landesk service catalogue user guide

7/27/2019 LANDesk Service Catalogue User Guide

1/38

LANDesk Service Catalogue

User Guide


2/38

This document contains information that is the proprietary and confidential property of LANDesk

Software, Inc. and/or its affiliated companies ("LANDesk"). This document and its contents may

not be disclosed or copied without the prior written consent of LANDesk. Nothing in this

document constitutes a guaranty, warranty, or license, express or implied. LANDesk disclaims

all liability for all such guaranties, warranties, and licenses, including but not limited to: fitness

for a particular purpose; merchantability; noninfringement of intellectual property or other rights of

any third party or of LANDesk; indemnity; and all others. LANDesk products are not intended for

use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining applications. The reader is advised that third parties

can have intellectual property rights that can be relevant to this document and the technologies

discussed herein, and is advised to seek the advice of competent legal counsel, without

obligation of LANDesk. LANDesk retains the right to make changes to this document or related

product specifications and descriptions at any time, without notice. LANDesk makes no

warranty for the use of this document and assumes no responsibility for any errors that can

appear in the document nor does it make a commitment to update the information contained

herein.

Copyright 2010, LANDesk Software, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. LANDesk and

its logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of LANDesk Software, Inc. and its affiliates in

the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the

property of others.

Document number 6080/USM/030 Issue 1.0


3/38

Contents

About this manual 5

Documentation 5Configuration 5

Before you begin 5

Conventions 5

LANDesk Service Catalogue 7

What is the Service Catalogue? 8

Service Catalogue concepts 8

Accessing the Service Catalogue 9

The Service Catalogue and ITIL 9

ITIL method 9

Non-ITIL method 9

Maintaining the Service Catalogue 11

Service Catalogue privileges 12

Stages of maintaining the Service Catalogue 12

Service Catalogue Contents 13

Business or Technical 13

Request Mode 13

Bundles 13

Catalogue Hierarchy 14

Publishing 14

Adding CIs to the Service Catalogue 14

Defining Business and Technical Services 16

Setting the Request Mode 17

Creating Bundles 18

Creating the Service Catalogue hierarchy 19

Publishing the Service Catalogue 20

Publishing the Service Catalogue from the group or role 20

Publishing the Service Catalogue from the Services themselves 22

Changing the queries used in Service Catalogue 23

Enabling the Service Catalogue in Self Service 24

Rebuilding the Service Catalogue search index 25

Adding a shortcut to Service Catalogue 25

Enabling the Request Service link 26

Creating processes forBundles 28

Populating the bundle attribute 29

Creating the Child Requests 30Avoiding re-authorising items in a bundle 32

Using the Service Catalogue 35

Using the Service Catalogue 36

Index 37

LANDesk Service Desk Service Catalogue User guide


4/38

4 Contents



5/38

About this manual

Documentation

The LANDesk Service Desk Service Catalogue User guide is a reference manual for all

LANDesk Service Catalogue users and administrators. This manual is designed for use in

conjunction with the LANDesk Service Catalogue software and online help system.

Configuration

LANDesk Service Catalogue is highly configurable. This guide gives an overview of the

functionality and the user interface for a typical user: any examples given are only

representative of configured systems your own requirements may differ widely.

Before you beginThe LANDesk Service Desk Suite is set up by either your system supervisor or an IT

support engineer.

Conventions

This manual contains certain conventions and special symbols that are used throughout.

Keyboard

Information you enter using the keyboard is shown as Type or Enter followed by an

example in bold text, for example: Type ABC-123.

Keys you press for special functions are shown in capitals, for example SHIFT.

When two function keys are pressed at the same time, for example both the CTRL key and

the ALT key are pressed, this is shown as CTRL + ALT.

Mouse actions

Mouse actions are described as follows:

l Click, where the left mouse button is used

l

Right-click, where the right mouse button is usedl Point, where the cursor pointer is moved using the mouse

l Select, where the left mouse button is used to make a selection in a box

l Drag, where the left mouse button is pressed and held while the mouse is moved



6/38

6 About this manual

Warnings

Warnings are used to indicate that it is possible that an action or lack of action will result in

the loss of vital information in your application.

For example:

We recommend that you take a backup of your database before you make any

changes to it.

Notes

Notes are used to provide additional information.

For example:

When you log a new Service Request, Service Desk automatically completesinformation such as your analyst name and the date and time.

Tips

Tips provide helpful hints or generally useful information. They may also provide a quicker

way to do something.

Alternatively, on the Analysts tab, right-click the relevant analyst, then click Delete.

Cross references

Cross references are used to indicate a pointer to further information. For example:

For information about Service Catalogue privileges, see Service Catalogue privileges

on page 12.

Screen Images

Screen images have been taken from Service Desk itself. They are provided to help you

recognise the part of the application you are using. Because your system has been set up

specifically for your organisation, the screen details you see may differ, particularly in the

examples shown.

Text

Specific text that you must type is shown in bold, for example, User Name.

Place holders that you must replace with your own text are shown italicised, for example

User Name.



7/38


8/38

8 Chapter 1 LANDesk Service Catalogue

What is the Service Catalogue?

LANDesk Service Catalogue enables you to provide your end-users with a catalogue of

services that they can request from a web page.

The Service Catalogue comprises two main parts:

l an administration component in the Service Desk console, which enables you to

specify which services are available through the Service Catalogue, and which

groups or roles can request them

For more information, see Maintaining the Service Catalogue on page 11

l features delivered through the Web Access platform that enable end-users to

browse or search the catalogue and then request the services they want

For more information, see Using the Service Catalogue on page 35

You can also extend the Service Catalogue by incorporating other Service Desk features,

such as the integration with LANDesk Management Automation Platform (MAP) andLANDesk Management Suite. This can enable you to configure a system that

automatically deploys a requested software service.

You can also administer CIs and users from within a process to enable you to create new

users and CIs, and also link them together as part of a process.

For more information, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Designer Guide.

Service Catalogue concepts

According to ITIL, a service comprises one or more IT systems that enable a businessprocess. Examples include payroll, e-mail, printing, telephony, and computer delivery and

installation. Each of these separate services typically comprises a number of separate IT

systems that all need to be available, managed, and maintained but about which the end-

user has no real interest in, and need not be aware of. The end-user wants e-mail available,

but is not interested in the various server and network components that are required to

enable their e-mail account to work.

Each of the services that you make available to your end-users is known as a Business

Service. The IT systems that are required to make these Business Services available are

known as Technical Services. Only the Business Services are presented to your end-

users, not the Technical Services.

Business Service associated Technical Services

E-mail E-mail server

E-mail client

E-mail account

etc...



9/38

LANDesk Service Catalogue Chapter 1 9

A Service Catalogue is a hierarchical list of all of the services that an organisation makes

available to its end-users. It provides a single, customer-facing view of the services that

are in use, and highlights which business processes they enable. Careful design of a

Service Catalogue hierarchy, combined with publishing the different levels of the hierarchy

to different groups and roles within your organisation, can help to ensure that people havethe correct services that they need to do their jobs, without providing them with things that

they don't need and you don't want to pay for.

LANDesk Service Catalogue enables you to specify which CIs in Service Desk are part of

the Service Catalogue, and then which CIs are Business Services and which are

Technical Services. You can then build a Service Catalogue hierarchy and publish the

different levels of the hierarchy to the appropriate groups and roles.

Accessing the Service Catalogue

After you have set up your Service Catalogue, using the LANDesk Service Catalogue

component in the Service Desk Console, your end-users can request items that have beenpublished to them through the Service Catalogue. This is done through the browser-based,

Web Access Service Catalogue application.

The Service Catalogue and ITIL

The way in which you use the Service Catalogue depends on whether or not you are

following strict ITIL methodologies. The LANDesk Service Catalogue works equally well

either way.

ITIL method

With ITIL, you would firstly define all of your Business Services those services that

enable specific business functions, such as e-mail and payroll. You would then define

which of these Business Services are available through the Service Catalogue.

Non-ITIL method

LANDesk Service Catalogue also supports working in a non-ITIL way. You may decide

that you want to make specific CIs available through your Service Catalogue, rather than

the more conceptual services demanded by ITIL. For example, rather than defining the

Business Service "Office Tools", you could add specific applications such as a

spreadsheet tool, a presentation tool, and so on.

To help you to manage your Service Catalogue in whichever way you want, users with the

Service Catalogue Administratorprivilege (see Service Catalogue privileges on page

12) can change the query that is used to create the lists of CIs in the Service Catalogue

component.

For information about changing the queries used in the Service Catalogue component,

see Changing the queries used in Service Catalogue on page 23.



10/38

10 Chapter 1 LANDesk Service Catalogue



11/38

2

Maintaining the Service Catalogue

This section describes how to maintain your Service Catalogue using the Service

Catalogue component in the Service Desk Console. You can learn about:

l Service Catalogue privileges on page 12

l Stages of maintaining the Service Catalogue on page 12

l Adding CIs to the Service Catalogue on page 14

l Defining Business and Technical Services on page 16

l Setting the Request Mode on page 17

l Changing the queries used in Service Catalogue on page 23l Enabling the Service Catalogue in Self Service on page 24



12/38


13/38

Maintaining the Service Catalogue Chapter 2 13

Service Catalogue Contents

The Service Catalogue Contents tab enables you to specify which of the CIs in your

system are to be made available through the Service Catalogue. If you are following a strict

ITIL methodology, only Business Services can be added to the Service Catalogue.

Business or Technical

The Business or Technical tab enables you to specify which of the CIs in your system

are Business Services (those services used by your end-users), and which are Technical

Services (those services that are used by your analysts to provide the corresponding

Business Service). For example, a common Business Service is E-mail, which would have

many Technical Services required to deliver it, such as software, servers, network

hardware, and so on.

Request Mode

The Request Mode tab enables you to specify which of the Services in your system canbe requested only once by each user through the Service Catalogue, and which can be

requested many times. For example, a specific software program might be available for

each user only once, whereas requesting access to different shared network drives could

be requested many times.

Bundles

The Bundles tab enables you to group services together into a Bundle, which can then be

requested by end-users as a single item from the Service Catalogue.



14/38

14 Chapter 2 Maintaining the Service Catalogue

Catalogue Hierarchy

The Catalogue Hierarchy tab enables you to define the structure that is used to display

the Service Catalogue to end-users. You can build a hierarchy with many levels and

allocate your services to these levels to help your end-users to find the items that theyrequire more easily.

Publishing

The Publishing tab enables you to define which groups and roles have access to which

services in the Service Catalogue. This enables you to control access to the different

services, so that services are available only to those users who are entitled to them.

Adding CIs to the Service Catalogue

Not all CIs in your system will be made available as items in the Service Catalogue. The

first tab in the Service Catalogue component enables you to configure which CIs are

available from the Catalogue.

If you are following an ITIL methodology, only Business Services are added to the

Service Catalogue, so you need to set up which CIs are Business Services first (see

Defining Business and Technical Services on page 16), then you can add the required

Business Services to the Catalogue. You can change the queries that define the lists

to help you with this (see Changing the queries used in Service Catalogue on page

23).

If you are notfollowing an ITIL methodology, anyservices can be added to the

Service Catalogue, so you can set up which CIs are in the Catalogue first.

For more information about ITIL considerations, see The Service Catalogue and ITIL

on page 9.

To add CIs to the Service Catalogue:

1. Start the Service Catalogue component, then click the Service Catalogue

Contents tab.



15/38


The Available CIs and Service Catalogue Contents option buttons enable you

to change the contents of the list on the right of the screen between those CIs that

are available to be added to the Service Catalogue and those that are already in

the Service Catalogue. In this way, you can move CIs in and out of the Service

Catalogue.

2. Select the Available CIs option button.

The list on the right shows those CIs that are available to be added to the Service

Catalogue.

3. Select the CIs from the list that you want to add to the Service Catalogue.

You can select multiple CIs by holding CTRL and clicking, or select a range of CIs

by holding SHIFT and clicking.

You can reduce the number of entries in the list using the Filterpanel, as for other

queries.

4. In the Actions list, click Add Selected.

The selected items are added to the Service Catalogue and disappear from the list.

5. Click the Service Catalogue Contents option button.

The items that you added to the Service Catalogue are in this list.

You can remove items from the Service Catalogue by selecting them in this list,

then clicking Remove Selected in the Actions list.



16/38


Defining Business and Technical

Services

Business Services are those services that are used by your end-users, whereas TechnicalServices are those services that are used by your analysts to provide the corresponding

Business Service. For example, a common Business Service is E-mail, which would have

many Technical Services required to deliver it, such as software, servers, network

hardware, and so on.

The Business or Technical tab enables you to define which CIs are Business Services,

and which are Technical Services.

To define Business and Technical Services:

1. Click the Business or Technical tab.

The Business Services and Technical Services option buttons enable you tochange the contents of the list on the right of the screen between those CIs that

are Business Services and those that are Technical Services. In this way, you can

change CIs between being Business Services or Technical Services.

2. Select the Business Services option button.

The list on the right shows those CIs that are Business Services.

3. Select the CIs from the list that you want to make Technical Services.





17/38



queries.

4. In the Actions list, click Make Selected Technical Services.

The selected items are changed to Technical Services and disappear from the list.5. Click the Technical Services option button.

The items that you made Technical Services are in this list. You can make items in

the Technical Services list into Business Services by selecting them in this list,

then clicking Make Selected Business Services in the Actions list.

Setting the Request Mode

The Request Mode tab enables you to specify which of the Services in your system can

be requested only once by each user through the Service Catalogue, and which can be

requested many times. For example, a specific software program might be available for

each user only once, whereas requesting access to different shared network drives couldbe requested many times.

To set whether or not a service can be requested multiple times:

1. Click the Request Mode tab.

The Multiple Instances and Request Once option buttons enable you to change

the contents of the list on the right of the screen between those services that users

can request multiple times (directory access, for example), and those that can be

requested only once (a desktop computer, for example).



18/38


2. Select the Multiple Instances option button.

The list on the right shows those services that requested multiple times.

3. Select the services from the list that you want to allow users to request multiple

times.




queries.

4. Inthe Actions list, click Make Selected Once Only.

The selected services can be selected multiple times.

5. Click the Request Once option button.

The services that you made request once are in this list. You can make these

services into multi-select services by selecting them in this list, then clicking Make

Selected Multi Selectable in the Actions list.

Creating Bundles

The Bundles tab enables you to group services together into a Bundle, which can then be

requested by end-users as a single item from the Service Catalogue.

To create a Bundle:

1. Click the Bundles tab.

2. Inthe Actions list, click New Bundle.

The New Bundle window appears.

3. Complete the required fields, then click OK.

The Bundle is added to the Bundles tree.



19/38


You can modify the Bundle window using Window Manager to edit the

Configuration Management\Bundle window.

4. Select the Bundle that you want to add services to in the Bundles tree.

5. Select the services that you want to add to the Bundle in the list, then in theActions list, click Add Selected.

The services are added to the Bundle in the Bundles tree.

You can remove items from a Bundle by selecting them in the Bundles tree, then

clicking the Remove From... action.

Creating the Service Catalogue

hierarchy

There are a number of ways that your end-users can find the services that they require inthe published Service Catalogue. One of these ways is the Service Catalogue hierarchy,

which enables you to create a hierarchy of services that the end-user can browse through.

The Catalogue Hierarchy tab enables you to define the structure that is used to display

the Service Catalogue to end-users. You can build a hierarchy with many levels and

allocate your services to these levels to help your end-users to find the items that they

require more easily.

To create a Service Catalogue hierarchy:

1. Click the Catalogue Hierarchy tab.

2. Select the level in the Hierarchy tree where you want to add a new level, then in the

Actions list, click New Level.

The New Level window appears.

3. Type a name for the new level, then click OK.

The new level is added to the hierarchy.



20/38


When you have created the hierarchy, you can add the appropriate services to the required

level. Each service can occupy only one place in the hierarchy.

To populate the Catalogue Hierarchy:

1. Inthe Hierarchy tree, select the level that you want to populate.2. In the list of services, select the services that you want to add to the selected level.

You can select multiple services by holding CTRL and clicking, or select a range

of services by holding SHIFT and clicking.

3. Inthe Actions list, click Add Selected.

The selected services are added to the hierarchy level.

After you have added items to the Hierarchy, you can move them to different

places within the tree by dragging them. You can also drag Hierarchy folders to

different positions in the Hierarchy tree.

The following icons are used in the Hierarchy tree:

a Business Service

a Technical Service

an item that is not added to the Service Catalogue

Publishing the Service Catalogue

When you have set up your Service Catalogue, and allocated the services to the

appropriate levels in the Service Catalogue hierarchy, you can publish the different levels

of the hierarchy to the required groups and roles.

People have access only to the Business Services in those levels of the Service

Catalogue hierarchy that are published to their groups and roles.

There are three ways of publishing the Service Catalogue:

l by group

l by role

l from the services themselves

Publishing the Service Catalogue from the groupor role

Publishing by group and by role is very similar you select the group or role that you want

to publish services to in a tree, then click the Publish action. You can then select the

services that you want to publish to the selected group or role.



21/38


To publish the Service Catalogue to different roles and groups:

1. Click the Publishing tab.

2. Click the Groups orRoles sub-tab, as required.

The Services by Group orServices by Role tree appears.



22/38


3. In the tree, select the group or role that you want to publish to, then in the Actions

list, click Publish.

The Publish to Service dialog appears.

4. Select the check boxes on the required nodes in the tree, then click OK.The services that correspond to the selected levels in the hierarchy appear in the list

on the right of the Publishing tab.

When you select a level in the hierarchy, all of the sub-levels beneath it are also

selected.

You can unpublish items from the Service Catalogue by selecting them in the list,

then clicking Unpublish in the Actions list.

Publishing the Service Catalogue from the

Services themselvesInstead of selecting a group or role and then choosing which services to publish to them,

you can select the individual services and choose which groups and roles to publish the

service to.

To publish the Service Catalogue from the Services themselves:

1. Click the Publishing tab, then click the Services sub-tab.

The Groups and Roles by Service tree appears.

2. In the tree, select the service or branch that you want to publish, then in the Actions

list, click Publish.

Selecting a branch in the tree enables you to publish all of the services in the

selected branch at one go.

The Publish to Roles and Groups dialog appears. If you selected a branch, the

contents of that branch are displayed on the Publish to Roles and Groups dialog; if

you selected just a single item, only the Groups and Roles tree is displayed.



23/38


3. In the Groups and Roles tree, select the group(s) and role(s) that you want to

publish the selected services to.

Select the Publish to All check box if you want all groups and roles to have the

service published to them.

4. Click OK.

The services are published as required, and the lists on the Services tab update.

Changing the queries used in Service

Catalogue

To help you to manage your Service Catalogue in the way that best suits your organisation,users with the Service Catalogue Administratorprivilege (see Service Catalogue

privileges on page 12) can change the query that is used to create the lists of CIs in the

Service Catalogue component.

For information about creating queries, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite

Designerguide.

You can set a different query for each tab in the Service Catalogue component to create

appropriate lists for your needs. (For the Publishing tab, you can set different queries for

the Groups, Roles, and Services sub-tabs.)

You cannot use queries that include Advanced conditions.



24/38


To select the query for the tab:

1. Make sure you are in a group or role that has the Service Catalogue

Administratorprivilege, and display the required tab in Service Catalogue.

2. Right-click the tab, then click Select Query.

The Select Query dialog appears.

3. Select the required query, then click OK.

The list changes to match the selected query.

Enabling the Service Catalogue in Self

Service

Before you can see services in the Service Catalogue, you need to configure which data

about the CIs you want to enable end-users to see.

End-users can either browse the catalogue hierarchy to find services, or search for them.

Both browsing and the search functionality use the same searching technology as that

used for the standard knowledge management search, but the two search indexes are kept

separate.



25/38


For information about setting the locations of the indexes for the search data, see the

LANDesk Service Desk Setup Guide.

To specify the CI data that appears in the Service Catalogue:

1. In Object Designer, expand the Configuration Management branch of the

Business Objects tree.

2. Open the Configuration Item object, or the specific sub-folder ofConfiguration

Item that you want to enable searching for.

3. In the Properties grid for the object, set Is Knowledgeable? to True.

A new property, Search Type, becomes available.

4. In the Search Type property, select the required search type:

Knowledge the object is available in the standard knowledge base search only

Service Catalogue the object is available in the Service Catalogue search only

All the object is available in both searches

5. In the Attributes tree, select the attributes that you want to search for, then in the

Properties grid set Search Type to Is Natural Language.

6. Set the Search Type for any other attributes that you want to search for, then click

.

Rebuilding the Service Catalogue search index

Each time a CI that you have set to be knowledgeable changes, or there is a change in the

publishing of a CI in the Service Catalogue, its search index updates. However, you can

completely rebuild the Service Catalogue index at any time by right-clicking the

Publishing tab, then clicking Rebuild Catalogue Search Index. This builds the Service

Catalogue index separately from the standard knowledge management index.

The Touchpaper Services Background Processing service must be running to

maintain the Service Catalogue search index. For more information about Service

Desk Application Services, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Setup Guide.

You can also rebuild the search index for the Service Catalogue from within the

Knowledge Management Administration component by clicking Rebuild Service

Catalogue on the Building Settings page of the Knowledge Settings tree.

Also within the Knowledge Management Administration component, you can

identify which index a queue entry is associated with from the list on the Queue

Entries page of the Knowledge Settings tree.

Adding a shortcut to Service

Catalogue

You may need to add a shortcut to the Service Catalogue in Self Service before you can

use it. The procedure below describes how to add a group to the Self Service navigation

bar and then associate this group with the Service Catalogue.



26/38


To add a shortcut to Service Catalogue:

1. Log in to Self Service.

2. Right-click the navigation bar, then click New group.

The New shortcut group dialog appears.

3. Inthe Group title box, type the text that you want to appear on the group.

For example, Service Catalogue.

4. Inthe Group tooltip box, type the text that you want to appear as a tooltip when

you hold the mouse over the group.

5. Select the Is system group? and Publish to all? check boxes as appropriate.

6. From the Image strip, select the image that you want to use on the group, then click

OK.

The group is added to the navigation bar.

7. In the browser's web address field, type:

http://servername/WebAccess/ss/search/search.rails?search_

type=ServiceCataloguewhere servername is the name of the Web Access web server.

The Service Catalogue appears.

8. Right-click the group that you created above, then click Replace this shortcut

group with current page.

The Service Catalogue is associated with the group on the navigation bar.

Enabling the Request Service link

The steps outlined in Stages of maintaining the Service Catalogue on page 12 add services

to the service catalogue and publish them to the appropriate people. The steps described in

Enabling the Service Catalogue in Self Service on page 24 andAdding a shortcut to

Service Catalogue on page 25 then enable users to see the services that are available to

them.

In this section, you learn how to enable users to request the services that are available to

them, by associating each service with a process. When a service that is in the Service

Catalogue has a process (and optionally a template) associated with it, a Request Service

link appears in the Service Catalogue in Web Access for that service.



27/38


This means that to make the Request Service links appear in the Service Catalogue, you

need to associate a process with each service that you want your users to be able to

request. You may need to add the Process (and Template) fields to your Service windows

before you can do this.

To add the Process and Template fields to the Service windows:

1. In Window Manager, open the appropriate Configuration

Management\Configuration Item window.

There are separate objects for each CI Type, such as Configuration

Management\Workstation. Also, the Service and Asset windows are found

under the Asset Management branch.

2. From the Attributes tree, add the Lifecycle relationship to the window.

Lifecycle is the internal name for the object that stores the process name.

3. From the Attributes tree, add the Template relationship to the window.

4. Name the fields Request Lifecycle and Request Lifecycle.

5. Arrange the fields on the window as required, then click .6. Repeat for the windows for the other services that are provided using Service

Catalogue.

The Request Service link appears in the Service Catalogue in Web Access for services

that have processes associated with them. You associate processes with a service using

the Configuration Management component.

To associate a process with a service:

1. Start the Configuration Management component.

2. In the Configuration Items tree, select the service that you want to associate a

process with, then in the Actions list, click Modify Configuration Item.

The window for the CI appears.

3. In the Request Lifecycle list, select the Request Management process that you

want to use when a user requests this service using Service Catalogue.

4. Optionally, in the Request Template list, select the Request Management

template that you want to use to populate some of the fields on the Request window

when a user requests this service using Service Catalogue.

5. Click .The changes are saved, and the Request Service link appears in Service

Catalogue for this service.

6. Repeat for the other services.

When a user clicks the Request Service link in Service Catalogue, the initial window for

the process associated with the service appears, with the following fields completed:

l Requested For completed with the value set in the Request Forfield in Service

Catalogue (see Using the Service Catalogue on page 36)

l Configuration Item completed with the selected service



28/38


You can use Templates and Copy Rules to populate other fields on the window

automatically. For more information, see the LANDesk Service Desk Suite Designer

Guide.

Creating processes for BundlesYou can group services together into a Bundle, which can then be requested by end-users

as a single item from the Service Catalogue. Although the end-user is requesting a single

bundle, the Request for the bundle needs to create a separate Child Request for each CI in

the bundle.

This section describes how to design a process that automatically creates the correct

Request process for each CI in a bundle as a Child Request on the Parent Bundle

Request.

There is an example Bundle Request process supplied with V7.4.

For more detailed information about designing processes, see the LANDesk Service

Desk Suite Designer Guide.

To design a process that creates a Child Request for each item in a bundle, you use an

automatic action that creates the Child Request and populates the following fields on the

Child Requests using a value type:

l Service Item select every Configuration Item in the Bundle

l Request Type select the Catalogue Hierarchy for every Configuration Item in

the Bundle

l Process select the Lifecycle for every Configuration Item in the Bundle

The CIs in a bundle are stored in a collection called Catalogue Items, which is a

relationship to the linking object called Config Item Bundle. This means that the value

type you need to select for the Service Item is _Bundle/CatalogueItems*/ConfigItem .

Because we are going to complete the Service Item field on the Child Requests with a

value type that is based on the Bundle object, we need a separate automatic action that

populates the Bundle field with the name of the bundle that was selected in the Service

Item field on the Parent Request. This automatic action goes before the automatic action

that creates the Child Requests.

In summary, we need two automatic actions to create the Child Requests:

1. The first populates the Bundle field on the Parent Request with the bundle selected

as the Service Item on the Parent Request.

Because these attributes are of a different data type, this is done using a

calculation.

2. The second populates the Service Item, Request Type, and Process fields on the

Child Requests with the required values for each of the CIs in the bundle.

This is done using a value type.



29/38


Populating the bundle attribute

Before you can set up the value types to populate the required fields on the Child

Requests, you need to populate the Bundle attribute on the Parent Request.

To populate the Bundle field with the bundle from the Service Item field:

1. In Process Designer, open the process that you are using to handle Bundle

Requests.

2. From the Toolbox, add an Automatic Action Instance.The Select Action dialog appears. We need to create a new action we can use to

populate the Bundle field.

3. Click New.

The Create New Action dialog appears.

4. In the Title field, type Populate Bundle Attribute.

This is the name of the action that will appear in the Actions list at runtime.

5. Set the Allow Association With Window value to True, then click OK.

This will make the Request window available to use for this action.

We are going to populate the Bundle field on the Request window. This is not

usually needed on the Request window, so you might need to add it temporarily

using Window Manager. To access Window Manager for the Request window,

right-click the new Populate Bundle Attribute automatic action, then click

Modify Action Window.

You can remove the Bundle field from the Request window when you have

completed this procedure.

6. Double-click the new Populate Bundle Attribute automatic action.

The Request window appears.

7. Right-click the Bundle field, then click Calculation.

The Edit Formula for Bundle dialog appears.

8. In the Editorbox, enter the following calculation, then click OK:

import Systemstatic def GetAttributeValue(Request):

Value = null

if Request._ConfigItemRequested != null:

if Request._ConfigItemRequested.Class.Name == "Bundle":

Value = Request._ConfigItemRequested

return Value



30/38


Lines 3 and 4 of this calculation are indented with one space; line 5 is indented

with two spaces; line 6 is indented with three spaces; and the final line is not

indented.

This calculation sets the value of the Bundle field to the value selected in theService Item field on the Request window, if the Service Item selected is a bundle.

This calculation works by setting the value of the Bundle field to null (empty).

Then, if the value of the ConfigItemRequested field on the Request is not null, it

checks to see if the Name of the Class for the ConfigItemRequested field is set

to Bundle. If it is, this means that the ConfigItemRequested is a bundle (the

ConfigItemRequested is stored in the Service Item field on the Request

window).

If the calculation determines that the ConfigItemRequested selected is a bundle,

then the calculation sets the value of the Bundle field to be the value selected in

the Service Item field on the Request window.

Creating the Child Requests

After you have populated the Bundle field on the Parent Request with the bundle selected

as the Service Item, you can add the automatic action that creates the Child Requests.

This automatic action immediately follows the Populate Bundle Attribute automatic

action you created earlier.

This procedure involves adding a value type to the Lifecycle attribute on the Request

window. This field is not usually displayed on this window, so you may need to add it

temporarily using Window Manager.

To create the Child Requests for the Bundle process:

1. In Process Designer, open the process that you are using to handle Bundle

Requests.

2. From the Toolbox, add an Automatic Action Instance.

The Select Action dialog appears. We need to create a Child Request for each item

in the bundle.

3. From the Select Action dialog, select Create Child Request, then click OK.

The Request window appears, so that you can populate the necessary fields.

4. Right-click the Service Item field, then click Value Type.

The Control Value Selection dialog appears. We want to specify a runtime valuethat populates the field with every CI in the bundle. The CIs in a bundle are stored in

a collection called Catalogue Items.

5. Select the Specify a runtime value for control option.

The tree at the bottom of the dialog is enabled.

6. Expand the Bundle branch, then the Catalogue Items branch, and select

Configuration Item.

This selects the Configuration Item in the collection of Catalogue Items in the

Bundle. We need to select ALL of the items in the collection, because we want to

create a Child Request for every CI in the Bundle.



31/38


7. Select the Select ALL collection items? check box.

8. Click OK.The Control Value Selection dialog closes. _Bundle/CatalogueItems*/ConfigItem

appears in the Service Item field.

9. Similarly, set the Request Type field to use the value type:

{_Bundle/CatalogueItems*/ConfigItem/CatalogueHierarchy}

The * afterCatalogueItems shows that the Select ALL collection items? check

box has been selected to choose all of the items in the collection of Catalogue

Items.

10. Similarly, set the Lifecycle field to use the value type:

{_Bundle/CatalogueItems*/ConfigItem/Lifecycle}

The Lifecycle field might not be on the window, in which case use Window

Manager to add it while you do this design.

Because the paths set for the Request Type and Lifecycle fields are based on the

path set for the Service Item field, Service Desk knows to create only one Child

Request for each Service Item. Service Desk then matches the value types for

the Request Type and Lifecycle fields to for each Child Request as appropriate.



32/38


11. Set any other value types or static values that you require for the Child Request,

then click OK on the Request window.

12. Link the Create Child Request automatic action after the Populate Bundle

Attribute automatic action.

13. Complete and save the rest of the Bundle process as you require.

If a bundle includes a CI that does not have a lifecycle set for it, you will

receive an Object Reference Not Set to an Instance of an Object error. Make

sure that all services that are available through the Service Catalogue have a

lifecycle associated with them.

Avoiding re-authorising items in a bundle

Usually, your Request processes will start with some authorisation steps, where different

people or roles are asked to confirm that the request is valid and appropriate. If an end-user

requests a bundle, you will typically require authorisation for the bundle and not for the

individual items in the bundle. This means that when a Bundle Request creates its Child

Requests, you want the Child Requests to ignore any authorisation steps that are included

in them.

One way of achieving this is to set a boolean value on the Child Request to True as part of

the Bundle process. You can then use a decision on the Child Requests that bypasses theauthorisation steps if the value is set to True.

To design Request processes that bypass the authorisation steps in child

processes:

1. Add a boolean attribute called Is Parent a Bundle Process? to the Request

object. Set its Default Value to False.

2. Add this attribute to the Request window as a check box. In the Bundle process,

double-click the Create Child Request automatic action and select the Is Parent a

Bundle Process? check box on the Request window. You can then remove the

check box from the window. This sets the value ofIs Parent a Bundle Process?

to True for the Child Requests.

3. Create a Condition for the Request domain called Is Parent A Bundle? that tests if

the Is Parent a Bundle Process? attribute equals True.

You have already designed this attribute to be False by default, so it can be True

only for a Request that was created as a Child Request of a Bundle Request.

4. For each of your Request processes, add a Decision based on the Is Parent A

Bundle? condition. Use theYes path from the Decision to bypass the authorisation

steps, and the No path to direct the process to the authorisation steps.



33/38


For more information about Object Designer and Process Designer, see the LANDesk

Service Desk Suite Designer Guide.



34/38




35/38

3

Using the Service Catalogue

This section describes how end-users can access the Service Catalogue through

LANDesk Self Service. You can learn about:

l Using the Service Catalogue on page 36



36/38

36 Chapter 3 Using the Service Catalogue

Using the Service Catalogue

This section describes how to use the Service Catalogue from within Self Service.

To start the Service Catalogue:

1. Log in to Self Service.

2. Click the Service Catalogue group in the navigation bar.

The Service Catalogue starts.

The Catalogue Hierarchy appears on the left, so that users can browse for the service they

require.

Above the Catalogue Hierarchy is a search field that enables users to search for services

in the selected part of the hierarchy. You can use * to identify wildcards in these searches.

To the right of the search field is a Request Forlist, which enables you to request a

service on behalf of a user who you are the manager of.

You set the Managerfor a user using the Analyst or End User window in the

Administration component.

To the right of the Catalogue Hierarchy is the list of services that match the criteria you

have specified. To view more details about a service, click its entry in the list. To request

an item, click Request Service to log the appropriate service request. The appropriate

Request window appears with the Requested Forfield completed with the value set in the

Request Forfield, and the Configuration Item field completed with the name of the

selected service.

The list of matching services may have been configured to display more information

when you click in the required row. You can also use the left and right arrow keys to

expand and close the additional information.



37/38


Index

A

adding

CIs to Service Catalogue 14

authorisation

bundles 32

B

bundles

avoiding re-authorising 32

child requests 30

creating 18

populate bundle attribute 29

processes 28

Business Services 16

C

categories

Service Catalogue hierarchy 19

changing

queries for Service Catalogue 23

child requests

bundles 30

CIs

adding to Service Catalogue 14

removingfrom the Service Catalogue 15

creating

bundles 18

child requests for bundles 30

hierarchy 19

G

group

publish Catalogue to 20

H

hierarchy

Service Catalogue 19

I

ITIL 9

L

Lifecycle

for a service 26

lists

CI lists in Service Catalogue 23

M

multi-select services 17

P

privileges


processes

bundles 28

services 26

publish


Q

queries

changing f or Ser vice C atalogue 23

privilege 12

R

rebuilding

Service Catalogue search index 25

removing

CIs from t he Service C atalogue 15

Request Mode 17

request once services 17

Request Service link 26

role

publish Catalogue to 20


38/38

38 Index

S

search index

rebuilding 25

selecting

queries for Ser vice C atalogue 23

Self Service

enabling Service Catalogue 24

Service Catalogue

concepts 8

in Self Service 24

shortcut 25

using 36

Service Catalogue Administrator

privilege 12

services 8

processes 26

requesting 26

shortcut


T

Technical Services 16

U

unpublish


V

value types

creating child requests 30

landesk service catalogue user guide

Documents