CA Service Desk Manager uses environment variables specified in the environment template file (NX.env.tpl) to determine certain behaviors. You can use environment variables to modify various system behaviors. You typically use the Options Manager to control system behavior, but at times CA Technical Support instructs you to modify a particular environment variable directly.

Consider the following when editing the environment template file:

• Environment variables set in this file can be overridden by setting the environment variable in the process space in which a process runs. Although convenient in some limited cases, this setup is usually not wanted. Preceding a variable setting with the at symbol (@) prevents variables in the process space overriding the variable. Unless there is a specific reason for allowing an override, the at (@) symbol always precedes the variable name in the template file.
• The comment characters for this file are the pound (#) and the exclamation point (!). The exclamation point character is also used to disable an option.

Important! Modify the template file (NX.env.tpl) and allow the configuration process to apply the changes to the environment file. Never modify the environment file (NX.env) directly, including on your client or secondary server installations.

Follow these steps:

1. Back up of the environment template file (.tpl) that corresponds to your system environment.
   UNIX: $NX_ROOT/pdmconf/NX.env.tpl
   Windows: installation-directory\pdmconf\NX.env_nt.tpl.
2. Edit the environment template file on the primary server. You can view and modify this file using a text editor (Windows users can use WordPad).
3. Make the changes as instructed by your support technician, and save the changes.
4. Run the configuration utility on your primary server installation to apply the changes you made to the environment template file to the actual environment file.
5. Stop and restart the CA SDM primary server for the changes made to the environment file to take effect. To avoid shutting down your system, your support technician can instruct you to stop and restart only certain processes rather than recycling your entire CA SDM server.

For more information, see the article Controlling System Behavior on the CA Answer Bar.

If you would like to contribute to authoring an article for CA Service Desk Manager, please contact james.bauman@ca.com.

The primary CA Service Desk Manager customization tool is Web Screen Painter. You can install Web Screen Painter on any CA SDM server. Web Screen Painter provides you with a simple user interface that lets you customize web forms and schema to the requirements of your site without having prior programming knowledge. Use Web Screen Painter for the following tasks:

• Modify field labels
• Move fields in a form, or modify the appearance of a data grid list
• Add fields to a form, or columns to a list
• Add a nested tab to a form, or modifying default nested tabs
• Create forms and forms groups
• Customize Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) files
• Preview changes in a browser window with your own data before publishing them to other users
• Add new tables or columns to the database, or changing the characteristics of existing columns
• Preview forms that use customized schema before changing the database.

With Web Screen Painter, you can customize objects using drag-and-drop or double-click objects from the Control Palette. You can design controls and objects without having prior knowledge of programming or source code. However, if you want to review and modify source code, Web Screen Painter also provides a source code editor with keyword highlighting that lets you integrate your source level changes with your design view changes.

For information about how to install Web Screen Painter, see the article The Web Screen Painter Installation on the CA Answer Bar.

For information about using Web Screen Painter, see the article Web Interface Customization on the CA Answer Bar and then click The Web Screen Painter (WSP).

If you would like to contribute to authoring a Flipboard article, please contact james.bauman@ca.com.

With CA Service Desk Manager, an external service desk supports customers that buy products or services from your company and have questions or problems with those products or services. In CA SDM, the issue is the basic unit of support when operating an external service desk. Issues are tickets designed to handle customer questions or problems and are oriented toward supporting products and services purchased by the customer.

Use the following guidelines:

1. Review the customer access type using the administrative function of the web interface to see that it meets your needs. If most of your contacts are customers, you might want to set “customer” as the default access type.
2. Review the customer contact type using the administrative function of the web interface to see that it meets your needs.
3. Verify that your contacts are set to have the appropriate access type and contact type. For example, if you set customer as the default access type, you also need to set the analyst contacts to the analyst access type.

The contact type is usually assigned automatically based on how you create the contact, but in some cases, the contact type might not be defined. Customers who use your service desk for support should have a contact type of customer and analysts who operate the service desk should have a contact type of analyst.

You can work with contacts using the administrative function of the web interface.

If you are operating an external service desk for which you are supporting customers, your support structure consists mostly of the issues that they create and the underlying supporting features of those issues.

For more information, see the article Support Structure on the CA Answer Bar.

If you would like to contribute to authoring a Flipboard article, please contact james.bauman@ca.com.

Using CA Service Desk Manager, various company environments require both internal and external service desk models. In this case, you can complete either of the following tasks:

1. Separate internal and external service desk models with separate service desk installations.
2. Set up CA SDM to support both models.

This setup is convenient when your service desk analysts are cross-trained to support both employees and customers, and if the distinction between internal and external support is not always clear. For example, you may have employees that purchase products from your company or customers that have problems and questions with the infrastructure of your company.

As the administrator, you set up the support structure for a combined internal/external service desk that consists of issues, requests, and change orders, and their underlying supporting features. When you decide to use a combined internal and external service desk, perform the following tasks before setting up a structure:

1. Review the customer and employee access types using the administrative function of the web interface to see that it meets your needs. If most of your contacts are customers, you might want to set “customer” as the default access type. If most of your contacts are employees using the service desk for support, you might want to set “employee” as the default access type.
2. Review the customer and employee contact types using the administrative function of the web interface to see if it meets your needs.
3. Verify that your contacts are set to have the appropriate access type and contact type. For example, if you set customer as the default access type, you also need to set the analyst contacts to the analyst access type, and the employee contacts to the employee access type.
4. The contact type is usually assigned automatically based on how you create the contact as follows, but in some cases the contact type might not be defined.

Be aware of the following:

• Customers that use your service desk for support should have a contact type of customer.
• Employees that use the service desk for support should have a contact type of employee.
• Employees that work as support desk analysts should have a contact type of analyst.
• You can work with contacts using the administrative function of the web interface.

For more information, see the article Support Structure on the CA Answer Bar.

If you would like to contribute to authoring an article for Flipboard, please contact james.bauman@ca.com.

With CA Service Desk Manager, configuration item (CI) families categorize your business assets by type and assign meaningful attributes for each CI in the family. Families are general categories of CIs, such as hardware, software, and services CIs.

CI classes are specific categories within the family categories. For example, the Hardware family contains CI classes such as modem, router, repeater, and bridge.

You can organize your CIs into families and classes to make them easier to manage. For example, you can generate a list of CIs that belong to a particular family or class.

You use the following sequence to categorize your business assets:

1. Define CI families.
2. Define CI classes.
3. Define CIs.

For more information, see the articles Families and Classes and Managing Configuration Items on the CA Answer Bar.

If you would like to contribute to authoring an article for Flipboard, please contact James.Bauman@ca.com.

CA Service Desk Manager lets you import configuration item (CI) data using the GRLoader program that is provided with CA SDM. The GRLoader program lets you create CIs from data that is contained in an XML file or an Excel spreadsheet.

Follow these steps:

1. From the Start menu, click Run, and then enter cmd in the Run box.
2. From the command line window, enter the following command:
   Grloader -u <username> -p <password> -s http://<ca_sdm_servername>:8080 -i <xml_document or spreadsheet>
3. Press Enter to start the import process.
   Note: GRLoader creates CIs using the data contained in the XML or Excel file. When errors are detected during the import process, an error file is created that lists the CIs that could not be imported and the reason.
   The GRLoader import process completes.
4. Start CA SDM and verify that the CI data was populated correctly.
5. Start the CMDB Visualizer to verify that relationship data was populated correctly.

For more information, see the article Populating CA CMDB on the CA Answer Bar.

If you would like to contribute to authoring an article for Flipboard, please contact James Bauman.

CA Technologies introduces CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap, a free, easy-to-use IT management solution, based on the popular and powerful CA Nimsoft Monitor solution.  It isn’t a limited trial—it’s free for as long as you want to use it!

CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap lets you do the following:

• Apply monitoring for up to 30 computer systems or network devices for free.
• View and manage alarms.
• View charts of performance data.
• Create, view, and schedule reports.
• Receive alarm notifications in email.
• Manage accounts and account contacts (users).

Register to download CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap today at:

http://www.ca.com/us/lpg/nimsoft-monitor-snap/register.aspx.

System requirements and installation instructions are available to make getting started easy. In as little as an hour you’ll be monitoring, reporting on, and managing your infrastructure with CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap.

Also, check out the free, online Snap Central Community, where you can learn about the product, post questions, and interact with your fellow users.

The predefined menu trees provided by CA Service Desk Manager are sufficient for most sites. However, there can be situations when you want to (or need to) customize a role by implementing a custom menu tree for it.

In most cases, it is easier to start with a copy of a predefined menu tree and then add, remove, or reorganize nodes within the hierarchy. Alternatively, you can create a menu tree and construct an all new hierarchy of nodes.

You can replace the menu tree in the web form (Start Page) for the tab that shows the original admin_tree. You can also create a web form and attach the new web form with the new menu tree to a tab.

Follow these steps:

1. Copy one of the predefined menu trees and make a note of value you enter in the Code field.
2. Create a web form using HTMPL as the type and the following code for Resource:

   $cgi?SID=$SESSION.SID+FID=123+OP=DISPLAY_FORM+HTMPL=admin_main_role.htmpl+KEEP.tree_code=menu_tree_code

3. Specify the value of the code for the menu tree you created in Step 1 for menu_tree_code. The admin_main_role.htmpl code uses the value of the KEEP.tree_code variable as its menu tree.
4. Create a tab record that uses the web form that you created in Step 2 as the Starting Page, and Administration as the Menu Bar.
   Note: Administration is a generic menu bar used by many roles; it is not role-specific.
5. Assign the tab that you created in Step 3 to the role you want to have access to the custom menu tree.
6. Log out of CA SDM and log back in again.
   The Administration tab displays your custom menu tree.

For more information about menu trees, see the article How to Manage Roles Using Menu Trees on the CA Answer Bar.

If you would like to contribute to authoring an article for Flipboard, please contact James Bauman.

CA Service Desk Manager (CA SDM) supports multiple authentication mechanisms, including CA Embedded Entitlements Manager (CA EEM) authentication. If CA SDM is integrated with other CA Products that use CA EEM, we recommend that you integrate CA SDM also with CA EEM.

CA EEM also provides high availability, which ensures that users always have access to CA SDM. The new CA EEM Integration Deployment Guide explains key concepts of CA EEM implementation and integration with CA SDM and other CA Products. You can download the latest version of the guide from Security Management section of Green Books home page or use the following direct link.

https://support.ca.com/phpdocs/7/common/greenbooks/EEM_CA_Embedded_Entitlements_Manager_Integration_Deployment_Guide_ENU.pdf

About the author:

Goteti, Harish is a Principal Quality Assurance Engineer with CA Technologies.

CA SDM offers a live chat feature, which you can configure and enable for your CA Open Space users. Live chat lets users chat with an analyst directly.

Prerequisites:

• Support Automation must have been configured in CA SDM.  
• Integration between CA SDM and CA Open Space must have been enabled. 

For more information on how to configure the above prerequisites, see the CA Answer Bar.

To enable live chat on CA Open Space:

1. From the Data Sources page, click the Edit icon for CA SDM.

2. Click YES to enable Live Chat on the required pages.
You can enable Live Chat for the Search, Home, and Request pages.

3. Optionally, you can customize the Live Chat link text (the default text is Chat with an IT Analyst now!).

4. Click Save.

Live Chat is enabled in CA Open Space. All CA Open Space users can view the link on the selected pages.

You can integrate multiple search engines with CA SDM to provide a federated search capability. This search capability helps you to get search results from heterogeneous sources, such as Google, SharePoint, CA Open Space, and so on. As the Federated Search architecture is flexible, you can create a custom adapter using an SDK interface. The custom adapter helps you search your database that cannot be searched through the Google, SharePoint, and OpenSpace adapter. The new Crawler Surface component allows an external search engine crawler to discover the CA SDM information. For more information about Federated Search in CA SDM, see the CA SDM Release 12.9 bookshelf on our support website.

Thanks to many of our customers for providing feedback on how we can improve our education content!  Based on your suggestions as well as input from our instructors and Subject Matter Experts, Service Desk Manager content has been revamped for Release 12.9. Topics have been modularized so it is more relevant and consumable.  We have also expanded many topics to provide more in-depth information.  For your reference, below is a listing of the previous course titles mapped to the new course content along with comments for the change.

Recently Released Service Management Courses

 CA Service Desk Manager Certification Courses

CAT-180           CA Service Desk Manager r12 Professional Exam          33SVDM001E

CAT-200           CA Service Desk Manager r12 Administrator Exam        33SVDM002E

Role-based Learning Paths make it easy to get the right Knowledge into the Right Minds

Like the GPS system in your vehicle, Learning Paths provide recommended training direction and sequencing specific to specific to a user’s role with a product. Simply put, role-based Learning Paths make it easy to get the right knowledge into the right minds. Log onto ca.com/education to learn more

Get Educated Before 2013 is over!

The end of the year is nearing- don’t let your training budget go unused! With CA Education, you can learn how to properly use your CA Solutions so you can spend less time on the phone with the help desk and more time getting your job done. A schedule of upcoming courses can be found on the CA Education website.

About the author

Lisa Cummins is the Global Education Program Manager for Service Management products.  She is located in corporate headquarters in Islandia, New York and has been with CA Technologies for 28 years.

CA Service Desk Manager (CA SDM) Mobile Enabler 2.0 is now shipped with CA SDM 12.9. The Mobile Enabler is built as a common interface to access some of the core features of CA SDM and CA Open Space from your mobile device. For more information on how to configure the Mobile Enabler 2.0 with CA SDM 12.9, see the article CA SDM Mobile Enabler Configuration on CA Answer Bar.

Once it is configured, you can access the web application interface or the native mobile application from your mobile device in the following ways:

• To access the web application interface of the Mobile Enabler from your mobile device, provide the CA SDM Server Name and Rest Port Number in this URL: http://<CA_SDM_Server_Name>:<REST_Port_Number>/casdm
• To use the Mobile Enabler as the native mobile application on your mobile device, go to Google Play (for Android users) or App Store (for iOS users), search for CA Service Desk Manager, and install the application.

Contact your service desk administrator if you have any issues with accessing the mobile application.

Supported Release: 12.9

The CA Service Desk Manager’s Auto-Failover feature helps in monitoring server health and initiating a server failover during service disruptions. CA SDM initiates Server Health Monitoring through the following HTTP based interfaces:

• Health Monitoring Interface: An HTTP(S) interface for monitoring the health of your background server. Helps in taking reliable failover decisions on a chosen standby server in case of any failures or disruptions to the background server functionality.
• Failover Initiating Interface: An HTTP(S) interface for seamlessly promoting the chosen standby server as the new background server without causing any service disruption.

If you want to enable the  auto-failover feature on CA SDM servers, consider the following:

1. Install Apache Tomcat on the background and all standby servers.
   Note: Ensure that the installed Tomcat server is compatible with JRE 1.7 version. Do not use port numbers that are configured for the CA SDM components.
2. Deploy the health servlet on the background server and all standby servers by copying the HealthServlet.war file from the $NX_ROOT/samples/HealthServlet folder to the TOMCAT_HOME/webapps folder.
3. The HealthServlet.war file is deployed in the webapps folder:
   TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/HealthServlet/WEB-INF/classes
   After the successful deployment, the health servlet is ready to perform the health checks.
4. Restart the Tomcat server.
5. Configure a third-party tool of your choice to monitor the health of your background server at regular intervals. To monitor server health, use the following HTTP URL:
   http(s)://Background_server_name:port_number/HealthServlet/GetHealth
6. Configure a third-party tool of your choice to initiate a failover logic when the background server health degrades. It is recommended that you convert your standby server as the new background server:
   http(s)://Standby_server_name:port_number/HealthServlet/FailoverServlet
   Note: We recommended you to configure the failover servlet on SSL by giving access privileges to only predefined users. This is also applicable when you configure a third-party tool to initiate failover.
7. The auto-failover feature is now enabled.

Also, check out how to enable the auto-failover feature details here on CA Answer Bar.

Tree Component
A new component is available – the Tree Component. Like the Group Component it displays a summary of data, but, in this case, you can add multiple fields and display the summary result as a hierarchy. This component also allows you to have multiple series coming from different data sources. Like the other components in Xtraction, it just requires a simple drag and drop to add to your Dashboard.

An additional feature of this component is when you have a single field that contains a hierarchy, like the Incident area. You can set this field as a “Hierarchy Field” and the field value is split using a character delimiter and added to the hierarchy. The series values are then rolled up to the parent levels.

User Profile Variables
Variable filter conditions were introduced in Xtraction Release v13.2 and populated with values from Document parameters. With Xtraction v13.3, you can also attach variables to user accounts. These values are then used with variable filter conditions alongside the values from Document parameters. This also allows variable filter conditions to work with Dashboards. There is a new Variable Administration tab where global variables are defined by an administrator.

These can then be seen on the Variables tab of the user dialog where values can be assigned.

When a dashboard runs that has a variable filter condition with one of these variables, the relevant values are then used in that filter.

Formatting at the Series Level
In Xtraction v13.3, each multi-series component now allows format rules at the series level. If you have multiple series and use formatting rules to highlight data, but your series contains data from different sources, you can now create format rules against each series. Format rules at the component level still exist and will be applied in cases where a series level rule does not match.

Updated Search Results
The full folder location is now displayed in the search results and other views.

Customizable Support Button
The action for the support button in the footer can now be customized in the settings utility. You can direct your users to your own support page or even launch the users email client to send an email to a specific email address by using a “mailto:” URL.

Other Features

• Enables dragging of folder to auto refresh and cycle window
• Record list takes into account the first 10 rows of data while calculating column widths
• Data model versioning
• Grids can now be exported to CSV
• Scale to fit option for image components

We do not have an exact date yet as to when you can download Xtraction v13.3. However, the download should be available within a couple of weeks. So, please keep checking the download section of the CA support site!

Enjoy and have a great week!

This article is contributed by Jon Israel, Principal Support Engineer, CA Technologies.

CA Service Desk Manager (SDM) Release 12.9 provides the UNC path to store the EBR Index and KEIT Files. In case of CA SDM 12.9 Advanced Availability (AA) Setup,  it is mandatory to define the UNC file path. In an AA configuration, the KEIT daemon uses the UNC support to save the KEIT files in a shared drive. Irrespective of server failure or where the daemon is located, you can always access the same UNC shared drive and save the KEIT files in the same directory. Similarly, UNC support allows the EBR daemon to save the index files in a shared drive.

Note: The EBR Index & KEIT Files path must reside on the same server and refer to identical UNC credentials.

Consider the following:

1. Create UNC credentials or use existing ones.
   See CA Answer Bar for information about how to create the UNC credentials.
2. From the CA SDM Web User Interface, navigate to the following location for EBR indexing files and KEIT import/export packages:
   • Path for EBR Index Files: Defines the location to store the EBR index files.  EBR Index files are created when you save and publish any knowledge document. Depending on your CA SDM configuration type, consider the following for defining the EBR index file path:
     • Conventional Setup: If you are upgrading to CA SDM Release 12.9 Conventional Setup, then using the UNC shared path is optional and you can choose not to use it. If you have not created a UNC path, CA SDM uses the default path to store the EBR index files. If you are using a UNC shared drive, manually copy the ebr/ebr_ADM folders from the default location ($NX_ROOT/site/) to the UNC shared path.
     • Advanced Availability Setup: If you are upgrading to CA SDM 12.9 Advanced Availability configuration, then it is mandatory to create the UNC shared path and store the EBR index files in this path. The UNC credentials are not required for the default path. After you create the UNC path, manually copy the ebr/ebr_ADM folders from the default location ($NX_ROOT/site/ebr) to the UNC shared path.
   • Path For Knowledge Import/Export Files: Defines the location for storing the KEIT import/export packages during an import/export operation. Depending on your CA SDM Configuration type, consider the following for defining the KEIT file path:
     • Conventional Setup: If you are upgrading to CA SDM Release 12.9, then it is optional to use the UNC path and you may chose not to use it. If you have not created a UNC path, CA SDM uses the default path to store the KEIT files. If you are using a UNC shared drive, manually copy the Import/Export package folders from the default location ($NX_ROOT/site/keit) to the UNC shared path.
     • Advanced Availability Setup: If you are upgrading to CA SDM 12.9 Advanced Availability Configuration, then it is mandatory to create the UNC shared path and use it for storing the KEIT files. The UNC credentials are not required for the default path. After you create the UNC path, manually copy the Import/Export package folders from the default location ($NX_ROOT/site/keit) to the UNC shared path.

Important! You must restart the CA SDM services for these settings to take effect.

Visit CA Answer Bar for more information on how to configure knowledge management.

This article is contributed by Shah Raka, Technical Information Engineer, CA Technologies.

Thinking of aggregating your CA Service Desk Manager blogs and community posts in one place? Want timely notifications for articles without signing in to Flipboard? No problem! Use the RSS feed to have the CA SDM content delivered to you:
http://cookbooks.ca.com/casdm/?feed=rss2

Check out this short and simple instruction on how to have the CA SDM flipboard articles and posts delivered to your Outlook 2010 mailbox:

1. Right-click the RSS Feeds folder and click Add a New RSS Feed.
2. Enter http://cookbooks.ca.com/casdm/?feed=rss2
3. Click Add.
4. Click Yes.

We are launching the Knowledge Management series on Flipboard from Monday, 16 December 2013. We will publish a series of articles on CA SDM’s Knowledge management functionality. The articles would cover scenarios, tips, best practices, and troubleshooting information. We hope you will find them helpful.

If you want to contribute or would like to see specific articles related to knowledge management, please write to us at naira11@ca.com or krila02@ca.com.

Stay tuned!

Configure the self-service options to let your customers search and view the knowledge documents before they raise issues. Giving customers access to knowledge documents lets customers find answers themselves and reduces the pressure on your support team.

You can configure the following self-service options related knowledge documents:

• Search for Knowledge Solutions—Employees and customers can enter keywords and phrases in a search field that retrieves a list of knowledge solutions. You can configure this option in the following location: Administration, Knowledge, Search, Search Settings. For more information, see Set Up Default Search Settings.

• View Top Solutions—Employees and customers can display a list of top solutions in the self-service interface. The following Administrator setting: Administration, Knowledge, System, General Settings, Top Solutions—Number of Documents to Display, determines the number of documents to display. For more information, see Configure General Settings.

• Prompt for Knowledge Survey—After opening a knowledge document, the user is able to read the document and access a series of survey questions. One of these questions lets the customer indicate through a prompt whether they feel that their problem has been solved. You can configure this option in the following location: Administration, Knowledge, Solution Survey, Survey Settings. For more information, see Define Solution Survey Settings.

• Suggest Knowledge—Employees and customers can, where permitted, view a list of knowledge suggestions when they create a ticket in the self-service interface. You can configure this option in the following location: Administration, Knowledge, Service Desk Integration, Suggest Knowledge. For more information, see Knowledge Suggestions.

 Coming up Next: How to Upgrade Knowledge Management From r11.2 to 12.9

When you upgrade from CA SDM r11.2 to Release 12.9, your knowledge management environment is also automatically upgraded.

After upgrading to CA SDM 12.9, ensure to complete the following post-upgrade steps related to knowledge management:

1. Map links that are created in a resolution of a document to the database to locate broken links.
   Note: You use the default Flag broken links policy to locate broken links.
2. Select Knowledge, Automated Policies, Scheduling on the Administration tab. The Automated Policies page opens.
3. Select the Run the Automated Policies calculation check box.
4. Select the time interval to perform the calculation and click Save.
   The policies will start processing at the specified date and time.
5. Select Knowledge, Systems, General Settings on the Administration tab. On the System page, complete the following:
   • Path for EBR Index Files: Defines the location for storing EBR index files. CA SDM creates EBR index files when you save and publish any knowledge document.
     For information about how to define the EBR index path for CA SDM Conventional and Advanced Availability Setup, visit CA Answer Bar.
     Important! EBR Index Files path & KEIT Files path must refer to the same UNC credentials and the path must reside on a same server to support this.
   • Path For Knowledge Import/Export Files : Defines the location for storing KEIT import/export packages during an import/export operation.
     For details on how to define the KEIT file path, visit CA Answer Bar.
     Important! EBR Index Files path & KEIT Files path must refer to the same UNC credentials and the path must reside on a same server to support this.
   • UNC Credentials: You can use this option to create UNC credentials to access the network shared drive to access EBR indexing files and import/export packages. Use the UNC Credentials link to create the UNC credentials.
     Note: UNC paths and UNC credentials are required in case of the advanced availability configuration. Restart the CA SDM services when you change any of the UNC details (UNC paths or UNC credentials). For information on how to create UNC credentials, visit CA Answer Bar.
6. Run the pdm_k_reindex -pm command as follows:
   • pdm_k_reindex –pm: Fixes the document links and embedded images inside the resolution field.
     Important! After you upgrade, you can get a critical error when running pdm_k_reindex -pm. If you get this error, browse to Knowledge, Approval Process Manager, Approval Process Settings, and change the Permissions for Document Edit after Publish option to User with full permissions may edit documents, and then run the pdm_k_reindex -pm command.
   • pdm_k_reindex –ml: Fixes the document links inside the resolution field and maps them to the database.
   • pdm_k_reindex: Indexes the documents so they are searchable in your knowledge environment.
     The Knowledge Management environment is now upgraded to CA SDM Release 12.9.
     After upgrading to CA SDM 12.9, the Knowledge Management notification data from previous releases of CA SDM uses the Release 12.9 notification engine. For example, there are default activity notifications and notification rules for object types, such as the Knowledge Report Card.
     Note: After the knowledge management upgrade, printing of Knowledge Documents can result in a large space inserted after the Resolution section of the document. This space is inserted due to an issue with upgrading document templates from a previous release.

Guest Contributor: This article is contributed by Bidhan Chandra Deb, Software Engineer at CA Technologies. He works for the CA Service Desk Manager Development Team.

Coming up Next! How to Upgrade CA SDM Knowledge Management r12.x to Release 12.9. Stay Tuned!