Modifying the Netcool Remedy 8 gateway for use with Java JDK 8

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝

The Netcool Gateway for Remedy 8 version 1.3 was originally written for Java 6, which used the Rhino JavaScript engine. The Nashorn JavaScript engine in Java 8 (which is automatically installed with an OMNIbus fixpack) is slightly different. Nashorn is so different that the some modifications are required to get the probe to work correctly.

The error you'll see in the gateway log file if you try to run the gateway without these changes is:

Error: [Main Gateway] java.lang.RuntimeException: javax.script.ScriptException: ReferenceError: "importPackage" is not defined in <eval> at line number 1

The issue is basically that Nashorn gives you a new way to create Java objects within JavaScript.

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
You will need to modify three files to get the Remedy 8 gateway working correctly. Those files are listed here:

$𝗢𝗠𝗡𝗜𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘/𝗷𝗮𝘃𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁/𝗺𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀/𝘀𝗼𝗴.𝗷𝘀
$𝗢𝗠𝗡𝗜𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘/𝗷𝗮𝘃𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁/𝗺𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀/𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁.𝗷𝘀

In the above two files, you simply need to add this one line at the beginning of each file:

𝚕𝚘𝚊𝚍("𝚗𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚗:𝚖𝚘𝚣𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚊_𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚝.𝚓𝚜");

$𝗢𝗠𝗡𝗜𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘/𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀/𝗯𝗺𝗰_𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆/𝗯𝗺𝗰_𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆.𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.𝗷𝘀 
This file requires a bit more customization. Specifically, you replce this line in the update() function definition:

    𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚜 = 𝚜𝚘𝚐.𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚛𝚘𝚠();

With these 3 lines:

    //𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚜 = 𝚜𝚘𝚐.𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚛𝚘𝚠(); // 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚝.
𝚟𝚊𝚛 𝚂𝙾𝙶𝚁𝚘𝚠 = 𝙹𝚊𝚟𝚊.𝚝𝚢𝚙𝚎("𝚌𝚘𝚖.𝚒𝚋𝚖.𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚒.𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚕.𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜.𝚜𝚘𝚐.𝚂𝙾𝙶𝚁𝚘𝚠");
𝚟𝚊𝚛 𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚜 = 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚂𝙾𝙶𝚁𝚘𝚠();

Once you make all of the above changes, you need to restart the gateway for the changes to take effect, and it has a better chance of working. I say better chance because you still have to provide all of the correct values for the various properties. But if you're just upgrading your working gateway to OMNIbus 8.1 FixPack 30, then the above changes are what you need.

JavaScript regular expression trick

Working on a Netcool Impact implementation recently I ran across a feature of JavaScript regular expressions that really impressed me. I'll compare it to a somewhat similar feature/syntax in Perl.

If you need to test a string for a regular expression in Perl, you can do the following:

if ($mystring =~ /my_regular_expression/) ...

That will return true if $string contains the specified regular expression.

In JavaScript, you can invoke the test() method directly on the regular expression (including the leading and trailing "/") with one parameter, which is the string to test. Here's what the equivalent of the above looks like in JavaScript:

if (/my_regular_expression/.test(mystring)) ...

And to test if it doesn't match, the syntax is:

if (!/my_regular_expression/.test(mystring)) ...

That's it. I just thought it was pretty neat.

Processing JSON in automation scripts in IBM Control Desk 7.6

Background

You may need to deal with JSON-formatted data in an automation script, and it can be a little tricky. I've written this post to provide the few little pointers to make it easier for you.

JavaScript

You can write automation scripts in Rhino JavaScript or Jython. While Jython is the most common language used for automation scripts, it turns out that JSON processing is MUCH easier in JavaScript. Specifically, in a JavaScript automation script, you have access to the popular object named JSON that will give you everything you need. Here's an example:

var jsonObject = JSON.parse(jsonString);

And that's it. You can now work with jsonObject as a JSON object as described in this reference material from w3schools:

https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_json_parse.asp

As far as I know, this will work in both WebSphere and WebLogic application servers. One possible caveat is that the JavaScript engine is changing from JDK 7 to JDK 8. Here's more information on that:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21992706

Jython in WebSphere

For Maximo/ICD automation scripts, Jython is by far the most popular language. It's also more thoroughly documented and, IMO, easier to work with in this context. However, JSON parsing has a couple of caveats. Specifically, the Jython interpreter in ICD 7.6 is version 2.5.2, which doesn't have a built-in JSON parser (one was added in Jython version 2.6). However, we're still in luck because WebSphere actually includes a JAR file that provides JSON processing. The specific class that you need to import is com.ibm.json.java.JSONObject :

from com.ibm.json.java import JSONObject

...

my_json = JSONObject.parse(my_filebody)

And from there, you can deal with my_json appropriately according to the JavaDoc here:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSEUEX_3.0.0/com.ibm.javaeuc.doc/com/ibm/json/java/JSONObject.html

Jython in WebLogic

Admittedly, I haven't tested this one. I've tested the above two, and from my research, I believe this will work. Specifically, these two links give the necessary information:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/json-1973242.html

https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1213/wls/WLPRG/java-api-for-json-proc.htm#WLPRG1059

If you find that it doesn't work, please ping me and I'll help you get it to work then update this entry as necessary.

With that in mind, you just need to import the appropriate classes in your automation script:

from javax.json import Json

from javax.json import JsonObject

And there you go.

Extending TSAM using Eclipse

If you have been using Tivoli Service Automation Manager (TSAM) for Cloud provisioning, the usual way for service offering customization is to write Javascript and HTMLs directly on TSAM server.   With TSAM 7.2.2, there is an Eclipse based project available for self service offering customization.   Using this Eclipse project, you can perform Javascript customization right from your Eclipse IDE.  This artcile provides a high-level technical overview of this process.

To setup the Eclipse development environment,  you need to download/setup Eclipse first.  Even thought the latest versions of Eclipse should work, according to documentation, the Eclipse projects were tested with Helios (3.6) version and it is safe to use either Helios or Galileo versions.  Once Eclipse is setup, you simply have to download the project zip from TSAM install images located under TSAMBASE7300/samples/UI directory and import two Eclipse projects viz, custom_web and custom_web_build into Eclipse using Eclipse Import wizard. 

The custom_web project is used to make any javascript changes.  The custom_web_build project contains several ANT tasks that can be used to perform deployment to TSAM Server.   Connection to TSAM server is managed through SSH and you can specify the authentication parameters in build.properties. SSH authentication can use either SSH keys or password.

For testing you can use the quickdeploy ANT task that rebuilds the custom_web.war application as you publish the changes.  You can also backout the changes using undeploy task but that basically removes the custom_web.war from the TSAM server removing all custom changes.   For production deployments, you will have to rebuild the maximo.ear file using buildmaximoear.sh/cmd command.

You can find more information about this TSAM customization in TSAM 7.2.2 Extensibility Guide available at the following location.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v10r1/topic/com.ibm.tsam_7.2.2.doc/ext/c_sg_extensibility.html

Hope this helps you get started with TSAM customization. If you have any questions, please feel free to post it it in the comments.