a tag in an HTML file.

Example

Title=/HTML/BODY/P[2]/,/HTML/HEAD/TITLE

In this example, the topic title is located in the second paragraph (second <P> tag), which
is enclosed within the <BODY> tag, which is enclosed within the <HTML> tag in the HTML
source file.

An alternative tag address is provided after a comma, wherein the topic title is located
within the <TITLE> tag, which is enclosed within the <HEAD> tag, which is enclosed
within the <HTML> tag in the HTML source file.

Login and common parameters

The parameters in the following table are used to provide basic information about the knowledge
articles source files.

Parameter Description Value format Mandatory

ARUser User name for the BMC Remedy AR System Server administrator.

ARPassword Password for the ARUser.

imageIdentifier Prefix that is used in the original knowledge articles to identify image file imageIdentifier/
paths. The prefix be followed by a forward slash ( / ).

When the Article Conversion Tool encounters an image identifier it uses

the information that follows the forward slash to scan the directory for
the referenced file.

imagesPath Location of the image files that are used by the original knowledge
articles.

attachmentsPath Location of the attachments in the original knowledge articles

attachmentIdentifier

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Parameter Description Value format Mandatory

Prefix that is used in the original knowledge articles to identify attachmentIdentifier

attachment file paths. The prefix must be followed by a forward slash ( / /
).

When the Article Conversion Tool encounters an attachment identifier it

uses the information that follows the forward slash to scan the directory
for the referenced file.

ARServer Host name of the BMC Remedy AR System Server.

webServer Host name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier.

webPort Port number used to communicate with the BMC Remedy Mid Tier.

apiPort Port number used by APIs to communicate with the BMC Remedy AR
System Server.

httpProtocol Indicates whether the hyperlinks in the original knowledge articles use
HTTP or the HTTPS.

KBurlIdentifier Prefix that is used in the original knowledge articles to identify KBurlIdentifier/
hyperlinks to other knowledge articles. The prefix be followed by a
forward slash ( / ).

When the Article Conversion Tool encounters a knowledge article URL

identifier it uses the information that follows the forward slash to scan
the directory for the referenced knowledge article source file.

Metadata parameters
Identify this section of the configuration file by adding the [metadata] tag. These parameters
predefine metadata field values that will be mapped to the converted knowledge articles.

The following table lists the metadata parameters that you can add to the configuration file.

Parameter Description Value format

ownerGroup Name of the support group to which the knowledge article's owner belongs. The group (fixedValue),
must already be registered in the BMC Remedy AR System database. dataLocation

ownerGroupId Group ID of the support group to which the knowledge article's owner belongs. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

owner Name of the person who owns the knowledge article; can be the author or another user. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

ownerId User name of the owner. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

KMS_author Name of the person who created the knowledge articles. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

authorId User name of the person who created the knowledge article. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

KMS_assigned Name of the person to whom the knowledge article is currently assigned. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

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Parameter Description Value format

KMS_prevAssigned Name of the person to whom the knowledge article was previously assigned. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

KMS_company Name of the company for which the original knowledge article was created. The (fixedValue),
company must already be registered in the BMC Remedy AR System database. dataLocation

KMS_title Title of the knowledge article. dataLocation

attachments Comma-separated list of attachment file names. dataLocation

CTI2.sub1 Name of the product to which the knowledge article is relevant. dataLocation

CTI2.sub2 Name of the manufacturer of the product to which the knowledge article is relevant. dataLocation

CTI2.sub3 Model or version of the product to which the knowledge article is relevant. dataLocation

CTI3.category Name of the Business Service (CI) that is relevant to the knowledge article. The CI must dataLocation
already exist in the BMC Atrium CMDB.

CTI.category Operational categorization Tier 1. For more information, see Categorization. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

CTI.type Operational categorization Tier 2. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

CTI.item Operational categorization Tier 3. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

CTI2.category Product categorization Tier 1. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

CTI2.type Product categorization Tier 2. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

CTI2.item Product categorization Tier 3. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

CTI4.category Geographic region of the site of the company to which the knowledge article is relevant. (fixedValue),
This region could be a continent or a country. dataLocation

CTI4.type Further narrows down the location of the site, by indicating a smaller area in which a (fixedValue),
group of sites is located. This location could be a state or a city. dataLocation

CTI4.item Pinpoints a single site to which the knowledge article is relevant. This site could be a (fixedValue),
city or an office building. dataLocation

KMS_visibility_groups Names of the visibility groups to whom the knowledge articles will be visible, sorted by Refer to the
company. For more information, see Managing knowledge article visibility. Description
column for this
Enter values for this parameter in the following format:
parameter
Company1~!~Group1~!~Group1|Company2~!~Group1~!~Group2|Company3...

The following variables are used in the parameter:

Company–The company that owns the visibility groups that follow it.
Group–The name of each visibility group that belongs to a particular company.
The characters ~!~ represent the separators between the name of the company
and each of the visibility groups that belong to it.
The vertical bar ( |) represents the start of a different company's data

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KMS_creationDate Date on which the knowledge article was created. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

KMS_lastModifiedDate Most recent date on which the knowledge article was modified. (fixedValue),
dataLocation

KMS_reviewDate Date on which the knowledge article is scheduled for review. (fixedValue)

KMS_documentId Document ID of the knowledge article. dataLocation

KMS_keyWords Search keywords that users can enter to locate the knowledge article. dataLocation

KMS_status Current status of the knowledge article in its lifecycle. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

KMS_prevStatus Previous status of the knowledge article. (fixedValue)

language Language in which the knowledge article is written. (fixedValue),

dataLocation

KMS_kblinks_prefix Prefix used in hyperlinks to other knowledge articles. This prefix includes the KMS_kblinks_prefix
KBurlIdentifier value.

KMS_kblinks_suffix Suffix used in hyperlinks to other knowledge articles. This suffix can be used to specify KMS_kblinks_suffix
URL attributes.

Source parameters
Identify this section of the configuration file by adding the [src] tag. These parameters are used to
map knowledge article content fields in the original articles to fields on the desired knowledge
article template in BMC Knowledge Management.

Parameter Description Value format Mandatory

formName The knowledge article template that you want the converted AR form
knowledge articles to use; the following options are available: name,
including the
HowToTemplate prefix
ProblemsSolutionTemplate
ReferenceTemplate
KnownErrorTemplate

How to template parameters

RKMTemplateTechnicianNotes Maps the Notes field in BMC Knowledge Management, where (fixedValue),
you can capture miscellaneous technical information that is dataLocation
relevant to the knowledge article.

RKMTemplateQuestion Maps the Question field in BMC Knowledge Management, where dataLocation
you can capture the details of the question that is being
addressed by the knowledge article.

RKMTemplateAnswer Maps the Answer field in BMC Knowledge Management, where dataLocation
you can capture the solution details of the question that is being
addressed by the knowledge article.

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Parameter Description Value format Mandatory

Problem Solution template parameters

RKMTemplateProblem Maps the Problem field in BMC Knowledge Management, where dataLocation
you can describe the problem or question that the knowledge
article addresses.

RKMTemplateSolution Maps the Solution field in BMC Knowledge Management, where dataLocation
you can describe the answer to the problem or question that the
knowledge article addresses.

RKMTemplateTechnicianNote Maps the Notes field in BMC Knowledge Management, where (fixedValue),
you can capture miscellaneous technical information that is dataLocation
relevant to the knowledge article.

Reference template parameters

Reference Maps the Reference field in BMC Knowledge Management, dataLocation

where you can capture the reference information that is relevant
to the knowledge article.

Known Error template parameters

RKMTemplateError Maps the Error field in BMC Knowledge Management, where you dataLocation
can capture details of the error relevant to the knowledge article.

RKMTemplateRootCause Maps the Reference field in BMC Knowledge Management, dataLocation

where you can capture details of the root cause of the error that is
relevant to the knowledge article.

RKMTemplateFix Maps the Reference field in BMC Knowledge Management, dataLocation

where you can capture details of the fix for the error that is
relevant to the knowledge article.

RKMTemplateTechnicianNote Maps the Notes field in BMC Knowledge Management, where (fixedValue),
you can capture miscellaneous technical information that is dataLocation
relevant to the knowledge article.

Sample configuration files

You can refer to the attached samples while creating your own configuration file.

Sample configuration file for Custom XML and CSV knowledge articles
Sample configuration file for HTML knowledge articles

Maps the Notes field in BMC Knowledge Management, where you can capture miscellaneous
technical information that is relevant to the knowledge article.

Managing knowledge sources

This section describes how to add, modify, and perform ad hoc re-indexing of knowledge sources.
These tasks are performed by the application administrator (Knowledge Admin role).

The following topics are provided:

About managing knowledge sources

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Accessing knowledge source management

About the Registration Wizard
Recommendations for registering knowledge sources
Registering searchable items
Registering knowledge base items
Running the Registration Wizard
Using Registration Wizard parameters
Registering new knowledge sources
Setting the registration plugin timeout period
Toggling knowledge source availability
Modifying knowledge sources
Deleting knowledge sources
Viewing registration and indexing statuses
Indexing on demand
Viewing the log file
Managing knowledge article templates

About managing knowledge sources

Knowledge sources contain data that can be managed and searched from within BMC Knowledge
Management after they are registered. Only knowledge that is contained in registered knowledge
sources is recognized and used by BMC Knowledge Management.

Registration enables Knowledge Admin users to add knowledge sources in addition to the following
default knowledge sources:

Decision Tree
How To
Known Error
Problem Solution
Reference

Accessing knowledge source management

Perform these steps to access the knowledge source management location.

1. In the IT Home page, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Console .
2. Under Functions, click Manage Knowledge Sources.

About the Registration Wizard

The Registration Wizard enables you to register new knowledge sources and modify existing ones.
When you add or modify a source, the Registration Wizard opens and enables you to select the
knowledge source type that you want to register. Sources are used to filter indexed knowledge
when searches are performed. For more information, see Performing advanced searches.

The following source types are available for selection during the registration process:

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Searchable Item — Provides the option to register BMC Remedy AR System forms as
knowledge sources that are searchable only; no metadata or lifecycle is saved or managed.
Knowledge Base Item — Provides the option to register external files or BMC Remedy AR
System forms. Metadata is saved and managed. Lifecycle management is optional for BMC
Remedy AR System Forms.

Recommendations for registering knowledge sources

BMC recommends the following practices for registering knowledge sources.

Recommendation Description
type

Source types BMC Knowledge Management provides the following types of sources:

Searchable Item — Can be only a BMC Remedy AR System form. Use this item when you need
search functionality only.
Knowledge Base AR Form — Use this item when you need search functionality, keep metadata for
the articles, and manage their life cycle.
Additional features include visibility in the BMC Knowledge Management console, update request,
and watch list. This source also lets you keep track of articles versions.
Knowledge Base File System Path — Use this item when you have documents on a file system that
you want to search for and keep metadata.

Lifecycle Use lifecycle management when you want articles to go through an approval process. The approval process
Management ensures that only articles in Publish status can be found on searches.

Relevancy fields Relevancy fields are indexed automatically and are displayed in the article details tab as part of the article
metadata. Relevancy fields cause articles to appear higher in the search results if the searched words
appeared in the relevancy fields.

Title and Displayed ID relevancy fields are shown as the header of each result in the search result list.

Title field — Because the Title field is shown as the title of each result in the search result list, map it
to a field that represents or summarizes the article content.
Keywords — Matching words in keywords relevancy field in searches, gets higher score than regular
word matching. Map it to a keyword field in your source form to make your searches more accurate.
Displayed ID — Use this relevancy field if you have a different ID that identifies your article other than
the Request ID field. The Displayed ID appears in the header of each result list search and you can
enter the ID as a search term.

Source name BMC Knowledge Management uses source name in several places (Search and Create dialog boxes,
Manage knowledge Sources console, and in the Article Details tab).

Use a name that is meaningful and that represents the source correctly. Because the source name is used in
filtering searches and for creating new articles, it should give users a notion of what the source is about.

Source description BMC recommends that you write a description to your sources when creating a new source. This lets you
know what the source represents. The source description helps distinguish between sources with similar
names.

The description is shown in the Create Article dialog box and helps users select the appropriate source when
creating a new article.

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Recommendation Description
type

Owner and owner Owner and owner group must be assigned to users with Knowledge User or Knowledge Admin roles, belong
group to the support organization, and be a member of at least one support group.

The owner is the assignee and owner of the entire source article. BMC recommends choosing an owner that
has a Knowledge Admin role. The Knowledge Admin role has broader privileges such as report generation,
and managing sources via the Knowledge Management Console.

Article language BMC recommends choosing the source language from the language selection field if you are working in a
multi-lingual environment and all of your source articles are in one language.

BMC recommends that you leave the language field blank if:

You are working in a single language environment and do not have to filter your searches by
language.
You are working in a multilingual environment and your source articles are in more than one language
. This ensures that when filtering searches by language you get results in different languages.

Indexing interval The Indexing Interval field applies only to Knowledge Base sources and Searchable sources when their AR
form is a Join, Vendor, or View type. File System Path sources also have an indexing interval that is set in
the configuration form.

The Indexing Interval field sets how often Full Text Search checks the knowledge source for changes, and
then indexes them. This process consumes resources from the server.

Several factors influence the resource consumption:

Interval Value — The smaller the value, the more resources are consumed.
The amount of registered sources that have an Indexing Interval, the more sources with indexing
interval, the more resources are consumed.
BMC recommends that you set the interval according to how often your search results data gets
updated.
If your data is not changing frequently, set the interval to a longer time.
If you import data when the interval is set to a longer time and you want it to be available immediately,
you can rebuild the index (available from the Manage Knowledge Sources console) without changing
the indexing interval.

Note

If you choose to index table fields that point to other forms, the other forms are also checked
for changes by Full Text Search.

For information about manually configuring an indexing interval, see Configuring system settings.

Content fields Choosing the right fields to index improves the accuracy of your search results and the performance of the
search process. BMC recommends that you index content fields that contain important data of the article, as
well as fields that users are most likely to search by. Typical examples of indexed content fields include fields
that represent the ID, Title, Subtitle, Subject, Summary, Notes, Environment, Platform, Keywords, and
Date of the article.

In addition, BMC recommends to index the Keywords, Title, and Environment fields because articles in
which the searched words appeared in any of these fields get higher rating in the search result list.

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Recommendation Description
type

Tip

If you marked the Title, Article ID, and Keywords fields as relevancy fields, the fields are
automatically indexed and there is no need to select them for indexing again.

You can index the following field types: Character, Diary, and Table. All other field types cannot be indexed.
When you choose Table field as a content field, you are actually indexing the fields of the form that the table
is referencing.
If you need to index data from more than one form, perform one of the following options:

Create a Join form with the fields that you want to index and select them as the content fields.
Have a table or tables in your form that reference the fields that you want to index from the other form(
s).

Example

You may want to search Incidents by associated Work Info, so that your search results will
bring not just the relevant Work Info but also any matched Incident.

To do that, index the HPD:Help Desk (Incident) form and select the Work Details table as a
content field. The registration wizard treats the table as a content field and indexes all valid
columns. When you perform a search, the search result will bring up incidents in which the
Work Info content (and other content fields if selected) matches the search word.

The registration wizard does not show fields that were marked for Full Text Search indexing
by BMC Remedy Developer Studio. To keep these fields indexed, select the fields again as
content fields.

Accessibility Accessibility defines the permissions to the knowledge source. For example, who can see and use the
source in the search dialog and source management console.

There are two levels of permissions company permissions and form permissions.

Company permissions — Only users that belong to this company can use the source. You can
select one or more companies. Select the Global company if you do not want to limit access to the
source by the company.
Form permissions — Use this type of permissions when you want to grant access to the knowledge
source to users with specific form permissions. Only users that have the specified form permissions
can use the source. By default, all the forms are shown in the table. You can register the source with
fewer permissions by removing forms from the table.

Registration time Several factors determine the time of the registration process.

Searchable Item sources are usually registered faster as they require less processing than other
sources.
The amount of data in the source form or directory in File System Path sources influences the
registration time of Knowledge Base sources and the indexing time of all source types.
The more content fields you choose for indexing and the more content there is in these fields, the
longer the indexing time.
BMC recommends registering sources when there is less demand on your system, especially when
registering sources with a considerable amount of data.

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Recommendation Description
type

Registering File To enable access to the files, make sure that the AR server has been started with a special domain user.
System Path This user must have read permissions for the file system folder that contains the knowledge articles.
source that exists
on remote On Windows, to start the BMC Remedy AR System service with a special domain user:
computers
1. Stop the BMC Remedy AR System service.
2. Right-click on the service and select Properties.
3. Open the Log On tab.
4. Select This Account and enter the name of the special domain user with the permissions for the
remote directories and sub-directories.
5. Enter and confirm the user password.
6. Click OK.
7. Start the BMC Remedy AR System service.

Note

Registered external files are indexed at regular intervals that you can specify. For more
information, see Configuring system settings.

Mapping types You can select either fixed values for categorization, or dynamic values that will be taken from the AR form
and which require that you map existing fields to the fields on the AR form.

Select Map to Existing fields if you have values in the organization and categorization fields of your
source form and you want to filter searches by these fields and show them in the article details tab.
Select Use Fixed Values if you do not have values in the organization and categorization fields of
your source form, but you still want the same organization and categorization values for all your
articles and filter searches by them.

Registering searchable items

The following topics provide the registration sequences and prerequisites for registering searchable
items as knowledge sources:

Searchable item panel sequence

Prerequisites for searchable item registration

Note

Visibility groups are not supported for searchable items registration.

Searchable item panel sequence

The Registration Wizard uses the following panel sequence when you register searchable items as
knowledge sources:

Welcome > Source > Relevancy Fields > Organization > Categorization > Content Fields >
Accessibility > Completion

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Prerequisites for searchable item registration

Fulfill the following list of prerequisites before you register searchable items as knowledge sources.

Verify that the Title Relevancy field has Public permissions.

For Relevancy fields, select a Character, Diary or Attachment field and set the field's entry
mode to Optional or Required.
For Organization and Categorization fields, select a Character field. Set the Entry Mode
property to Optional or Required and the Permission property to Public.
Verify that you have permission to access forms and fields that the Registration Wizard
provides for selection during the registration process.
For Content fields, select a Character, Diary, Attachment or Table field. Set the Entry
Mode property to Optional or Required.
Verify that the forms you are registering are Regular forms. (Audit, Display-Only and View
forms cannot be registered.)

Note

When you register a searchable item as a source, existing Multi Form Search (MFS) and
FTS values are cleared. To keep existing MFS values, you must re-enter them in BMC
Remedy Development Studio. To keep existing FTS values, either enter the values in
Registration Wizard content fields, or re-enter in BMC Remedy Development Studio.

Registering knowledge base items

The following topics provide descriptions, registration sequences, an example scenario, and
prerequisites for registering file system paths and BMC Remedy AR System forms as knowledge
sources:

Registering file system paths

Registering BMC Remedy AR System forms

Registering file system paths

Registering a File System Path enables searching for files in a specified directory and is used for
sources that are retrieved from an external file system. When you register this source type, you
define the path to the folder that contains the files that you want to index for searching. The folder
can be stored on the AR Server computer or on a remote computer to which you have access.
BMC Knowledge Management stores and manages the metadata of this source.

File system path sequence

Prerequisites for file system path registration
Limitation of file system path registration
To register a file system path
To start the AR server service with a special domain user

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File system path sequence

The Registration Wizard uses the following panel sequence when you register file system paths as
knowledge sources:

Welcome > Source > Organization > Categorization > Accessibility > Completion

Prerequisites for file system path registration

Fulfill the following list of prerequisites before you register file system paths as knowledge sources.

Before you register file system paths as knowledge sources, verify that the account, which
runs the BMC Remedy AR System server process on the computer on which the BMC
Remedy AR System server resides, has permission to the directory (remote or local) that
contains the files that need to be indexed.
If the file system folder resides on a Windows computer and BMC Remedy AR System
resides on a UNIX computer, you must allow access to the folder. To allow access, install a
product that allows file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients, such as Samba, on the UNIX
system.
Before you register knowledge sources that reside on a remote computer, verify that the
BMC Remedy AR System server has been started with a special domain user, to enable
access to the files. This user must have read permissions for the file system folder that
contains the knowledge sources. If BMC Remedy AR System is installed on a UNIX
computer, you must start the BMC Remedy AR System server process using the special
domain user .

Limitation of file system path registration

Global search results might include external files that have been registered as knowledge base
items. If the search conditions are fulfilled by XML or HTML files that have been registered in this
way, the Global Search Results screen appears distorted due the tags that are used in XML and
HTML files. Additionally, the Advanced search link on the search results screen becomes
unresponsive.

To register a file system path

1. Open the Knowledge Management Console.

2. Under Functions, click Manage Knowledge Sources.
3. Click Add.
4. In the Welcome panel, select Knowledge Base Item > File System Path and click Next.
5. Enter the full path of the directory on a remote computer using Universal Naming Convention
(UNC) name syntax, or enter a local path on the BMC Remedy AR System server computer.
6. Provide a name for this source.
7. Enter the file extensions that are to be indexed and managed by BMC Knowledge
Management, (for example, pdf;doc;txt).
8. Define whether to include sub-folders.
9.
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9. Enter the Owner and Owner Group.

10. Enter the Description and Language, as required.
11. In the Organization panel enter information in the appropriate fields.
To add visibility groups to the source, select a company and a visibility group from the
lists and click Add.
The visibility group is assigned to all the articles from that source.
You can add more than one visibility group for each source.
12. In the Categorization panel, select the appropriate Operational Categorization and Product
Categorization values.
13. In the Accessibility panel, selects the Companies to which this source belongs.
14. Click Finish in the Completion panel.
15. (optional) Follow the registration status in the Status column of the Manage Knowledge
Sources page.

To start the AR server service with a special domain user

1. Stop the BMC Remedy AR Systems service.

2. Right-click on the service and select Properties.
3. Open the Log On tab.
4. Select This Account and enter the name of the special domain user with the permissions
for the remote directories and sub-directories.
5. Enter and confirm the user password.
6. Click OK.
7. Start the BMC Remedy AR System service.

Registering BMC Remedy AR System forms

Register AR forms as sources that are retrieved from an existing AR form that you define. BMC
Knowledge Management stores and manages the metadata, and optionally the lifecycle, of this
source. When you register a new knowledge source in the Registration Wizard, you have the option
to define whether a lifecycle is managed for the source. For more information, see "Source panel"
in the "Using Registration Wizard parameters" topic .

AR form panel sequence

Prerequisites for AR form registration
Example of registering an AR System form
To remove the web toolbar from the default view

Note

Registering new knowledge sources of the BMC Remedy AR System form type can put
heavy load on the server. When registering BMC Remedy AR System forms as
knowledge base items, a display only character field z1D_RKM_Char01 (ID 302298901)
is added to the source form. This field does not belong to any view.

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AR form panel sequence

The Registration Wizard uses the following panel sequence when you register BMC Remedy AR
System forms as knowledge sources:

Welcome > Source > Relevancy Fields > Mapping Type > Organization > Categorization > Content
Fields > Accessibility > Completion

Prerequisites for AR form registration

Fulfill the following list of prerequisites before you register searchable items as knowledge sources.

In addition to the Knowledge Admin permissions, you must have permission to update the
Relevancy, Content, Organization, and Categorization fields.
Verify that the Title Relevancy field has Public permissions.
For Relevancy fields, select a Character, Diary or Attachment field and set the field's
Entry Mode to Optional or Required.
For Organization and Categorization fields mapping, select a Character field. Set the
Entry Mode property to Optional or Required and the Permission property to Public.
Verify that you have access permission to forms and fields that the Registration wizard
provides for selection during the registration process.
For Content fields, select a Character, Diary, Attachment or Table field. Set the Entry
Mode property to Optional or Required.
Verify that BMC Remedy AR System form type knowledge base items contain a character
field with ID 179 (GUID), and that the appropriate users that use the source have
permissions to this field.
Verify that the default value property is defined for required fields in the source form.
Verify that the forms you are registering are Regular forms. (Audit, Display-Only and View
forms cannot be registered.)
Remove the web toolbar from the default view, so it does not appear in the article's content
area.

Example of registering an AR System form

You are defined with a Knowledge Admin role, and have a BMC Remedy AR System form that you
want to register in BMC Remedy Knowledge Management. The form name is FAQ, and the form
has only two fields: Question and Answer. You want the question field to be shown as the title of
the search results, and you want BMC Remedy Knowledge Management to manage the lifecycle of
the articles within this form.

The following are the steps that you would typically perform to implement your scenario:

1. Open the Knowledge Management Console.

2. Under Functions, click Manage Knowledge Sources.
3. Click Add.

4.
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4. In the Welcome panel of the Registration Wizard, select Knowledge Base Item > AR Form
and click Next.
5. Perform the following steps in the Source panel:
a. Select the FAQ form.
b. Enter the form's view.
This is the form's view that will be displayed when the form is opened from search
results, Knowledge Management Console, and Create (new article).
c. Select the Life Cycle option.
d. Enter information in fields, as appropriate.
e. Click Next.
6. In the Relevancy panel, choose Question from the Title field menu.
You have mapped the Question field to the knowledge article title. The Question field is
now the title of the FAQ articles, and will be shown as the search results title.
7. Select the Answerfields to be indexed in the content field.

Note

The Question field is indexed automatically because it was mapped to Title.

8. Enter the appropriate information in the Organization and Categorization panels.

To add visibility groups to the source, select a company and a visibility group from the
lists and click Add.
The visibility group is assigned to all the articles from that source.
You can add more than one visibility group for each source.
9. In the Accessibility panel, select the companies to which this source belongs.
10. Click Finish in the Completion panel.
11. (optional) Follow the registration status in the Status column of the Manage Knowledge
Sources page.

To remove the web toolbar from the default view

1. Open the form in BMC Remedy Developer Studio.

2. Click anywhere in the form area to open the View property.
3. Under Appearances, select the Web Toolbar property and verify that the value is set to
Hidden.

Running the Registration Wizard

When you add or modify a source, the Registration Wizard opens. The following table provides a
list of the tasks that are available for managing knowledge sources.

Tasks for managing knowledge sources

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Task Action

Add a knowledge source. Click Add and follow the instructions for completing the Registration Wizard. For more information,
see Registering new knowledge sources.

Modify a registered Click Modify and make changes in the appropriate panel. For more information, see Modifying
knowledge source. knowledge sources.

Perform ad hoc indexing . Click Rebuild Index. For more information, see Indexing on demand.

Note

Tasks cannot be simultaneously performed by multiple users on the same source.

You can follow the progress of the registration process in the Status column of the Manage
Knowledge Sources page. For more information, see Viewing registration and indexing statuses.
When the status of the registration process is Ready, you can use the knowledge source.

Note

After you add or modify a source, you do not have to wait until the indexing or registration
process is complete before you re-run the Registration Wizard.

Using Registration Wizard parameters

The following table through the following table present the fields that are available for each panel.
The Modify Enabled column depicts the fields that are available for modification when you modify
an existing source.

Source panel
Parameter Value Source Type Modify
Enabled

Form Name Enter the form for displaying the knowledge source. No
Searchable
Note: Forms can only be registered once. Items
Knowledge
Base Item - AR
Form

View Name Enter the form's view that will be displayed when the form is opened from Yes
search results, Knowledge Management Console, and Create (new article). Searchable
Items
Knowledge
Base Item - AR
Form

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Parameter Value Source Type Modify

Enabled

SRM View Enter the form's view that will be displayed when the form is accessed from Knowledge Base Item Yes
Name the Popular Articles panel and search results in the Service Request - AR Form
Management Console.

Full Path Using UNC name syntax, enter the full path of the source on a remote Knowledgebase Item - No
computer, or enter a local path on the AR Server computer. Note: You can File System Path
create only a single file system source per folder.

Source Enter a unique name for this source. This name is displayed in the Sources All source types No
Name section of the Advanced Search page.

File Use either of the following methods: Knowledgebase Item - Yes

Extensions File System Path
Type all file types to be used. If you have more than one file type, use a
semicolon (;) as a separator, for example, doc;pdf.
Use a Regular Expression phrase to qualify file names for searching on
. Regular Expressions must begin with an asterisk (*)
For example, to search all .doc and .pdffiles with UTF-8 support:

[\\p{Space}*||\\p{L}+||\\p{Digit}*||\\p{Punct}*&&[^\\.]]+\\.(
doc||pdf)

Include Select this if you want the search to include sub directories. Knowledgebase Item - Yes
Subfolders File System Path

Description Enter a free text description of the source. This information is intended for use All source types Yes
as a referential aid when modifying the source.

Owner Select the Owner Group for the form. All source types No
Group

Owner Select the owner for the form.Note: The owner must have a Knowledge All source types No
Admin or Knowledge User role.

Article Select the language of the source. No

Language Knowledgebase
Item - File
System Path
Knowledgebase
Item - AR Form

Lifecycle Check this if you want BMC Knowledge Management to manage the lifecycle Knowledgebase Item - No
Management of the source. For more information, see Article life cycle. AR Form

Indexing Enter the indexing interval for the source. Yes

Interval Knowledgebase
Note: More frequent indexing provides better access to article updates but Item - AR Form
may affect system performance. Searchable
Items - Join or
Vendor forms
only.

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Relevancy Fields Panel

Parameter Value Source Type Modify
Enabled

Title Enter the name of the field to be used as the title for the source. This is the Yes
content that will be used as the title for searching. Searchable
Items
Knowledgebase
Item - AR Form

Keywords Enter the name of the field to be used as the keywords for the source. This is Yes
the content that will be used as keywords for searching. Searchable
Items
Knowledgebase
Item - AR Form

Environment Enter the name of the field to be used as the environment for the source. This Yes
is the content that will be used as the environment for searching. Searchable
Items
Knowledgebase
Item - AR Form

Displayed Enter the name of the field to be used as the Displayed ID for the source. This Searchable Items No
ID is the content that will be used as the Displayed ID for searching. If nothing is
entered, the Request ID (core field 1) value is displayed.

Mapping Type Panel

You can select either fixed values for categorization, or dynamic values that will be taken from the
BMC Remedy AR System form and which require that you map existing fields to the fields on the
BMC Remedy AR System form, as follows:

Searchable Item — Mapping To Existing Fields only

Knowledgebase Item — File System Path-- Used Fixed Values only
Knowledgebase Item — AR Form-- Used Fixed Values and Mapping To Existing Fields

Parameter Value Source Type Modify

Enabled

Mapping Specify the corresponding fields for each Organization and Categorization field. Knowledgebase No
To Organizational information and BMC Remedy ITSM categorization is copied from the Item - AR Form
Existing BMC Remedy AR System form that you chose as the knowledge source to the article's
Fields Categorization and Organization fields

Use Fixed Specify organizational information and BMC Remedy ITSM categorization for copying Knowledgebase No
Values to the article's Categorization and Organization fields. Item - AR Form

Note: All source articles contain the same Organization and Categorization data

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Organization panel
Parameter Value Source Type Modify Enabled

Company Enter the Character field to be mapped or the fixed value to be used All knowledge
sources Searchable
Region Note: Set the Entry Mode property to Optional or Required, and the Items--Yes
Permission property to Public. AR forms--
Site Group
No
File System
Site
Path--No

Article visibility Select a company and a visibility group form the lists to assign to the Yes
Groups source and click Add. AR
forms
File
System
Path

Left table Displays selected visibility groups for the source

Categorization panel
Parameter Task Source Modify enabled
type

Operational Tier 1 Operational Enter the Character field to be mapped or the fixed value to All
Tier 2 Operational Tier 3 be used. knowledge Searchable
sources Items--Yes
Product Tier 1 Product Tier 2 Note: Set the Entry Mode property to Optional or Required AR forms--
Product Tier 3 , and the Permission property to Public. No
File
Product Name
System
Path--No
Manufacturer

Model/Version

Business Service

Content Fields panel

Parameter Value Source type Modify
Enabled

Field Select a Character, Diary, Attachment or Table field, and click Add Field. Yes
Searchable
Note: Set the Entry Mode property to Optional or Required. Items
AR forms

Accessibility panel
Parameter Value Source type Modify Enabled

Company Enter the companies for which their defined users or members are All knowledge Yes
allowed to use this specific knowledge source and click Add Company. sources

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Parameter Value Source type Modify Enabled

Form Perform one of the following steps Yes

Permissions Searchable
Select a form permission that is defined for the BMC Remedy AR Items Note: Form
System form you selected as a source. Click Sync Permissions AR forms Permissions
to add these permissions to the source you are registering. functionality is
Select a form permission in the Registered Permissions table and enabled only when
click Remove Permissions to remove the permissions. modifying an
existing source.

Registering new knowledge sources

Perform the following procedure to add and register a knowledge source.

Notes

The source type that you select during registration cannot be modified.
You can register sources only from the Administration Server, if you have installed
BMC Remedy IT Service Management for a server group.

To register a new knowledge source

1. In the IT Home page, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Console .
2. Under Functions, click Manage Knowledge Sources.
3. Click Add.
4. On the Welcome page select the knowledge source type for registration.
5. Click Next.
6. In each page, enter the appropriate information as shown in Using Registration Wizard
parameters, and click Next.
7. In the Completion screen, click Finish.

For additional information, you can view the BMC Communities blog, Registering External Sources
into Knowledge Management.

Setting the registration plugin timeout period

Attempting to register a File System Path that contains a large number of files as a knowledge
source increases the load on the application server might cause the process to time out.

To increase the timeout period of the registration plugin

1. Stop the BMC Remedy AR System server.

2. Add the following line to the pluginsvr_config.xml file, as displayed in the example below.
<Api-Timeout>3600</Api-Timeout/>
3. Start the BMC Remedy AR System server.

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<plugin>
<name>RMDY.ITSM.RKM.REGISTRATION</name>
<type>FilterAPI</type>
<code>JAVA</code>
<filename>/data1/bmc/BMCRemedyITSMSuite/Shared_Components/plugins/rkm-registration.jar</
filename>
<classname>com.bmc.itsm.rkm.filterapi.registration.RegistrationController</classname>
<pathelement>/data1/bmc/BMCRemedyITSMSuite/Shared_Components/plugins/rkm-common.jar</
pathelement>
<pathelement type="location">/data1/bmc/ARSystem/pluginsvr/foundation_shared/
ITSMCommonUtils.jar</pathelement>
<pathelement type="path">/data1/bmc/BMCRemedyITSMSuite/Shared_Components/plugins</
pathelement>
<userDefined>
<Api-Timeout>3600</Api-Timeout/>
</userDefined>
</plugin>

Toggling knowledge source availability

Perform the following steps to toggle the availability of a knowledge source.

Note

The status of availability of a knowledge source also affects the status of indexing. If you
disable a knowledge source, indexing is also disabled for that knowledge source.

To toggle the availability knowledge source

1. In the IT Home screen, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management

Console.
2. Under Functions, click Manage Knowledge Sources.
3. In the Manage Knowledge Sources screen, select the source to toggle and click Enable/
Disable.
4. Click OK.

Modifying knowledge sources

If registration fails or you want to modify registration settings that are available for modification, for
example, the list of file extensions, you can run the Registration Wizard and make the appropriate
modifications. Modify functionality is enabled for registered knowledge sources only with the
following source statuses: Ready, Failed, Update Failed, and Sync Failed. For more information,
see Viewing registration and indexing statuses.

After you click Modify, the Registration Wizard opens and displays the registration data that was

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previously entered. BMC Knowledge Management performs a rollback process before the
re-registration of a failed source begins.

Clicking Finish in the Registration Wizard resets the status to In Progress. If an error occurs
during the rollback process, the status is reset to Failed, and the modification process can begin
again.

Note

Knowledge sources cannot be simultaneously updated by different users.

Run the following procedure to modify a knowledge source.

To modify a knowledge source

1. In the IT Home screen, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management

Console.
2. Under Functions, click Manage Knowledge Sources.
3. In the Manage Knowledge Sources screen, select the source to modify and click Modify.
4. In the Knowledge Registration Wizard, enter the appropriate information as shown in Using
Registration Wizard parameters, and click Next.

Note

Not all fields are available for modification.

5. In the Completion screen, click Finish.

Deleting knowledge sources

Perform the following steps to delete a knowledge source.

1. In the IT Home screen, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management

Console.
2. Under Functions, click Manage Knowledge Sources.
3. In the Manage Knowledge Sources screen, select the source to delete and click Remove.
4. Click OK to continue. The registration wizard displays the number of published knowledge
article, and total number of knowledge articles that belong to the knowledge source.
5. Click OK to delete the knowledge source.

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Viewing registration and indexing statuses

The Status column displays the registration or indexing status, and the Modified Date column
displays the date and time that the status was previously modified.

To view the current status, you must click the Refresh icon. Statuses display in the following
sequence:

1. In Progress — Source is being registered or re-registered. This step is skipped when you
rebuild an existing index.
2. Indexing — Source is being indexed.
3. Updating — Source is being updated.
4. Any of the following final statuses, as appropriate:

Ready — Source is ready for use and the knowledge can be used, for example, managed,
created, searched on, and to which update requests can be added.
Failed — Registration failed. For more information, see Modifying knowledge sources.
Sync — For external files. Registration is synchronizing between external files and the
system.
Sync Failed — Synchronization failed between File System Path source and BMC
Knowledge Management. For more information, see Configuring indexing intervals
Update Failed — Source update failed.

Indexing on demand
You can override defined indexing intervals by performing ad hoc indexing of a knowledge source
and rebuilding the index for the source, as required. For more information, see Configuring indexing
intervals

After the indexing is successfully completed, the source becomes immediately available for
searching.

To perform ad hoc indexing, click Rebuild Index.

The Status column displays the following status sequence: In Progress > Indexing or Failed >
Ready.

For information about enabling or disabling indexing of a knowledge source, see Toggling
knowledge source availability.

Viewing the log file

For details about the registration process and results, see the arjavaplugin.log file in the
appropriate following location:

(Microsoft Windows) defined-directory\BMC Software\ARSystem\Arserver\Db

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(UNIX) defined-directory/bmc/Arserver/Db

For more information, see Configuring system settings.

Managing knowledge article templates

This section describes procedures and provides recommendations for creating new knowledge
article templates. BMC Knowledge Management provides the following knowledge article templates
out of the box:

Decision Tree
How To
Known Error
Problem Solution
Reference

Creating knowledge article templates

You can create new knowledge article templates that suit your company requirements. For example
, if your knowledge base includes articles in the format of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), you
may want to create an FAQ knowledge article template.

Recommendation

Scenario — Your knowledge base contains an existing FAQ form that is not one of the out
of the box templates. You want to turn this form into a knowledge article template, so
knowledge users can create new FAQ articles using a pre-defined template. You also
want to be able to manage the form's records as knowledge articles with metadata and
lifecycle management.

1. In the Developer Studio, open the existing FAQ form.

2. Modify the form's layout for better display as a knowledge article.
You can create a new view and modify the layout as required. Verify that required
fields are set with default values or set them to optional.
3. Register the form as described in Registering AR forms.
a. Before registering, make sure the form complies with the prerequisites for
registering AR forms. See Prerequisites for AR form registration.
b. In the Welcome panel, select Knowledge Base Item > AR Form.
c. In the Source panel, specify the View Name and select Life Cycle
Management.
After registration, all the form's records automatically become FAQ type
knowledge articles with metadata and lifecycle management.

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To create a new template

1. In Developer Studio, create a new Regular AR form.

Tip

You can quickly create a new form by opening the regular form of one of the
templates provided out of the box and saving it under a new name. For example,
open the RKM:HowToTemplate to create a new how to form.

2. Add fields and design the template as required.

Tip

To avoid unnecessary scroll bars, copy the form's measurements from one of the
templates provided out of the box.

3. Register the new form as described in Registering AR forms.

a. Before registering the new form, make sure it complies with the prerequisites for
registering AR forms. See Prerequisites for AR form registration
b. In the Welcome panel, select Knowledge Base Item > AR Form.
c. In the Source panel, select Life Cycle Management.
After registration, you can change the form's user interface, but if you add new fields
and mark them for indexing or as relevancy fields, or change the form permissions,
you will need to modify the knowledge source as well. For more information, see
Modifying knowledge sources

Configuring approvals
This section is intended for the application administrator who configures approvals to work with
BMC Knowledge Management. Configuration tasks are performed from the Application
Administration Console.

Note

You must log on to the application with BMC Remedy Action Request System Admin
permissions or General Access permissions in addition to Knowledge Config permission.

The following topics are provided:

Approval chains

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Approval workflow
Configuring approval chains for Global company
Configuring approval chains for a specific company
Configuring approval mappings
Configuring email-based approvals

Approval chains
An approval process is required for the following status transitions in BMC Knowledge Management
:

before an article status is set to Published.

before an article status is set to Retired.
before an article is Cancelled.

Note

A user with the Knowledge Admin permission can move articles to the Cancelled
status from any other status and without activating the approval process.

For the Global company, BMC Knowledge Management provides a set of predefined approval
chains for each status transition that requires an approval (Published, Retired, and Cancelled).

Auto approval — The default approval chain configured in system installation. The
system provides an automatic approval for every request.
Level approval— The following options are available:
Level All — All of the approvers from the approvers list must approve the
article for each level. The article moves to the next approval level only after all
the approvers have approved. If the approvers include a group, one member of
the group is enough.
Level One — At least one approver from the approvers list must approve the
article for each level. The article moves to the next approval level after one
approver has approved.
Ad-hoc approval — Makes the article's owner the initial approver. The owner can
choose to approve the article and end the approval process, or to approve the article
and then define another ad-hoc approver who can make the same choice and
continue the chain of approvals.

Note

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If you enable the Ad-hoc approval chain, only the current approver receives
an approval request in Approval Central. Initially, the article owner receives
an approval request in Approval Central, and then each new ad-hoc
approver receives an approval request when they are defined by the
previous ad-hoc approver.

Based on the configured approval chains, the system determines whether an approval process is
required, and whose approval is required.

Changing the initial approver for ad-hoc approvals

You can use the AR System - Approval Server Process Definition form to change the initial owner
for the Ad-hoc approval chain. Perform the following steps:

1. In the flyout menu, select Quick Links > Approval Administration Console.
2. On Process tab of the the AR System - Approval Server Administration form, select the
RKM_Adhoc process, or your custom ad-hoc process if you created one, and click View.
3. On the AR System - Approval Server Process Definition form, use the menu of the First
Approver Field to select a knowledge article field that contains the name of a user.

For example, select the Submitter field from the menu to make the person who submitted
the knowledge article its initial approver. The First Approver Field will then display $
Submitter$ as its value.

Note

By default, the First Approver Field for the RKM_Adhoc process displays $
ArticleOwnerLoginID$ as its value.

4. Click Save.

Related topics
Configuring approval chains for Global company
Configuring approval chains for a specific company

Approval workflow
At the beginning of an article lifecycle, the article enters the pre-publish review process. The
following workflow describes the Published approval workflow and applies to Retired and
Cancelled statuses.

1.
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1. The designated approvers can view pending requests and approve or reject them in
Approval Central that is available from IT Home > Quick Links.
For more information on Approval Central, see Approval Central.
During the approval process and before the article is set to Published, Knowledge users
can withdraw articles from the approval workflow by opening the article and modifying it.
2. The approvers approve or reject the article.
3. The article status changes to Published, Retired, or Cancel depending on the request that
initiated the approval process.
If the request is rejected, the article status reverts back as follows:
For Publish Approval to Draft status
For Retire Approval to Published status
For Cancel to Published status.

Configuring approval chains for Global company

For every status transition, define one of the four predefined approval chains.

To configure approval chains

1. From the IT Home page, choose Application Admin Console > Custom Configuration
tab > Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Approvals Configuration >
Approval Chains.
2. For every status transition (Publish, Retire, and Cancel), enable the approval chain that
you want:
a. Select an approval chain from the list and click Modify to open the Approval Chain
Definition page.
For example, if you want to enable Level one approval for Publish, select the
LevelOneForPublish approval chain.
b. To enable the approval chain, select Enabled in the Status list.
Only one chain can be enabled for each status. Disable a chain that you do not use.

Configuring approval chains for a specific company

You can configure the predefined approval chains for other companies by creating new approval
chains.

Note

Before creating an approval chain for a specific company, make sure that you have
configured the approval process for that company, with the Process Name field set to
RKM_LEVEL_ALL.

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You can create and edit the approval process for a specific company and for the Global
company from the IT Home page, by selecting Application Admin Console > Custom
Configuration tab > Foundation > Advanced Options > Approval Process
Configuration.

To create new approval chains

1. From the IT Home page, choose Application Admin Console > Custom Configuration
tab > Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Approvals Configuration >
Approval Chains.
2. Click Create to open the Approval Chain Definition page.
3. Enter the approval chain name and select the company that you want.
4. Configure the approval chain properties.
a. In the Form field, select RKM:KnowledgeArticleManager.
b. In the Order field, enter a value less than 20.
c. In the Process Name field, select one of the predefined approval processes.
d. In the Selection Criteria field, click the expand box icon to open the Advanced
Qualification Builder and define the run if condition, which triggers the selected
process, to use the selected company:

'ArticleStatusEnglish'="Publish Approval" AND 'Company' = "[company name]"

Tip

You can copy the selection criteria string from the predefined processes
configured for the Global company.

e. Click Select to save and close the Advanced Qualification Builder .

5. Click Apply to add the process to the new approval chain.
6. Define an action for all the possible results of the process Approved, Rejected, Cancelled,
and Error.
a. Select a status in the approval chain tree (for example, Approved).
b. Click the Add Set Fields Action panel header (on the right side), and click Apply.
c. Select the new Set Field in the approval chain tree, and click Add.
d. In the Set Field Value dialog box, set fields and values as defined in process provided
out of the box.
e. In the Value field, enter the value that you want to set in the field.
f. Click Save.
7. Click Save to save the approval chain.

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Configuring approval mappings

Approvers are people with the authority to approve or reject a request. These users are usually
members of a Support Group, and are assigned the Knowledge Management Approver role. The
approval process automatically routes approval requests to the people you define based on their
level in the process.

To create approver mappings

1. From the IT Home page, choose Application Admin Console > Custom Configuration
tab > Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Approvals Configuration >
Approval Mappings.
2. Enter the required information in the following fields:
For individuals the value displayed based on the Profile status on the People form. If the
value on the People form is Enabled, this value is set to Yes to specify that the individual is
available for the approval.
For Support Group mapping, this value is set to Yes if the support group has at least one
valid user with an Approval role.
This field is auto-populated and synchronized automatically.
Field Action

Approval Select the type of approver.

For Individual — If you select this option, enter the individual's last name and press ENTER. The
Approver ID (or login name) is automatically filled.
Group — If you select this option, the First Name, Last Name, and Approver ID fields are
replaced by Support Company, Support Organization, and Support Group Name.
Select values for each field. The items that appear in the Support Organization list depend on the
option you select for Support Company. The items that appear in the Support Group list depend
on the option you select for Support Organization.

Note

If you select the Group option, all people who belong to the support group and have the
Knowledge Management Approver functional role are set up as approvers. By default, only
one approver in the group must sign off on the approval before it can move to the next
level.

Inherent Group/Role — This option has not been implemented in this version of BMC Knowledge
Management.

First Name (Approval For Individual) If you select Approval For Individual, this field appears.

Note

As you begin typing the first name of the approver, the field automatically fills in with possible
selections. Press ENTER when you are able to identify the required person.

Last Name (Approval For Individual) Use auto-fill to enter the approver's last name.

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Field Action

Approver (Approval For Individual) The Login ID of the approver. this field is automatically filled when you select the
ID approver by first or last name.

Assignment For individuals the value displayed based on the Profile status on the People form. If the value on the
Availability People form is Enabled, this value is set to Yes to specify that the individual is available for the approval.

For Support Group mapping, this value is set to Yes if the support group has at least one valid user with an
Approval role.

This field is populated and synchronized automatically.

Status For the approver mapping to be available, select a status of Enabled.

Approval Select Knowledge Management . When you select this option, the RKM Criteria section appear under
Indicator Additional Mappings. This enables you to map specific approvers to specific articles based on operational
categorization and product categorization filters.

Phase Phase company for this approver mapping. Automatically filled when you select a Phase Name.
Company

Phase Select RKM Approval.

Name

Level Specify the level of approval for the individual or group.

Description (optional ) Enter a description for this approver mapping.

Additional (optional ) Enter additional mappings that are based on product and operational categorization. Product
Mappings and operational categorization are used to categorize different products or configuration items and
operations. Available values depend on the company and the value selected for the previous tier.

3. Click Save.

Related topic
Creating support staff members

Configuring email-based approvals

The page Configuring email-based approvals does not exist.

This section provides configuration information for email-based approvals.

Enabling email-based approvals

Customizing approval emails

Enabling email-based approvals

You can use configuration options to enable or disable email-based approvals for companies. Out
of the box, email-based approvals for the Global company record are enabled.

Note

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When you upgrade to version 8.1.00 of BMC Remedy IT Service Management,

email-based approvals are disabled. You must manually enable email-based approvals
after the upgrade.

To enable or disable email-based approvals for a company

1. On the Custom Configuration tab of the Application Administration Console, choose

Foundation > Notification Engine > Approval Email Configuration .
2. In the Configure Email Based Approval dialog box, select the name from the Company field.
To enable or disable email based approvals for all companies, select Global from this list.
3. In the Status field, select the appropriate status.

Customizing approval emails

Out of the box, approval emails contain basic information about the request that requires an
approval. You can customize the fields that are displayed in approval emails.

For information about modifying the format of the emails, see Customizing the template in the BMC
Remedy AR System documentation.

To customize the content of approval emails

1. Log on to a browser as a BMC Remedy AR System administrator and open the SYS:
Notification Messages form.

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2. Locate the notification message that is defined for email approvals for the application:
Application Notification message

BMC Asset Management AST-APR-ApprovalNTForIndividual

BMC Change Management CHG-APR-ApprovalNTForIndividual

BMC Service Request Management SRM-REQ-Approver_Notification

BMC Release Management RMS-APR-ApprovalNTForIndividual

BMC Knowledge Management RKM-APR-ApprovalNT

3. Update the text in the Email Message Body box with the customized email content.
Use HTML tags to create and format the email message content.

Example

In the following code, basic HTML tags have been used to format the data. #Date
Required# and #Description# indicate the display of the Date Required and Description
fields in the email.

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<td><table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10">

<tr><td width="40%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<strong>Requisition ID:</strong></font></td>
<td width="60%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<a href="http://<serverName>:port/arsys/forms/<arSystemServerName>/
AST:PurchaseRequisition/?eid=#Requisition ID#">#Requisition ID#</a>
</font></td></tr>
<tr><td width="40%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<strong>Date Required:</strong></font></td>
<td width="60%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
#Date Required#</font></td></tr>
<tr><td width="40%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
<strong>Description:</strong></font></td>
<td width="60%" valign="top" align="left">
<font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">
#Description#</font></td></tr>
</table></td>

4. To include additional fields in the email message, click the down arrow next to the Email
Message Body field and select a field from the list.
To add fields that are not listed, see the details for the SYS-Notification Messages form in
System Events and Message Catalog for the Notification Engine .
Field names are enclosed in # tags.

Note

For fields that you select from the list, notification workflow translates the field
variables into the actual field contents before sending the notification message. If
you add fields that are not in the list, notification workflow must be customized. For
more information on email fields and workflows, see Defining a workflow to send
email notifications in the BMC Remedy AR System documentation.

5. Save the form.

Your approval email message will display the fields that you included in the Email Message Body
field.

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Adding status transitions

The Status Transition page enables you to add status transitions to the default ones, thus
customizing the status transition workflow for your organization. For each added status, you can
optionally:

Define operational and product categorization information.

Define Knowledge Admin-only accessibility, meaning that the status is visible to Knowledge
Admin users only.
Enable the status or select an option that describes the status (for your private use).
Protect the status from deletion.

For more information, see Status groups and types.

To configure application settings

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, choose Knowledge Management > Knowledge
Management Status Configuration > Status Transition, and click Open.
3. Click New Request to create a new transition or Search to modify an existing transition.
4. Enter the status transition information in the From Status and To Status fields.
5. Enter the Company for which the status is defined.
6. Enter operational and product information, as required.
7. Select the Knowledge Admin Role Required to enable accessibility only to users with this
role.
8. Select a status description for your private use, or Enable to enable the status.
9. Select Out Of The Box to denote that a status is a default status.

Note

This option enables you to differentiate between the default statuses and new ones
you have created.

10. Select Protected to prevent deletion of the status.

11. Click Save.

Configuring application settings

Perform the following procedure to configure general settings.

To configure application settings

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.

2.
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2. From the Application Settings list, choose Knowledge Management > Knowledge
Management Configuration > Application Configuration, and then click Open.
3. Enter the company you are configuring in the Company field, and click Search.
The Application Configuration page displays configuration settings if any exist, or notifies you
that you must begin to enter configuration settings.
4. Proceed to enter configuration settings as provided in the following table.

General application settings

Parameter Description Value

Company Name of the company for which you

are configuring settings.

Search section

Words Configuration for displaying search

Around Hits results. None — Displays only the article title.
Excerpts — Displays the words that surround the first few
instances of search terms. This enables users to easily recognize
whether the document is relevant to their search.
Words around hits — Displays the article title as well as a few
words that precede and follow the search term. This enables users
to easily recognize whether the document is relevant to their
search.

Note: If you do not set a value, this parameter automatically uses the
value that is configured for the Global company. If the Global company
also does not have a value configured, the parameter value is set to
None.

Relevancy section

Boost Use Configuration for increasing relevance For more information, see Boosting document relevance.
Relevancy when users click Use on an article.
Note: When recalculated for a published article, the boost parameter is
Boost View Configuration for increasing relevance also recalculated for any draft article that has been created from the
Relevancy when users click View on an article. published article. Therefore, the relevance of the draft remains identical
to that of the published article.

Additionally, if you do not set a value for either of these parameters, they
automatically use the values that are configured for the Global company.
If the Global company also does not have a value configured, the
parameter values are set to 0.001 for Boost View Relevancy, and 0.01
for Boost Use Relevancy (the default values).

Knowledge Article section

View Defines which article version is

Related displayed when you are viewing a Latest version — Most recently updated article version
Article related article. Related version — Article version that was originally related to
the article
Note: This setting does not apply to
relationships with knowledge articles Note: If you do not set a value, this parameter automatically uses the
from other records within the BMC value that is configured for the Global company. If the Global company
Remedy ITSM Suite, such as Incidents, also does not have a value configured, the parameter value is set to
Problems, and Change Requests. Related Version.

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Parameter Description Value

Knowledge Defines the method that the

Assignment Assignment Engine selects an Knowledge Assignment Round Robin
Method assignee from a support group. Knowledge Assignment by Number
Knowledge Assignment by Capacity

For more information, see Auto-assignment methods.

Note: If you do not set a value, this parameter automatically uses the
value that is configured for the Global company. If the Global company
also does not have a value configured, the parameter value is set to
Knowledge Assignment by Round Robin.

Notifications Enables or disables notification

definitions of all types that are defined Enable — All notifications
per user in BMC Remedy AR System. Disable — All notifications

For more information, see Creating notifications.

Note: If you do not set a value, this parameter automatically uses the
value that is configured for the Global company. If the Global company
also does not have a value configured, the parameter value is set to
Disable.

Enforce Enables or disables mandatory Yes check box

Feedback feedback when you view a knowledge
article in the BMC Service Request
Management Console.

Allow Enable modify permissions for users Check box

Knowledge with the functional role of Knowledge
Submitter to Submitter to edit knowledge articles
edit article until they are in Draft status.
till Draft
By default, this configuration is
status
disabled.
(Service
Pack 2 or
later)

Enforce Mandate the selected review stage if

Article the Allow Knowledge Submitter to SME Review — Enable a Subject Matter Expert review
review edit article till Draft status option is Content Review — Enable a content review
status enabled. Proofreading — Enable a proofreading review

(Service Not applicable if the Allow Knowledge

Pack 2 or Submitter to edit article till Draft Reviews may be assigned to users based on the assignment
later) status option is disabled. rules defined, or by selecting the appropriate Knowledge User
when the article is in the review stage.

History Recording section

Record Enables or disables the recording of Not applicable

Article View the knowledge article's viewing history.

Search Defines the volume of search requests

History that are recorded as search history, to None — Record no search requests.
Level enable you to control the amount of All — Record all search requests.
history items in your database. No Hits — Record only search requests that yield no results.

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Parameter Description Value

Note: If you do not set a value, this parameter automatically uses the
value that is configured for the Global company. If the Global company
also does not have a value configured, the parameter value is set to
None.

Search Defines the number of days that a Not applicable

History search is saved.
Retention

Article Defines the number of days that Not applicable

History information about changes made to an
Retention article is saved.

Configuring feedback strings

Users submit feedback on an article to indicate the level of the content and its usefulness to them.
The more feedback that is available for an article, the easier it is for users to make that decision.
Feedback can be submitted and viewed by all users that have permission to see that article.

Feedback is rated by number and description. The following feedback ratings are available:

1 — Not Usable
2 — Poor: Inaccurate
3 — Fair: Insufficient
4 — Good: Usable but needs improvement
5 — Excellent: Effective and accurate

The Feedback Configuration page enables you to define localized strings per rating number for
languages in addition to the localizations that are supported by BMC Knowledge Management user
interface.

To configure feedback strings

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, choose Knowledge Management > Knowledge
Management Configuration > Feedback String Configuration , and click Open.
3. Click Search, with or without entering search criteria, to open Modify mode.
The rating table displays strings that match your search criteria.
4. In the Company field, enter the company for which the localized rating description is
applicable.
5. In the Locale field, enter the locale for the rating your want to localize.
6. In the Rating field, enter the rating number.
7. In the Rating Description field, enter the localized string and click Save.

Configuring system settings

Perform the procedures provided in this section to configure system settings.

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Configuring plug-in log levels

Configuring indexing intervals

To access system settings

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, choose Knowledge Management > Knowledge
Management Configuration > System Configuration, and click Open.
3. Click Search to open Modify mode.

Configuring plug-in log levels

Plugins are the internal structure of BMC Knowledge Management that enables certain workflows.
The object of the plugin log level is to enable BMC Customer Support to fix workflow issues from
within the system.

To configure plugin log levels

1. Select one of the following log levels in the Plugin Log level field:
ALL — Has the lowest rank and is intended to turn on all logging.
DEBUG — Designates fine-grained informational events that are most useful to
debug an application.
ERROR — Designates error events that might still allow the application to continue
running.
FATAL — Designates very severe error events that will presumably lead the
application to abort.
INFO — Designates informational messages that highlight the progress of the
application at coarse-grained level; default value.
OFF — Has the highest rank and is intended to turn off logging.
WARN — Designates potentially harmful situations.
2. Select Yes next to the workflows for which you are defining this log level, and click Save.

Note

You can also click Select All to select all the workflows, or Deselect All to clear all
selections.

Configuring indexing intervals

Indexing intervals define the intervals that occur between automatic indexing instances of
registered knowledge sources. The indexing interval parameters in the Indexing section are the
global interval values.

To configure indexing intervals, set the interval for the following parameters and click Save.

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Indexing interval parameters

Parameter Description

File Common global value for all knowledge sources that are registered as file system paths. After indexing is complete,
System external articles are available for searching.
Polling
Interval
Note

This value cannot be changed per knowledge source in the Registration Wizard.

BMC Knowledge Management runs the synchronization between new, updated, and deleted files and article
metadata that exists in BMC Knowledge Management. This process runs automatically according to the configured
interval value. For more information see the Setting a polling interval for the DSO server.

Default AR Default value for all knowledge sources that are registered as AR forms. This value can be overridden per
Form knowledge source by setting the value in the Registration Wizard. For more information,see Running the
Indexing Registration Wizard.
Interval

Configuring Submitter mode

After installation is complete, you must perform the following procedure to enable users to update
knowledge articles that they submitted, even if they don't have write permissions.

To configure Submitter mode

1. In the BMC Remedy AR System Administration Console, go to the System> General >
Server Information section
2. In the Licenses tab, set Submitter Mode to Locked.

Managing notifications
This section describes how to enable and disable notifications. The tasks are performed by
configuration administrators from the Custom Configuration tab of the Application Administration
Console.

Note

You must have system System Administrator permissions to modify notification settings.

The following topics are provided:

About notifications
Creating notifications
Disabling notifications
Event types

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Watch List notifications

About notifications
BMC Knowledge Management uses the BMC Remedy Email Engine to send notifications to
specified users based on specific events that occurred during the life cycle of articles. You can
configure the notification engine to select the notification type (email, alert, or pager) for each event,
notification language, and other notification engine configuration options. For more information, see
Creating notifications.

Note

You should be familiar with the notification engine configuration to ensure that notifications
used by BMC Remedy Knowledge Management work properly.

The notification engine has several configuration levels. System administrators can set defaults for
the message texts and the notification types in the locations listed in the following table:

Configuration locations

Form Action

SYS:Notification Messages Create and modify notification message texts

NTE:CFG-Notification Events Creating and modifying notification event types

Users can configure the notification language that is sent and received by them, the notification
type, and disable notification for certain events in the Notifications tab of the People form.

Event types
BMC Knowledge Management users receive notifications depending on the event type according to
the information contained in the following table:

Notification event list

Notification event Description Message tag Recipients

Knowledge Assignment Article assignment changes RKM-KAM-AssigneeAssignment Article Assignee

Knowledge Ownership Article ownership changes RKM-KAM-OwnerAssignment Article Owner

Assignment

Knowledge Cancel Request to cancel an article is sent RKM-KAM-CancelRequest Article Assignee, Watch
Request List subscriber

Knowledge Cancel Request to cancel an article is RKM-KAM-CancelRejection Article Assignee, Watch

Rejection rejected List subscriber

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Notification event Description Message tag Recipients

Knowledge Retire Request to retire a published article is RKM-KAM-RetireRejection Article Assignee, Watch
Rejection rejected List subscriber

Knowledge Publish Request to publish an article is RKM-KAM-PublishRejection Article Assignee, Watch

Rejection rejected List subscriber

Knowledge New Version New version of a published article is RKM-KAM-NewVersion Watch List subscriber
created

Knowledge Update Update request is received RKM-KAM-UpdateRequest Article Assignee, Watch

Request List subscriber

Knowledge Feedback Feedback is received RKM-KAM-Feedback Watch List subscriber

Knowledge New Article Article is created RKM-KAM-NewArticleCreated Article Assignee, Watch

List subscriber

Knowledge Review Article review is required RKM-KAM-ReviewRequired Article Assignee

Required

Knowledge Changed Article is edited RKM-KAM-ArticleChanged Watch List subscriber

Knowledge Status change Article status is changed RKM-KAM-StatusChanged Article Assignee, Watch
List subscriber

Note

When you click New Version to create a new version of an existing knowledge article, the
Knowledge Changed event is triggered along with Knowledge New Version. As a result,
two separate notifications are generated.

Watch List notifications

The Watch List enables users to subscribe to an article in the Watch List. The recipients of the
notification messages are the article owner, article assignee, and users who are subscribed to this
article. BMC Knowledge Management scans the RKM:WatchList forms and sends notifications to
the recipients who are relevant for the current article.

BMC Knowledge Management supports the following Watch List modes:

User of a specific article

User of a group of articles (grouped by categorization)
Support Group users of a specific article
Support Group users of a group of articles (grouped by categorization)

For more information, see Working with Watch Lists.

Related Topics
Receiving notifications about changes

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Disabling notifications
Perform the following process to disable the notification functionality for all articles and all users:

To disable notifications

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, choose Knowledge Management > Knowledge
Management Configuration > Application Configuration, and click Open.
3. Enter the Company you are configuring in the Company field, and click Search.
4. In Knowledge Article > Notifications select Disable.
5. Click Save.

Creating notifications
You can configure approval server notifications to be delivered by email, by using the user's default
notification mechanism, or by workflow. To create an approval notification, use the following
procedures:

Verify that the events for which you want the approval server to send notifications are
enabled in the AP:Admin-ServerSettings form. If notifications are not enabled on this form,
they are not sent regardless of other approval server settings. See Working with the
AP-Administration form.
Configure the approval server to send approver notifications by using the procedure Defining
an email notification.
Configure the delay before escalations when no activity occurs by using the procedure
Creating signature escalations.
Configure notifications for More Information requests by using the procedure Creating More
Information escalations.
Configure email notifications with quick links in the email content by using the procedure
Approval notification through email.

For more information, see the following topics:

Setting notifications for approval events

Setting escalations for approval events
Defining an email notification
Creating workflow-based notifications

Enabling localization
If you are using a locale other than English, you must denote that BMC Remedy Action Request
System is ready for localization, meaning that objects with Field ID 160, for example, account
menus, are taken into account when information is retrieved.

Note

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If you select additional locales in addition to English, the installer automatically enables
the Localize Server option.

To enable localization

1. From the IT Home page, open the AR System Administration Console.

2. In the AR System Administration Console, go to the System > General > Server
Information section.
3. In the Advanced tab, select the Localize Server option.

Setting the tenancy mode

The value that you select in the Tenancy Mode field on the System Settings form determines
whether the Company field on various forms defaults to a single company or whether users must
always select the appropriate company from the field.

BMC Remedy ITSM Suite is installed with Tenancy Mode field set to Multi-Tenancy. If you have
changed this field to Single-Tenancy, complete the following steps to change the value back to
Multi-Tenancy.

Note

In the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite applications, the multi-tenancy feature is always available
. Regardless of the Tenancy Mode setting, data is segregated by company and access to
data is controlled by a user's access to a company.

To set Tenancy Mode to Multi-Tenancy

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, select Foundation > Advanced Options > System
Configuration Settings - System Settings, and then click Open.
The Systems Settings form is displayed.

System Settings form

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3. In the Tenancy Mode field, select Multi-Tenancy.

4. Click Save.

Configuring the default web path

To ensure that users can access the application from a browser, complete the following steps.

To configure the default web path

1. From the IT Home page, open the AR System Administration Console.

2. Click System > General > Server Information> Advanced tab.
3. Enter the path to the mid tier in the Default Web Path field, per this format:
http:// :/arsys/

Changing the database schema sort order

The Schema Sort form enables you to customize the sort order of BMC Remedy AR System forms
for your database. This form is used primarily during installation to select the sort order of forms
according to the kind of database that you have installed.

Note

If you are using a Microsoft SQL Server or Sybase database, you do not need to perform
this procedure; the BMC Remedy AR System database is installed ready to be used by
these database types.

To customize the database sort order

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.

2.
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2. From the Application Settings list, choose Foundation > Advanced Options > System
Configuration Settings - Application Database Sort Order , and then click Open. The
Schema Sort form appears.
Schema Sort form

3. Search for all records. To do this, click Search without specifying any search criteria.
4. Set the custom sort order options.

Note

The default sort order options can be used in most cases.

5. In the Functions area, select the Sort Order Type. Select MSSQL, Sybase, Oracle, DB2, or
Informix option.
6. Click Modify All.
7. In the message box that appears, click Yes to confirm.

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7.

Note

You will see the changed sort order after you restart BMC Remedy AR System
server.

Configuring the BMC Remedy Notification Engine

You can improve performance by changing the Escalation server threads count.

Recommendation

To take advantage of the optimized Notification Engine workflow, change the Escalation
Max Threads count from the default value of 1 to 3.

To modify the Escalation server threads count

1. From the IT Home page, open the AR System Administration Console.

2. Choose System > General > Server Information.
3. Click the Ports and Queues tab.
4. Select the record for the Escalation type.
5. Click in the Min Threads cell, and change the value to at least 1.
6. Click in the Max Threads cell, and change the value to at least 3.
7. Click OK.

Changing the time zone

If you have been given Administrator permissions, you can change the default time zone in the
application for your application server. It is specified by a value of Yes in the Server Timer Zone
field on the Time Zone form.

To specify a time zone

1. From the IT Home page, open the Application Administration Console.

2. Click the Custom Configuration tab.
3. Choose Foundation > Organizational Structures > Time zone , and click Open.
4. Click Search to find the time zone where your application server is located.
5. Select your time zone from the results list.
6. To make the selected time zone the default, select Yes in the Server Time Zone field.
7. Click Save.

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Upgrading
As of the version 8.0.00 release, you can upgrade BMC Knowledge Management using the BMC
Remedy IT Service Management installer. For end-to-end instructions on upgrading BMC Remedy
AR System, BMC Atrium CMDB, and the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite, see Upgrading (old) in the
BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite online technical documentation.

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Integrating
BMC Remedy AR System integrations allow BMC Knowledge Management to communicate and
share data with the following applications:

BMC Service Desk

BMC Service Request Management

Both BMC Service Desk and BMC Service Request Management provide the ability to search the
knowledge base directly. BMC Service Desk provides the additional ability to create knowledge
articles directly from the Incident Management Console and the Problem Management Console.

Integrating with BMC Service Desk

The following topics are relevant to using BMC Knowledge Management with BMC Service Desk:

Creating knowledge articles through BMC Service Desk

Using knowledge search to resolve incidents and investigate problems
Creating a relationship with a BMC Service Desk record
Categorizing documented resolutions

Integrating with BMC Service Request

Management
The following topics are relevant to using BMC Knowledge Management with BMC Service Desk:

Using knowledge search to resolve requests

Tagging a knowledge article as a favorite

The page Mixed version upgrades does not exist.

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Using
This section contains information about using the BMC Knowledge Management product.

This section includes scenarios that are examples of processes or approaches that BMC has
identified as the most effective way to use certain features.

A fictional company named Calbro Services helps explain how BMC Knowledge Management
principles and procedures are used in practice. Although Calbro Services is a fictional company, it
is based on research of actual BMC customers. These examples contain common use cases that
you might typically use.

Learning how Calbro Services uses knowledge management functionality should prove useful as
you use BMC Knowledge Management in your own environment. Although Calbro Services user
personas illustrate the use cases, no references are intended toward specific data or real-life users.

For detailed information about Calbro Services user data and roles, see Calbro Services company
example.

The following sub-sections are provided:

Accessing the interface

Navigating the interface
Using the Knowledge Management Console
Creating and publishing knowledge articles
Revising knowledge articles
Submitting a cancellation request
Working with reports
Managing broadcasts
Searching for knowledge articles
Using watch lists
Managing update requests
Sending a knowledge article by e-mail
Submitting and viewing feedback
Tagging a knowledge article as a favorite
Using Global Search

Accessing the interface

This topic describes how to start the BMC Remedy IT Service Management suite of applications
from your browser.

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To log in and access the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite

applications
1. Type the following URL into your browser:
http://<webServer>:<port>/arsys/shared/login.jsp
<webServer>: Fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier system, specified in
the format server_name.company.com.
<port>: (Optional) Port number (required if the web server is not on the default port)
2. In the User Name and Password fields of the Welcome page, enter your user name and
password.
3. Click Login. The IT Home Page opens.

Note

The IT Home page opens by default, however, system administrators can configure
another home page to open, instead.

Navigating the interface

The following topics provide a description of the BMC Knowledge Management user interface:

IT Home page
Navigating consoles, forms, and modules
Status groups and types
Status transition workflows

IT Home page
When you start the BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite, the IT Home page displays the
Overview console by default. However, you can set up what you want to see on the IT Home page.
If you are a system administrator, you can configure the page for all users. Otherwise, you can
configure your own user ID to see your views.

This topic provides the following information:

IT Home page and its functional areas

Configuring the IT Home page
To add or delete panels
To configure panels
To expand and collapse panels
To restore a default IT Home page view

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To hide or show the navigation pane

Customizing and using the IT Home page video

The following figure illustrates the functional areas of the IT Home page.

IT Home page and its functional areas

The following table describes each of the functional areas of the IT Home page.

Functional Purpose
area

Home page header

Logout Click Logout to exit the application.

Breadcrumb The breadcrumb bar helps you keep track of the records you are viewing and helps with navigation. For more
bar information about breadcrumbs, refer to Navigating consoles, forms, and modules.

Global Type in a word or a phrase in the search area, and the application will search across multiple forms for records
search that match your input. For more information about global search, refer to Using Global search.

Navigation pane

Application Depending on your permissions and other installed applications, the following links are displayed. Use them to
menu open consoles for applications as well as consoles for other features.

Quick Links
AR System Administration
AR System Sample Application
Administrator Console
Analytics
Asset Management
Atrium Core
Atrium Integrator

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Functional Purpose
area

Change Management
Change Management Dashboard
Contract Management
Data Management
Foundation Elements
Incident Management
Knowledge Management
Problem Management
Process Designer
Product Catalog
Release Management
Requester Console
Return On Investment
Service Level Management
Service Request Management
Task Management
Virtual Agent
Note: When you run your mouse over the applications, you see a second menu. You can select one of
those options to go directly to a form. For example, roll over Change Management and select Change/
Release Calendar. The Calendar screen appears.

Configuration Use these buttons to configure your panel display.

Buttons

Overview
console

Company and These fields combine to provide a way to indicate the company name and the assigned-to categories filtering the
View By records in the Console List table.

Refresh This button refreshes the data in the table.

Preferences This button allows you to set preferences for the console list table. You can remove columns, set refresh
intervals, reset and save your preferences.

Console List This table lists the different types of requests.

table

Configuring the IT Home page

You can configure the IT Home page to display information of your choice. For example, Bob
Baxter is the Manager for payroll at Calbro Services. He likes to keep track of all potential problems
, changes, and incidents pertaining to his department. He also tracks software license contracts so
that he knows which ones are about to expire. Bob configures his panels to display all the
information he is looking for, as follows:

Asset Management > Contracts About to Expire in 90 Days

Change Management > All Open Changes with Extensive Impact
Incident Management > All Open Incidents with Extensive Impact
Problem Management > All Open Problems by Status and Priority

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To add or delete panels

You can specify how many panels to display on your IT Home page up to a maximum of four
panels.

1. In the IT Home page, click the button.

Four panels appear.
2. To delete a panel, click the button on the panel.

To configure panels
You can select what to display on your IT Home page.

Note

You can configure your panels only with options for which you have permissions.

1. In the panel, click the Show list and run your cursor over the list of options.
2. From the list of work areas for each option, select the one to display (for example, Asset
Management > Software Certificates).
The panel displays your selection.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for your other panels.
To change display on a panel, click the button to display the Show list, and make
another selection.

4. Click the button to save your IT Home page.

A dialog box confirms that your customized layout has been saved.
5. Click OK.
When you next log on, you will see your saved IT Home page.

Note

When displayed from the IT Home page, the Incident console and the Overview
console display all incident requests that are assigned to and that are owned by the
person currently logged in, even when the person's Incident Management
application preferences are configure to show only incidents that are assigned to
that person. In the situation described in this note, the application preferences
apply only when viewing the incidents from within the Service Desk application.

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To expand and collapse panels

1. In the panel, click the button.

The panel collapses.

2. In the panel, click the button.

The panel expands to its original size.

To restore a default IT Home page view

1. In the IT Home page, click the button.

A dialog box informs you that the default layout for this page will be brought back.
2. Click OK to proceed or Cancel to retain your current layout.
If you click OK, the panels on the IT Home page disappear and the Overview Console is
displayed.

To hide or show the navigation pane

In the IT Home page, click the Applications button to hide or show the navigation pane.

Customizing and using the IT Home page video

Disclaimer

Although the concepts and procedures presented in this video are correct, the user
interfaces shown are not current.

View video on YouTube

When you click the plus sign icon at the top right of the IT Home page four smaller panels open.
One of these panels is the originally opened Overview Console. The content of the other three
panels varies according to the options that you choose from the Show list at the top of each panel.
The options available for BMC Knowledge Management are:

All Knowledge Articles

Knowledge Management (KM) Console

Navigating consoles, forms, and modules

This topic describes how to navigate around BMC Remedy ITSM consoles, forms, and modules:

What happens to data as I move back and forth on the breadcrumb trail?

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How does the breadcrumb trail behave with forms in Search mode?
Can I force a second window to open?
Which consoles, forms, and modules open in a new window?

In most cases, when you open consoles, forms, and modules from the IT Home page, they open
inside the IT Home page view. Similarly, if you open a form from a console, the form replaces the
console in the view.

Note

If you are working in a hub and spoke environment and open a spoke server record from
the hub server, the spoke server record opens in its own window. Each subsequent spoke
server record that you open from a hub server also opens in its own window. You can
open as many spoke server windows as necessary.

Be aware that opening a spoke server record on a hub server can take a little longer than
it does to open records in environments that are not configured for the Hub and Spoke
capability. This is because the hub server must first determine which spoke server to
connect to and then open the record in separate browser window.

If you open a related record from a form, the related record opens in the view that was occupied by
the form. For example, if you are working with a problem investigation (the "parent" record) and
from the parent record you open a related incident request, the incident request replaces the parent
record in the view. If you then open a change request from the incident request, the change request
replaces the incident request in the view, and so on. To help you keep track of the records you are
viewing and to help with navigation, there is a breadcrumb bar across the top of the view field.

Note

Not all of the consoles, forms, and modules open in the view area. For example, the BMC
Remedy AR System Approval Central module opens in a new window. When a console,
module, or form opens in a window, it is not added to the breadcrumb bar.

The breadcrumb bar contains links to the records that you opened from the parent record. When
you open a record, the breadcrumb trail expands along the breadcrumb bar to the right, with the
new link. If there are more than six links in the breadcrumb trail, arrows appear at one or both ends
of the bar that let you scroll back and forward on the bar to see links not currently in the view.

The first link in the breadcrumb trail indicates the place from which you started. It can be a console
or a form. For example, if you open a change request record directly from the IT Home page, the
first link in the breadcrumb trail takes you to the change request.

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The last link corresponds to the record currently in the view. If you open a link to the left of the
record currently in view, the system truncates the breadcrumb trail to that link. The history is
retained, however, so you can use the back and forward arrows in the navigation controls to move
through the bar one record at a time. There is also a history of your most recently viewed records,
which you can use to move directly to a record. Click the down arrow to open the history list.

Note

The Forward button is only visible after you move back down the breadcrumb bar by
opening a link to a record that you previously viewed.

The breadcrumb navigation buttons and bar

If you are viewing a record from the middle of the breadcrumb trail and then branch off to another
parent-type record, the system removes the forward breadcrumb trail from the point where you
branched off and starts a new history from there, using the new parent-type record as the starting
point. For example: You open a problem investigation, then open a related incident request, and
from the incident request you open a related change request. If you go back to the incident request
record and then open a second problem investigation, the breadcrumb bar no longer contains a link
to the change request. The breadcrumb trail now shows the original problem investigation, the
incident request, and the second problem investigation. It then shows any related records that you
subsequently open from the second problem investigation.
When you close the parent record, the system removes the breadcrumb history.

What happens to data as I move back and forth on the breadcrumb trail?
If you are entering information into a record and open another record from the breadcrumb trail, the
system prompts you to save the work, if you have not done so. If you do not save the information,
the system does not preserve it on the record and you must re-enter it later.

If someone updates a record on your breadcrumb trail that is not currently in the view, those
changes are visible to you when you open the record again.

How does the breadcrumb trail behave with forms in Search mode?
If you run a search from a form that is in Search mode, the last entry in the breadcrumb trail is the
name of the form.

When you open a record from the search results table, that record does not appear in the
breadcrumb trail. However, if you drill down through that record to open other related records, those
related records will appear in the breadcrumb trail.

To return to the originating record, use the history list.

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Note

All of the records that you open from a form in Search mode are added to the history list.

To return to the results table, click the name of the form in the breadcrumb trail.

Can I force a second window to open?

If you press the Shift key and then double-click a record entry in any table, the record opens in a
second window. Also, if you hold the Shift key and click a link, button, and so on, the form or dialog
box associated with the link or button opens in another window.

Note

If there is a record in the history list that you want to open in a second window, press the
Shift key and then double-click the entry.

If you are working in a new record that has not yet been saved and open a new child type record (
task, activity, CI, and so on), the system will open a new window automatically to accommodate the
new child record. This prevents the information in the new, unsaved parent record from being lost.

Which consoles, forms, and modules open in a new window?

Not all of the consoles, forms, and modules open in the IT Home page's view. The consoles, forms,
and modules in the following list open in a new window. If you open one of these from the IT Home
page, any unsaved changes to the IT Home page are lost.

Tip

Before you open any of the following consoles, forms, or modules, save the changes to
the IT Home page that you want to keep.

AR System Administration
Administration Console
Service Level Management
Analytics
Service Management Process Model

Status groups and types

Article statuses are divided by status group and type. The types compose the workflow phases.
See Status transition workflows for additional information.

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The following topics are provided:

Status groups
Status types

Status groups
The following table presents a description of the status types and divides them into the following
groups:

Article status group — Group containing either Published or Not Published articles. Also see
Managing knowledge article visibility.
Status bar group — Group of similar statuses that is displayed on the status bar.

Status groups and types

Article status group Status bar group Status type

None In Progress In Progress

Not Published Draft Draft

In Review SME Review

Optional Review 1

Optional Review 2

Publish Approval

Published Published Published

Retire Approval

None Closed Closed Version

Retired

Cancelled

Status types
The following table provides a description of article status types.

Note

The following information applies to all review statuses:

Only the assigned reviewer and Knowledge Admin can update an article.
Members from the reviewer's support group can assign an article to themselves.
Reviewers can add an update request and edit an article.

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Status descriptions

Status Description
type

In Initial status that is automatically assigned to all articles at the time of creation. Articles are visible only to the author
Progress until they are promoted to Draft status. The author can update and save the article an unlimited number of times
before promoting it.

Draft The first status in the workflow. The author promotes articles to this status after creating the article. Draft articles
contain content that has not undergone a formal review or has not been approved. Articles with this status are
designated for internal use by Support only, and are not accessible to external users, also known as Self Help users.

SME Typically the next step after Draft. The SME Reviewer reviews and optionally edits the article, and can promote it to
Review one of the following statuses:

Another review status for additional review

Publish Approval status (only if the reviewer is a member of the support group)

Optional Additional, optional review status that is subsequent to the SME Review status. A reviewer reviews and edits the
Review 1 article, and promotes it to either an additional review of a different type or to Publish Approval status. By default,
Optional Review 1 is intended for content review.

Note

The name of this status is configurable.

Optional Additional, optional review status that is subsequent to the SME Review or Optional Review 1 status. A reviewer
Review 2 reviews and edits the article, and promotes it to Publish Approval. By default, Optional Review 2 is intended for
proofreading.

Note

The name of this status is configurable.

Publish Mandatory status before being Published. The article is sent for approval pending publication.
Approval

Note

BMC recommends that you change the initial settings of automatic approvals to manual approvals and set
up approvers for the approval process. Not changing the initial settings will result in continued automatic
approvals. Changing the settings and not setting up approvers will result in the failure of the level approval
processes. For more details on configuring approval processes and approvers, see Configuring approvals.

Published The article is published and becomes available to all users.

Note

Self Help users can view only Published articles, if the articles are not marked for internal use only.

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Retire Mandatory status before being Retired. The article is sent for approval pending its retirement.
Approval

Note

BMC Software recommends that you change the initial settings of automatic approvals to manual approval
and set up approvers for the approval process. Not changing the initial settings will result in continued
automatic approvals. Changing the settings and not setting up approvers will result in the failure of the level
approval processes. For more details on configuring approval processes and approvers, see Configuring
approvals.

Retired The article is no longer relevant for use but remains searchable.

Closed An earlier version of an article that is not searchable. This status is automatically assigned when a new article version
Version is created and becomes Published.

Cancelled The article is no longer usable or searchable, however, it is not deleted from the database. Cancelled status is
displayed as an item on the Status drop-down list to Knowledge Admin users only. Administrators can also filter for
cancelled articles in the KM Console. For more information, see Managing knowledge article visibility. This status can
be set from any other status (for example, Draft). The exception to this rule is that Published articles can never be
promoted directly to Cancelled status, and Knowledge Users must first send a Cancellation Request for approval. For
more information, see Submitting a cancellation request.

Status transition workflows

The following table presents the pre-configured default status transition workflows that are available
in accordance with user roles and permissions. Status transitions are configurable parameters and
you can customize them, as required.

For more information about configuring status transitions, see Adding status transitions.

Status transition workflows

Status In Draft SME Optional Optional Publish Published Retire Retired Canceled Closed
From/To Progress Review Review Review Approval Approval Version
1 2

In x
Progress

Draft x x x x x

SME x x x x
Review

Optional x x x x
Review 1

Optional x x x x
Review 2

Publish By
Approval approval

Published x

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Status In Draft SME Optional Optional Publish Published Retire Retired Canceled Closed
From/To Progress Review Review Review Approval Approval Version
1 2

Retire By
Approval approval

Retired

Cancelled

Closed
Version

Note

When an article is in one of the approval statuses (Publish Approval or Retire Approval), it
is possible to request a cancellation of the Publish Approval or Retire Approval process.
This reverts the article status back to Draft or Published. If a draft has a previously
published version, only the draft version is retired. If the published version is requested for
retired-approval, a message indicates that the draft must be deleted first

Using the Knowledge Management Console

The Knowledge Management Console enables IT staff and administrators to manage, organize,
control, and use knowledge that is contained in your organization's knowledge base.

The following topics are provided:

Functional areas of the Knowledge Management Console

Managing custom searches
Modifying your profile
Receiving notifications about changes

Functional areas of the Knowledge Management Console

The following figure illustrates the functional areas of the Knowledge Management
Console.Knowledge Management Console and its functional areas.

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The following table presents the functional areas of the Knowledge Management Console and
describes what you can do in each area. Knowledge Management Console functional areas.

Note

Data is automatically refreshed each time you make a different selection of one or more
articles.

Functional area Purpose

Header (top of page)

The navigation icons and the Home icon at the top left allow you to move back and forth
between knowledge articles that you open. The icons also let you to go back to the Knowledge
Management console page in a single click.

Global Search. Enter a word or words to search the entire knowledge base.

Show Select the articles you want to display in the articles table. Available options are:

All — Displays all the articles.

Submitted By Me — Displays articles you submitted.
Assigned To Me — Displays articles that are assigned to you and owned by you.
Assigned To My Selected Groups — Displays articles that are assigned to the support
groups you select in the dialog box that opens.
Assigned To All My Groups — Displays articles that are assigned to all the support
groups in which you are a member.
Watch List — Displays articles that you added to your watch list.

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Functional area Purpose

Filter By Filters the displayed articles as you specified in the Show field according to the selected filter.
You can use predefined filters, under Defined Searches, or you can create your own custom

filters by clicking the icon.

By Status — Select the status of articles for display. See Status transition workflows for
more information.
By Update Request — Select the articles for display by update requests with Not
Published or Published status.

Enables you to define, edit, save, and delete custom filters. See Managing custom searches for
more information.

Navigation pane (left side)--Displays key information and provides search filters.

Counts section Displays the number of articles relevant to you, based on the metrics calculation of the Show
and Filter By filters. Each count contains a link. You can click each link to display the articles for
that count in the Knowledge table. The available counts are:

In Progress — All articles that are In Progress status, for which you are the owner or
assignee.
Update Requests — All Not Published and Published articles with new or In Progress
update requests that are pending for you.
In Review — All articles that have any of the review statuses.

Functions Use the links in this area to perform the following actions:

New Article — Select the appropriate template to create an article. See Creating a
knowledge article for more information. This functionality is identical to using the Create
button.
Search Knowledge — Opens the Search page, from which you can search the
knowledge base for articles.
Watch List Rules — Opens the Watch List Rules page. See Using watch lists.
My Profile — Opens your personal profile record for setting your profile. See Modifying
your profile for more information.

Application Click to expand or collapse the list of BMC Remedy ITSM applications you have permissions to
use. Click the links to navigate to other BMC Remedy ITSM application.

View Broadcast , or New Click this link to open the broadcast dialog box, from where you can view, create, modify, and
Broadcast
delete broadcasts. When there are unread broadcast messages, this area displays the
icon followed by the number of new messages. For more information on broadcasting messages
, see Managing broadcasts.

Knowledge table panel

View Opens the selected article.

Create Opens the Create Knowledge page, where you create an article. This functionality is identical to
using the New Article link. For more information, see IT Home page.

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Functional area Purpose

Preferences Enables you to customize the Knowledge table view.

Quick Actions Enables you to perform an action on one or multiple selected articles, as follows:

Assign to group member — Reassigns the selected article to another member of the
group.
Assign to me — Reassigns the selected article to yourself.

Add to Watch List Adds the selected article to your Watch List, for monitoring. When you are viewing the Watch
List, the Company and View By fields are disabled.

Knowledge table Lists articles based on your selection on the Show and Filter By fields. Click an article to open it
. This table contains the following columns, by default:

Article ID — ID number of an article, which is automatically generated during the article

creation.
Title--Title of the article.
Source Name — Name of the template used for the article.
Status — Current status of the article.
Assignee — Current assignee to the article.
Modified Date — Last date on which the article was modified.
Update Requests — Denotes whether at least one update request has been created or
submitted for the article.

Note

To customize the view, click Preferences.

Article Details and Update Requests

Article Details Displays the following detailed information about the currently selected article:

Author — Name of the article author.

Create Date — Date of article creation.
Assigned Group — Name of the group to which the current assignee belongs.
Keywords — Keywords that are defined for the article.
Source Name — Name of the source template that the article uses.
Article Version — Current version of the article.

Update Requests table Displays the update requests associated with the selected article. This table contains the
following columns, by default:

Type — Type of work required by the assignee.

Summary — Brief description of the update request.
Status — Current status of the update request.
Submitter — Name of the user issuing the update request.
Article Version — Version of the article for which the update request is being created.

You can perform the following tasks:

Click Create to create an update request. See Managing update requests for more
information.
Select an item in the Update Requests table and click View or double-click the selected
item.

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Recommended practice examples

This section contains common use cases for working with the Knowledge Management Console.

Task and action Explanation

Allen Allbrook, a service desk analyst with Calbro As a support user, Allen can accomplish the majority of his tasks
Systems, is performing his daily routine. This includes through the Knowledge Management Console. He can perform the
checking for knowledge articles assigned to him, following actions:
monitoring other articles on which he has provided
feedback, and looking for additional input and approvals. Search for articles that are assigned to him
Organize the articles assigned to him, by a specific company,
by a group to which he belongs, or by status, article ID, review
dates, and so on
View article details in the Article Details list below the
Knowledge table
View update requests associated with an article in the Update
Request table
Open an article or update request by double-clicking the item,
to perform any actions on the item itself
Perform actions that are enabled according to his permissions
(for example, edit, update, relate, promote through the process
, and approve)
Perform some common actions, known as quick actions, on
any of the articles and update requests
Create new articles
Add any article to a Watch List to monitor that article
Sort articles that are awaiting for his review
See information, such as counts, similar what other BMC
Remedy IT Service Management consoles display

As a lead, Allen can use the Knowledge Management Console to

manage workload activity. He can search on what articles are
assigned to a specific group or individual to try to balance the activity,
so that work is accomplished in a timely manner. He can reassign an
article to a different member on his team.

Managing custom searches

You can define and save custom searches in the application consoles. Custom searches using
advanced qualifications allow you to create searches with very specific search criteria, which you
can save for reuse. After you save the custom search, it appears in the My Searches list of the
Manage My Searches dialog. It is also listed in My Searches list under the Filter By field.

Note

The My Searches options is listed only after a custom search is defined.

This topic contains the following information:

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To define a custom search

To edit or delete a custom search filter

To define a custom search

1. At the top of the console, click the icon beside the Filter by field.
2. On the Manage My Searches dialog, in the Search Name field type a name for the search.
3. Click Build Search Qualification to open the Advanced Qualification Search Builder dialog
box, and then define the search qualification.
4. From the Keywords or Fields selection boxes, select the keywords or record fields on which
you want to search.
5. To insert operators (+, =, >,<, and so on), click the appropriate operator button. Place literal
values between double quotation marks:

'Urgency' = $NULL$
'Priority' = "High"

Example

If Allen Allbrook is performing an incident request review and he needs to search for
incident requests that meet the following criteria:
Impact => 2-Significant/Large or 1-Extensive/Widespread
Service = Payroll Service

('Impact' = 2-Significant/Large" OR
'Impact' = "1-Extensive/Widespread")
AND 'Service' = Payroll Service" AND
'Last Resolved Date' >= 07/19/2008"

To search for articles where Business Service = Payroll Service:

'Business Service' ="Payroll Service" AND

'Last Resolved Date' >= "07/19/2010"

6. Click Select to close the Advanced Qualification Builder, and then click Save.
7. Close the Manage My Searches dialog box.
The search appears in the My Searches list of the Filter by field.

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To edit or delete a custom search filter

1. At the top of the console, click the icon beside the Filter by field to open the Manage My
Searches dialog box.
2. Under My Searches, select the search filter that you want to modify or delete.
3. To modify the search filter, edit it as necessary and then click Save.
4. To delete the search filter, click Delete.
5. Click Close.

Modifying your profile

You can view and modify your personal profile by using the People form. In this form, you can:

Update company information such as organization, business, and home address.

View permissions.

For detailed information about the People form, see Configuring people information .

To modify your profile

1. From the Knowledge Management Console Navigation pane, choose Functions > My
Profile.
2. On the People form, update the information at the top of the form, or click the tab
corresponding to the area in which you want to change information.
3. Make your changes by selecting from the various lists that are available. When you finish
making the changes, click Save.

Receiving notifications about changes

BMC Knowledge Management uses the BMC Remedy Email Engine to send notifications to certain
users about events that occurred during the life cycle of articles (for example, assignment or status
change). Notification recipients are as follows:

Article Owners receive notifications regarding certain events for articles that they own.
Article Assignees receive notifications regarding certain events for articles to which they are
assigned and when they become the assignee for an article.
Watch List subscribers receive notifications related to articles in their watch list.

Users receive notifications depending on the event type according to the information contained in
the following table.

Notification event list

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Notification event Description Recipients

Knowledge Assignment Article assignment changes Article Assignee

Knowledge Ownership Article ownership changes Article Owner

Assignment

Knowledge Cancel Request Request to cancel an article is sent. Article Assignee Watch List
subscriber

Knowledge Cancel Rejection Request to cancel an article is rejected. Article Assignee Watch List
subscriber

Knowledge Retire Rejection Request to retire a published article is rejected. Article Assignee Watch List
subscriber

Knowledge Publish Rejection Request to publish an article is rejected. Article Assignee Watch List
subscriber

Knowledge New Version New version of a published article is created. Watch List subscriber

Knowledge Update Request Update request is received. Article Assignee Watch List
subscriber

Knowledge Expiration Date Number of days before article expiration is sent out (as Article Assignee Watch List
configured). subscriber

Knowledge Feedback Feedback is received. Watch List subscriber

Knowledge New Article Article is created. Article Assignee Watch List

subscriber

Knowledge Review Required Article review is required. Article Assignee

Knowledge Change Article is changed. Watch List subscriber

Knowledge Status Change Article status is changed. Article Assignee Watch List
subscriber

Knowledge Auto Retire Request to change the article status to Retired is Article Assignee Watch List
auto-approved subscriber

Creating and publishing knowledge articles

This section includes information about the knowledge article lifecycle, spanning from the creation
of a new knowledge article to its publication.

The following topics are provided:

Knowledge article functional areas

Creating a knowledge article
Managing knowledge article metadata
Editing a knowledge article
Changing the status of a knowledge article
Assigning a knowledge article
Reviewing a knowledge article

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Managing knowledge article approval requests

Knowledge article functional areas

BMC Knowledge Management displays knowledge articles in two views depending on where you
opened the article:

Display view — When you open articles from search results, the article and the non-role
related article metadata that can be viewed by all users is displayed in read-only mode.
When you open the article, only the header and content are displayed. Clicking the Details
tab displays the article in read-only view, even when you have edit permissions.
The Update Requests tab is never displayed in the Display view. While in the Display view,
you can switch to the Advanced view by clicking the Advanced View button.

Article in Display view

Click the following figure to expand it

Advanced view — When you open articles from the Knowledge Management Console or by
clicking the Advanced View button in search results, you can modify the content and
metadata fields of the article. The left-hand Navigation pane, links, and the Update Requests
tab are displayed.

Article in Advanced view

Click the following figure to expand it

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The following table describes the functional areas of a knowledge article, and what you can do in
each area.

Knowledge article functional areas

Functional Purpose
area

Header (top of page)

Quick Allows you to perform one of the following actions on the article:
Actions
Assign to Me — Reassigns the article to yourself.
Auto Assign — Assigns the article according to the specified assignment method. See Assigning a
knowledge article.
Create Relationship — Opens the Article Relationship Search dialog box that lets you search for articles and
relate them to the open article. See Managing knowledge article relationships.
Search for Duplicates — Performs a search for existing knowledge articles with similar titles. The search
covers knowledge article content, in addition to the title.
Article Visibility — Opens the Article Visibility dialog box that lets you add visibility groups to the knowledge
article. See Managing knowledge article visibility.

Status Displays the article workflow in a series of color-coded tabs, where green denotes the status of the currently
Transition selected article. Each tab represents subgroups of not published and published articles. The green tab contains a
bar drop-down list with available status transition options. The workflow contains the following tabs:

In Progress — Initial status that is automatically assigned to all articles at the time of creation. Articles
are visible only to the author until promoted to another status.
Draft — The first status in the workflow that allows Knowledge Admin users and the article assignee to
view the article draft.
In Review — Typically the next step in the knowledge article life cycle, during which the article is
reviewed by SMEs. In addition, 2 optional review statuses are provided by default, but you can
configure more.
Published — The step in the article life cycle during which the article is visible to all viewers who have
the necessary permissions to access the article.
Closed — This status is assigned automatically when you create a new version of an article. Articles
with this status cannot be accessed by performing a search.

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Functional Purpose
area

Note: This bar is displayed only for articles that have a life cycle. You can also change the article status by using the
Status field in the Details tab of knowledge article.

For more detailed information, see Status groups and types.

Title Displays the title of the article.

Article ID Displays the ID that the system generated for the article. The Article ID prefix is always KBA.

Version Displays the current version of the article. To see other versions, click Functions > Revisions.

Authoring Enables the author to add comments and explanations about the article.
Notes
Diary History — Displays the history of all the notes that were written for the article.
Diary Editor — Area in which the author creates new notes.

Note: The Authoring Notes area is available only when the article is open for editing. To access it, click Functions >
Authoring Notes link.

Content Displays the article in Display or Modify mode. Click the icon at the right side of any text box to open a text editor
tab and view the content. Use the View HTML Source check box to toggle between rich text and HTML coding in the
text boxes.

Note

The following limitations apply to the HTML authoring feature:

The HTML editor appears as a popup dialog when you select the rich text field that you want to edit.
If you click outside the work area on the knowledge article console, the popup dialog closes. To
access the HTML editor again, you must select a different rich text field before returning to the one
that you want to edit. This also applies if you click the Close button in the popup dialog box.
If you launched the HTML editor dialog box by clicking the button at the top right corner of a text
field, the rich text editor dialog box opens when you close the HTML editor dialog box.

Details tab Displays the following information in the View or Modify mode:

Note: Click the Content tab to return to the article

Metadata fields

Note: Click the right double arrow to toggle the following field display: Company and Author and Keywords, or
Region and Site Group and Site.

Company — Designates the company for which the the article is intended. This information is used as
metadata to increase search accuracy, and does not affect access restrictions.
Author — Name of the person who wrote the article.
Keywords — Keywords for the article, separated by a space.
Region — Geographic area.
Site Group — Subdivided region.
Site — Individual location within a subdivided region.
Article Language — Language that is defined for the knowledge article. This field is purely for
informational purposes, and does not affect the spell checker function of the rich text editor.
Business Service — As configured by your administrator.
Internal Use — Defines whether the article is displayed for all users or only for users who are defined
as internal.

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Functional Purpose
area

Internal users are users with any Knowledge related permissions.

Article Attachments — Files attached to the article. See Adding and deleting attachments for more
information.
Assigned Groups — Groups to which the article assignee is assigned. See Assigning a knowledge
article.
Assignee — Person to whom the article is currently assigned.
Status — Current status of the article. You can change the article status using either this field or the
Status Transition bar in the header.

Information tabs

Update Requests — Use to create and view update requests for the current displayed object. See
Managing update requests for more information.
Categorizations — Defines up to three hierarchical levels of operational and product categories (
available values depend on the value selected for the previous tier), and the Organization, Department
, Product Name, Model/Version, and Manufacturer information. For more information, see
Categorization.
Resolution Categorizations — Defines up to three hierarchical levels of resolution categories and
product resolution categories (available values depend on the value selected for the previous tier), and
the Company, Product Name, Model/Version, and Manufacturer information, in a knowledge article.
For more information, see Categorizing documented resolutions.
Relationships — Displays a list of the relationships that exist for the current article. See Managing
knowledge article relationships for more information.
Date/System— Displays information about the system, article owner, and source.
Submitter — Name of the person who submitted the article.
Submit Date — Date on which the article was submitted.
Last Modified By — Person who last modified the article.
Modified Date — Date on which the article was last modified.
Owner Group — Support group from which you can select an Owner for the knowledge article.
Does not affect article visibility.
Owner — Name of the person who owns the article; can be the author or another user. The
owner's access limitations depend on their assigned functional roles and permissions. BMC
recommends that you assign knowledge article owners the necessary permissions to manage
the lifecycle of knowledge articles.
Article Form — The form that was registered in BMC Knowledge Management.
Source Name — Name of the source that was chosen for this article form.
Article Expiration Date — Records the intended date for retiring the knowledge article. This
field is not currently associated with any workflows. For information about creating your own
workflow, see Defining workflows to automate processes.
Review Date --- Next date on which the article is to be reviewed. For more information, see
Scheduling reviews.
Last Review Date— Date on which the article was last reviewed.
Note: The Owner and Owner Group values are set with the user or author name and group
when the article is created. Only Knowledge Admin users can edit these fields after article
creation.
Exception: If the creator of a new knowledge article has only the Knowledge Submitter
permission, the Owner Group and Owner field values are set automatically when the article
status changes to Draft.
In such cases, the Owner field displays the name of the automatically selected article assignee,
because you must have either the Knowledge User permission or the Knowledge Admin
permission to become the owner of a knowledge article.
Feedback — Users can leave a comment and rate with a value of 1 to 5, where each value has a
unique meaning for later use in reporting. For more information, see Submitting and viewing feedback.

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Navigation pane (left side) — Displays key information and provides search filters.

Functions Displays links for performing the following tasks:

section
Add to Watch List — Adds the selected knowledge article to your Watch List, for monitoring. See
Using watch lists.
Request Cancellation — Displayed for all articles except for In Progress articles and for articles with
no life cycle. Click Yes to send a request to cancel the article.
Delete Article — Displayed only for In Progress articles and for articles with no life cycle.
Recall Cancellation — Deletes a cancellation request.
Article Visibility --- Displays the Visibility Groups dialog box, which allows you to view visibility groups
assigned to the article and assign or delete visibility groups. See Managing knowledge article visibility.
Revisions — Displays the Article Revisions table, which contains the revision history of the current
article. For more information, see Revising knowledge articles.
History — Displays the Article History table, which contains the history of the current article. For more
information, see Viewing a knowledge article's history for more information.
Additional Categories — Enables you to create additional metadata for the knowledge article. For
more information, see Managing additional categorization.

Consoles Provides links to the IT Home page, Knowledge Management console, and Reports.
section

Bottom of Click the appropriate button to perform the following tasks for an article:
page
Save — Saves the changes made to the article content, and details.
Modify — Open the article for modifying. This button is enabled if you are not the article assignee;
being the assignee grants you automatic editing privileges. If your user role is defined as Knowledge
Submitter or Knowledge Viewer, this functionality is not enabled for your use.
Use — Indicates that you found the article content useful. After you click Use, this option becomes
disabled. See for more information Using search results.
Relate — Creates a relationship between the knowledge article and an Incident that you had been
viewing. Appears only when you access the knowledge article by clicking Search Knowledge Base
from an Incident, Problem, or Known Error.
Email — Opens the Email System page, from which you can send the article in an e-mail message.
See Sending a knowledge article by e-mail for more information.
Mark as Reviewed — Indicates that you have reviewed the article, and the Last Review Date field
becomes populated with the review date.
Preview — Displays a preview of the knowledge article.
Close — Closes the window.

Creating a knowledge article

This section includes information about authoring knowledge articles directly in the Knowledge
Management Console, and through the consoles of integrated BMC Remedy ITSM Suite
applications. BMC Knowledge Management currently shares data via integration with the following
applications:

BMC Service Desk (includes Problem Management and Incident Management)

BMC Service Request Management

The following topics are provided:

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Knowledge article templates

Creating an article in the Knowledge Management Console
Creating knowledge articles through BMC Service Desk
Creating a decision tree
Formatting knowledge article text
Adding and deleting attachments
Inserting hyperlinks
Inserting images
Creating lists

Knowledge article templates

Templates provide structure to your knowledge articles and include useful features, such as a rich
text editor and support for multimedia content. You must select a template before you can create a
new knowledge article.

BMC Knowledge Management provides the following knowledge article templates:

Decision Tree — Use this template to create knowledge articles that provide aid in making
decisions while performing tasks. This template does not support rich text.
How To — Use this template to create knowledge articles to provide step-by-step
instructions to complete a task.
Known error — Use this template to create knowledge articles to provide root cause
information and workarounds for a known issue.
Problem Solution — Use this template to document a resolution for a problem after
identifying the root cause during a problem investigation.
Reference — Use this template to create an information resource.

Creating an article in the Knowledge Management Console

Creating an article in the Knowledge Management Console

Creating a knowledge article requires the Knowledge Submitter, Knowledge User, or Knowledge
Admin permission. For more information about these permissions, see User permissions. To learn
about the roles that are associated with these permissions, see Functional role.

Note

In addition to the necessary permissions, the Assignment availability option in your

People record must be set to Yes for you to be able to create new knowledge articles.

This topic applies only to the How To, Known Error, Problem Solution, and Reference templates.
For information about creating a Decision Tree article, see Creating a decision tree.

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Perform the following steps to create a new knowledge article in the Knowledge Management
Console.

To create a knowledge article in the Knowledge Management Console

1. In the IT Home page, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Console .
2. Under Functions, click the Create icon, or click New Article.
3. In the Create Knowledge dialog box, select the required template from the list and click
Create.
For more information, see Knowledge article templates.
4. In the Content tab of the Knowledge article page, enter the appropriate information in the
rich text fields.
a. You can type directly into a field, or you can click the edit icon at the top right corner
of the field to view the rich text editor with expanded functionality. Some fields have
an internal editing toolbar, which you can open by double-clicking inside the text box.
For more information about using the rich text editor, See Related topics.
b. You can also use the View HTML Source option to toggle between entering rich text
and HTML code in the text boxes.

Note

The following limitations apply to the HTML authoring feature:

The HTML editor appears as a popup dialog when you select the rich
text field that you want to edit. If you click outside the work area on
the knowledge article console, the popup dialog closes. To access
the HTML editor again, you must select a different rich text field
before returning to the one that you want to edit. This also applies if
you click the Close button in the popup dialog box.
If you launched the HTML editor dialog box by clicking the button at
the top right corner of a text field, the rich text editor dialog box opens
when you close the HTML editor dialog box.

5. Assign the article to a user.

For more information, see Assigning a knowledge article.
6. Assign the article to a visibility group. For more information, see Managing knowledge article
visibility.

Note

If you do not specify a visibility group, the article will be visible only to the Author,
the Assignee, and others members of the support group that the Assignee belongs
to.

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7. Click the Details tab, and enter the necessary information to add metadata to the article.
For more information, see Managing knowledge article metadata.
8. (Optional) Click the Search for Duplicates link in the Quick Actions menu to perform a
search for knowledge articles that have similar titles or content.
9. (Optional) Click Preview to see what the knowledge article will look like when it is published.
10. (Optional) Add the article to your watch list, if you want to monitor it. For more information
about watch lists, see Using watch lists.
11. (Optional) If you are ready, promote the knowledge article from the In Progress status to the
Draft status.
On the Status Flow Bar, click the drop-down menu in the highlighted In Progress segment,
and select Draft. The In Progress segment of the Status Flow Bar should appear highlighted
.
12. Click Save.

Related topics
Formatting knowledge article text
Inserting hyperlinks
Inserting images

Creating knowledge articles through BMC Service Desk

This section includes information about creating knowledge articles through BMC Service Desk.

The following topics are provided:

Knowledge management recommendations for support staff

Recording an incident resolution or problem investigation results

Knowledge management recommendations for support staff

Search early and search often! This Knowledge Centered Support (KCS) maxim means that before
you create a knowledge article, you should search the knowledge base to check whether articles on
the issue already exist

It also means that you should conduct multiple searches using different criteria, which increases the
likelihood that you will find a match. For complete information about searching for knowledge
articles, see Searching for knowledge articles.

Creating a knowledge article when you create an incident request ensures a tighter integration
between incident management and the knowledge base, which is important for good knowledge
management.

When you create a knowledge article, be sure to capture the full context of the Incident. This
context includes technical information, such as hardware and software details, and non-technical
information, such as what the customer thinks could be causing the incident and what impact the
incident is having on them.

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BMC recommends that you use the following information categories when capturing technical
information.

Incident — The situation (or question) in the customer's words; what are they trying to do or
what is not working.
Capturing the issue in the customer's words is important because other customers are likely
to view similar issues in the same way. If the customer's description is reworded or
re-categorized by technical staff after the incident request is created, it might not be found as
a match when searching the knowledge base the next time a similar issue arises.
Environment — What technology does the customer have? Was anything in the environment
changed recently?
Resolution — The steps required to resolve the incident or answer the question.
Metadata — High-level categorization of the article's content aids searchability, maintenance
, reporting, and other processes related to the handling of the article.

Over time, the way that a person who reports an incident remembers and interprets non-technical
information can change. It is important, therefore, to capture non-technical information in a
knowledge article early in the incident handling process. For this reason, BMC also recommends
that you create the knowledge article and register the incident request simultaneously. Even if the
incident resolution is not yet known, you can start the knowledge article and then add resolution
information later. This ensures that known details are captured and are available to others who
might be working on the same or a similar incident request. By always creating incident requests
and knowledge articles simultaneously, you also ensure that knowledge articles become an integral
by-product of incident registration.

Recording an incident resolution or problem investigation results

If you have installed both BMC Knowledge Management and BMC Service Desk, you can create
knowledge articles to describe incident resolutions, or describe the results of a root cause analysis.
This information could be useful to subsequent users who encounter or analyze the same or similar
issues and problems.

For recommendations about using BMC Knowledge Management to capture and share information,
see Related topics.

Note

Creating a knowledge article requires the Knowledge Submitter, Knowledge User, or

Knowledge Admin permission. For more information about these BMC Knowledge
Management permissions, see User permissions.
In addition, the Assignment availability option in your People record must be set to Yes.

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To create a knowledge article from a BMC Service Desk record

1. Open the BMC Service Desk record for which you want to create a knowledge article.
2. Click Create Knowledge to create a new knowledge article. The location of the link differs
depending on the view that you use.
Best Practice view — Click Functions > Create Knowledge.
Classic view — Click Quick Links > Create Knowledge.
3. In the Create Knowledge dialog box, select the required template from the list and click
Create.
For more information, see Knowledge article templates.
4. In the Content tab of the Knowledge article page, enter the appropriate information in the
rich text fields.
a. You can type directly into a field, or you can click the edit icon at the top right corner
of the field to view the rich text editor with expanded functionality. Some fields have
an internal editing toolbar, which you can open by double-clicking inside the text box.
For more information about using the rich text editor, See Related topics.
b. You can also use the View HTML Source option to toggle between entering rich text
and HTML code in the text boxes.
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the excerpt named: htmllimitations was not found. Please check/update the excerpt
name.
5. Assign the article to a user.
For more information, see Assigning a knowledge article.
6. Assign the article to a visibility group. For more information, see Managing knowledge article
visibility.

Note

If you do not specify a visibility group, the article will be visible only to the Author,
the Assignee, and others members of the support group that the Assignee belongs
to.

7. Click the Details tab, and enter the necessary information to add metadata to the article.
For more information, see Managing knowledge article metadata.
8. (Optional) Click Preview to see what the knowledge article will look like when it is published.
9. (Optional) Add the article to your watch list, if you want to monitor it. For more information
about watch lists, see Using watch lists.

10.
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10. (Optional) If you are ready, promote the knowledge article from the In Progress status to the
Draft status.
On the Status Flow Bar, click the drop-down menu in the highlighted In Progress segment,
and select Draft. The In Progress segment of the Status Flow Bar should appear highlighted
.
11. Click Save.

Note

After creating a knowledge article from an Incident, Problem, or Known Error record, you
can click Use or Relate to form a relation with the article.

If you entered values in the Resolution Categorization tab of a knowledge article that
you create from an Incident record, the same values are copied to the Incident if you click
Use.

For more information about relationships between knowledge articles and BMC Service
Desk records, and the Resolution Categorization tab, see Related topics.

Related topics

Knowledge management recommendations for support staff

Creating a relationship with a BMC Service Desk record

Formatting knowledge article text

Inserting hyperlinks

Inserting images

Categorizing documented resolutions

Creating a decision tree

Decision trees are a special type of knowledge article in BMC Knowledge Management. Decision
trees enable you to progress through a series of steps to resolve a problem. When you create a
decision tree, you can create branches or decisions the user makes to progress through the tree.
Decision trees have more formatting requirements than other knowledge article types and can
require more time to set up.

Note

You can integrate knowledge articles that were created in a decision tree format with
incidents or problems in BMC Remedy AR System.

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To create a decision tree, you choose the Decision Tree template and enter information in the
knowledge article fields — just as you do when you create other knowledge article types. You build
your tree branches in the decision tree section of the knowledge article.

To create a decision tree

1. In the IT Home page, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Console .
2. Click the Create icon.
3. In the Create Knowledge dialog box, select Decision Tree from the list of templates, and
click Create.
A blank decision tree template appears.
4. In the Title field of the decision tree, type the descriptive title of the decision tree. In the
Description field, type the first question for the decision tree. For example:
Title — Unable to connect to the internet
Description— What is your operating system?

Note

The decision tree title and the knowledge article title are separate values.

5. Add subdecisions (branches) to build the tree.

When building a tree, you can use the following options
Ctrl + Shift + Enter — Adds a new subdecision.
Ctrl+ Shift + Right Arrow/Left Arrow — Moves the subdecision right and left. The
indents control how the tree branches line up, and are useful for both readability and
navigation.
Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow/Down Arrow — Moves the subdecision up and down.
6. To create a cycle or link in a tree, click the link icon in the decision tree description field and
then click the description (location) of where to link.
7. To add a text box in which users can record their decisions when following the branches,
click Add Text Field on the authoring toolbar.
When users view the knowledge article in the BMC Service Desk application, they can enter
and store values in the text box.
8. Assign the article to a user. For more information, see Assigning a knowledge article.
9. Assign the article to a visibility group. For more information, see Managing knowledge article
visibility.

Note

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If you do not specify a visibility group, the article will be visible only to the Author,
the Assignee, and others members of the support group that the Assignee belongs
to.

10. Click the Details tab, and enter the necessary information to add metadata to the article.
For more information, see Managing knowledge article metadata.
11. (Optional) Add the article to your watch list, if you want to monitor it.
For more information, see Using watch lists.
12. (Optional) If you are ready, promote the knowledge article from the In Progress status to the
Draft status.
On the Status Flow Bar, click the drop-down menu in the highlighted In Progress segment,
and select Draft. The In Progress segment of the Status Flow Bar should appear
highlighted.
13. Click Save

Formatting knowledge article text

The rich text editing feature in BMC Knowledge Management provides an editing toolbar that
enables you to format text. When you click in a rich text field, such as Answer, an editing toolbar is
displayed. The Title field is the only text field that does not support rich text formatting and does not
display the editing toolbar. You can also click the icon at the top left of the rich text field to open the
rich text editor dialog that displays more formatting options in the editing toolbar.

This section provides the following topics:

The rich text editing toolbar

Adding and removing character formatting

The rich text editing toolbar

The editing toolbar appears when you place the cursor is in a rich text field.

Editing toolbar

The editing toolbar contains the functionality listed in the following table, depending on your point of
access.

Editing toolbar functionality

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Formatting option Function

Font Select the font type from the list.

Size Use the arrow buttons to increase or decrease the font size.

Bold, italic, and underline Make the selected text bolded, italicized, or underlined.

Subscript Make the selected text appear as subscript.

Superscript Make the selected text appear as superscript.

Font Color Select the text color from the palette.

Background Color Select the text background color from the palette.

Remove formatting Clear special formatting from the highlighted text.

Show/hide hidden elements Display or hide formatting elements such as separator lines.

Cut, copy, and paste Remove, copy, and paste selected text to and from the clipboard.

Bold, italic, and underline Make the highlighted text bold, italicized, or underlined.

Alignment Set paragraph to align evenly on the left, center, or right, or enable automatic alignment (Justify).

Paragraph style Paragraph formatting style, including heading tags.

Indent Increase or decrease the selected text's distance from the left margin.

Create an unordered list Create a list formatted with bullets.

Create an ordered list Create a list formatted with numbers.

Create an HTML link Insert a link to another website or URL.

Insert an image Insert an image into the knowledge article.

Special items Insert special symbols (includes a widget to create a collapsible text box).

Spell checker Perform a spell check on entered text.

Insert a table Insert a table into the knowledge article.

Cell properties Modify the selected table cell's properties, such as text alignment and table border width.

Adding and removing character formatting

The editing toolbar enables you to apply formatting to text fields. All fields except the Title field
support rich text formatting.

Note

The Decision Tree template does not support rich text formatting.

To apply character formatting

1. Click inside a rich text field in the knowledge article template.

2.
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2. Select the text to format.

3. Apply the appropriate formatting.
4. Click Save.

To remove character formatting

1. Click inside a rich text field in the knowledge article template.

2. Select the text whose formatting you want to remove.
3. To clear any of the formatting you applied, click Remove Formatting.
4. Click Save.

Adding and deleting attachments

You can manage attachments by using the Article Attachments section that is located at the bottom
of the Details tab in every knowledge article. You can add up to 25 attachments per knowledge
article.

To add an attachment

1. In the knowledge article, select the Details tab.

2. Under the Article Attachments section, click Add.
The Add Attachment dialog box appears.
3. Click Browse to locate the file to attach, select the file from the file list, and click Open.
4. Click OK.
BMC Knowledge Management displays a link in the Article Attachments section.
5. Click Save.
6. To open the attached file, double-click it or select it and click Display.

To delete attached files

1. In the knowledge article, select the Details tab.

2. Under the Article Attachments section, select the file that you want to delete.
3. Click Delete.

Inserting hyperlinks
You can create hyperlinks in knowledge articles to external websites, to bookmarks within
knowledge articles, and to other knowledge articles.

To insert a hyperlink to an external website

1. Click inside a rich text field.

2. Select the knowledge article text to become the hyperlink.
3. Click the icon in the rich text editing toolbar.
4. In the Link Options dialog box, enter the URL of the website that you want to link to. You
can also select whether the URL opens in a new window and add a description to the link.

5.
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5. Click OK to create the link.

To insert a hyperlink to another knowledge article

1. Click inside a rich text field.

2. Select the knowledge article text to become the hyperlink.
3. Click the icon in the rich text editing toolbar.
4. In the Link Options dialog box, click the button labeled Link, which is located next to the
Link URL field.
5. If you know the document ID of the knowledge article that you want to link to, type it in the
Article ID field and press Tab to validate it.

Note

You can also click Search to open the Knowledge Search screen. When you have

located the knowledge article that you want to link to, click or Select this
article to link hyperlink, which appears to the right of each search result.

6. Click OK to create the link.

To insert a "bookmark" hyperlink within the knowledge article

1. Highlight the word or phrase for which you want to create a bookmark.
2. Click the icon in the rich text editing toolbar. The "bookmarked" text appears highlighted
in yellow to indicate that it is now available as a bookmark within the knowledge article.
3. Select the text to become the hyperlink to the new bookmark.
4. Click the icon in the rich text editing toolbar.
5. In the Link options dialog, a list of available bookmarks is displayed below the Link URL
field. Select the bookmark that you want to link to.
6. Close the Link options dialog box.

Inserting images
You can insert an image into your knowledge article as a link or as an embedded image.

To insert an image

1. Click inside a rich text field.

2. In the editing toolbar, perform one of the following tasks:
To insert your image as a link, select the knowledge article text to become the
hyperlink.
To embed the image directly into the knowledge article, move your cursor to the start
of a new line where you want to insert the image.

3.
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3. Click the Insert Image icon.

4. In the Insert Image panel, locate the image to attach and click OK.
For embedded images, browse to the image location and select the file from the file
list.
For linked images, type the URL to the image file.
The following table lists the number of images that you can insert for various rich text
fields in knowledge articles.
Field name Number of images

How To template

Question 15

Answer 30

Technical Notes 15

Reference template

Question 30

Problem Solution template

Problem 15

Solution 30

Technical Notes 15

Known Error template

Error 15

Root Cause 15

Workaround/Fix 30

Technical Notes 15

Decision Tree template

Decision Tree 30

5. Click OK.
BMC Knowledge Management uploads the file and displays the hyperlink in the text field.
If you did not select text for the hyperlink, the image is embedded directly into the knowledge
article.

Note

Links to attachments and images are not active in the document editor. You must
view the knowledge article in the Document Viewer to use the hyperlink.

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You can delete an image while editing a knowledge article by selecting the image
with a click, and pressing Del. For decision tree articles, select an image by holding
the mouse button and dragging the cursor over the image. You can use this
method to select multiple images in any knowledge article.

Creating lists
The editing toolbar enables you to create numbered and bulleted lists in your knowledge article.
You can also create nested lists by using the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons.

To create a numbered list

1. Click in a rich text field in the knowledge article template.

2. Select text or press Enter to create new text to include in the numbered list. You can select
more than one paragraph.
3. Click Ordered List to format the paragraph or selected paragraphs with numbers.
4. Use Decrease Indent and Increase Indent to create sublists.
5. Click Save.

To create a bulleted list

1. Click in a rich text field in the knowledge article template.

2. Select text or press Enter to create new text to include in the bulleted list.

Note

You can select more than one paragraph to apply the bullets to multiple paragraphs
at one time.

3. Click Unorderered List. to format the paragraph or selected paragraphs with bullets.
4. Use Decrease Indent and Increase Indent to create sublists.
5. Click Save.

Managing knowledge article metadata

This section includes information that is necessary to manage the visibility and post-publishing
lifecycle of a knowledge article. Some of the tasks described in this section take place in the
Details tab. For more information about the Details tab, see Knowledge article functional areas.

The following topics are provided:

Managing knowledge article visibility

Categorizing knowledge articles
Categorizing documented resolutions

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Managing additional categorization

Managing knowledge article relationships
Viewing a knowledge article's history
Scheduling reviews

Managing knowledge article visibility

BMC Knowledge Management uses visibility groups to restrict access to knowledge base content.
The system administrator assigns users to a visibility group just as they are assigned to a functional
role. You can specify the audience for your article by assigning one or more visibility groups to the
article.

Note

You can assign a maximum of 350 visibility groups to a knowledge article.

When you create a new article, the system does not assign any visibility group. By default, when
you save an article with no visibility groups assigned, the article is accessible to the following users:

Article's assignee support group

Article's owner support group
AR Administrator
Users with unrestricted access

When you change an article's company and a visibility group or groups are already assigned to the
article, the group or groups remain assigned for the new company. You can change the
assignments as described in the following procedure.

When you change the article's company and no visibility groups are assigned to it, the article
remains with no visibility group for the new company. By default, the article can be accessed by the
support groups of the article's assignee and owner.

To assign a visibility group to a knowledge article

1. Open the article to which you want to add visibility groups.

2. Click Functions > Article Visibility to open the Visibility Groups window.
3. To add visibility groups, select a combination of a company and a group from the lists on the
left side, and click Add.

Note

If you set the Visibility Group field to All, the knowledge article becomes visible to
all users belonging to the selected company.

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4. Click Save.

To remove a visibility group from a knowledge article

1. Open the article from which you want to remove a visibility group.
2. Click Functions > Article Visibility to open the Visibility Groups window.
3. In the list on the the right side, select the visibility group that you want to remove.
4. Click Delete.
5. Click Save.

Categorizing knowledge articles

BMC Knowledge Management enables you to define up to three hierarchical levels of operational
and product categories (available values depend on the value selected for the previous tier), and
the Organization, Department, Product Name, Model/Version, and Manufacturer information, in a
knowledge article.

This metadata is used to identify the intended audience and purpose of the knowledge article,
which is important for increasing the relevance of a knowledge search.

To specify the three tiers of operations and product categories in a knowledge article

1. Click the Details tab, and click the Categorization sub-tab.

2. Add or modify the field values. Available values depend on the value that you select for the
previous tier.
3. Click Save.

Categorizing documented resolutions

BMC Knowledge Management enables you to define up to three hierarchical levels of resolution
categories and resolution product categories (available values depend on the value selected for the
previous tier), and the Company, Product Name, Model/Version, and Manufacturer information, in a
knowledge article.

The Resolution Categorization and Resolution Product Categorization values help to identify the
kind of issues that can be resolved by using the information that is provided in the knowledge article
. This information is useful primarily to Incident Management users.

While viewing or creating an Incident record, if you click Search Knowledge Base to search for a
knowledge article and then click Use in the knowledge article, a Resolved by type of relationship is
created with the Incident. Additionally, the field values that are defined in the Resolution
Categorization tab of the knowledge article are copied to the Resolution Categorization tab of
the Incident, and the article's title and ID are copied to the Resolution field of the Incident. For
more information, see Relationships between knowledge articles and Incidents .

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To add resolution categories to a knowledge article

1. Click the Details tab, and click the Resolution Categorization sub-tab.
2. Add or modify the field values. Available values depend on the value that you select for the
previous tier.
3. Click Save.

Note

You must have the Knowledge Admin, Knowledge User, or Knowledge Submitter
permission to edit the fields on the Resolution Categorization tab of a knowledge article.

Limitations
The following limitations govern the ability to add Resolution Categorization tab values to
knowledge articles:

You can add resolution categories only for knowledge articles that are in the In Progress
state, the Draft state, or one of the review states.

Note

Knowledge articles that belong to an External File System type of knowledge

source appear in the Published state as soon as they are imported via the
Registration Wizard. Therefore, you cannot add resolution categories to such
articles.

You cannot create watch list rules to monitor knowledge articles based on the field values in
the Resolution Categorization tab
You cannot add resolution categories for knowledge articles that were converted from
version 7.2 and 7.5.
You cannot pre-configure resolutions categories while registering BMC Remedy AR System
forms, and External File Systems as new knowledge sources.
Resolution categories are not supported as a filtering option when you click More Filters on
the Knowledge Management Console.
Resolution categories are not supported as search parameters in Advanced Search.
If you open an Incident in Search mode before creating a Resolved by relationship with a
knowledge article, resolution categories are not immediately visible after being copied to the
Incident. You must reload the record in order to see the new values in the Categorization
tab.

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Related topic
Creating a relationship with a BMC Service Desk record

Managing additional categorization

You can configure additional categories for knowledge articles by clicking Functions > Additional
Categories in the Navigation pane.

To create additional categories

1. Open the knowledge article for which you want to create additional categories.
2. In the Navigation pane, click Functions > Additional Categories.
3. Select the value of the desired category field, and click the Add XYZ button to save it. For
example, to add an additional organization, select the desired name from the drop-down
menu, and click Add Organization. The newly added organization will appear in the list next
to the Organization field.
4. Repeat step 3 for each new category value that you want to add.
5. Click Close.

To delete additional categories

1. Open the knowledge article whose additional category you want to delete.
2. In the Navigation pane, click Functions > Additional Categories.
3. Select the category value that you want to delete, and click the Delete XYZ button. For
example, to delete an additional organization, select the desired organization from the list,
and click Delete Organization. The selected organization will be removed from the list next
to the Organization field.
4. Repeat step 3 for each category value that you want to delete.
5. Click Close.

Managing knowledge article relationships

A relationship between two knowledge articles denotes that some kind of connection exists
between the articles. Use the Relationships tab in the Details page of the knowledge articles to
create and remove relationships, and to view related articles. You can create an unlimited number
of relationships between two articles, but each relationship must be unique.

This section provides the following topics:

Creating a relationship with another knowledge article

Removing a relationship
Viewing related articles
Creating a relationship with a BMC Service Desk record

Creating a relationship with another knowledge article

Perform the following steps to create a relationship between two knowledge articles.

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To create a relationship

1. Open an article.
2. Under Quick Actions, click Create Relationship.

Tip

You can select the Details tab, select the Relationships sub-tab, and click the
Create icon.

3. In the Search field of the Knowledge Base Relationship Search dialog box that opens,
type a search string. For example, if you are creating a relationship to an article about a
printer that regularly goes offline, you might type printer offline. If no search criteria is
entered, search results display all articles that you are permitted to view.

Note

The Knowledge Base Relationship Search screen is similar to the Search

Knowledge screen. For more information about using the knowledge search
function, see Searching for knowledge articles.

4. Click Search.
5. In the Articles table, select the article to which you want to create the relationship.
The Current Article field displays the ID of the open article that forms the relationship
with the selected article.
The Selected Article field displays the ID of the selected article.
6. Click Relate.
7. In the dialog box that displays the relationship, verify the information and click OK to close
the page.

Removing a relationship
Perform the following steps to remove an existing relationship with another article.

To remove a relationship

1. Open the knowledge article that you want to update.

2. Click the Details tab.
3. Click the Relationships sub-tab.
4. Click the Remove icon.
5. Click Yes to confirm.
6. Click OK.

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Viewing related articles

The relationship table displays the articles to which the current article is related. You can open and
view the articles that are in this table. The opened version of the article is always the version that
was used to create the relationship. For more information, see Revising knowledge articles.

The relationship between two articles can be viewed only by users who are permitted to view both
articles, as follows:

If the user has a defined Knowledge User role, all related articles except In Progress articles
are displayed. The only location that relationships to In Progress articles are displayed is in
the Relationship tab of the In Progress article.
If the user does not have a defined Knowledge User role, relationships to only Published
articles are displayed.

When the status of one of the articles in a relationship becomes Cancelled, the relationship
automatically becomes Obsolete and ceases to exist.

To view a related article:

1. Open an article.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. Click the Relationships tab.
4. Select an article in the Relationships table and click the View icon, or double-click the
selected relationship.

Creating a relationship with a BMC Service Desk record

You can create a relationship between a knowledge article and an Incident, Problem, or Known
Error record in any of the following ways:

When you create a knowledge article by clicking Create Knowledge while viewing an
Incident record, if you click Use in the knowledge article, a Resolved by relationship is
created with the Incident.
When you search for a knowledge article by clicking Search Knowledge Base while viewing
an Incident, Problem, or Known Error, if you click Relate in the knowledge article, a Related
to relationship is created with the Incident, Problem, or Known Error.
When you search for a knowledge article by clicking Search Knowledge Base while viewing
an Incident, Problem, or Known Error, if you close the article after viewing it without clicking
Use or Relate in the knowledge article, you are prompted to relate the knowledge article to
the current record. Selecting Yes creates a Related to relationship with the Incident,
Problem, or Known Error.

Note

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Certain field values are copied from a knowledge article to an Incident when you created a
Resolved by type of relationship between them. For more information, see Relationships
between knowledge articles and Incidents.

Relationships between knowledge articles and Incidents

When you create a Resolved by type of relationship (see above) between a knowledge article and
an Incident, the field values that are defined in the Resolution Categorization tab of the
knowledge article are copied to the Categorization tab of the Incident, and the article's title and ID
are copied to the Resolution field of the Incident.

These field values might not be copied from the knowledge article to the Incident if:

the Categorization fields and the Resolution field of the Incident already contain values (if
you change the Resolution Categorization values in the knowledge article later, the
Incident will not be updated)
the Incident is in the Resolved or Closed state
The Resolution Categorization values that are defined in the knowledge article are not
appropriate for the value of the Incident type field in the Incident
you had previously clicked Use, and then manually cleared the fields in the Incident's
Categorization tab (because the Resolution field of the Incident is not blank)

Note

To copy a new value to the Resolution field and to over-write the values in Incident's
Categorization tab, clear the Resolution field and click Use in a different knowledge
article, or click Use in a knowledge article that currently has a Related to type of
relationship with the Incident.

In the latter scenario, the relationship type changes from Related to to Resolved by. For
more information, see Changing the type of relationship between knowledge articles and
Incidents.

Changing the type of relationship between knowledge articles and Incidents

While viewing an Incident, if you click Search Knowledge Base to search for and view a
knowledge article that currently has a Related to type of relationship with the incident, and then
click Use in the knowledge article, the relationship type changes to Resolved by. Additionally, field
values from the knowledge article's Resolution Categorization tab are copied to the Incident's
Categorization tab if none of the conditions for exception are met.

Alternatively, while viewing an Incident, if you click Search Knowledge Base to search for and
view a knowledge article that currently has a Resolved by type of relationship with the incident,
and then click Relate in the knowledge article, the relationship type changes to Related to.

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Note

To change the type of relationship between a knowledge article and an Incident, you must
click the Search Knowledge Base link and search for a related knowledge article to click
the Use or Relate button. You cannot change the type of relationship by opening the
knowledge article from the Relationships tab of the Incident.

Related topic
Categorizing documented resolutions

Viewing a knowledge article's history

BMC Knowledge Management records the lifecycle history of articles. The recorded data is used by
the reporting component to create historical and statistical reports. Whenever a change is detected
during the article's lifecycle, a record is written to the article history form.

Article history is written for the following events:

Article creation
Status change
Assignment change
Update

For the status and assignee change events, an appropriate history record is created in addition to
the Save event record. For each history record, the following information is shown:

Changed By
Time
Event

For change events, the From and To values of the changed information are also shown.

To view history for an article

1. Open an article.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. In the Navigation Panel, select Functions > History

Scheduling reviews
The review date is an optional feature that indicates the date on which a Published knowledge
article is marked for validity review. Until an article is published, the Review Date field is hidden.

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When the review date arrives, a message notification is sent to the article's assignee to indicate
that a review is required. If the article is reviewed and found to still be valid, only the assignee or
users with Knowledge Admin permissions can set a new review date for the next review.

If the review date occurs in the past, a notification is sent every day until either the value in the
Review Date field is updated to the next review date, the value is cleared, or the article status is
changed to Retire Approval.

If a new version of the article is created, the review date of the earlier version remains active. When
the new version becomes the new Published article, the default review date is applied to that article
. The status of the earlier article is changed to Closed Version, and no further review date
notifications are sent for it.

Perform this process to manually set the review date.

To set a review date

1. Open the article that you want to schedule a review for.

2. Click the Details tab, and select the Date/System sub-tab.
3. Click the Next Review Date field, open the calendar, select a date and time for the next
review, and click OK.
4. Click Save.

Editing a knowledge article

You can improve existing articles by updating them with new information. The permissions required
to edit knowledge articles are described in Functional role.

To edit knowledge articles

1. In the IT Home page, click Knowledge Management > Knowledge Management Console .
2. Search for and open the knowledge article that you want to edit.
3. In the Content tab of the Knowledge article page, update the appropriate information in the
free text fields.
4. In the Details tab, update the appropriate metadata information.
5. Click Save.

Related topics
Creating an article in the Knowledge Management Console
Searching for knowledge articles

Changing the status of a knowledge article

To change the status of an article, authorized users (author and reviewers) can select the new
status and save the article. You can change an article's status in the following locations:

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Status transition bar in the header section of the knowledge article

Status field on the Details page of the knowledge article

For more information about these locations, see Knowledge article functional areas.

Related topics
Status groups and types

Assigning a knowledge article

Articles in the workflow contain assignee information that is relevant for all stages in the article's life
cycle.

The assignee is the person who is responsible for the article at the current stage. The exact
meaning of assignee changes as the article progresses through the life cycle.

Initial creation — When an article is created, it is automatically assigned to the article's

creator.
Draft and Published — The assignee for articles in Draft or Published status is the person
who receives the update requests for an article. The article appears in the assignee's inbox if
there is an open update request for the article.
Review Statuses — The assignee for articles in the various Review statuses is the person
who should review the article.

Knowledge articles can be in a status that requires a review process to promote the article to the
next status. For example, when an article is in the SME Review status, it requires a subject matter
expert to review it to move to the next status. The next status might be another review (for example,
an editorial review) or Publish Approval status. In certain circumstances, changing the status of an
article automatically changes the assignee.

For more information about review statuses, see Status groups and types.

This section provides the following topics:

Using automatic assignment

Specifying the assignee manually
Assigning a knowledge article to yourself

Using automatic assignment

When an article is created, it is automatically assigned to the person who created it. An article can
also be automatically assigned when its status is changed. Auto Assign is triggered manually when
you click an assignment link in the Quick Links section or change an article's status.

When you change an article's status (by selecting a new status from the list), the Auto Assign
function works as follows:

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If the article is in review status, Auto Assign sets the Assigned Group according to the
Assignment Engine method for that status. If no default group has been defined, the values
for Assigned Group and Assignee are copied from the article's Owner details.
If the article is in any other status, the values for Assigned Group and Assignee are copied
from the article's Owner details.

For more information about assignment configuration, see Configuring assignments in the BMC
Remedy IT Service Management configuration documentation.

To automatically assign an article

1. Select the article to be assigned.

2. In the Quick Links section, click Auto Assign.
The article is assigned to the designated user.

Specifying the assignee manually

An article's assignee is a combination of an individual user and the Support Group to which the
user belongs.

The current assignee fields can be set manually by the person who edits the article or automatically
by BMC Knowledge Management. When the status of an article is In Progress, the author is
expected to fill in the default Assignee Support Group field. If the article is moved to Draft and
saved without this value, the support group value is taken from the SME review configuration data.
If the Current Assignee Individual field is empty, the value is copied from the Author field.

When the status of an article is changed to Draft, Publish Approval, or Retire Approval, the contents
of the default assignee fields are copied to the current assignee fields.

To assign an article

1. Select the article to be assigned, and select the Details tab.

2. From the list, select the new Assigned Group (if relevant).
You can select the Assigned Group by clicking Company > Organization > Support
Group.
3. From the list, select the new Assignee.
4. Click Save.
The new assignee is notified that the article has been assigned, using the notification
method defined in the email engine.

Assigning a knowledge article to yourself

Perform the following steps to assign a knowledge article to yourself.

To assign an article to yourself

1. Open the knowledge article to be assigned.

2.
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2. In the Quick Links section, click Assign to me.

The article is assigned to you.

Note

If the article is in one of the review statuses, clicking Assign to me is valid only if
you belong to the current assigned group. If you do not belong to the current
assigned group and you click the link, you receive an error message. In other
statuses, clicking Assign to me sets the Assignee value to your name. The
Assigned Group value does not change if you are a member of that group. If you
are not a member of that group, the default group to which you belong is used.

Reviewing a knowledge article

The knowledge article life cycle includes a review stage in which you can assign a knowledge
articles to an Subject Matter Expert (SME) or an editor for validation and correction. By default, the
following review statuses are available:

SME Review
Content Review (optional)
Proofreading (optional)

Note

You must have the Knowledge User permission or the Knowledge Admin permission to be
assigned knowledge articles for review.

Initiating a review
When you activate a review status, the In Review segment of the status flow bar appears green.
You can assign the knowledge article to the user who is responsible for performing the review. For
more information, see Assigning a knowledge article.

Additionally, you can schedule reviews for a knowledge article at any time in the Date/System tab.
For more information, see Scheduling reviews.

Completing a review
Use the status flow bar to return the knowledge article back to the Draft status if it needs correction
or updating. Or, promote the knowledge article to the Publish Approval status, if it fulfills your
company's quality control standards.

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When the article is moved to the Published status, the Mark as reviewed button is enabled at the
bottom of the page. Click Mark as reviewed when you have finished reviewing the article. You
would be prompted to set the next review date in the Details tab. Set the next review date and click
Save. For more information, see Scheduling reviews.

Managing knowledge article approval requests

Approvals are required to promote knowledge articles to any status that enables or disables access
for end users. BMC Knowledge Management currently supports the following methods of approval:

Approving or rejecting knowledge articles using Approval Central

Approving or rejecting knowledge articles via email

Approving or rejecting knowledge articles using Approval Central

You can use BMC Remedy AR System Approval Central to approve knowledge articles. This is
especially important if your current access permission does not allow you to access the knowledge
article. Not all approvers have access to the BMC Knowledge Management application through
their home pages, yet still have the role to approve knowledge articles before they can move
forward.

Note

You must have appropriate permissions to modify a knowledge article, to view the
knowledge article, and approve it. For more information on roles and permissions, see
User permissions in the BMC IT Service Management documentation.

To approve knowledge articles using Approval Central

1. Log in to the AR System server as the approver.

2. Open Approval Central.
Approval Central displays all pending knowledge articles that are assigned to you. You can
filter them by using the fields in the Search Criteria area.

Note

Click the Article ID link to view the details of a knowledge article.

3. Approve, reject, hold, reassign, or view the desired knowledge articles.

After you approve a knowledge article, it is removed from the Pending Approvals table. The
appropriate approvers are notified of any reassigned approvals.

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Note

If approvers need more information about a knowledge article, they can view the request
details and add a question in the approval activity log. Their signature is on hold while
they are waiting for the information and the status is set to More Information.

Approving or rejecting knowledge articles via email

You can directly approve requests via email. When email-based approvals are enabled, an email
notification is sent the individuals who have approval authority for the request. Those people either
can approve or reject the request directly from the email notification.

Notes

If the approval process requires a password or requires that rejection of a request

includes a business justification, you cannot use email-based approvals. If this is the case,
you must approve the request from Approval Central.

Approval email notifications are also sent out to any alternate approvers defined for the
process. However, if the approver adds an alternate approver after the email has been
sent, the alternate approver will not receive the email.

The following figures show examples of approval emails. Instructions for approving and rejecting
requests via email are provided after the figures.

Email for a change request approval

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Email for a service request approval

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Note

The Server Timezone Offset displays the time zone offset information where the BMC
Remedy AR System server is located.

To approve or reject a request via email

1. In the approval email that you receive, click the request ID link to view the details of the
request. However, this is not applicable for service requests.
2. Click Approve or Reject.
An email formatted with your approval or rejection reply is displayed.
3. Send the email without modifying the text.

Warning

Do not modify the content followed by the #DO NOT MODIFY FOLLOWING TEXT
# text in the email.

You are notified of the success of the approval or rejection by email, as shown in the following
figure:

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If you attempt to approve or reject a request that is in a state that cannot be changed (approved,
rejected, closed, or canceled), you receive an approval error notification email, as shown in the
following figure:

If you receive an Approval Error Notification, click Launch Approval Central to view the status of
the request.

Revising knowledge articles

When new knowledge articles are created, they are automatically designated as version 1. This
version number remains unchanged throughout the article's lifecycle, until the article is published.
The version is displayed in the Article field that is displayed when articles are opened.

To create a new version from a Published article

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The revision process begins when a Published article needs modifications. Revising enables you to
create a duplicate copy of the Published article, which is created as a Draft article, and work on it
without changing the original. The changed article is automatically assigned a new version number,
indicating that the original article has been changed and that the current version is the most recent
one. The current version number is automatically incremented by 1 for the Draft article. Only one
Draft version can exist per article at any given time.

Until the Draft article is published, the Published article from which the new Draft version was
created remains in Published status, and can be searched and viewed until the new version is
published. When published, the new version replaces the previously Published article, which is then
assigned a Closed status.

Note

A Draft version can also be created from a Closed version if the closed version was in
Draft. Closed articles can only be accessed from the Revisions link that is available
through the Published article.

You can modify the following information for Published articles without having to create a new
version:

Internal use
Assigned group
Assignee
Update request
Article status
Article relationship
Owner group
Owner
Next review date
Feedback

To create a new version from a Published article

1. Open an article.
2. Click New Version.
3. Click Yes to continue.
4. Click OK.
5. Make the appropriate changes to the article, and click Save.
The new version is now in Draft status.

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Submitting a cancellation request

You can send a request to your administrator to cancel an article. After you submit a cancellation
request, no further changes can be made to the article. The administrator can either approve or
reject the request. After a request is approved, the sender receives notification and the article
status changes to Cancelled.

Note

The act of submitting a cancellation request does not affect the current status of the
article. Additionally, you cannot request a cancellation when the knowledge article
is in the Publish Approval state.
Only the Knowledge Admin can cancel an article, irrespective of the article status,
without any approval.

To submit a cancellation request

1. In the Navigation pane of the knowledge article, click Functions > Request Cancellation.
2. Click Yes to confirm the cancellation request.

Related topic
Managing knowledge article approval requests

Working with reports

BMC Remedy ITSM provides a variety of predefined reports to give you quick and easy access to
information about your system. Use the Report console to generate these reports. If the predefined
reports return more information than you need, you can manage the scope of the report using
qualifications.

From the Applications menu, choose Quick Links > AR System Report Console to view
customized reports. This release of BMC Remedy ITSM integrates the Crystal Reports from version
7.6.00 and Web reports from version 7.6.01. On the web interface, a number of reports are
available in the Web format. Additional Crystal Reports are available only if users have a valid
Crystal Reports license and have chosen to install them for the web at the time of installation.

Note

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Customer Support can only provide limited assistance if you modify predefined reports
and have a reporting problem. In addition, there is no guarantee that BMC Customer
Support can solve problems that result from these modifications. The standard reports
included with the BMC Remedy ITSM application are designed to be used without
modification.

Warning

If your database does not support the Not Equal To argument in this format: "!=", the
content of your reports can be affected. Reports that have additional qualifications that
filter out Group By fields (for example, 'Department' != "Engineering") also filter out the
specified conditions and records that have Group By fields set to Unspecified or Null.
Check with your system administrator to determine whether your database supports this
form of the Not Equal To argument.

See the following topics:

Generating a standard report

Using qualifications to generate a report
Using advanced qualifications to generate a report
Showing or hiding Crystal Reports
BMC Knowledge Management predefined reports

Generating a standard report

Use the following procedure to generate a standard report without qualifications.

To generate a report with qualifications, see one of the following topics:

Using qualifications to generate a report

Using advanced qualifications to generate a report

To generate a report without qualifications

1. In the navigation pane on the application console, choose Functions > Reports.
2. On the Reporting console, select one of the options under Show:
All Reports, which displays all available reports
Created by me, which displays reports that you created
3. Under Category, select applicationName > reportCategory > reportName.
A list of available reports is displayed. Reports are organized by category, some of which
contain subcategories. The reports that you see vary according to which applications are
installed.
4. Select the report that you want to run.

5.
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5. Click Run.
If you select a report that requires additional parameters, you are prompted to enter the
required parameters. For example, if the selected report requires a date range, the date
range field appears.
6. Enter the required parameters, and click OK.
7. If the report displayed is a web report, you can specify the following additional options:
Toggle Table of Display the table of contents for the current report
Contents

Export Report Export the report to a file of the specified format

To export the report, select the appropriate page options, and click OK. The following formats are
available under the Export Format list:
Excel
PostScript
PDF
Word
PowerPoint

Print Report Print the report to HTML or PDF format

Using the web based reporting console to create and run adhoc reports (video)

Disclaimer

Although the concepts and procedures presented in this video are correct, the user
interfaces shown are not current.

View video on YouTube

Related topics
For more information on creating reports, see Creating reports in the BMC Remedy AR System
server documentation.

Using qualifications to generate a report

You can manage the scope of a report by adding qualifications to the criteria that the report engine
uses to generate the report content. You can tell the report to search only certain specified fields for
particular values, or you can build advanced qualifications by using field names, keywords, and
operators.

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This procedure describes how to generate basic qualifications by using the Show Additional Filter
option. To generate a report by using advanced qualifications, see Using advanced qualifications to
generate a report.

To use qualifications to generate a report

1. From the navigation pane in the application console, choose Functions > Reports.
2. On the Report Console, select one of the options under Show:
All Reports, which displays all available reports
Created by me, which displays reports that you created
3. Under Category, select applicationName > reportCategory > reportName.
A list of available reports is displayed. Reports are organized by category, some of which
contain subcategories.
The reports that you see vary according to which applications are installed.
4. Select the Show Additional Filter option.
Along with a list of available fields, two sections are displayed-the simple query builder and
the advanced query builder. You use the simple query builder to quickly construct a simple
query. Alternatively, advanced users can use the advanced query builder to build the query
by using BMC Remedy AR System query syntax.
For additional information about the BMC Remedy AR System Report Console, see
Reporting on BMC Remedy AR System data .
5. Select a field name from the Available Fields list, and click Add next to the simple query
builder.

Note

Click to remove a qualification.

6. Click the down arrow next to the field name listed in the qualification box, and select the
appropriate operator.
7. Enter or select a value for the field in the right column.

Example

If you want to enter the qualification Cost Center = 001, select the Cost Center
field, click the down arrow next to the field and select =, and then enter 001 in the
right column.

8. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each field that you want to include in the report.
9. When you finish defining your additional qualifications, click Run.
10. If the report displayed is a web report, you can specify the following additional options:

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Toggle Table of Contents Display the table of contents

Export Report Export the report to a file of the specified format

To export the report, select the appropriate page options, and click OK.
The following formats are available under the Export Format list:
Excel
PostScript
PDF
Word
PowerPoint

Print Report Print the file to HTML or PDF format

Using advanced qualifications to generate a report

You can manage the scope of a report by adding qualifications to the criteria that the report engine
uses to generate the report content. You can tell the report to search only specified fields for
particular values, or you can build advanced qualifications by using field names, keywords, and
operators.

To generate a report by using advanced qualifications

1. From the Navigation pane in the application console, choose Functions > Reports.
2. On the Report Console, select one of the options under Show:
All Reports, which displays all available reports
Created by me, which displays reports that you created
3. Under Category, select applicationName > reportCategory > reportName.
A list of available reports is displayed. Reports are organized by category, some of which
contain subcategories. The reports that you see vary according to which applications are
installed.
4. Select the Show Additional Filter option.
Along with a list of available fields, two sections are displayed-the simple query builder and
the advanced query builder. You use the simple query builder to quickly construct a simple
query. Alternatively, advanced users can use the advanced query builder to build the query
by using BMC Remedy AR System query syntax.
For additional information about the BMC Remedy AR System Report Console, see
Reporting on BMC Remedy AR System data .
5. Select a field name from the Available Fields list, and click Add next to the advanced query
builder. Use the BMC Remedy AR System query syntax to build your qualification.
6. Construct your qualification by using the various operators provided by the qualification
builder.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each field that you want to include in the report.

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Note

Select the qualification and press Delete to remove a qualification.

8. When you finish defining your advanced qualification, click Run to view the updated report.

Showing or hiding Crystal Reports

Starting with 8.1.00, the Crystal Reports web viewer is now installed by default; the install option is
removed from the installation program. You now configure the Foundation module to show or hide
the Crystal Reports form on the Report Console.

Before you begin

Deploy the Enterprise Crystal License on the Mid Tier before you enable the Crystal reports

To show or hide Crystal Reports

1. From the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
2. From the Application Settings list, choose Foundation > Advanced Options > Show/Hide
Crystal Reports, and then click Open. The Crystal Report Administration form appears.
Crystal Report Administration

3. Perform one of the following actions:

To show the Crystal Reports form on the Report Console, click Enable.
To hide the Crystal Reports form on the Report Console, click Disable.
4. Click Save.

Related topics
SAP Crystal Reports requirements
Working with reports

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BMC Knowledge Management predefined reports

Predefined Web reports enable you to create formatted reports. You can manage the scope of a
predefined report using qualifications. You can also generate reports with your own qualifications,
advanced qualifications, and saved qualifications.

Results are returned in the form of a list or both list and chart. Reports can contain links that allow
you to drill down from the report to view the data upon which the report is based, or to open the
article. For more information, see Working with reports.

You can save reports in several standard formats, including Adobe PDF and Postscript, and
Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats.

The following table lists the predefined reports that are installed with BMC Knowledge Management
, and the recommended practices for using them.

Predefined reports

Report Display Description Recommendation

Name Type

Article List Shows a list of article Use this report to track volume of work per Assignee, and an article's life
History status changes and cycle.
assignment events.

Feedback Chart Shows articles sorted by Use this report to determine the quality of article content per article, and to
and list average feedback rating measure the overall quality of the knowledge.
and Assignee.

Articles Chart Shows articles sorted by Use this report to compare the number of articles assigned per Support
Assignments and list Status, Support Groups Groups number of articles per status, and the Assignee of each article. This
, and Assignee. report also enables you to gauge assignee workloads, and indicates
whether you need to reassign tasks to other assignees.

Articles up Shows articles that are Use this report to track articles that need to be reviewed by a specific date.
for Review due for review in the next
x days.

No Search List Shows details of Use this report to identify knowledge gaps regarding missing content.
Results searches that return no
results.

Note

When a guest
user performs a
search with
results, the
Searched By
column is blank.

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Report Display Description Recommendation

Name Type

Article List Shows articles sorted by Use this report to track the usefulness of articles in solving issues, and the
Usage number of times Used/ number of times it was opened for viewing. You can:
Viewed.
Compare the number of times an article is viewed versus the number
of times it was used.
Use to measure the overall quality of the knowledge.

Articles with Chart Articles sorted by number Use this report to track the number of times and dates on which updates
Update and list of update requests were requested for an article. Use to also measure the overall quality of the
Requests knowledge.

Use the following procedure to generate a report for BMC Knowledge Management in the
Reporting Console.

Note

If you have formatting problems in viewing reports from a browser, verify that report
configuration settings are defined in the AR System User Preference form, as described in
the BMC Remedy Action Request System Configuration Guide .

To generate a report

1. Open BMC Knowledge Management and access the Reporting Console using one of the
following options:
In the Knowledge Management Console, click Functions > Reports.
Open an article and click Consoles > Reports.
2. Verify that the All Reports parameter is selected in the Show field.
3. Select a report for generation using one of the following option:
In the Category field, choose, Knowledge Management, one of the following options
, and the name of the report:
All Knowledge-- Article History, Articles Assignments, Articles with Update Requests,
or No Search Results
Open Knowledge-- Article Usage, Articles up for Review, or Feedback
4. From the Reporting Console , select a report name whose form name begins with the RKM:
prefix.
5. (optional)By default, when you run a report, a built-in query is used to select the records
included in the report. To change the report results, follow these steps:
a. To override the built-in query to widen or change the report results, select Override.
b. To add a qualification that narrows the report results, click Show Additional Filter.
Along with a list of available fields, two sections are displayed— the simple query
builder and the advanced query builder. You use the simple query builder to quickly
construct a simple query. Alternatively, advanced users can use the advanced query

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builder to build the query by using BMC Remedy AR System query syntax. For
additional information about the BMC Remedy AR System Report Console, see
Reporting on BMC Remedy AR System data .
6. Click Run.
7. Enter any requested parameters, and click OK.

Note

BMC Knowledge Management reports are the only reports that filter results using
the Company parameter. However, this parameter is not displayed in the generated
report.

Managing broadcasts
This feature enables you to send messages to your entire organization, selected groups within the
organization, and to external customers. You can use this feature to send messages about work in
progress, outages, knowledge article updates, and so on. You can also use this feature to view
messages that were broadcast to you from other groups in your organization.

Broadcasts are filtered, based on the following criteria:

Global and company-specific broadcasts are displayed to logged-in users.

Only Global broadcasts are displayed to guest users.

This topic describes the following tasks:

Creating broadcast messages

Viewing broadcast messages
Limiting the number of broadcasts
Controlling the timing of broadcast pop-up messages

Creating broadcast messages

To create a broadcast, you must have the Broadcast Submitter functional role.

To create a broadcast message

1. On the application console, click the View broadcast link or the New broadcast link.
2. In the View broadcast dialog, click Create, which appears below the Broadcast table.
3. Enter information in the required fields.
Required fields appear in bold on the Broadcast Details tab.

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Company — Select the company where this broadcast will be sent. Only users with
access to this company see the broadcast. To send the broadcast to everyone, select
Global from the Company list.
The Company field is mandatory. To specify a specific part of the company, fill in the
other location fields. For example, you can specify the site, organization, or
department.

Note

Out of the box, you can only define broadcast messages for the Global
company.

Subject — A short description of what the broadcast is about

Broadcast Message — The text of your message
Broadcast Type — Select a broadcast type from the list
Broadcast Start Date and Broadcast End Date — To start the broadcast now, click
in the Broadcast Start Date field, and then press Enter. To select a date from the
calendar, click the Browse button next to the field. Select a date from the calendar on
which to start the broadcast and the date to end it. You can also specify times of the
day using the Time feature at the bottom of the calendar.
Broadcast Originated From — This is automatically filled in. The contents depend
on where you are creating the broadcast. If you broadcast from an investigation, the
value is set to Problem Investigation.
Broadcast Originated From ID — When you define a broadcast from within a record
, this field is automatically filled in. If you define a broadcast from the main console,
the field is unavailable.
View Access — To make the broadcast visible only to members of your organization,
select Internal. To make the broadcast visible from the Requester console, select
Public.
Send to Twitter? — To post the broadcast message using the configured Twitter
account, select Yes. For additional information on receiving broadcast messages
using Twitter, see Receiving BMC Remedy ITSM broadcasts on Twitter .

Note

This option is available only when you select Global in the Company field
and set the View Access value to Public.

Notify — Select Yes to broadcast notification automatically sent to an individual or

group.
If you select Yes, an Emailbutton and the Notify Support area appears.

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Use the Manual Email button to manually send an email about the broadcast.
On the Email System form, enter the recipient's email address in the Internet
Email field, and then click Send Email Now.
Use the Notify Support area to indicate which group to notify of the broadcast.
You must complete all three fields--Support Company, Support
Organization, and Support Group. The notification is sent at the time and on
the date specified in the Broadcast Start Date field.
Priority — Select a priority level for the broadcast. The choices are Low, Medium,
and High.
4. To add an attachment to the Broadcast, right-click inside the table and select Add from the
menu.
In the Add Attachment dialog box, click Open to attach the indicated file. Only one
attachment is allowed for each broadcast.
5. If you want members of another group to be able to modify the message, follow these steps:
a. Click the Authoring Groups tab, and then click Manage Authoring Groups.
b. On the Authoring Group dialog box, select the group to have authoring rights, and
then click Add.
6. Click Save.

Viewing broadcast messages

While viewing broadcasts, you can modify the message (if you belong to an authorized authoring
group), define a new broadcast message, and under some circumstances (when viewing the
message from the current record) relate the broadcast message to the current record.

To view broadcast messages

1. On the application console, click the New broadcast link that notifies you when there are
new, unread broadcast messages. If there are no new or unread broadcasts, a View
Broadcast link is displayed instead.
2. In the View broadcast dialog, select the message to view from the Broadcast table, and then
click View.
3. To view another message, close the View Broadcasts dialog box, select the broadcast
message to view, and then click View.

Limiting the number of broadcasts

When viewing broadcasts from the current Asset, Change, Problem or Incident record, you can limit
the number of broadcasts that appear in the Broadcast table.

Note

You can perform this task only when using the Classic view.

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To limit the number of broadcasts

1. From the Quick Links area of the Navigation pane, click View Broadcast.
2. On the View Broadcast dialog box, click the Broadcast Search Criteria tab, and then
complete the fields in the tab.
To return the smallest number of broadcasts, complete as many of the fields as possible.
3. When you finish specifying the search criteria, click Search.

Controlling the timing of broadcast pop-up messages

From the BMC Asset Management, BMC Change Management, BMC Service Desk:Incident
Management, and BMC Service Desk Problem Management consoles, you can control the timing
of broadcast pop-up messages. Broadcast pop-ups alert you to the presence of broadcast
messages.

The options are:

Never — Broadcast messages do not automatically pop up on the screen. You will have to
click the Broadcasts link to view them.
On Console Open — Broadcasts messages display on the screen when you open the
console.
On Console Refresh — New broadcast messages display only when you refresh the
console.

To set the timing of pop-up messages

1. From the application console, choose Functions > Application Preferences.

2. In the Request Preferences form, click the Broadcast tab.
3. In the Broadcast Auto Popup field, specify one of the following default settings:
Never
On Console Open
On New Broadcast
4. Click Save.

Note

For the changes to take effect, you must close the application and log on again.

For more information, view this short video on broadcasts.

Disclaimer

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Although the concepts and procedures presented in this video are correct, the user
interfaces shown are not current.

Searching for knowledge articles

The following topics describe how to define simple and advanced searches to search for knowledge
articles, and how to use search results:

Types of knowledge search

Accessing the search page
Knowledge search guidelines
Performing simple searches
Performing advanced searches
Using knowledge search to resolve incidents and investigate problems
Using knowledge search to resolve requests
Understanding search results
Using search results

Types of knowledge search

BMC Knowledge Management enables you to search for knowledge contained in your knowledge
database by using the following search types:

Simple search — Perform a search for knowledge that contains any of the search words.
Advanced search — Provide additional search criteria to narrow your search results.

After you perform a search, the search result that match your most recent search criteria are
displayed on the Simple Search page. Depending on your user permissions, you can open a
search result for viewing, editing, using, printing, and modifying. Searches are deleted when you
close the Search page.

In addition to procedural instructions, this section contains common use cases that you might
typically encounter when performing simple or advanced searches. Although Calbro Services user
personas illustrate the use cases, no references are intended toward specific Calbro Services
sample data or real-life users.

Note

Search results contain only those articles that you are permitted to view, and which fulfill
all of the search criteria. Procedures and references to page elements provided in this
section use default settings and values, and do not reflect customized settings.

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Accessing the search page

You can search for knowledge articles from the following locations:

BMC Remedy Action Request System (AR System) Home page — Applications >
Knowledge Management > Search Knowledge.
All users can search from this location.
BMC Knowledge Management Console — Navigation pane > Functions > Search
Knowledge.
Only authorized users can search from this location.

Knowledge search guidelines

The following guidelines apply when performing search queries:

Use the words that are most likely to appear in the knowledge article's title or contents.
Choose descriptive and unique words.
Check your spelling.
Check that the criteria is accurate when searching for specific knowledge article titles or
exact phrases.
Do not use identical search words in both the Include all of these words field and the
Exclude these words field.
Use a space to separate search words in Search Text fields.
Use the percent sign (%) to represent a wildcard search.

Knowledge search might be affected by the following settings:

Permission to view certain knowledge articles

Case-sensitivity settings
Stemming configuration
List of stop words

The following characters have special meaning in Full Text Search and may affect the search
results when used unintentionally.

Character Description

" Performs a word or phrase search on the terms enclosed in double quotation marks (").

, Finds requests that contain any of the specified words.

% Wildcard to extend the search.

Note: You do not need to use a wildcard to extend the search for word stems, such as "ed", "s", and "ing"
because word stems are automatically included.

() Indicate an enclosed component within a Boolean search phrase.

Note: If you insert an opening parenthesis, you must also add a closing parenthesis.

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Character Description

For more information about using parentheses in your query string, see Entering search terms in the BMC
Remedy AR System online technical documentation.

AND, OR, NOT, When in all caps, are interpreted as a Boolean search.
AND NOT

Related topics
Performing an accrue search

Using the advanced search bar

Performing simple searches

The Simple Search page enables you to perform simple searches. When you enter multiple query
terms as search criteria, BMC Knowledge Management uses the Boolean OR operation to query
the knowledge base. For example, if you enter hardware software failure, BMC Knowledge
Management returns results that contain any of these terms.

Note

In Simple Search, you must enter search criteria in the Search field. Searching with a
blank Search field returns no search results.

Scenario

The following example depicts how Joe Unser might perform a simple search to search for
knowledge.

Joe Unser wants to search the knowledge database for information about a task he is
performing--ordering a new laptop. Joe can perform a simple search for this information
by entering a phrase or word in natural query language. He enters the following search
criteria: How do I order a new laptop?

This information could be contained in the database in various ways.

To perform a simple search

1. Access the Simple Search page.

2. In the Search field, type your search terms.

If you define search criteria on the Advanced Search page and then click the Simple Search

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link, the Use Advanced Search Criteria check box is displayed next to the Advanced
Search link on the Simple Search page. Selecting this check box applies all of the search
criteria you defined on the Advanced Search page.

Note

You can define and saved preferred sources on the Advanced Search page. Then,
the Use preferences check box is displayed next to the Search field on the Simple
Search page. By default, the check box is selected and is locked, and search
results are limited based on the saved criteria.
For more information, see Using predefined search criteria.

3. Click Search.
4. (optional) Change the search criteria and perform a new search, as required.

Performing advanced searches

The Advanced Search page provides fields that you can use to define additional search criteria and
narrow your search results, as follows:

Enter more specific search criteria (for example, searching for an exact phrase instead of
separate keywords).
Provide additional search criteria.

After you set advanced search parameters, the Use Advanced Search Criteria check box appears
in the Simple Search page. This enables you to change search words and include advanced search
parameters without having to go back to the Advanced Search page.

To perform an advanced search

1. Click Advanced Search.

2. Click section headings to expand or hide sections, as required.
3. Define your search criteria, using the parameters shown in Advanced Search parameters.

Note

Use a space to separate search words that you enter as text.

4. (optional)Select sources in the Sources panel, using the information provided in the following
table. By default, all sources are selected.
Search source tasks

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Task Action

Select one or more sources. Select the check box or boxes next to the topic of choice.

Deselect one or more topics. Clear the check box or boxes next to the topic of choice.

Select all topics for all sources. Click Select All.

Deselect all topics for all sources. Click Deselect All.

You can save your source selection, and re-use those preferences in future searches. For
more information, see Using predefined search criteria.
5. (optional) Define one or more value combinations for use as search criteria in the General,
Operational Categorization, Product Categorization, Environment, and Business Service
panels.
Example:
a. Open the Operational Categorization panel, and select a value for Tier 1, Tier 2, and
Tier 3.
b. Click Add Operational to add the search to the search criteria table.
c. Select another value (for example, for Tiers 1 and Tier 2, or for Tier 1 only).
d. Click Add Operational. Two search values are defined for this section, and searches
are performed for Value 1 or Value 2 (using the OR operator).
e. To delete a value, select the value and click Delete.
6. (optional) Click Clear All to clear all the Advanced Search criteria.
7. Click Search.
The Simple Search page opens and displays the search results.
8. (optional) Click Advanced Search to go back to the Advanced Search page and refine your
search criteria, as required.

Recommended practice example

Francie Stafford a Support staff member, needs to search the knowledge database for a
topic on which she is working. She is investigating a commonly recognized problem based
on a series of recently received requests. Based on the data, Francie wants to build an
advanced search. She needs to be as efficient as possible and to find the most relevant
information. To achieve maximum efficiency, she needs to be able to search on specific
fields and various field combinations, including multiple field values, building the strings
into an advanced search string. For example, her search could be a combination of
products in a similar family, such as the BMC Remedy product line, or based on
operational categorization, such as account security and upgrades.

Related topic
Advanced Search parameters

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Advanced Search parameters

The following table describes the Advanced Search parameters that you can use to filter and
narrow your search. If no value is entered for a field, the search is performed on all articles that you
have permission to view.

When you specify multiple parameters, the search performs an AND operation between the
searched words and the parameters. For example, if you specify values for Date and Company,
the system searches for any article that contain the searched words and the date value and the
company value.

When you specify multiple values within the same parameter, the search performs an OR operation
between the values of that parameter. For example, if you specify several values within Product
Categorization, the system searches for any article that contains the searched words and any one
of the specified Product Categorization values.

You can search for articles across multiple companies by selecting several companies in the
Organization section.

Note

For information about performing an Advanced Search, see Performing advanced

searches.

Advanced Search parameters

Section Field Description Comments

Search Text Search Searches for results that contain This field and the Search field on the Simple Search page
any of the specified terms. are the same field.

Include all of Searches for results that contain

these words all of the specified terms.

Exclude Searches for results that contain

these words none of the specified terms.

Include this Searches for the specified string

exact phrase of words.

Note: You must provide search criteria in at least one of the Search Text fields. If all of these fields are blank, no
search results are returned.

General Language Language that is defined for the

knowledge article.

Article ID Knowledge article ID of a specific

article to be searched for.

Article Status Knowledge article status.

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Section Field Description Comments

Only users who have been assigned a BMC Knowledge

Management role can view this field.

Sources Source Individual knowledge database Each source belongs to a company. If you have unrestricted
Name partitions for knowledge available access permission, you can view all the sources for all the
for selection. Enables you to companies. In addition, BMC Remedy AR System form-level
search specific sources relevant permissions are also applied based on the role or group
to your search instead of the permissions defined for the form that is being searched.
entire database.
You can define and saved preferred sources on the
Advanced Search page. Then, the Use preferences check
box is displayed next to the Search field on the Simple
Search page. By default, the check box is selected and is
locked, and search results are limited based on the saved
criteria.

For more information, see Using predefined search criteria.

Organization Company Companies that are defined for To add companies to the search, select a company and click
the knowledge article search. Add Company.

Organization Subdivided group within a A company selection precedes the value of the
/Department company. A company can have Organization field allowing you to select the company for
several organizations or that parameter. To add an organization, select one from the
departments depending on the list and click Add Org/Dep.
company structure.

Region Geographic area; a company can A company selection precedes the value of the Region field,
have several regions, depending allowing you to select the company for that parameter.
on how many sites it has and
where the sites are located. Note: The menus and values are identical to those used by
BMC Remedy ITSM products.

Site Group Subdivided region, collection of Displays values according to the company and region that
individual locations; a company you selected.
can have any number of site
groups, depending on how many
locations it has and where the
locations are.

Site Individual location within a Displays values according to the company, region, and site
subdivided region. group that you selected, or all sites, if no higher-level data is
provided.

Dates Created Commonly used date range Select None to clear dates.
Date Range values that use today's date as
the latest date for knowledge
article creation.

Created Earliest date on which a You can enter no date, both dates, or either date.
Date From knowledge article was created.

Created Last date on which a knowledge

Date To article was created.

Last Commonly used date range Select None to clear dates.

Modified values that use today's date as
Date Range the latest date for knowledge
article modification.

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Section Field Description Comments

Last Earliest date on which a You can enter no date, both dates, or either date.
Modified knowledge article was modified.
Date From

Last Last date on which a knowledge

Modified article was modified.
Date To

Operational Operational First level of operational services Up to three hierarchical levels of operational services. Can
Categories Category also contain items that represent symptoms of incidents and
Tier 1 problems. Available values depend on the value selected for
the previous tier.
Operational Second level of operational
Category services
Tier 2

Operational Third level of operational services

Category
Tier 3

Product Product First level The Product Categorization is used to categorize different
Categorization Category products or configuration items. Available values depend on
Tier 1 the company and the value selected for the previous tier.
Product categorization can be associated with different
Product Second level processes for different companies.
Category
Tier 2

Product Third level

Category
Tier 3

Product
Name

Model/
Version

Manufacturer

Business Business As configured for your company

Services Service by the administrator

Using predefined search criteria

When you perform an advanced search for knowledge articles, you can save the knowledge source
selections and reuse those settings again whenever you perform a simple search, an advanced
search, or a global search.

When you perform a global search, this functionality is available from any BMC Remedy
ITSM application console. However, when you search for knowledge articles, this
functionality is available only in the Knowledge Management Console. You cannot save or
re-use sources when you access the Knowledge Search page by clicking the Search
Knowledge Base link on the Incident, Known Error, and Problem forms.

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Managing predefined search criteria

The following buttons are available in the Sources section of the Advanced Search window in the
Knowledge Management Console:

Button Description

Add/Modify Saves the knowledge source selections or overwrites your existing preferences.

Restore Clears the current selection and re-applies your preferred sources.

Note: This button is displayed only after you click Add/Modify and save your source preferences for the first time.

Remove Deletes your preferred sources. Thereafter, global search displays results from all available sources.

Note: This button is displayed only after you click Add/Modify and save your source preferences for the first time.

Using your preferred criteria to perform a search

When you perform a simple search or a global search, the Use Preferences check box is
displayed next to the Search field. The Use Preferences check box is selected by default and is
locked. Search results are limited to the saved sources.

When you perform an advanced search, click Restore to clear the selected sources and re-apply
your preferred sources.

The Use Preferences check box is displayed only if you have saved your source
preferences by clicking Add/Modify on the Advanced Search screen.

Using knowledge search to resolve incidents and investigate

problems
If you have installed BMC Knowledge Management along with BMC Service Desk, you can use
knowledge search to look for existing documented solutions to similar incidents, or for assistance
with identifying the root cause during a problem investigation.

Perform the following steps to use knowledge search with BMC Service Desk.

To search for a knowledge article from a BMC Service Desk record

1. Open the record that you are working on.

2. Click the Search Knowledge Base link to launch the Search Knowledge dialog box. The
location of the link differs depending on the view that you use.
Best Practice view — Click Functions > Search Knowledge Base.
Classic view — Click Quick Links > Search Knowledge Base.

3.
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3. An advanced search is performed automatically, using values from the Categorization tab
of the Incident, Problem, or Known Error record, and the search results are displayed.

Note

To modify the search criteria, click the Advanced Search link in the Search
Knowledge dialog box and modify them as required. If you prefer to search by
keyword only, clear the check boxes in the Product Categorization and Operational
Categorization sections.
For more information, see Performing advanced searches .

4. Select a knowledge article in the list of search results to view it.

5. (Optional) If you find the information in the knowledge article useful, click Use.
Alternatively, you can click Relate to relate the knowledge article to the Incident. For more
information see, Creating a relationship with a BMC Service Desk record .

For Incident records, clicking Use populates the fields in the Categorization tab
with the resolutions categories that are defined in the knowledge article.
Additionally, a Resolved by relationship with the knowledge article is created. For
more information, see Categorizing documented resolutions.

Using knowledge search to resolve requests

If you have installed BMC Knowledge Management along with BMC Service Request Management,
you can search the knowledge base for documented resolutions for requests that are assigned to
you.

Note

You can view only published knowledge articles. Additionally, knowledge articles in which
the Internal Use field has been set to Yes do not appear in search results.

To search the knowledge base for request resolutions

1. From a browser, open the Request Entry console.

2.
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2. Enter a keyword (for example, Printer or Pr%) in the Search field, and click the Search icon
.
The search results list articles and requests that match your criteria. Long lists are paginated
. Click More to view the expanded search view. The pagination drop-down menu displays
the range of articles, and you can select the range that you want to view.
3. Click the title of the knowledge article that you want to view.
Optionally, you can submit feedback on the article to indicate whether the information was
helpful. You can also rate the article and enter additional feedback in the Comments field.

Understanding search results

Search results are displayed in order based on the relevance score, according to your document
viewing permissions. The most relevant result appears at the top of your results list. The number of
search results that match your search criteria is displayed above the search results list. At the
bottom of the list, you can click Previous or Next to navigate among the result pages.

Identifying knowledge types in search results

Search result relevance

Identifying knowledge types in search results

Search results are distinguishable by the icon that represents their knowledge type.

Icon Knowledge type

Knowledge base item — A knowledge source that is retrieved from an existing BMC Remedy AR System form or from
an external file system. If required, BMC Knowledge Management can keep and manage the metadata of this source.
For knowledge base items retrieved from an existing BMC Remedy AR System form, BMC Knowledge Management
can maintain life-cycle management. See Article life cycle .

Searchable item — A knowledge source for which BMC Knowledge Management does not keep or manage metadata
or life cycle.

Search result relevance

When a search is performed, articles are displayed in the search results according to the article
relevance for the search criteria. Article relevance is calculated using the following details:

Search criteria — According to the number of times that the search criteria was found in an
article, the number of words in a searched phrase, and the order of words in a searched
phrase.
Article boost parameter — Increases relevance when an article was found useful or viewed
by users, as follows:
Use — You indicate that an article is useful to you by clicking the Use button that is
available for that article.
View — You open an article for viewing from the search result list.

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Note

Use and View actions are calculated individually, according to configured

settings.

When recalculated for a Published article, the boost parameter is also recalculated for
any Draft article that has been created from the Published article. Therefore, the
relevance of the Draft remains identical to that of the Published article.

Using search results

After you perform a search, you can click a result to open it in the Display view, which displays the
result in read-only mode. You can perform the following tasks, according to your permissions:

Click Use if the information is useful to you.

Click Advanced View to open the article.

Using watch lists

The Watch List feature enables you to maintain a dynamic list of articles that are monitored for
changes. When a change is made to a watched article, you receive a notification about the change.
E-mail engine settings define when and how notifications of changes to articles are sent to you.

You can add any article displayed in the KM Console to your watch list, even if an article is
reassigned to a group to which you do not belong. Articles remain on the watch list until you
remove them.

Watch list rules enable you to define rules at the categorization level, so that you receive
notifications about changes that are made to any knowledge articles that match the definitions.

This section provides the following topics:

Watch List scenarios

Managing knowledge articles on your watch list
Managing watch list rules

Watch List scenarios

This topic describes two common use cases that you might use when working with watch lists.

Scenario A
A Knowledge User wants to be aware of any updates to an article. The watch list provides a place
for the user to look at watched articles. When any change or update is made to a watched article,
the system notifies the user. Additionally, the user can watch an entire category so that they are
notified when any related article changes or new articles are added.

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Scenario B
A Knowledge Manager or Supervisor wants to keep track of specific articles that might require
special attention (for example, if the article is approaching a review time or the manager wants to
monitor an article's progress). The manager adds an article to the watch list and is able to focus on
the watch list instead of the entire queue. A notification is sent to this manager when any change is
made to watched articles.

Managing knowledge articles on your watch list

This topic provides information about managing the knowledge articles that appear on your watch
list.

To add articles to the watch list

Use one of the following methods to add articles to the watch list:

In the Knowledge Management Console, select one or more articles and click Add To
Watch List.
Open a knowledge article. Under Functions, click Add To Watch List.

To view your watch list

1. In the Knowledge Management Console, select Show > Watch list.

2. Click Watch List.

Note

When you view the watch list, the Company and View By fields are disabled.

To remove articles from the watch list

In the watch list, select one or more watched articles, and click Remove From Watch List.

Managing watch list rules

Use the Watch List Rules page to define watch list rules at the Operational and Product
categorization level, per company. When articles that match these definitions are changed, a
notification is sent to you. Articles that match the definitions are not added to the watch list.

The Watch List Rules page is divided into two panes:

My Watch List Rules — Enables you to add, edit, and delete rules.
Group Watch List Rules — Enables Knowledge Admin users to add, edit, and delete rules
for any existing support group, including those of which they are not members. These rules
are displayed for and apply to all members of a support group for which rules have been
defined. However, only Knowledge Admin users can edit and delete these rules.

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To create watch list rules

1. Under Functions, click Watch List Rules.

2. In the Watch List Rules page, click Create.
3. Set the company, operational, and product categorization filters.
4. Click Save.

To view and edit watch list rules

1. Under Functions, click Watch List Rules.

2. In the Watch List Rules page, click View.
3. To edit the rule, make the necessary changes and then click Save.
4. To close the rule without saving changes, click Close.

To delete watch list rules

1. Under Functions, click Watch List Rules.

2. In the Watch List Rules page, select the rule to delete.
3. Click Delete.

Note

Watch List rules remain active until you delete them.

Managing update requests

The Update Requests feature enables Support staff to leave comments for articles that they are
permitted to view and to describe the changes they would like to see. The person that is assigned
to an article receives this update request through the KM Console and is responsible for handling it.

The assignee and all members of the assignee's Support Group can open the article that needs to
be modified. All users can add comments about the article, but only the assignee and Knowledge
Admin users can change the update request status.

Internal users, such as Knowledge Admin, Knowledge User, Knowledge Submitter, and Knowledge
Viewer users, can create and view update requests for the current article in the Update Requests
table from either the KM Console or from the Update Requests tab in the knowledge article.

This section provides the following topics:

Update request status

Using the Update Requests tab
Update Request scenario

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Creating update requests

Replying to update requests

Update request status

The Knowledge Management Console includes four areas where you can be informed about
update requests with New and In Progress statuses:

In Navigation pane > Knowledge Counts > Update Requests , you can see the number of
update requests for the articles you are permitted to view.
In Navigation pane > Defined Searches > Has Update Requests , you can choose to see
articles with update requests, as follows:
All — All articles with update requests.
Not Published — Draft, In Review, and Published Approval articles with update
requests.
Published — Published, Retire Approval, and Retired articles with update requests.
The Knowledge table contains a column that indicates which articles contain update
requests.
The update request table contains all the update requests that are associated with the
selected article in the Knowledge table.

Using the Update Requests tab

The Update Requests tab contains a table that displays the information that is entered for the
current article.

The following table describes the fields in the New Update Request dialog box and the Update
Request Info dialog box, which you access from the Update Requests tab when you choose to
create or view an update request.

Update Request dialog box fields

Field Description Value type Comments

Update All available types: Drop-down

Request list
Type Technical update
Enhancement
Proofreading
Other

Status Drop-down When opening the update Request Info dialog box the assignee can
New — Initial status. list change the status to In Progress, Completed, or Rejected. Every
When a user creates change in the Status field to Completed or Rejected requires the
a new request, its user to add comments. After an update request has a final status, the
status is New and the user cannot add any more comments.
article assignee is
notified.

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Field Description Value type Comments

In Progress Note
Completed
Completed and Rejected are final statuses that are not
Rejected
counted or displayed in the Knowledge Management
Console.

Article Version of the current article. Automatically

Version populated

Request Brief update request Free text

Summary summary.

Request Detailed explanation of the Free text

Details update request.

Request All comments that have Automatically

Comments been made for the update populated
request.

New Comment added by the Free text

Comment current assignee.

Submitter Name of the update request Automatically

submitter populated

Submit Date of the update request Automatically

Date submission populated

Update Request scenario

Ian Plyment, a Support specialist, is looking for a solution to a customer ticket and performs a
search for relevant articles. From the results, Ian opens the article that seems to resolve the issue.
When testing the solution, Ian discovers that the solution in the article is not accurate and that the
actual solution requires a few more actions.

Scenario

Ian opens the article and selects the Update Request table. He clicks Create, and the
New Update Request dialog box opens. He enters the extra steps needed for the solution
in the Request Details field, fills in values for the other fields, and clicks Save.

The Assignee gets a notification that this specific article has a new update request. The
Assignee logs into the system, opens the Knowledge Management Console, and sees
that the relevant article has a Yes value in the Update Requests column of the Knowledge
table. The Assignee performs the following steps:

1. Selects the article and sees the update requests in the table field below.

2.
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2. Selects that update request and clicks the View icon that is located above the table
. The Update Request Info dialog box opens and displays the update request
details.

The Assignee can also choose to select other update requests from the table and view
their details.

The Assignee performs one of the following actions:

The Assignee re-creates the solution steps and verifies that the extra steps are
needed. In the knowledge article, the Assignee accesses the update request and
changes the request status to Completed after adding comments in the New
Comments field.
The Assignee re-creates the solution steps but discovers that steps are not needed
. In the Knowledge Management Console, the Assignee accesses the update
request, changes the update request status to Rejected, and adds comments in
the New Comments field.

Creating update requests

Users can add an update request to articles that have Draft, Review, and Published statuses.
When a new Draft version of an article is created, all New and In Progress update requests that are
related to the Published article automatically move to the new Draft status. Update requests that
are created for this Draft version are not displayed for the original Published article.

To create an update request

1. Click the Create icon in one of the following locations:

In the Knowledge Management Console, select the article in the Knowledge table,
and then click Create above the Update Requests table.
In an open knowledge article, click the Details tab, click the Update Requests tab,
and then click Create.
2. In the New Update Request dialog box, provide the appropriate information.
3. Click Save.

Replying to update requests

When you view an update request, you can only update the status, add a new comment, and add
an attachment.

Note

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To change the status of an update request, you must be the article assignee or owner, or
you must have the Knowledge Admin permission.

To open and reply to an update request

1. Click the View icon in one of the following locations:

In the KM Console, select the article in the Knowledge table, and then click View
above the Update Requests table.
In an open knowledge article, click the Details tab, click the Update Requests tab,
and then click View.
2. Add new comments in the Update Request Info dialog box as follows:
a. Enter your comment in the New Comment field.
b. Click Add Comments.
3. To enhance your comments, add attachments in the Update Request Info dialog box as
follows:
a. Click Add in the Attachments table.
b. Enter the location of up to three attachments, and click OK.
c. Click Save.

If you select an attachment in the Attachments table, new buttons are displayed that enable you to
perform additional tasks such as deleting, displaying, and saving the attachment.

Sending a knowledge article by e-mail

The Email System enables Support staff to send a link to a knowledge article via e-mail to a user
who requires help with an issue or for information purposes, and to, optionally, email information
about the article. You can send an e-mail message to any valid e-mail address. In addition, the
Email Log enables you to view the email messages that you sent through the Email System. When
you select the Email Log tab, the Email Information pane remains visible.

To send a knowledge article by e-mail

1. Open a knowledge article.
2. Click Email.
3. Use any of the following methods to define the e-mail message recipient:
Fill in at least one field in the People Search Criteria section and click Search. When
the search finishes, select the recipient's name in the search results table.

Note

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If you need help determining the correct name in the list, you can see more
information about an individual by selecting their name from the list, and
clicking View. Doing this opens the People form, which contains detailed
information about the recipient.

Click Select Current Contact. If a contact is assigned to the article, the contact's
name with contact information appears in the table and is the default recipient.
Click Select Current Assignee. The current assignee's name with contact
information appears in the table.
4. To add multiple recipients, separate the names with a semicolon ( ;) character. Do not insert
a space between the names and the semicolon

Note

You can continue to scroll down the search result list to find additional e-mail
addresses for insertion, or perform a new search. However, selecting a search
result replaces the current email addresses with the selection.

5. Complete the e-mail information fields, as follows:

Internet E-mail — Displays the recipient's e-mail address. When you select the email
recipient, as described in step 3, the Internet email address updates from the people
record.
Email Subject Line — Displays the Knowledge Article ID number by default. You can
change the content of the subject line.
Email Message Body — Contains the URL of the article. You can also type a
message text here, or use the series of buttons to the right of the Email Message
Bodyfield to automatically insert text from the article into the message text, as follows
:
Status — Adds the English value of the article status string.
Summary — Adds the article title.
Details — Adds the Company, Organization, Department, and all
Categorizationdata.

Note

If one or more buttons are disabled, the corresponding field in the

article contains no information. The Resolution button is disabled for
all articles; it is designated for future releases.

6. (optional) Attach a single file to the email message, as follows:

a.
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a. Right-click inside the Email Attachment table.

b. Click Add.
c. In the Add Attachment dialog box, browse to and select the file that you want to
attach.
7. Click Send Email Now.

Submitting and viewing feedback

Feedback on an article enables users in your organization to decide if a retrieved article is useful
for them. The more feedback that is available for an article, the easier it is for users to make that
decision. Feedback can be submitted and viewed by all users that have permission to see that
article.

To add feedback to an article

1. Select the article to which you want to add feedback.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. Select the Feedback tab.
4. Click Create.
5. In the Feedback page, select a rating from the list and type your comments in the Feedback
Details field.
6. Click Submit.
Your feedback feedback is added to the knowledge article, and a notification about it is sent
to the article assignee and to all users who have the article on their watch list.

To view feedback for an article

1. Select the article for which you want to read feedback.
2. Click the Details tab.
3. Select the Feedback tab.
4. Select the feedback entry that you want to read and click View.
You can choose whether to view feedback for all versions of the article or just for the current
version. If you choose to view the feedback for all versions, click on the version column
header to sort the feedback by version.

Tagging a knowledge article as a favorite

Users with Knowledge Admin permissions can use the Favorite option to tag a knowledge article
as a favorite. Favorite articles are added to the Popular Articles list that is displayed on the
Request Entry Console in BMC Service Request Management.

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To tag a knowledge article as a favorite

1. While viewing a knowledge article, click the Details tab and then the Feedback tab.
2. From the Favorite list, select Yes.
3. Save the knowledge article.

Using Global Search

If you have BMC Knowledge Management installed, you can use the Global search feature in any
of the BMC Remedy ITSM application consoles.

Global search searches across multiple forms for records that match a word or phrase that you type
in the search area.

Note

Global search results include information only from the forms that you have
permission to access. That is, you need permission to access an application to
have its records appear in the search results.
The Global search does not include BMC Asset Management CI's .

This topic provides the following information:

To use Global search

Limitation
Special characters and boolean expressions in Global search

To use Global search

1. In the text field to the right of the breadcrumb bar, type your search string and then click the
Search icon.

Global search

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As of Service Pack 1 for version 8.1.00, BMC Knowledge Management users can define and
save their preferred sources on the Advanced Search screen in the Knowledge Management
Console. These saved criteria are automatically applied whenever you perform a Global
search, and search results are limited to the defined sources. For more information, see
Using predefined search criteria.
2. Locate the record you want in the search results table and double-click it.
The record opens in the viewing area and the system updates the breadcrumb trail with an
entry for the record you opened.

Note

As you drill down through the record, each record you open is also added to the
breadcrumb trail.
If you want to maintain the contents of the search results table to view later, do not
change the text in the Search field. If you do, when you click the Search icon to
return to the search results table, the search feature will execute a new search
based on the changed content of the Search field.

3. To return to the search results table, click the Search icon again.

Limitation
Global search results might include external files that have been registered as knowledge base
items. If the search conditions are fulfilled by XML or HTML files that have been registered in this
way, the Global Search Results screen appears distorted due to the tags that are used in XML and
HTML files. Additionally, the Advanced search link on the search results screen becomes
unresponsive.

Asset CIs are not included in the Global Search.

Special characters and boolean expressions in Global search

Global search uses Full Text Search (FTS) to find the search strings in requests and other records.
Some characters are used to control the search criteria, as indicated in the following table.

Special characters and their results

Special Results Example Example

character search string results

" Performs a phrase search on the terms enclosed in the double-quotation "firewall
marks. blocked" firewall
( blocked
double-quotation her
marks) access

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Special Results Example Example

character search string results

firewall
blocking
my
access

, Find requests that contain any of the specified words separated by a

comma firewall, firewall
(comma) blocking blocks
"firewall access
, firewall
blocking will
" block
access
firewall
is not
working
try
blocking
his
access

% Wildcard to extend the search %fire%

backfire
(percent symbol fire
Note: You do not need to use a wildcard to extend the search for word
) firewall
stems, such as "ed," "s", and "ing," because word stems are automatically
included.

Note

Searches that start with a wildcard character are not as efficient as searches that use an
exact phrase or a trailing wildcard. For example, searching for the term "%block" is less
efficient than searching for either "block" or "block%".

You can use use boolean expressions in your search. Boolean operators include parentheses (),
AND, OR, and NOT. The boolean operators must be specified in upper case; otherwise, they are
treated as search strings.

Boolean operators and their results

Boolean Results Example search Example results

operator string

AND Find requests that contain all of the specified words firewall AND blocking
and phrases firewall blocks access
firewall will block
access

OR firewall OR blocking

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Boolean Results Example search Example results

operator string

Find requests that contain any of the specified words firewall blocks access
and phrases firewall will block
access
firewall is not working
try blocking his access

NOT Exclude the specified word or phrase firewall NOT blocking firewall is not working

() group expressions firewall AND (block,

allow) firewall blocking
access
set up firewall to allow
access

Global search results reflect both the search terms and the configuration of full text search.
Configurable options that affect search results include case sensitivity, the list of ignored words,
thesaurus, and stemming. For more information about full text search, see Enabling full text search.

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Administering
For information about using Data Management to load data, see Data Management.

For information about Archiving, see Archiving knowledge articles.

Also see these and other topics in the Configuring after installation section:

Performing a standard configuration

Managing knowledge sources
Configuring approvals
Working with reports
Managing notifications
Configuring application settings
Converting XML-based articles from the 7.2 and 7.5 releases

Archiving knowledge articles

Starting with version 9.0 of BMC Knowledge Management, knowledge articles are automatically
archived at regular intervals. The Archiving process is enabled by default and runs every 24 hours,
however, you can configure the frequency with which it runs. You can also disable the process.

Note

Click here for a detailed description of which forms are included in the Archive process.

The following information is provided:

Why archive?
Related topics

Why archive?
Archiving data regularly provides the following benefits:

Reduces the size of your production data sets.

Improves overall system performance (for example, searches run more quickly, because
searches only look at production data, not archived data).
Enforces organizational data retention policies.

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When an Archiving process takes place, it copies data from a production form and its associated
forms to a set of corresponding archive forms and then deletes the data from the production forms.
This work all happens within the same database. Later, you can remove older data from the archive
form by performing an export process. Exporting data from the archive removes it from the
database either by moving it to a .csv file, deleting it, or both.

Notes

Archiving is not about backing up data. It’s about maintaining system performance and
enabling record retention policies by removing obsolete records from the system. Click
here for more information about what happens to records when they are archived.

You can exclude individual records from being archived as described in Preventing a
record from being archived in the BMC Remedy ITSM documentation space.

Related topics
The following topics in the BMC Remedy ITSM 9.0 documentation space provide more information
about how the Archiving process works in the BMC Remedy ITSM applications:

Archiving (describes Archiving concepts in the form of FAQs)

Archiving architecture

Managing the Archiving process policies

Preventing a record from being archived

Troubleshooting the Archiving process

Accessing the Application Administration

Console
You can open the Application Administration Console from a browser.

To open the console from a browser

1. Type the following URL into your browser:
http://<webServer>:<port>/arsys/forms/<arsystemServer>/HomePage
<webServer> is the fully qualified name of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier system,
specified in the format <server_name>.<company>.com.
<port> is an optional port number, which is needed if the web server is not on the
default port (port 80).

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<arsystemServer> is the name of the BMC Remedy AR System Server that contains
the application.

Note

If the BMC Remedy Mid Tier system and the application are on the same
server, you can omit the BMC Remedy AR System Server name.

2. In the User Name and Password fields of the Welcome page, enter your user name and
password.
3. Click Login.
4. On the IT Home page, click the Application Administration Console link. The Application
Administration Console appears.

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Developing
The following topics provide information about development options for BMC Knowledge
Management:

Adding relevancy boost parameters to searchable forms

Modifying the default names for optional review statuses
Modifying the way searchable articles are opened from search results
Using web services

Adding relevancy boost parameters to

searchable forms
Each indexed form that you want to participate in the use or view article boost relevancy
calculations must have a real number field with id = 177 defined in it. The field can be in any view of
the form and cannot be a display-only field.

To participate in the recalculation of the relevancy boost value, you pass the request details and
event details to the RKM:EventInterface interface form.

When a user marks an article interesting for view, pass the view article event to the interface
.
To make sure that the article falls under the BMC Knowledge Management definition for
boosting, check the parent form name to verify that the form was opened from RKM:
SearchDialog.
You can add a Use button to the form. When users find an article useful, they click Use and
the use article event is sent to the interface.

To view, use, or send events to the interface

1. Use the RKM:KAM:OnBtnUse_100_sendEvent active link as a sample for sending events.
2. Pass the following fields and values and ignore all other fields:
RequestBubmitDate — Set to $TIMESTAMP$
CallingUser — Set to $USER$
ArticleRequestId — Set to the value of field #1 ( Request ID)
Action — Set to USEARTICLE or VIEWARTICLE depending on the required event
ArticleCompany — The company of the request
ArticleForm — Set to $SCHEMA$
ArticleTitle — The value of the field that is mapped to the Full Text Search article
title
ArticleStatus — Set to Published

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Manufacturer — If you have a field that may be mapped to manufacturer, use this
value. If not, you can ignore this field
ModelVersion — If you have a field that may be mapped to model or version, use
this value. If not, you can ignore this field
Operational Categorization Tier 1 2 and 3 — If you have fields that may be mapped
to operational and/or product categorization tiers, use these values. If not, you can
ignore these fields.
Product name — If you have a field that may be mapped to product name, use this
value. If not, you can ignore this field.
ArticleServer — Set to $SERVER$
ArticleBusinessService — If you have a field that may be mapped to business
service, use this value. If not, you can ignore this field.
Article Instance Id — If you have a field id 179, you can use it or any other GUID
that identifies the request.

For more information, you can visit the BMC Communities blog, Understanding and influencing
what’s trending in Remedy Knowledge Management .

Modifying the default names for optional review

statuses
BMC Knowledge Management comes with default names for optional review statuses. The default
names are:

Optional Review 1 — Content Review

Optional Review 2 – Proofreading

You can change the default review status names by using BMC Knowledge Management
configuration and form customization.

To modify the default names for optional review statuses, you must perform the following
procedures:

Modify default review status names in configuration

Modify default review status names in form customization

Modify default review status names in configuration

Note

You must have Knowledge Config permissions to perform this procedure.

1.
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1. In the Application Administration Console, choose Custom Configuration > Knowledge

Management > Knowledge Management Status Configuration > Status Localization .
2. Perform a search to get all the records.
3. Select the record you want according to Article Status and Language.
4. Modify the text in the Article Status String field and click Save.

Modify default review status names in form customization

Notes

This change is performed in BMC Remedy Developer Studio and affects the BMC
Knowledge Management Flashboards and the Article Revisions table only.
You must be a BMC Remedy AR System Administrator to perform this procedure.
If you do not perform this step, the values for review statuses in the Flashboards
and the Article Revisions table remain as default.

1. Open BMC Remedy Developer Studio.

2. Open the RKM:KnowledgeArticleManager form.
3. Select the language you want to display.
For example, Display View for English; Display View-fr for French; Display View-ja for
Japanese.
4. Open the Selections attribute of the StatusSelectionField (302312185) field and change the
Alias value for Optional Review 1 or Optional Review 2 to the name you want.
5. Save the form and flush the BMC Remedy Mid Tier cache.
6. To refresh the browser cache, display an article and click Refresh (Internet Explorer) or
Reload (Mozilla Firefox).

Modifying the way searchable articles are

opened from search results
By default, all searchable articles are opened with form name and request ID taken from the search
results and view name in the Display window type is null.

To customize the open mode and view of searchable articles

To open a different form than the returned form

When you register AR forms as searchable articles, you can customize the way that these articles
are opened from search results. You can provide BMC Knowledge Management workflow with
customized form view or opening mode by setting the following parameters:

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The form view is set in the z1D_viewToOpen (id = 302258834) field of the RKM:
SearchDialog form.
The open mode is set in the z1D_openMode (id = 302258831) field of the RKM:
SearchDialog form.
Select either of the following modes to open the window in Modify Directly mode.
Display — Opens the window in Modify Directly mode.
Modify — Opens the window in Modify Directly mode.

Note

Currently, both modes open the same window type.

To customize the open mode and view of searchable articles

1. Create a new active link for the RKM:SearchDialog form.
a. Under Run If Qualification, enter the string:

('z1D_viewArticleForm' = "FormName")

Where "FormName" is the name of the form that you want to customize.
Example

('z1D_viewArticleForm' = "ABC:My form"

b. Under If Actions, set values to the fields:

z1D_openMode — Select the mode that the form will open with (Display or
Modify).
To add other modes, open the form in Development Studio, select the
WorkingAreaView, select the z2PF_RKM_SearchResaults tab, and add
other modes as you want.

If you only want to change the view to open, you can change it in the
registration wizard.

z1D_viewToOpen — Select the form's view.

2. Add a goto guide label action to guide label OpenForm.
3. Add a reference to your active link(s) in the active link guide

RKM:KBI:ViewOpenSearchResult_ALG

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before the OpenForm label.

To open a different form than the returned form

1. Create an active link for RKM:SerarchDialog.
2. Set the Run if qualification to:

('z1D_viewArticleForm' = "FormName")

where "FormName" is the name of the form where the search hit was found.
3. Write your own workflow to determine the form, view and display type, and set these values
in the variables z1D_viewToOpen, z1D_openMode, and z1D_viewArticleForm
respectively.
4. Add a goto guide label action to guide label OpenForm.
5. Add a reference to your active link(s) in the active link guide

RKM:KBI:ViewOpenSearchResult_ALG

before the OpenForm label.

Using web services

You can use the BMC Knowledge Management web service to query knowledge articles in BMC
Knowledge Management.

Web services for BMC Knowledge Management

You can use the RKM:KnowledgeArticleManager_Interface form to query knowledge articles.
The following web service and its corresponding function is available to use with the interface form.

Available web service

Web service name Available functions

RKM_KnowledgeInterface_WS GetListOfArticles

GetListOfArticles
Use GetListIOfArticles to return a list of published knowledge articles that are related to a Service,
Computer System, or Application configuration item (CI).

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For example, you could get a list of knowledge articles where a Service CI has been related to the
knowledge article records. Or, you could get a list of knowledge articles where the server XYZ has
been related to the knowledge articles records.

The query uses the Reconciliation ID of the CI to obtain the list.

Required input field values

Web service field Database field Field value Notes

on interface form

CI Reconciliation ID ServiceCI_ReconID BMC_GLOBAL_DEFAULT_SRVC Displays matching articles if the CI exists

The following table lists optional input field values. These fields are not required to get records.

Optional input fields

Web service field Database field Field value Notes

on interface form

Article ID DocID KBA00000150 Displays matching request if the record exists

StatusSelectionField Status Published Displays all published records according to user permissions

ArticleTitle Title "test1" Displays matching request if the record exists

Output values:

ArticleID
Status
Title

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Troubleshooting
The following topics provide information about troubleshooting issues with BMC Knowledge
Management.

To understand reasons for failed conversions, see Troubleshooting failed conversions.

To troubleshoot why search results are not displayed, see No results when searching FTS or
RKM.
To know about the product diagnostic utility that is essential for BMC Remedy ITSM Suite
core applications, see BMC Remedy ITSM Maintenance tool.
To know how logs can be used to troubleshoot issues, see Working with logs.
To know why knowledge forms are empty, see Empty knowledge form opens after search .

Troubleshooting failed conversions

The conversion process does not stop until all the articles are converted, even if errors or failures
occurred. BMC recommends that you review the generated arjavaplugin.log file that is located in
the C:\Program Files\BMC Software\ARSystem\Arserver\Db folder for information about the
conversion results after the conversion has completed.

Make sure that you have permissions to access and view this folder.

Possible reasons for failure are typically network problems, incorrect file names, invalid XML
schema, and an XML schema that is different from the XML schema for 7.2 or 7.5 releases.

The log file contains the following information:

Number of successfully converted articles

Number of failed conversions with a short description of the reason
Names of articles that failed to convert and their types

If the log file indicates that several files failed to convert, you can run the conversion tool again
without re-mapping the fields by clicking the Run tab and selecting the XML template for
conversion.

No results when searching. FTS or RKM?

Part One:

The first step in troubleshooting search issues is to identify if it is an issue with Full Text Search or
something in Remedy Knowledge Management.

The easiest way to do this is to see if there are articles in the Form "AR System Multi-Search". If
you are in an "AR Server Group", you will need to do this on each server.

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Important notes to remember:

1. If articles are returned in this form, then FTS is working. This tells us that there is an issue
with Remedy Knowledge Management.
2. If you do not see articles, this means FTS is not indexing and you should trouble shoot Full
Text Search. See the document " Troubleshooting Full Text Search"

Lets start by looking at examples.

1. Log in to BMC Remedy AR System as an AR System Admin or Knowledge Admin.

2. In the IT Home page, enter the form name after the server name in the URL: http://<
hostName>/arsys/forms/<serverName>/MFS:MultiFormSearch and press ENTER. The BMC
Remedy AR Multi-Form Search is displayed.

Note

HostName is the name of the web server, and ServerName is the name of the AR
System server.

3.
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3. Add the following five forms to the Form List.

4. On the Search Terms tab, add a % in the field Search Term: Must Have and click the
Search button.

5. You should see a result that looks similar to the below image.

6. I can see articles listed in this form. I can now say that FTS is working. If you do not see any
results, this means that FTS is probably not indexing and needs to be looked at. See the
document "Troubleshooting Full Text Search".

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Part 2: I see articles listed, but I still do not have any search results

At this time it would be highly recommended to contact BMC Support for Remedy Knowledge
Management to assist in troubleshooting the problem. You can get more information in the "
Remedy Knowledge Management Support" Section.

Empty Knowledge form opens after search

If you open a knowledge article from a search results table and the following events happen, it
means that the knowledge article was archived:

the Knowledge form is empty

you receive a message telling you that the knowledge article is not available,

Note

You cannot view archived knowledge articles. See also SW00478160.

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Support Information
This topic contains information about how to contact Customer Support and the support status for
this and other releases.

Contacting Customer Support

If you have problems with or questions about a BMC product, or for the latest support policies, see
the Customer Support website at http://www.bmc.com/support. You can access product documents
, search the Knowledge Base for help with an issue, and download products and maintenance. If
you do not have access to the web and you are in the United States or Canada, contact Customer
Support at 800 537 1813. Outside the United States or Canada, contact your local BMC office or
agent.

Support status
Based on the support policy adopted September 1, 2011 , for releases from that date forward, BMC
provides technical support for a product based on time rather than number of releases. The
previous release-based policy applies to releases before September 1, 2011. To view the support
status for this release, see the BMC Knowledge Management Support page.

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Additional resources
The following hyperlinks provide information outside of the BMC Knowledge Management 9.0.00
documentation that you might find helpful:

BMC Communities, BMC Remedy community

Search the BMC Support Knowledge Base, filtered by BMC Remedy IT Service
Management Suite
BMC Educational Services, BMC Remedy ITSM Suite learning path
BMC Global Services, BMC Remedy ITSM offerings
www.bmc.com information about BMC Remedy ITSM Suite
Documentation for related products:
BMC IT Service Management Suite documentation
BMC Asset Management documentation
BMC Change Management documentation
BMC Service Desk documentation
BMC Service Level Management documentation
BMC Service Request Management documentation
BMC Remedy AR System Server documentation
BMC Atrium Core documentation

The following site, which is not created or endorsed by BMC, also provides information that you
might find helpful:

The Action Request System discussion list, ARSLIST

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Index

8
8 1 01 81, 82, 83

9
9 0 00 17

a
about 20, 21, 125
add 169, 214, 214
additional 175
administration 46, 46, 47, 47, 49, 74, 90, 129, 226
adminstration overview 46
advanced qualifications 194
advanced search 202, 205, 207
after publish 26
analysis 162
application administration console 46, 227
application administrator 67
application configuration 119
application settings 119
approval 109, 110, 111, 114, 184, 184, 185
approval central 184
approval chain 110, 112, 112
approval process 110
approvals 115, 115, 116
approve 184, 184
approver 114
approving 184, 184, 185
architecture 29
ar form 97
ar form indexing 123
asignee 182
assign 181, 181, 182, 182
assignments 64

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attachment 168
automatic 181

b
before publish 24
best practice 91, 97, 161, 217
best practices 36
bmc contributor 235
bmc knowledge management 7
bmc remedy itsm 194
bmc remedy itsm suite 192
bmc service desk 161, 161, 162, 173, 210
bmc service request management 177, 211, 221
bookmark 168
breadcrumb 139
broadcast 198
bsm 19
business value 20, 21

c
cancel 190
canceling 190
cancelling 190
capabilities 19
categories 173, 173, 175
category 173, 173, 175
catgorization 175
change 180
company 49
component 31
components 31
concept 20, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 29, 31, 31, 34, 34, 36, 46, 46, 46, 47,
69, 71, 90, 90, 94, 94, 109, 125, 126, 133, 135, 139, 142, 146, 161, 166, 173, 180, 181, 183
, 202, 212, 212, 213, 215, 230, 235
concepts 19
config properties 82, 83
configuration 44, 49
configuration file 82, 83
configuration prerequisites 47
configure 122

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configuring 109
console 31, 129, 146
contributor unapproved 235
conversion 72, 74, 81, 82, 83
conversion details 75
convert 72, 75, 77
converting 71
corrected 15
create 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 60, 61, 63, 108, 159, 162, 164, 175, 177, 214, 218
creating 158, 159, 162, 164, 175, 177
crystal reports 190, 195
csv 82, 83
custom 150
customer support 239
custom xml 82, 83

d
database 129
data management 226
decision tree 164
default template 75, 77
define 67
delete 106, 176, 214
details tab 154, 171, 173, 173, 175, 177, 215, 216
develop 229
disable 105, 127
display 231

e
edit 180, 214
email 115, 185, 219
emails 115, 116
enable 105
end to end 22
entry mode 95
escalation 131
event 125, 152
event type 125
example 217

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f
failed 81
failed conversion 235
favorite 221
features 34
feedback 122, 221
file system path 95
file system polling 123
filter 150
flash 15
form 231
formatting 166, 167
forms 97, 229
framework 46
functional area 146, 154

g
getting started 19
global company 112
global search 222
goals 34
guidelines 203
guides 15

h
health check 69
history 179
home 7, 135
how to 139
html 82, 83

i
image 169
incident 162, 177, 210
incident management 173
indexing 105, 107
indexing interval 107, 123

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indexing status 107

initiatives 19
insert 169
installing 43
integration 133
interface 135, 135, 146, 154
investigation 162, 210
issues 15
it home page 134

k
knowledge 95
knowledge admin 221
knowledge article 154
knowledge management console 104, 105
knowledge source 89, 90, 90, 91, 104, 105, 105, 106
knowledge type 212
known 15
known error 162, 177, 210

l
life cycle 23, 24, 26, 29
link 168
list 171
locales 127
location 51
log 107, 219
login 134

m
managing 108
mapping 114
mid tier 129, 134
migrate 70
migrator properties 72
modified template 75, 77
modify 105, 180
multi tenancy 128

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n
navigation 135, 139
new 159, 162, 164, 175, 188
non support 60
notification 124, 127, 152
notification engine 131
notification event 125
notifications 125

o
on demand 107
openform 231
open mode 231
operational category 63
option review status 230
order 129
organization 46, 50
overview 19, 36, 146, 202

p
panel 146
parameter 100, 229
parameters 207
patch vv rr ss n 15
path 129
pdf 15
people 54, 60
people form 152
people information 54
permission 36, 70
permissions 34, 38
picture 169
planning 36
plugin 104
plugin log 123
pluginsvr 104
popular articles 221
prerequisites 97

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prerequites 95
privileges 38
problem 162, 177, 210
processes 22
product category 61
profile 152
pubme 134, 135, 143, 143, 146, 153, 159, 161, 164, 166, 168, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 173, 175,
175, 179, 179, 181, 182, 182, 184, 185, 188, 190, 190, 198, 202, 207, 210, 212, 212, 213, 215, 219
, 221, 221, 222

q
qualifications 192
quick start 44

r
rebuild 107
recommendation 161
recommendations 36
reference 15, 34, 36, 38, 42, 44, 91, 99, 100, 107, 107, 111, 115, 123, 125, 135, 143, 143
, 145, 146, 152, 154, 159, 166, 190, 203, 203, 207, 212, 213, 216, 216, 217, 226, 233, 239, 240
register 91, 95, 95
registering 95, 97, 104, 104
registration 105
registration sequence 94
registration status 107
registration wizard 90, 94, 95, 99, 100, 106, 123
relate 173, 177
relationship 173, 175, 175, 176, 177, 177
release notes 15, 15
relevance 212, 229
relevancy 229
remote 74
remove 176, 214
reply 218
reports 190, 191, 192, 194, 195
request 211
resources 240
result 212, 212
results 213
resume 81

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review 179, 183

revise 188
revising 188
rich text 166, 166, 167
role 36
roles 42
root cause 162, 210
route 64
rtf 166, 166, 167

s
schema 129
search 34, 150, 202, 202, 203, 210, 211, 212, 212, 212, 213, 231
searchable item 95
searchable items 94
search page 203
self 182
self service 31
send 219
sequence 94, 95, 97
service pack 1 15, 43, 81, 82, 83, 239
service pack 2 239
service pack n 15
settings 119, 122
share 219
simple search 202, 204
sort 129
source 95
sp2 36, 119
specific company 112
staff 55, 60
standard 49
standard configuration data 48
status 36, 107, 142, 180, 216
status group 143
status transition 119, 145
status type 143
submitter mode 124
support 55, 239
support group 53
system configuration 122

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t
task 48, 49, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 60, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67, 70, 74, 75, 75, 77
, 90, 95, 97, 104, 104, 105, 105, 106, 107, 108, 112, 112, 114, 115, 116, 119, 119, 122, 122,
123, 124, 127, 127, 128, 129, 129, 131, 131, 134, 150, 152, 159, 162, 164, 167, 168, 168, 169, 171
, 172, 175, 175, 176, 177, 177, 179, 179, 180, 181, 182, 182, 184, 185, 188, 190, 191, 192, 194,
195, 204, 205, 210, 211, 214, 214, 218, 218, 219, 221, 221, 222, 227, 231
technical bulletins 15, 15
template 108, 159
tenancy mode 128
third party 82, 83
thread 131
timeout 104
time zones 131
title relevancy 95
toggle 105
toolbar 166
troubleshoot 235
troubleshooting 235
types 202

u
update request 215, 216, 216, 217, 218, 218
update requests tab 216
upgrading 132
url 129
use event 229
user 36
user roles 34
users 34
using 134, 213
using web services 233
utility 70

v
value 20
value paths 19
version 188
version 8 1 00 43, 239

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version 9 0 00 7, 17
versions 239
version vv rr 00 15
view 177, 179, 214, 214
view event 229
view mode 231
visibility group 172
visibility groups 66

w
watch list 126, 213, 213, 214, 214
web reports 190
web services 233
web services overview 233
white papers 15
windows 139
wizard 105
workarounds 15
workflow 111, 119, 145

x
xml 71, 72

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