An updated version of MxLoader is available

While Bruno Portaluri left IBM a few months ago, he is still updating and maintaining MxLoader. He made his most recent updates on Nov 14, 2017, available here:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/groups/service/html/communityview?communityUuid=220c5757-ac28-4f25-bd08-457c5a3364c3#fullpageWidgetId=W9cbbfec147e6_4341_9578_7671e722619f&file=31d8347f-219f-45b2-a1d2-18f777e38810

Canada's Secret Spy Agency Has Open-Sourced a Malware-Fighting Tool

A link to the code:

https://bitbucket.org/cse-assemblyline/

All of the details about the release can be found here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cse-canada-cyber-spy-malware-assemblyline-open-source-1.4361728

Every IT department in the world should download and use this if they don't already have something in place.

We're a sponsor at Pink18 in Orlando!

We'll be a sponsor of the Pink18 conference in Orlando, Florida Feb. 18-21, 2018. Come by booth #601 to see what we're offering or just to say hi.

How Netcool Operations Insight delivers cognitive automation by Kristian Stewart

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2017/08/netcool-operations-insight-cognitive-automation/

One important topic that Kristian omitted from his excellent article is the optional Agile Service Manager (ASM) component of NOI. ASM provides a context aware topology view of your applications and infrastructure, which gives you a clear view of the impacts causes by events. Take a look at our other articles and YouTube videos for more information on ASM.

What to use instead of ITMSuper

ITMSuper is a JavaScript based tool that can be used for maintaining the health of your ITM 6.x environment. It was written by IBM and made available as a separate download, but was never completely supported. It's even less supported today, as it only supports Internet Explorer 8. Here is a great blog post from Shaun R at IBM pointing to different tools that you should use instead, all written by IBM's own John Alvord:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/0587adbc-8477-431f-8c68-9226adea11ed/entry/Helping_us_help_you_ITM_Bitesize_Edition_ITMSuper?lang=en

Free mobile app for monitoring the status of your Maximo and ICD environments

I just found the MxAdmin app in IBM Marketplace:

https://www.ibm.com/us-en/marketplace/mxadmin

It was written by A3J Group and appears to have some pretty nice functionality.

IBM Control Desk 7.6.0.3 is available

Introduction

IBM has released the ICD 7.6.0.3 FixPack:

https://www-945.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/swg/selectFixes?parent=ibm~Tivoli&product=ibm/Tivoli/IBM+SmartCloud+Control+Desk&release=7.6.0.2&platform=All&function=all&source=fc

Installation issues

On linux, the service_portal.bin installer crashes unless you use the "-i silent" install option. See this link for more information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWT9A_7.6.0.3/com.ibm.sccd.doc/cdui_install/c_ctr_cdui_install_unattended.html

New/Updated Functionality

Here are IBM's links for the new capabilities:

Control Desk Platform

-------------------------------------

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWT9A_7.6.0.3/com.ibm.sccd.doc/whats_new/c_ctr_whats_new_7603_top.html

Control Desk Service Portal

-------------------------------------

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWT9A_7.6.0.3/com.ibm.sccd.doc/whats_new/c_whats_new_serviceportal_7603.html

I've found a couple of additional things that have been fixed that I didn't find in the documentation. Specifically:

Service Portal

- Default values for specifications now completely work. This means that you can specify a default value for a specification for an offering, and you will see that default value filled in when you go to request that offering.

- Specifications tied to Table Domains now work again. This function existed in 7.6.0.1, but was broken in 7.6.0.2, and is now back. Specifically, if you define a specification to be tied to a table domain, when you click in the field for that specification in the offering, you'll get a popup with all of the possible values. 

- Users can add an attachment before hitting the Submit button. One thing this allows you to do is require an attachment through the use of an "Add to Cart" or "On Submit" validation script.

Update 9/25/17: Control Desk Platform

The Person Groups "Group Availability" Gantt chart works now. It was broken in 7.6.0.1 and 7.6.0.2, but it does work again in 7.6.0.3.