Contents
About this Release
Welcome to Serena Orchestrated Ops 3.5. Refer to the What's New? tab for a complete list of new features in this release.
Please note the following important information:
- On-premise customers: Before you install Serena Orchestrated Ops, you must install and configure SBM 10.1.1.2 or later as described in the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide.
- Serena Orchestrated Ops 3.5 is available in English only.
- This readme pertains to both the on-demand and on-premise versions of Serena Orchestrated Ops 3.5.
Packaging Changes
Serena Orchestrated Ops is now used to refer to the collection of solutions that manage your IT services. (Previously, Serena Service Manager was used.) The following solutions, which can be used independently or in combination, are included in Serena Orchestrated Ops:
- Serena Request Center
- Serena Demand Manager
- Serena Service Manager
New Installations of Serena Orchestrated Ops
If this is a new on-premise installation, download Serena Business Manager 10.1.1.2 or later from http://www.serena.com/support and then follow the instructions in the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide to install and configure Serena Business Manager. After you have verified that Serena Business Manager is installed successfully, download Serena Orchestrated Ops 3.5 from http://www.serena.com/support and follow the instructions in the Serena Orchestrated Ops On-Premise Installation and Configuration Guide.
For on-demand customers, see the Serena Orchestrated Ops On-Demand Installation and Configuration Guide for information on setting up Serena Orchestrated Ops in your current environment.
Upgrades from Previous Versions
- Installation Upgrade
In the installation upgrade phase, you install and configure the latest versions of components for Serena Request Center, Serena Demand Center, and features such as service level agreements (SLA). The solutions that you have implemented from previous releases are supported with the upgraded framework files.
- Solutions Upgrade
In the solutions upgrade phase, you import new solution files and merge changes into your current solutions. Before attempting this upgrade, review the list of changes to determine the benefit of upgrading your solutions.
For upgrade instructions, refer to the Serena Orchestrated Ops Upgrade Guide.
Serena Orchestrated Ops Installer Components
The Serena Orchestrated Ops installer delivers three components:
- Solution Files – Solution files are process app snapshots
and blueprints that contain the latest changes and updates for the
Serena Orchestrated Ops
process workflows and data models.
The following solutions are delivered by the Serena Orchestrated Ops installer:
- Serena Demand Center:
- SDM - Project Proposal
- SDM - Voting
- Serena Request Center:
- SRC - Starter Pack Forms - IT
- SRC - Knowledge Management
- SRC - Service Request
- Serena Service Manager:
- SSM - Change Management
- SSM - Configuration Management System
- SSM - Problem Management
- SSM - Incident Management
- SSM - Problem Management
- Serena Demand Center:
- Framework Files – The SOO framework files augment your underlying SBM installation and enable certain features in the SOO process apps. The framework files include new templates, images, and code that are backward compatible with your existing installation.
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) Files – SLAs define the level of service that an organization commits to its customers. SLAs contain performance metrics that correspond to these commitments.
What's New?
The following features and changes are new in Serena Orchestrated Ops.
Serena Request Center
- There is now "public" or "private" visibility into
published
Knowledge Center
articles. Users and groups cannot view a "private" article if they are not
assigned to the visibility group associated with the article.
Note: To implement this feature as part of an upgrade from previous version of SOO, you must follow the steps described in the Serena Orchestrated Ops On-Premise Upgrade Guide to upgrade the following process app:
- SRC - Knowledge Management
- Users now only see categories if they have privileges to submit items into the services assigned to those categories.
- Deleted categories and services are no longer visible after the Service Request process app is redeployed or promoted. Note that deleted services and categories are hidden from users, but are always visible to administrators so they can be easily restored.
Serena Demand Manager
- Paging icons have been added to the Demand tab, enabling you to navigate through long lists of demand items.
- Descriptions for demand views and plans are now shown on below the demand view or plan name on the content pane.
- Plan names are now unique across users rather than system-wide. For example, each user can now have a plan titled "Backlog."
- The SDM - Project Proposal process app now enables reviewers to reassign planning items. When items are reassigned, reviewers must provide details in a note.
Starter Pack Services
- New starter pack services have been added to the Starter Pack Forms
- IT process app and are available in the
SRC - Service Request process app.
The new services and their assigned
Serena Request Center
categories are:
- New VM Image Request has been added to the IT Infrastructure category. This service tracks requests for installing and configuring VMWare ESX images.
- VPN Access Request has been added to the Employee Services category. This service tracks user requests for VPN access.
- HVAC Request has been added to the Facilities Services category. This service tracks requests for managing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning set up and changes.
- Modify Distribution List has been added to the IT Services for Users category. This service tracks requests for adding, modifying, or deactivating e-mail distribution lists.
Note: To implement this feature as part of an upgrade from previous version of SOO, you must follow the steps described in the Serena Orchestrated Ops On-Premise Upgrade Guide to upgrade the following process apps:- SRC - Starter Pack Forms - IT
- SRC - Service Request
- The Office Move Request and Backup Request services have been moved to the Starter Pack Forms - IT process app. The Office Move Request is assigned to the Facilities category and the Backup Request is assigned to the Advanced IT Services category.
Solution Improvements
- Group ownership allows group members to
assign items to themselves when they are in a state with a group as its
secondary owner. This keeps items from being missed or delayed if individuals
are absent when items move into a state for which they are the primary owner.
In addition, items with a primary owner can be reassigned back to the group
queue in the event that the primary owner becomes unable to complete work in a
timely manner.
On some transition forms, users can choose whether an item is routed directly to an individual as the owner, to a group queue as the secondary owner, or to both. The Serena Orchestrated Ops Implementation Guide and Serena Service Manager ITIL Guide describe how to implement group ownership. The following process apps are pre-configured in SBM Composer to support group ownership:
- SRC - Service Request
- SSM - Incident Management
- SSM - Change Management
Note: To implement this feature as part of an upgrade from previous version of SOO, you must follow the steps described in the Serena Orchestrated Ops On-Premise Upgrade Guide to upgrade the following process apps:- SRC - Service Request
- SSM - Incident Management
- SSM - Change Management
- The new
User Incidents tab, which is present on
Incident Management state forms, and the new
User Requests tab, which is present on Service
Request state forms, contains a report of all other items submitted for the
same
Affected User. Other reports can be added to
the tab with the Embedded Report widget in
SBM Composer.
Note: To implement this feature as part of an upgrade from previous version of SOO, you must follow the steps described in the Serena Orchestrated Ops On-Premise Upgrade Guide to upgrade the following process apps:
- SRC - Service Request
- SSM - Incident Management
Documentation Changes
- The Serena Orchestrated Ops Administrator's Guide has been renamed to the Serena Orchestrated Ops Implementation Guide. The purpose of this guide, which is to provide post-installation setup and configuration steps for Serena Orchestrated Ops portals and solutions, has not changed, however.
Known Issues
Serena Request Center
- Modifications made to Request Center Properties, such as logo or contact information, are not preserved after an installation upgrade. To work around this problem, reapply modifications after completing the installation portion of the SOO upgrade.
- Knowledge Management articles with titles that contain Unicode characters are not returned in search results. To work around this problem, see solution S138993.
- Services cannot be created if they are assigned to projects with internal names that includes Unicode characters. Internal names, also referred to as database names, are based on the name given to a project when it is created.
Serena Demand Center
Demonstration data is not properly installed if you use Internet Explore to log in to Serena Demand Center for the first time and you will receive this error: "Error creating category: Bad Request." If you want to use demonstration data with Serena Demand Center, you must use a supported version of Firefox or Chrome to log in for the first time.
Miscellaneous Issues
- You will get validation errors about missing fields
in
SBM Composer
if the following is true:
- You exported the process app using the Get Process App from Application Engine command in SBM Application Repository.
- The process app has references to tables in other applications, and the process apps containing those applications have not been deployed. An example is the SSM – Change Management process app with references to tables in the Release Management (RLM) solution.
- Use another method for getting the process app into SBM Composer, such as the Save to File command in SBM Application Repository and then the Import from File command in SBM Composer.
- Deploy the referenced process apps first.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
- You could get errors when you do the following to
add an action to an
SLA
clause in
SBM Application Administrator:
-
Add an SLA.
-
Add an SLA clause.
-
Do the following to define a clause action on the General tab of the Add action page:
- Define the conditions.
- Click the + icon next to Add notification.
-
When prompted to save, click Yes.
To work around this problem, click the Save icon at the top of the tab before you click the + icon.
-
- In a clustered JBoss environment, the SLA features are not accessible if the first node in the JBoss cluster is no longer available. To work around this problem, restore the first node in the cluster or reconfigure the entire cluster and establish what was formerly the second node as the new first node in the new cluster.
Documentation
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) help topics opened from Application Administrator do not reflect features introduced in SOO 3.1 and later. For current help, visit the Serena Documentation Center.