Best Practice for using the PDM_OPTIONS_MGR command to make Options Manager changes in a Service Desk Manager (SDM) Advanced Availability (AA) Installation

Products

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

Issue/Introduction

This document provides step by step instructions, in an AA installation environment, on how to implement a new NX.ENV variable using the 'pdm_options_mgr' command line utility, without shutting down SDM.

The 'pdm_options_mgr' utility needs to be used when the NX.ENV variable is not listed in any option available under Options Manager in the SDM interface.

For the sake of this article:

• "ServerA" is background server
• "ServerB" is a standby server
• "ServerC" is an application server
• "ServerD" is an application server

Environment

Service Desk Manager 14.x and 17.x

Advanced Availability (AA) architecture

All Supported Operating Systems

Resolution

1.  Access ServerA as an administrator and in the command prompt execute either one of the following options:

• To install or update a variable:

pdm_options_mgr -b -c -s [Variable name comes here] -v [value] -a pdm_option.inst

pdm_options_mgr -b -c -s [Variable name comes here]  -v [value] -a pdm_option.inst -t

For example

pdm_options_mgr -b -c -s aud_ins -v Yes -a pdm_option.deinst

pdm_options_mgr -b -c -s aud_ins -v Yes -a pdm_option.deinst -t

• To deinstall a variable:

pdm_options_mgr -b -c -s [Variable name comes here] -v [value] -a pdm_option.deinst

pdm_options_mgr -b -c -s [Variable name comes here] -v [value] -a pdm_option.deinst -t

2.  Restart SDM service on ServerB.

3.  After ServerB completely starts, run the command "pdm_server_control -b" on ServerB to promote the standby server to the background server.

4.  Restart the SDM service on ServerA.

5.  After ServerA completely starts, run the command "pdm_server_control -b" on ServerA to promote it back to the background server.

6.  Notify end users to log out of Service Desk on ServerC and use one of the other Application Servers.  For example, you could send an email to end-users, create a SDM announcement or run the command "pdm_server_control -q 600" to notify end users that the APP server they are using will be shut down in 10 minutes.

7.  Restart SDM service on ServerC.

8.  Repeat Step #6 and #7 for ServerD.

If there are other APP servers, like ServerE, ServerF, etc., just repeat Steps #6 and #7 for each of them.

Additional Information

Out of the box, SDM uses UPDATE for version control. If for some reason you disable this option, you would need to enable it first before any steps in this KB article.  You can check NX.env file in the SDM install directory to make sure it has the option @NX_VER_CTL=UPGRADE.  If not, contact Support for assistance to enable Version Control.