CA Service Management

  • 1.  CA Service Desk Manager integration with Rapid7 Tool

    Posted Mar 21, 2018 07:07 AM

    We need to use CA Service Desk manager and integrate it with Rapid7 VM tool. I came across a few articles where it says that Lieberman's RED software can be integrated with Rapid7 and CA Service Desk both. But is it possible to integrate Rapid7 with the CA Service Desk manager via this software?



  • 2.  Re: CA Service Desk Manager integration with Rapid7 Tool
    Best Answer

    Posted Mar 26, 2018 01:08 AM

    Hello Divya,

     

    This depends very much on what you mean by "integration."

    For example, what data you want to integrate, by what method and are bi-directional updates required?

     

    • Do we have a pre-built API between CA SDM/ITSM and Rapid7?
      No, not that I know of. You'd need to reach out to the CA Services organisation to see if this has been done.
      Or if a CA Business Partner or customer has done this before, please update here.

     

    • Can we integrate <<Product ABC>> with CA SDM/ITSM?
      The answer is "probably yes."

     

    CA SDM has many integration points. 

     

    • Web Services exposes many Objects that you can create and update. 
      If your other product can use Web Services, then this is the easiest option - provided that you want to update something that Web Services exposes.
    • Likewise, there are a lot of older integration points still in the software (bop_cmd, AHD.DLL) that again expose specific Objects (usually tickets) to be updated. These can be called from command line updates, which can be called by scripts.
    • Inbound email can create and update a lot of tickets/fields.
      Most third party programs can send an email, making this relatively easy to implement.
    • The GRLoader tool can bring in Configuration Item updates. 
      Usually via a spreadsheet load provided by the third party tool.
    • We have lots of other CA tools that can do discovery, and integration points with those. 
      So it may make sense to get another CA product which has this integration provided, and use that. 
      For example, SOI has a Catalyst connector.
    • Direct database updates. 
      This is out of scope for CA Support as you can wreck your implementation unless you really know what you are doing, but you can use the SDM pdm_load tools or direct database updates to do just about anything. But again, I stress that you really should go via CA Services for this one - there are too many traps that could lead to a compromised database for new hands.

     

    And there are a few ways beyond that, but that is enough to be getting on with.

     

    This is an older reference, but still covers some of the integration points - specifically Web Services - well enough. Then there is the standard product documentation:

    CA SDM Integration Green Book 

     

     

    Are those old references publicly available? Maybe someone did write an API.

     

    Thanks, Kyle_R.



  • 3.  Re: CA Service Desk Manager integration with Rapid7 Tool

    Posted Mar 26, 2018 03:24 AM


  • 4.  Re: CA Service Desk Manager integration with Rapid7 Tool

    Posted Mar 27, 2018 04:11 AM

    Many Thanks Kyle. This was helpful.



  • 5.  Re: CA Service Desk Manager integration with Rapid7 Tool

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Mar 26, 2018 10:02 AM

    Divya........

     

    Do you have any additional questions regarding this thread?

     

    If not, please mark Kyle's response as correct so that this thread can be closed.