RFE: Content Release Control

Usage and Config Platform
1

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=66228

We are being required to adhere to ITIL Change Management Controls “Best Practices”.
I’ve argued for the better part of a year that what changes in IEM doesn’t rise to the level of requiring Change Control Board Approval (New Fixlets, etc). The problem is that when Dashboards are updated, FUNCTIONALITY of the system is potentially changed, and I’m getting more pressure to Air-Gap our Production IEM environment.

At the very least, I’m going to be required to Air-Gap a new IEM environment in order to provide a stable OS Deployment environment.

The RFE proposes the creation of a Release Control process for External Sites, with the ability to configure a site to Auto-Approve content (Patch sites, etc), but still allow other sites to require Approval before the content is released. This would allow the new content to be tested in a “Test” environment prior to production deployment and would allow us to adhere to ITIL Change Management Controls.

If this sounds like something you would like to see in the product, please click the link and vote for the RFE.

2

+1 Voted

[character padding/]

3

Adding another BES environment would certainly be a lot of overhead. Have you considered creating custom Sites, and bulk-copying fixlets, dashboards, etc. from the default sites into your Custom Sites? You don’t necessarily even need to have the clients subscribed to default sites.

That’s similar to how you’d use things like the CIS or DISA STIG sites, copying fixlets to a custom site so you can configure local exceptions.

4

Also, if you only push changes through Baselines, the Baselines do not auto-update when the source fixlets change. So far that’s how I’ve responded to ITIL.

5

It’s my understanding the you can’t copy Dashboard content between sites, or at the very least that it is not supported.

6

There shouldn’t be anything to stop you, they’re just Site Files. Just be sure to include both the .ojo files and their .js/.css/.swf dependencies.

In any case, the Dashboards shouldn’t necessarily be CMI’s, but the Baselines/Fixlets/whatever that you are generating from the dashboards likely would be.