Spectrum SDM Integration Fails with "Error updating ticket's description" due to Malformed SOAP Request

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

When using the DX NetOps Spectrum integration with CA Service Desk Manager (SDM) 17.4.4 via CXF Web Services, ticket creation or updates fail for specific templates.

The Spectrum stdout.log shows the following error: Error updating ticket's description to include new alarm ID.

In the SDM NX_ROOT\log\pdm_tomcat.log or jsrvr.log (in DEBUG mode), the inbound updateObject request contains a malformed objectHandle: Executing operation updateObject: sid(...), objectHandle(javax.xml.ws.Holder@MemoryID)...

Environment

DX NetOps Spectrum 23.3.13 integration with CA Service Desk Manager (SDM) 17.4.4 (and later) via CXF Web Services

Cause

The issue is caused by a defect in the Spectrum Service Desk Integration client. During the construction of the updateObject SOAP request, the client-side Java code incorrectly calls .toString() on a javax.xml.ws.Holder object instead of accessing its .value field.

Additionally, this specific code path is triggered in SDM when a plain-text description is passed to an incident template that already has an html_description configured. SDM logic gives precedence to the template's html_description, causing a mismatch that triggers the Spectrum update attempt.

Resolution

This issue is identified as a defect in the Spectrum integration module. 

Workaround

To prevent the code path from being triggered, you can remove the html_description from the affected SDM template incident so that the description passed by Spectrum is accepted during initial ticket creation.

1. Identify the Template Incident: Find the ID of the incident template associated with the problem type (e.g., SPECINT_TEMPLATE_EXAMPLE).

Select ID from call_req where summary = 'SPECINT_TEMPLATE_EXAMPLE';

2. Clear HTML Description: Open SQL Server Management Studio and execute the following query (replace ID_OF_SPECINT_TEMPLATE_EXAMPLE with your specific incident ID):

UPDATE call_req SET html_description = NULL WHERE id = ID_OF_SPECINT_TEMPLATE_EXAMPLE;

Note: Take a backup of the table (call_req) or rows that will be modified in this step.

3. Refresh Cache: On the SDM server, run the following command to update the internal cache:

pdm_cache_refresh -t Call_Req

Note: Perform this during low load periods as it may temporarily slow down the serve

4. Verify: Replicate the alarm in Spectrum to confirm the ticket is now created successfully.