dashboard using pod builder guide

BMC Software, Inc., Confidential

White paper

Getting Customer Data into BMC

Dashboards for Business Service

Management using the Pod Builder

March 2012


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Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................... 8

About This White Paper ........................................................................................ 8

A Brief Introduction to BMC Dashboards for BSM ............................................. 8

But What about Customer Data? ............................................................................. 10

Introducing the Pod Builder ................................................................................ 10

About Calbro Services ............................................................................................ 11

Revenues ......................................................................................................... 11

Business Strategies .......................................................................................... 11

BMC Dashboards for BSM at Calbro ............................................................. 11

Case Study 1: Building pods from simple schemas and data .................................. 12

Calbro Pods and Metrics ..................................................................................... 12

Building A Pod from An Excel Spreadsheet ........................................................... 15

Copying an Excel Spreadsheet to the BMC Dashboards for BSM Installation

Folder .............................................................................................................. 16

Creating an Excel Data Source ........................................................................ 16

Creating Data Views ....................................................................................... 17

Creating the Vendor Pod ................................................................................. 20

Seeing the Vendor Pod in Action .................................................................... 28

Building a Pod from a Relational Database ............................................................ 29

Data Preparation .................................................................................................. 29

Using materialized views ................................................................................ 30

Data Preparation using SQL Views ..................................................................... 30

Creating an RDBMS Data Source ....................................................................... 31

Creating A Data View ......................................................................................... 32

Creating the Project Pod ...................................................................................... 34

Putting It All Together ........................................................................................ 39

Case Study 2: Building a pod from the BMC Remedy AR System database ......... 39

Calbro pods and metrics ...................................................................................... 39

Preparing the data ................................................................................................ 42

Creating the incident summary view ............................................................... 42

Creating the time zone information table ........................................................ 45

Creating the data source ...................................................................................... 46

Creating an RDBMS Source using BMC Remedy AR System ...................... 46

Creating the Incident Summary by Assigned Group pod .................................... 46


Creating the Incident Summary data view ...................................................... 47

Creating the summary chart ............................................................................ 47

Creating the breakdown chart.......................................................................... 49

Creating the grid chart ..................................................................................... 52

Finalizing and previewing the pod .................................................................. 53

Creating the Incident Monthly Trend pod ........................................................... 57

Creating the Incident Monthly Trend data view.............................................. 57

Creating the summary chart ............................................................................ 58

Creating the breakdown chart.......................................................................... 59

Creating the grid chart ..................................................................................... 61

Finalizing and previewing the pod .................................................................. 62

Creating the Incident Day of Week Trend pod ................................................... 64

Creating the Incident Day of Week Trend View ............................................. 64

Creating the pod .............................................................................................. 65

Viewing the three pods in the executive console ................................................ 65

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 66

Appendix A: Glossary ............................................................................................. 67

Appendix B: Charts Supported By Pod Builder ...................................................... 69

White paper

Getting Customer Data into BMC Dashboards for Business Service Management using the Pod Builder

Introduction

About This White Paper

This white paper focuses on addressing the needs of customers who are trying to get their

data into BMC Dashboards for Business Service Management (BMC Dashboards for

BSM). It does this by providing a high-level overview of the capabilities in the Pod

Builder Tool, then utilizing the following two case studies to showcase these capabilities.

Case study 1: Building pods from simple schemas and data. Calbro Services, a typical

customer, utilizes the Pod Builder to develop a custom dashboard that shows all of their

critical business services, including in-context metrics and KPIs showing associated

planning and financial metrics.

Case study 2: Building pods from the BMC Remedy AR System Server database. Calbro

Services uses BMC Remedy AR System Server in their environment and wants to

develop a dashboard that allows them to see all of their incidents by assigned group.

This paper does not provide extensive details about the Pod Builder. For in-depth

information about Pod Builder or the BMC Dashboards for BSM product in general,

please refer to the user documentation available with the product or contact your BMC

Account Manager.

A Brief Introduction to BMC Dashboards for BSM

BMC Dashboards for BSM provides highly interactive, right-time access to key

performance metrics to help IT management optimize decisions and accelerate the

alignment of IT with business goals. It does this by linking critical IT processes into a

dashboard view that provides aggregated performance indicators within a single pane of

glass.


BMC Dashboards for BSM integrates cross-functional metrics from the following BMC

products:

BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

BMC Service Impact Manager

BMC Remedy Service Desk (Incident and Problem Management)

BMC Remedy Change Management

BMC Remedy Service Request Management

BMC Remedy Service Level Management

BMC Remedy Asset Management

BMC Transaction Management Application Response Time

BMC ProactiveNet Performance Manager

BMC Dashboards for BSM administrators can customize the out-of-the-box metrics

provided by BMC in standalone metric-containers called Pods. Also, end users, typically

IT executives, can mix and match pods to create their own specific dashboards. An

example of such a dashboard, showing Service Assurance metrics is shown below:


But What about Customer Data?

While BMC customers derive tremendous value from out-of-the-box pods shipped with

BMC Dashboards for BSM, some of them have also made significant investments into

building their own metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) and would like to see

these metrics and KPIs integrated within the same single pane of glass that BMC

Dashboards for BSM provides for BMC data. Hence, BMC developed the Pod Builder

Tool to allow customers to quickly bring this data, often residing in relational databases

and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, into BMC Dashboards for BSM.

Introducing the Pod Builder

Pod Builder is a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) tool within the BMC

Dashboards for BSM Administrator Console. It walks the BMC Dashboards for BSM

administrator through the process of creating a custom pod by:

Defining sources of data, such as relational databases or Excel spreadsheets and

allowing BMC Dashboards for BSM administrators to aggregate and filter the

returned data.

Choosing the design of the pod including

Layout options such as side-by-side, one-up-one-down, etc.

Charts selection such as bar, column, line, or pie charts. The full list of chart types

supported by BMC Dashboards for BSM is available at the BMC Developer

Network and also in Appendix B of this paper.


Publishing the pod to selected roles so that only authorized users, with the

appropriate roles, would have access to the pod.

The case studies in the next sections illustrate how a typical customer (Calbro Services)

may utilize the Pod Builder.

About Calbro Services

Calbro Services, a large, global company, is headquartered in New York City and

publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company has 27,000 employees

in 240 offices located in 20 countries. The following table describes Calbro Services key

business services:

Service Description

Online banking 500 ATMs in major cities

World wide web (WWW)

presence

Corporate site and online brokerage services

Discount equity brokerage Online and storefront services

Sales force automation Automated sales activities such as leads, orders, reports

and so on

Customer support Support centers in the United States, Europe, and Asia

Mass Marketing World-wide marketing campaigns aimed at making

Calbro Services a household name

Revenues

Calbro Services has revenues in excess of $18.5 billion dollars, with over $308 billion in

assets. Their online banking and discount equity brokerage services are their key revenue

generators.

Business Strategies

Already a leader in the discount equity market, Calbro Services has plans for growth in

the banking, brokerage, and financial services arena. They also want to ensure that their

investments in technology provide a good return on investment as they offer more

services and products globally. Calbro Services expects to increase their operating

revenue by increasing their gross margin 4% over the current 44%.

BMC Dashboards for BSM at Calbro

IT management at Calbro wishes to gain access to a highly interactive dashboard, which

would give them a holistic view of their critical business services in a single pane of

glass. By interacting with key performance metrics for business service management,


they expect to keep a close eye on their IT services and accelerate the alignment of IT

with their business goals.

Calbro plans to build a custom dashboard that shows all of their critical business services,

including in-context metrics and KPIs showing associated planning and financial metrics.

Case Study 1: Building pods from simple schemas

and data

Calbro Services wants to use the Pod Builder to develop a custom dashboard that shows

all of their critical business services, including in-context metrics and KPIs showing

associated planning and financial metrics.

Calbro Pods and Metrics

Calbro has identified the need for four pods to build their dashboard:

A pod that shows services provided by IT that are critical to the business

A pod that shows all incidents for a selected business service

A pod that shows the vendors and associated contracts for a selected business

service

A pod that shows the organizational impact of the business services (business

units and projects).

Since BMC Dashboards for BSM already ships with the first two pods, Calbro has

decided to use them in the Calbro BSM Dashboard. These are pictured below:


Calbro has also decided to build the last two pods using the Pod Builder. These are

defined below:

1. A pod that shows the vendors and associated contracts for a selected business service

Pod Name & Description

Name: Vendor and Contract Details by Business Service

Description: This pod will show the vendors and their contracts for a selected

business service along with budgetary information.

Behavior Definition

Calbro expects this pod to be updated when a business service is selected in the

Business Services Summary pod. Hence, when an executive clicks on a business

service in the Business Services Summary pod, this pod should retrieve the vendors

that provide that business service. In addition, users should be allowed to select the

vendors to be displayed in this pod.

UI Definition

This pod will contain two charts:

A column chart showing vendors and their budgets. This chart will filter its

data to show only vendors and vendor budgets for business services selected in

the Business Service Summary pod.

A pie chart showing the breakdown of the various contracts and their impact on

the vendor budget. This chart will filter its data to show only contracts for the

vendor selected in the bar chart.


This pod will utilize the two-column Side by Side layout in the Pod Builder.

Data Location and Definition

IT Business Analysts at Calbro publish an Excel spreadsheet that contains tables

listing business services, associated vendors, vendor contracts and budgets, updated

at a regular interval.

2. A pod that shows the organizational impact of the business services (business units

and projects).


Name: Business Projects Impacted by Business Service

Description: This pod will show projects impacted by a selected business service,

including projects details, associated budgets, and dependent business units.

Behavior Definition

Calbro expects this pod to be updated when a business service is selected in the

Business Services Summary pod. Hence, when an executive clicks on a business

service in the Business Services Summary pod, this pod should retrieve the projects

related to that business service. In addition, users should be allowed to select the

projects to be displayed in this pod.

UI Definition

This pod will contain three charts:

A bar chart showing projects and project budgets. This chart will filter its data

to show only projects related to the business services selected in the Business

Service Summary pod.

A pie chart showing the various business units that are contributing to the

budget. This chart will filter its data to show only business units for the project

selected in the bar chart.

A grid chart showing various detailed project data. This chart will filter its data

to show only projects for the business services selected in the Business Service

Summary pod.

This pod will utilize the Two up, One down layout in the Pod Builder.


IT Business Analysts at Calbro use a Project and Portfolio Management (PPM)

application where information on projects, budgets, associated business unit, etc. is

tracked. The schema is normalized for use within the PPM application and hence,

is not directly usable for metrics extraction.


In the next two sections, Pod Builder will be utilized to build these two pods.

Building A Pod from An Excel Spreadsheet

As discussed previously, Calbro publishes the data for vendors and their associated

contracts in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, within the Vendor Worksheet and the

Contracts Worksheet:

Since BMC Dashboards for BSM supports Excel spreadsheets as a data source, we can

connect to this spreadsheet using the Pod Builder Tool. Before the product can access the

spreadsheet, the spreadsheet must be copied to the product installation folder.

Note: To access Excel functionality, the BMC Atrium Data Integration Layer (DIL)

component of BMC Dashboards for BSM must be installed on a Windows machine.


Copying an Excel Spreadsheet to the BMC Dashboards for

BSM Installation Folder

BMC Dashboards for BSM looks for Excel spreadsheets in the following sub-folder of its

installation folder:

DIL\CIS\apps\dil\excel_ds

In a typical installation, this translates to:

C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BMCDashboardsForBSM\DIL\CIS\apps\dil\excel_ds

In order for BMC Dashboards for BSM to access this spreadsheet, it must be copied to

this location.

Note: To avoid manual copies, a scheduled task or cron job can be set up which can

copy the Excel spreadsheet to the BMC Dashboards for BSM installation folder.

Creating an Excel Data Source

In order to retrieve data from the Excel spreadsheet, we will create a Data Source. We’ll

do this by:

1. Logging onto the BMC Dashboards for BSM Administration Console (typically

available at the following URL:

https://<dashboards_installation_host_name>/bsmdashboards/admin).

2. Launching the Pod Builder Tool by clicking on its icon as shown below:


3. Creating a Data Source by clicking the Data Sources button, as shown below:

4. Clicking the New Custom Data Source button, setting the Type to Excel and

giving the Data Source a name such as Calbro Vendors. After this, we’ll select

the Vendors spreadsheet from the discovered list, which was populated when we

set the Type to Excel, and save the data source, as shown below:

Creating Data Views

Excel spreadsheets are composed of one or more worksheets, analogous to tables in a

database. Now that the Data Source pointing to the Vendor spreadsheet has been created,

BMC Dashboards for BSM will need these worksheet names.

Since BMC Dashboards for BSM uses Data Views to connect to work sheets or named

ranges in Excel spreadsheets (or schema tables and views in the case of relational

databases), we’ll create two Data Views, one for each worksheet: Vendors and Contracts.


Data Views can be created by clicking the Data Views button in the Pod Builder Tool.

We can create the two Data Views by:

1. In the Data View Management dialog, clicking New.

2. In the Name and Type page of the Configure Data View Wizard, specify Calbro

Vendors as the data view name, select Single and click Next.

3. In the Data Set page, selecting the Excel data source that was just created and

selecting the Vendor$ table.

At this point, BMC Dashboards for BSM will fetch the worksheets in this Excel

document.

4. Selecting all of its columns and specifying serviceName as the alias for the

BUSINESS_SERVICE column.


Note: Pods and charts in BMC Dashboards for BSM communicate with each other

via special pod events, containing key-value pairs. The key is matched to a column or

alias name in the underlying Data View and the data is filtered out by matching it to

the value for the key. Hence, in order for a chart in a pod to respond to an event from

another pod (i.e. filter its data based on a value selected in the other pod), a column

or alias name in its Data View must match a key in the pod event.

The Business Services Summary pod sends out a pod event each time the user selects

a business service. Since Calbro desires that the Vendor pod only show data relevant

to the selected business service, the Vendor pod must be set up to consume pod

events from the Business Services Summary pod.

Since this pod event contains a key called serviceName whose value is the name of

the selected business service, the Vendor data column BUSINESS_SERVICE_NAME

must match this key. Since we don’t wish to change anything in the underlying Excel

spreadsheet, we will create a Data View Alias called serviceName for this column,

thereby ensuring that when the Vendor pod receives the pod event, it will map it to

the corresponding data column in the Excel spreadsheet.

5. Repeating these steps to create another Data View named Calbro Contracts for the

Contracts spreadsheet.

Note: Since the data schema is not complex, our corresponding Data View is very

simple. As much as possible, we should prepare the data before exposing it to BMC

Dashboards for BSM since the product is focused on visualization rather than data

manipulation and transformation.

With data sources and data views set up, it’s time to create pods.


Creating the Vendor Pod

The Pod Builder tool ships with a wizard-like Create Pod Guided Workflow which walks

an administrator through every step of the pod creation process. In this white paper, we

will only cover the steps that are relevant to our discussion. These include:

1. Launching the Create Pod Guided Workflow

2. Selecting charts and binding data from Data Views in the Pod Builder Design Panel

3. Setting up Pod Interaction options in the Pod Builder Design Panel

4. Setting up Data Preferences and Publishing the pod to the Pod Catalog

5. Setting up Role Assignments for the pod.

We will start by:

1. Clicking the Create Custom Pod button to launch the create pod guided workflow

This will bring up the “Welcome Panel” of the workflow:


2. Next, we will click anywhere on the Welcome Panel. This will advance us to the next

screen, where we will fill in the pod name, description and select a layout. We will

select a Side by Side layout (screenshot omitted for brevity).

3. The next panel will lead us to the Pod Builder Design Panel, which is divided into

two panes, one for each chart. In the left-hand side pane, we select a column chart to

display vendors and vendor budgets.


4. We will now bind this column chart to the Calbro Vendors data view we created

earlier, selecting the NAME (category) and BUDGET (series) columns to bind to this

chart. We will also create UI labels for these columns by clicking on them and filling

in a text label. Finally, we will check the Data Prefs checkbox for the NAME column

to allow the end users to select the vendors displayed in this pod, as shown below:

This series of steps results in the following design screen:


5. In order to fulfill Calbro’s requirement that the data in this pod be filtered by the

business service selected in the Business Service Summary pod, we will click the

Pod Interaction button in the left hand chart and make the appropriate selections in

the Pod Interaction Panel as shown below.

6. At this point, the Vendor chart in this pod is set up to receive communication from

other pods in the dashboard. We will finish designing this chart by clicking Options

to set up chart titles and X-Y axis labels (screenshot omitted for brevity).

7. Moving on to the right-hand side pane, we will select a donut chart to show the

breakdown of the various contracts and their impact on the vendor budget, and

associate the chart with the BUDGET (series) and CONTRACT (category) columns

of the Calbro Contracts data view.


8. As per Calbro requirements, the data in this chart needs to be filtered by the selection

of the vendor in the left-hand side chart. Hence, we set up the appropriate options in

the Pod Interaction Panel as shown below:


9. Now, let’s test the filtering behavior in the pod by selecting a vendor in the left-hand

side chart. As expected, we see the data in the donut chart on the right-hand side

filtered to show only contracts for the selected vendor, as illustrated below:

10. The next step in the Pod Builder Design Panel is to publish the pod to a custom Pod

Category, as shown below:


11. Finally, let’s save this pod and move to the next step, which is to set the Data

Preferences.

12. In the Data Preferences Panel, we will configure the data preferences for this pod

and also, make this pod available to end users. Each of the column for which we

selected Data Prefs in the Pod Builder Design Panel is seen as a separate tab UI in

the Data Preferences Panel. The Available column contains all the unique data

values for Data Prefs column. We will move some of these values to the Selected

column to make these data values available to the end users. We will also make some

of these User Defaults, thereby making sure that this pod will use these default values

when first used by the end user. This way, we minimize the amount of configuration

required by the end user.

13. We can also preview the result so that we can gauge exactly what the end-user will

see as a result of our configurations.


14. We will check the Make Available to Users checkbox so that it is available for end-

users.

15. Finally, permissions for this pod can be assigned so that only authorized users may

have access to it. In this case, we grant access to this pod to the “IT Director” and

“Service Delivery Manager” roles. Any users assigned these roles will now be able to

add these pods to their dashboards.


Seeing the Vendor Pod in Action

Let’s login to the BMC Dashboards for BSM Executive Console, add the Vendor Pod to

the Calbro Dashboard and see it interact with the other Calbro Dashboard pods. When we

click on a business service tile, such as WWW Presence in the Business Services

Summary pod, we see the Incidents Details and the Vendor pod get updated to show only

those incidents and vendors that are associated with the selected business service.

In this section, we built a sophisticated pod that:

Fetched data from an Excel spreadsheet

Showed metrics in multiple charts

Filtered data according to user input

Responded to communication from other pods

Allowed data customizations from end users

Allowed default configurations so that it was ready with data at first use by end users

While Pod Builder allows further data and UI customization options, these features fall

outside the scope of this white paper and are not covered. Please refer to the product

documentation for further information on this topic.

While some pods in the customer environments will require minimal setup, other pods

may be built upon a complex data schema. In the next section, we explore a pod that

requires such an intensive data setup.


Building a Pod from a Relational Database

Since we are now already experienced with the Pod Builder, this section will not get into

details of some of the obvious steps involved in creating the Project Pod such as

assigning roles, setting data preferences and so on.

As discovered previously, Calbro publishes the data for projects and business units in

their PPM database. As we open up and analyze the database, we realize that the schema

is normalized for use within the PPM application and hence, is not directly usable for

metrics extraction. The schema diagram is shown below:

Data Preparation

Preparing the data before exposing it to the Pod Builder is necessary since the Pod

Builder tool is designed for the visualization of data rather than the aggregation or

manipulation of large volumes of data. To prepare the data before using it with the Pod

Builder tool, you should perform the following tasks that are relevant, in the order

specified so that you create a subset of your data:

1. Filter the data.

2. Aggregate the data.

3. Transform epoch integer fields to date/timestamp fields.

4. Perform enumerated value translations.

Note: BMC recommends that you not use the FN_ADJUSTED_DATE stored procedure

(delivered with the BMC Analytics for BSM product) to prepare your data. Using this

stored procedure will result in data incorrectly formatted for the BMC Dashboards for

BSM product.


Since Pod Builder only supports the creation of one Data View per relational table, SQL

View or Excel worksheet, we must prepare the data for consumption by the Pod Builder

by creating SQL Views on top of this normalized schema.

Using materialized views

In preparing your data, you should consider whether you should use materialized views

or SQL views.

Since a SQL view created on an RDBMS database is a virtual table, no data is actually

stored in the table. The data is retrieved at run time using the SQL in the view creation

statement.

In a materialized view, however, the data is stored and retrieved from the storage at run

time. The SQL in the view creation statement is used when the view data is refreshed. If

you use materialized views, you create the materialized view and then set up a periodic

data refresh process for that view.

A materialized view requires more effort to create and maintain, but it yields better run-

time performance and fewer hits to the underlying database table. However, materialized

views do not provide current data, as the data is only as fresh as the most recent refresh of

the materialized view. Using a standard view is probably the best choice when data

volumes are low and data volatility is high. Using a materialized view is the best choice

for optimum performance when data volumes are high and some latency in data currency

is tolerable.

BMC recommends that the solution be tested with production data volumes using both

standard and materialized views before choosing the approach that is best for your site.

Data Preparation using SQL Views

Based on our UI requirements, and the data analysis, we decide that we will need two

SQL Views:

1. A SQL View that shows a comprehensive list of business services and their

associated projects and its details. Example:

CREATE VIEW BSD_SIM_CALBRO_PROJECTS_VIEW AS

SELECT

services.NAME as BUSINESS_SERVICE_NAME,

projects.NAME as PROJECT_NAME,

projects.JUSTIFICATION,

projects.OVERALL_HEALTH,

projects.SCHEDULE_HEALTH,

projects.FINANCIAL_HEALTH,

projects.IMPORTANT,

projects.STATE,

projects.STATUS,

projects.BUDGET


FROM

BSD_SIM_CALBRO_BUSINESS_SERVICE services,

BSD_SIM_CALBRO_PROJECTS projects,

BSD_SIM_CALBRO_BUSINESS_SERVICE_PROJECTS services_projects

WHERE

services.GUID = services_projects.BUSINESS_SERVCE_GUID

AND

projects.GUID = services_projects.PROJECT_GUID

2. A SQL View that shows a comprehensive list of projects and their associated

business units and its details. Example:

CREATE VIEW BSD_SIM_CALBRO_BU_VIEW AS

SELECT

projects.NAME as PROJECT_NAME,

bu.name as BU_NAME,

project_bu.PROJECT_BUDGET

FROM

BSD_SIM_CALBRO_BU bu,

BSD_SIM_CALBRO_PROJECTS projects,

BSD_SIM_CALBRO_PROJECT_BU project_bu

WHERE

bu.GUID = project_bu.BU_GUID

AND

projects.GUID = project_bu.PROJECT_GUID

With these SQL Views created in our database, we are ready to build Data Views on top

of them in the Pod Builder.

Creating an RDBMS Data Source

We can create a new Data Source by clicking on the New Custom Data Source icon, and

entering the connection information to the relational database. In this example, we are

using a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database as shown below.


Creating A Data View

Now that a Data Source has been created, BSM Dashboard will need the schema and the

SQL Views where the data resides. We will create two Data Views in the Pod Builder, to

correspond to each relevant SQL View.

The Calbro Projects data view is shown below.


Note: Similar to the Vendor pod, Calbro desires that this pod filter its data with the

selected business service from the Business Service Summary pod. In order to do so,

this pod will need to respond to the pod event from the Business Services Summary

pod. Hence, we will set up an alias “serviceName” for the

BUSINESS_SERVICE_NAME data column to match the key in the incoming pod

event.

The Calbro Business Units data view is shown below:


Now that the relevant data sources and data views have been set up, we are ready to

create pods.

Creating the Project Pod

We will skip the steps prior to the Pod Builder Design Panel since they are simple and

have already been covered in the section on the Vendor Pod.

1. In the Pod Builder Design Panel, in the top-left pane, we will select a bar chart. We

will then select the PROJECT_NAME (category) and BUDGET (series) columns to

bind to this chart. We will also create UI labels for these columns by clicking on

them and filling in a text label. Finally, we will check the Data Prefs checkbox for

the PROJECT_NAME column to allow the end users to select the projects displayed

in this pod, as shown below:


This results in the following design screen:

2. In order to fulfill Calbro’s requirement that the data in this chart be filtered by the

business service selected in the Business Service Summary pod, we will click the

Pod Interaction button in the left hand chart and make the appropriate selections in

the Pod Interaction Panel as shown below.

3. At this point, this chart in this pod is set up to receive communication from other

pods in the dashboard. We will finish designing this chart by clicking Options to set

up chart titles and X-Y axis labels (screenshot omitted for brevity).


4. Moving on to the right-hand side pane, we will select a donut chart to show the

breakdown of the various business units and their budgets. We will associate this

chart with the PROJECT_BUDGET (series) and BU_NAME (category) columns of

the Calbro Business Units data view.


of the vendor in the left-hand side chart. Hence, we set up the appropriate options in

the Pod Interaction Panel as shown below:


6. Now, let’s test the filtering behavior in the pod by selecting a vendor in the left-hand

side chart. As expected, we see the data in the donut chart on the right-hand side

filtered to show only contracts for the selected vendor, as illustrated below:

7. Moving on to the bottom side pane, we will select a grid chart to show the various

details of every project associated with a business service. We will associate this

chart with various columns in the Calbro Projects data view, taking care to include

PROJECT_NAME (category).



of the business service in the Business Services Summary pod. Hence, we set up the

appropriate options in the Pod Interaction Panel as shown below:

Finally, we are at a stage where our design is finished, as the following screenshot

illustrates:

9. In the next few steps, we will publish this pod to the Calbro custom Pod Category,

save this pod, set the Data Preferences and assign roles to this Pod (screenshots

omitted for brevity).

At this point, we have successfully created the Project Pod.


Putting It All Together

Calbro has been able to create their Calbro Dashboard using out-of-the-box pods from

BMC and custom pods created via the Pod Builder. Let’s login to the BMC Dashboards

for BSM Executive Console, add the Project Pod to the Calbro Dashboard and see it

interact with the other Calbro Dashboard pods. The following screenshot shows the

Calbro Dashboard.

Case Study 2: Building a pod from the BMC

Remedy AR System database

Calbro Services wants to show a summary of their incidents, broken down by assigned

group. They also want to see the monthly and daily trend in incidents reported, also

broken down by assigned group.

The BMC pods do not allow Calbro to display their incidents by assigned group, so they

must create custom pods that use the BMC Remedy AR System data source.

Calbro pods and metrics

Calbro has decided to create the following three pods using the Pod Builder:

Incident summary by assigned group

Incident monthly trend


Incident daily trend

The three pods are defined below.

1. A pod that shows the incidents for the business service by priority and status, filtered

by varying time ranges and broken down by assigned group.


Name: Incident summary by assigned group

Description: This pod contains a bar chart that summarizes the incidents, showing

the count by priority and status, filtered by varying time ranges. For each segment

selected in the bar chart, an Assigned Group breakdown will be displayed. A third

chart component, a grid chart shows the incident details for the incidents displayed

in the graph charts.

Behavior Definition

Calbro expects to be able to quickly view the priority and status of the incidents

that were reported in a particular reporting period, then determine to which group

the incidents are assigned. They can also view the details of the incidents that are

displayed in the charts by selecting the grid view. For even more detail on the

individual incident records, they can launch the BMC Remedy Action Request

System from the pod.

UI Definition


A bar chart showing the number of incidents by priority. Each bar in this chart

will show the total number of incidents in that priority by incident status,

represented by colored segments. The data in this chart can be filtered by the

time range selected in the drop down menu.

A donut chart showing the breakdown of the incidents by the assigned group.

This chart will show the data by priority and status, according to the segment

selected in the bar chart.

A grid chart showing details for the incidents displayed in the charts, by

assigned group and time range, according to what is selected in the drop-down

menus.

This pod will utilize the layout Side by side with a third chart accessible through a

chart selector in the Pod Builder.


Incident records are stored in the BMC Remedy AR System. The incident records

are displayed in each time range in the pod, based on the incident reported date.


2. A pod that shows the monthly incident report trend, filtered by varying time ranges

and broken down by assigned group.


Name: Incident monthly trend

Description: This pod will show the trend in the number of incidents reported each

month.

Behavior Definition

Calbro expects to be able to view the trends in the incident report dates and the

groups to which the incidents are assigned.

UI Definition


A trend chart showing the total number of incidents reported each month. The

data in this chart can be filtered by the time range selected in the drop down

menu.

A donut chart showing the breakdown of the incidents by the assigned group,

according to the data point selected in the trend chart.

A grid chart showing details for the incidents displayed in the summary chart, by

time range, according to what is selected in the drop-down menu.

This pod will utilize the layout Side by side with a third chart accessible through a

chart selector in the Pod Builder.


Incident records are stored in BMC Remedy AR System. The incident records are

displayed in each time range in the pod, based on the incident reported date.

The incident daily trend pod is very similar to the incident monthly trend pod, except

that the pod will show the trend in the number of incidents submitted each day rather

than each month. The daily trend pod contains the same number and types of charts

as the monthly trend pod.

To create the three pods, we must perform the following tasks:

1. Prepare the data

2. Create a data source

3. Create a data view

4. Create the pod


Each task is explained in the following sections.

Preparing the data

This section contains steps and samples to create and populate a table and a view that

contain a subset of the data from the BMC Remedy AR System data source. See “Data

Preparation” on page 29 for more information about why data preparation is necessary.

Page 29 also contains information to help you decide whether you should create a

materialized view or an SQL view.

Since we know that we want to create a pod that displays information about the incidents,

the groups to which they are assigned, and the days on which the incidents are reported

(in our appropriate time zone), we need to create the following two data views on top of

the underlying BMC Remedy AR System database:

The incident summary view is used to perform translation of the enumerated

values, transform epoch integer dates to timestamp values, and aggregate the data

by priority, status, and incident reported date. So that the Pod Builder can display

the incident reported date in the appropriate time zone, this incident summary

view requires the time zone information table.

The time zone information table is a lookup table that contains information

about each time zone, such as offset from GMT and start and end dates for

Daylight Savings Time for each year. This table is used by the incident summary

view to look up the relevant information for the selected timezone when

transforming the epoch integer date fields stored in the BMC Remedy AR

System database to the timezone adjusted timestamp fields presented by the

incident summary view.

The BMC Dashboards for BSM product expects that your timestamps be in GMT so that

it can properly apply the client timezone offset and daylight savings time calculations.

The BMC Remedy AR System product stores data in GMT, so no manipulation of that

data is required before preparing your data for use by the BMC Dashboards for BSM

product. If your timestamps are not in GMT, the times displayed in the pods will not be

accurate.

Creating the incident summary view

This section contains DDL for creating and populating the incident summary view. You

can copy and paste the DDL below to create your own incident summary view. You can

choose to create a materialized view, but you must specify “CREATE MATERIALIZED

VIEW” below instead of “CREATE VIEW”.

The sample DDL below is set for the CST timezone. To specify your own timezone,

update the TIMEZONE_ID AND TIMEZONE values shown in the boldface line towards

the end of the statement below. Currently, the DDL for this view is set to time zone ID

CST, the America/Chicago time zone.


To create and populate the incident summary view INCIDENT_SUMMARY_DAILY,

we use the following DDL:

CREATE VIEW ARADMIN.INCIDENT_SUMMARY_DAILY AS

SELECT TIMEZONE_ID,

TIMEZONE,

Date_Point,

PRIORITY AS Priority_Enum,

CASE WHEN PRIORITY = 2 THEN 'Medium'

WHEN PRIORITY = 1 THEN 'High'

WHEN PRIORITY = 0 THEN 'Critical'

WHEN PRIORITY = 3 THEN 'Low'

ELSE NULL

END AS Priority,

STATUS AS Status_Enum,

CASE WHEN STATUS = 0 THEN 'New'

WHEN STATUS = 1 THEN 'Assigned'

WHEN STATUS = 2 THEN 'In Progress'

WHEN STATUS = 3 THEN 'Pending'

WHEN STATUS = 4 THEN 'Resolved'

WHEN STATUS = 5 THEN 'Closed'

WHEN STATUS = 6 THEN 'Cancelled'

ELSE NULL

END AS Status,

ASSIGNED_GROUP AS Assigned_Group,

COUNT(INCIDENT_NUMBER) AS Num_Incidents

FROM (SELECT TIMEZONE_ID,

TIMEZONE,

(TO_TIMESTAMP((TO_CHAR(REPORTED_DATE_TZ_ADJUSTED, 'DD-MON-

YY')), 'DD-Mon-YY')) - TZ_ADJUSTMENT AS Date_Point,

PRIORITY,

STATUS,

ASSIGNED_GROUP,

INCIDENT_NUMBER

FROM (SELECT TIMEZONE_ID,

TIMEZONE,

INCIDENT_NUMBER,

PRIORITY,

STATUS,

ASSIGNED_GROUP,

REPORTED_DATE,

REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP,

REPORTED_DATE_YEAR,

GMT_TIMEDIFFERENCE,

REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP + TZ_ADJUSTMENT AS

REPORTED_DATE_TZ_ADJUSTED,

TZ_ADJUSTMENT

FROM (SELECT TZ.TIMEZONE_ID,

TZ.TIMEZONE,

INC.INCIDENT_NUMBER,

INC.PRIORITY,

INC.STATUS,

INC.ASSIGNED_GROUP,

INC.REPORTED_DATE,

INC.REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP,

INC.REPORTED_DATE_YEAR,

TZ.GMT_TIMEDIFFERENCE,


CASE WHEN TZ.DST_FLAG = 'N' THEN

TZ.GMT_TIMEDIFFERENCE/24

ELSE CASE WHEN

INC.REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP >= TZ.START_DST_TIMESTAMP AND

INC.REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP <= TZ.END_DST_TIMESTAMP THEN

(TZ.GMT_TIMEDIFFERENCE/24) + 1/24

ELSE

TZ.GMT_TIMEDIFFERENCE/24

END

END AS TZ_ADJUSTMENT

FROM (SELECT INCIDENT_NUMBER,

PRIORITY,

STATUS,

ASSIGNED_GROUP,

REPORTED_DATE,

REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP,

TO_CHAR(REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP,

'yyyy') AS REPORTED_DATE_YEAR

FROM (SELECT INCIDENT_NUMBER,

REPORTED_DATE,

PRIORITY,

STATUS,

ASSIGNED_GROUP,

TO_DATE('01-01-1970','MM-

DD-YYYY') + REPORTED_DATE / 86400 AS REPORTED_DATE_TIMESTAMP

FROM ARADMIN.HPD_HELP_DESK))

INC

LEFT OUTER JOIN

ARADMIN.TIMEZONE_DETAIL_INFO TZ

ON TZ.DATE_YEAR =

INC.REPORTED_DATE_YEAR AND TZ.TIMEZONE_ID IN ('CST') AND

TZ.TIMEZONE IN ('America/Chicago'))))

GROUP BY TIMEZONE_ID, TIMEZONE, Date_Point, PRIORITY, STATUS,

ASSIGNED_GROUP

ORDER BY TIMEZONE_ID, TIMEZONE, Date_Point, PRIORITY, STATUS,

ASSIGNED_GROUP

Note: The DDL above is for an Oracle database. If you use a different DBMS type, your

DDL may be different.

The following image contains part of the view that results from the DDL:


Creating the time zone information table

This section contains sample DDL and information about SQL statements to create the

time zone information table.

To create the time zone information table TIMEZONE_DETAIL_INFO, we use the

following data definition language (DDL):

CREATE TABLE "ARADMIN"."TIMEZONE_DETAIL_INFO"

(

REGION_FLAG varchar2(1),

TIMEZONE varchar2(50),

TIMEZONE_ID varchar2(50),

DATE_YEAR char(4),

GMT_TIMEDIFFERENCE varchar2(10),

DST_FLAG varchar2(1),

START_DST_TIMESTAMP varchar2(4000),

END_DST_TIMESTAMP varchar2(4000)

);

Note: The DDL above is for an Oracle database. If you use a different DBMS type, your

DDL may be different.

To populate the time zone information table, we run insert statements. A sample insert

statement is shown below. The full set of insert statements is found at

http://communities.bmc.com/communities/docs/DOC-12137.

INSERT INTO "ARADMIN"."TIMEZONE_DETAIL_INFO"

(REGION_FLAG,TIMEZONE,TIMEZONE_ID,DATE_YEAR,GMT_TIMEDIFFERENCE,DS

T_FLAG,START_DST_TIMESTAMP,END_DST_TIMESTAMP) VALUES

('N','America/Mazatlan','MST','2000','-07.00','Y',{ts '2000-04-02

09:00:00.000'},{ts '2000-10-29 07:59:59.000'});

Once you run the insert statements, the time zone information table will look similar to

the following sample table:

Once the table and view is created, we can proceed with creating a new data source and

then a data view that uses the prepared data.

http://communities.bmc.com/communities/docs/DOC-12137


Creating the data source

We must first create a new RDBMS data source using the procedure below.

Creating an RDBMS Source using BMC Remedy AR System

To retrieve data from our BMC Remedy AR System database, we will create a Data

Source. We’ll do this by:

1. Logging onto the BMC Dashboards for BSM Administration Console (typically

available at the following URL:

https://<dashboards_installation_host_name>/bsmdashboards/admin).

2. Launching the Pod Builder Tool by clicking on its icon as shown below:

3. Creating a Data Source by clicking the Data Sources button, as shown below:

4. Clicking the New Custom Data Source button, setting the Type to Database and

giving the Data Source a name such as Incidents. After this, we’ll provide the

requested connection information and save the data source.

Creating the Incident Summary by Assigned Group pod

This procedure contains steps and procedures for creating the Incident Summary by

Assigned Group pod and includes the following:

Creating the data view


Creating the “master” chart

Creating the breakdown chart

Creating the grid chart

Finalizing and previewing the pod

Creating the Incident Summary data view

We create the data view by clicking Data Views in the Pod Builder tool, clicking New on

the Data View management dialog, specifying Incident View as the data view name, then

by making the following selections in the Data Set screen:

The BMC Remedy AR System database schema name, in our case, ARADMIN.

The table (view) that we created earlier when we prepared the data,

INCIDENT_SUMMARY_DAILY.

We select all of the columns in the table.

We apply the SUM function to the NUM_INCIDENTS column so that the pod can

calculate the total number of incidents reported on a daily basis. The function name is

prefixed to the column name, which is then used as the alias. In the example above,

the NUM_INCIDENTS column is automatically assigned the alias

SUM_NUM_INCIDENTS. You can keep this alias or update it.

The Incident Summary view is shown below:

Creating the summary chart

Use the steps in this section to create the summary or “master” chart for the Incident

summary by assigned group pod.


1. Using the Create Custom Pod wizard, we use the Name and Layout pane to specify

the pod name (Incident summary by assigned group) and because we know we want

to view the summary chart with a breakdown of the data in another chart component,

we select the layout type side-by-side layout with a third chart accessible through a

chart selector.

The name of the pod should convey the metric or the key performance indicator that

the pod visualizes. Use the description field to provide summarized information

about the pod.

As a result of this step, we now have a blank pod with three empty chart areas. Each

chart area contains buttons at the top that are used to configure each chart. The

remainder of this procedure takes us through the steps of creating each of the charts.

The blank pod with empty chart areas is shown below.

2. In the left chart area, we click the Chart button to specify our chart type. We specify

the Stacked bar chart as our chart type for the summary chart since this chart type

allows us to see not only the total number of incidents of a particular priority but also

the status of the incidents that are categorized in each priority.

3. In the left chart area, we click the Data button to specify the data used in the chart.

Using the Select Data for the Chart pane, we select the data view Incident View then

specify the columns Priority and Status as the category, using the up arrow to move

the Priority and Status columns up to the top of the list. Since Priority is at the top of

the list, “Priority” is used as the horizontal axis label.

We then select the SUM_NUM_INCIDENTS column as the series column so that the

calculated number of incidents is displayed on the vertical axis. The completed pane

is shown below:


4. In the Select Options for the Chart pane, we select the Include optional labels

option and specify Incident Priority and Incident Count as the axis titles. Specifying

those labels allows us to have more descriptive labels than “Priority” and

“Sum_Num_Incidents”. We select the Include a Time Range Selection Component

option so that the pod will include a drop-down menu that we can use to display the

data for different time ranges. We select DATE_POINT as the field to use for the

time range so that the reported date is used in the time range calculation. The

completed pane follows:

For this chart, no pod interaction options are selected since it is the summary, or “master”

chart.


Use the steps in this section to create the breakdown chart for the Incident Summary by

assigned group pod.


1. From the right-side chart area, we click the Chart button to and select the donut chart

from the Select a Chart pane. We specify the donut chart as the chart type. Using a

donut chart allows us to display the number of incidents assigned to a particular

groups as a percentage of the total number of incidents of a particular priority and

status.

2. Also from the right-side chart area, we click the Data button to specify the data that

we want to include in the chart. In the Select Data for the Chart pane, we select the

Incident View data view and then select ASSIGNED_GROUP as the category

column, using the up arrows to move the ASSIGNED_GROUP column up to the top

of the list. We then select the SUM_NUM_INCIDENTS column as the series column

so that the number of incidents is displayed for that assigned group. The completed

pane is shown below:

3. In the Select Options for the Chart pane, we enable the option Include optional

labels and specify Incident Breakdown by Assigned Group as the chart title. We

select the Include a Time Range Selection Component option so that a time range

drop down menu is available for the pod and then we specify DATE_POINT as the

field to use for the time range so that the date reported data is calculated for the time

range. The completed panel is shown below:


4. In the Select Pod Interaction for the Chart pane, we select the option Make this a

detail component so that the data displayed in the donut chart can be controlled by

what is selected in the summary chart on the left. We select Priority and Status as the

data columns from the master (summary) component on which we want the donut

chart to be “driven”. The values Priority and Status are populated in the Filter

Column column since these are the data columns from this “detail” component that

correspond to the columns from the master (summary) component. By default,

Priority and Status, respectively, are displayed below the breakdown chart so that we

can easily identify the priority and status of the incidents displayed in the donut chart.

The Select Pod Interaction for the Chart pane is displayed below:



Use the steps in this section to create the grid chart for the Incident summary for assigned

group pod.

1. To enable the grid chart area for editing, we click the Select Chart type icon and

select the grid chart from the pop-up menu, as shown below.

2. From the grid chart area, we click the Chart button, and in the Select a Chart pane,

we select the Data Grid chart type so that the incidents displayed in the summary pod

are displayed in a table.

3. In the Select Data for the Chart pane, we select Incident View as the data view and

select Priority, Status, Assigned Group, Reported Date, and Number of Incidents as

the columns of data that we want to be displayed in the table. The completed pane is

shown below:

4. In the Select Options for the Chart pane, select the option Include optional labels

and specify Incident Details as the chart title.

So that we have a time range dropdown menu for the pod, we enable the option

Include a Time Range Selection Component and then specify DATE_POINT as

the field to use for the time range so that the incident reported date data is calculated

for the time ranges.


Enable the option Include a Breakdown Selection Component and select Assigned

Group. This option adds an Assigned Group drop-down menu to the chart so that we

can view the incident details by the assigned group. The completed pane is shown

below.


Use the steps in this section to perform the following tasks:

add a hypertext link to BMC Remedy Service Desk

assign the pod to a category and a user

add information that explains the pod

make the pod available to users

preview the pod

1. We click the Pod Options icon located at the top of the pod so that we can create

a hypertext link to BMC Remedy Service Desk. Launching the BMC Remedy

Service Desk allows us to access the Incident Management interface and locate more

information on the incident records. To specify the URL used for BMC Remedy

Service Desk installed in our environment, we enable the option Provide URL and

enter the following value for the URL:

http://bsmdash100:8080/arsys/shared/login.jsp?/arsys/forms/w23-ce-vm03/HPD

http://bsmdash100:8080/arsys/shared/login.jsp?/arsys/forms/w23-ce-vm03/HPD


Note: The value you use for your environment will vary.

The completed Select options for the Pod dialog follows:

The resulting hypertext link is shown below:

2. We assign the pod to the Incident Management pod category by selecting the pod

category from the Pod Category list at the bottom of the pod. If you do not specify a

pod category, the pod is assigned by default to the first category in the list. You can

modify the category assignment at any time.

The category that you specify can be any of the existing categories available with the

product, or you can create your own category that is applicable to your workflow.

Create a new category by clicking the Custom Pod Categories button at the top of the

Pod Builder utility window.

3. To add descriptive information about the pod so that others that use the pod can

understand the data that they are viewing, we click the Information about this Pod

button at the top of the pod. We enter descriptive information, including what each

chart shows, the source of the data, how to filter the data that is shown, as well as

other information that is useful to other users of this pod.


Here is the text that we enter into the text box:


4. So that the pod is available for the designated user to see in the Pod Catalog in the

executive console, we click the option Make Available to Users. We also assign the

pod to the roles of IT Supervisor and Service Delivery Manager in the Role

Assignment pane.

5. To preview the pod in the administrator console, we click Preview, and then we

select the Year to Date time range selection to view the incident data for that time

range. The chart view is shown below, showing the data for the Year to Date time

range:

The donut chart on the right is updated each time we click on a different section of

the chart on the left, to show the breakdown, by assigned group, of the incidents

included in the segment selected on the left.

The grid view, shown below, shows the details of all of the incidents that are

displayed in the summary chart, for the selected assigned group and time range,

including the priority, status, assigned group, reported date, and number of incidents.

You can select a different assigned group or a different time range from the drop-

down menus.


Creating the Incident Monthly Trend pod

Creating the Incident Monthly Trend data view


the Data View management dialog, specifying Incident Monthly Trend as the data view

name, then by making the following selections in the Data Set screen:




We select all of the columns in the table except for the TIMEZONE_ID column.

We apply the SUM function to the NUM_INCIDENTS column so that the Pod

Builder can calculate the total number of incidents reported on a daily basis. The

function name is prefixed to the column name, which is then used as the alias. In the

example above, the NUM_INCIDENTS column is automatically assigned the alias


We apply the MONTH function to the DATE_POINT column so that the Pod Builder

can report the dates in a month format (January through December). The function

name is prefixed to the column name, which is then used as the alias.

The Incident Monthly Trend data view is shown below:


Creating the summary chart

Use the steps in this section to create the summary, or “master” chart for the Incident

monthly trend pod.

1. Using the Create Custom Pod wizard, we use the Name and Layout pane to specify

the pod name (Incident monthly trend) and because we know we want to view the

summary chart with a breakdown of the data in another chart component, we select

the layout type side-by-side layout with a third chart accessible through a chart

selector.

The name of the pod should convey the metric or the key performance indicator that

the pod visualizes. Use the description field to provide summarized information

about the pod.

2. In the Design pane, we specify the Stacked Area Chart as our chart type for the

summary chart since this chart type allows us to visualize the change in the number

of incidents reported over time.

3. In the Select Data for the Chart pane, we select the data view Incident Monthly

Trend View then specify the column MONTH_DATE_POINT as the category, using

the up arrow to move the column up to the top of the list. Since

MONTH_DATE_POINT is at the top of the list, the column name is displayed as the

horizontal axis label.

We then select the SUM_NUM_INCIDENTS column as the series column so that the

calculated number of incidents is displayed on the vertical axis. The completed pane

is shown below:

The completed Select Data for the Chart pane is shown below.


4. In the Select Options for the Chart pane, we select the Include a Time Range

Selection Component option so that the pod will include a drop-down menu that we

can use to display the data for different time ranges. We select DATE_POINT as the

field to use for the time range so that the reported date, in the proper timezone, is

used in the time range calculation. The completed pane is as follows:

No pod interactions are specified for this pod component since it is the summary

(master) chart


Use the steps in this section to create the breakdown chart for the Incident monthly trend

pod.

1. From the right-side chart area, in the Design pane, we specify the donut chart as the

chart type. Using a donut chart allows us to display the number of incidents assigned

to a particular groups as a percentage of the total number of incidents reported within

that month.


2. In the Select Data for the Chart pane, we select the Incident View data view and then

select ASSIGNED_GROUP as the category column, using the up arrows to move the

ASSIGNED_GROUP column up to the top of the list. We then select the

SUM_NUM_INCIDENTS column as the series column so that the number of

incidents is displayed for that assigned group. The completed pane is shown below:

3. In the Select Options for the Chart pane, we enable the option Include optional

labels and specify Incident Breakdown by Assigned Group as the chart title. We

select the Include a Time Range Selection Component option so that a time range

drop down menu is available for the pod and then we specify DATE_POINT as the

field to use for the time range so that the date reported data is calculated for the time

range. The completed panel is shown below:

4. In the Select Pod Interaction for the Chart pane, we select the option Make this a

detail component so that the data displayed in the donut chart can be controlled by

what is selected in the summary chart on the left. We select MONTH_DATE_POINT

as the data columns from the master (summary) pod on which we want the donut

chart to be “driven”. By default, the value MONTH_DATE_POINT label and the

month value is displayed below the breakdown chart so that we can easily identify

the month for which the data is displayed in the donut chart.


The Select Pod Interaction for the Chart pane is displayed below.


Use the steps in this section to create the grid chart for the Incident montly trend pod.

1. To enable the grid chart view for editing, click the Select Chart type icon and

select the grid chart from the pop-up menu, as shown below.

2. In the Select a Chart pane, select the Data Grid chart type so that the incidents

displayed in the summary pod are displayed in a table.

3. In the Select Data for the Chart pane, select Incident Monthly Trend View as the

data view and select Assigned Group, Reported Date Month, Incident Count, Priority,

and Status for the table columns. The completed pane is shown below:


There are no options for pod interaction specified for this chart component.


Use the steps in this section for performing the following tasks:

assign the pod to a category

make the pod available to users in the executive console

assign the pod to users

add informative text about the pod

preview the pod

1. We assign the pod to the Incident Management pod category by selecting the pod

category from the Pod Category list at the bottom of the pod. If you do not specify a

pod category, the pod is assigned by default to the first category in the list. You can

modify the category assignment at any time.

The category that you specify can be any of the existing categories available with the

product, or you can create your own category that is applicable to your workflow.

Create a new category by clicking the Custom Pod Categories button at the top of the

Pod Builder utility window.

2. So that the pod is available for the designated user to see in the Pod Catalog in the

executive console, we click the option Make Available to Users. We also assign the

pod to the roles of IT Supervisor and Service Delivery Manager in the Role

Assignment pane.


3. To add descriptive information about the pod so that others that use the pod can

understand the data that they are viewing, we click the Information about this Pod

button at the top of the pod. We enter descriptive information, including what each

chart shows, the source of the data, how to filter the data that is shown, as well as

other information that is useful to other users of this pod.

4. To preview the pod in the administrator console, we click Preview, and then we

select the Year to Date time range selection to view the incident data for that time

range. The chart view is shown below, showing the data for the Year to Date time

range. Update the chart on the right by clicking on a data point. The screen shot

below shows the data point for April, and the donut chart shows the breakdown of the

incidents, by assigned group, for the month of April.

The grid view is shown below. The grid view shows all of the incidents in the summary

trend pod, including assigned group, priority, status, month in which it was reported,

and the total number of incidents submitted in that same month, for the specified time

range, Year to Date in our case.


Creating the Incident Day of Week Trend pod

Creating the Incident Day of Week Trend View


the Data View management dialog, specifying Incident Day of Week Trend as the data

view name, then by making the following selections in the Data Set screen:




We select all of the columns in the table except for the TIMEZONE and

TIMEZONE_ID columns.

We apply the SUM function to the NUM_INCIDENTS column so that the Pod

Builder can calculate the total number of incidents reported on a daily basis. The

function name is prefixed to the column name, which is then used as the alias. In the

example above, the NUM_INCIDENTS column is automatically assigned the alias


We apply the DAY_OF_WEEK function to the DATE_POINT column so that the

Pod Builder can report the dates in a day of week format (Monday through Friday).

The function name is prefixed to the column name, which is then used as the alias.


Creating the pod

This pod is created following the steps for the Incident Monthly Trend pod, but instead,

we use the Incident Day Of Week Trend View data view and the

DAY_OF_WEEK_DATE_POINT in the Select Data for the Chart dialog for the

summary bar chart.

The Select Data for the Chart dialog is shown below.

Viewing the three pods in the executive console

Calbro has been able to create their Incident Management by Assigned Group dashboard

using three pods created using the Pod Builder. They have added all three pods to their

Incident Management by Assigned Group dashboard. Let’s log into the BMC Dashboards

for BSM Executive Console and see the Incident Management by Assigned Group

dashboard. The following screenshots shows the dashboard with the data displayed for

the Year to Date time range.


Conclusion

As we illustrated through case studies, Pod Builder allows customers to quickly build

pods on their own data that also work seamlessly with out of the box pods provided by

BMC. While Pod Builder is not geared towards solving complex data joining and

aggregation scenarios, it is a powerful tool that allows any customer to point-and-click

their way towards building highly interactive and visually appealing charts on top of any

tabular data set, whether in Excel spreadsheets or in relational databases.


Appendix A: Glossary

Term Definition

Administrator

The targeted end user of the Administrator Workbench.

Performs complex tasks in managing the BMC Dashboards

for BSM application

Administrator Workbench Formerly known as the Admin Tool

Chart Category A collection of values that delineates the various categories

to which a chart series belongs. Example, the values that

comprise X-axis of a column chart

Chart Series A sequence of values that comprise numeric data for a chart

or UI component. Example, the values that comprise the Y-

axis of a column chart.

Custom Pod Pods that are created by the BMC Dashboards for BSM

Administrator using the Pod Builder

Dashboard A collection of Pods

BMC Atrium Data

Integration Layer (DIL)

An internal component of BMC Dashboards for BSM, used

to fetch data from many disparate data sources.

Data Source A repository that serves up data.

Data Source Type A type of repository such as a relational database (Oracle,

DB2 etc) or a spreadsheet (Excel).

Data View

A particular slice of data represented as a table or view in a

database world, an end-point in a web service world or a

worksheet in the Excel world.

Data View Alias

A value that denotes an alternate name for a schema table or

Excel spreadsheet column name. This facility allows the

BMC Dashboards for BSM administrator to avoid

modifying the underlying data source when setting up

various options in the Pod Builder.

Info Text Text explaining the business value of a Pod

Pod

A container for charts, grids and other UI components that

represent inter-related metrics and key performance

indicators.

Pod Builder Tool A tool in the Administrator Workbench that manages the

Pod CRUD lifecycle.

Create Pod Guided Workflow A wizard in the Pod Builder that guides an administrator

through a series of steps to create a Pod

Pod Builder Design Panel

A UI panel in the Pod Builder that allows an administrator

to design a Pod including selection of charts, inter- and

intra-pod communication and various other UI options.

Pod Category A value denoting the grouping of conceptually-related pods

Pod Interaction Panel A UI panel in the design space of the Pod Builder which


allows an administrator to specify various inter- and intra-

communication options such as setting up Master-Detail

relationships.

Pod Preferences Customization options available with pods

Publish ( a pod) Make a pod available

Role Assignment The act if giving permissions to a Pod so that only users of

particular groups may have access to that Pod.

SQL View A SQL View is a query stored in a relational database,

which behaves as a virtual table composed of the result set

of the query.

User

The targeted end user of the BMC Dashboards for BSM

User Console application. Performs simple tasks such as

using Dashboards and Pods created by the Administrator


Appendix B: Charts Supported By Pod Builder

Chart Type Icon Description

Bar/Column Charts

Stacked Bar

Chart

One category, multiple series. Series values are stacked

within a bar for each category value.

100% Stacked

Bar Chart


within a bar for each category value, as percentages of the

total series values for the bar.

Clustered Bar

Chart

One category, multiple series. Series values are displayed in

separate bars, clustered by category value.

Stacked Column

Chart


within a column for each category value.

100% Stacked

Column Chart


within a column for each category value, as percentages of

the total series values for the column.

Clustered

Column Chart

One category, multiple series. Series values are displayed in

separate columns, clustered by category value.

Line/Area Charts

Line Chart

One category, multiple series. Series values are displayed as

overlaid straight line segments.

Curved Line

Chart

One category, multiple series. Series values are displayed as

overlaid curved lines.

Stacked Area

Chart

One category, multiple series. Series values are stacked for

each category value.

100% Stacked

Area Chart

One category, multiple series. Series values are stacked for

each category value, as percentages of the total series values

for the category.

Pie Charts

Pie Chart

One category, one series. Series value is displayed as a pie

slice per category value.

Donut Chart

One category, multiple series. Series display as concentric

donuts, each donut displaying the series value for each

category value.


Other/Composite Charts

Data Grid

Up to twenty columns displayed in a tabular format.

Dual Axis

Column and

Line Chart

One category and two to eight series. First series displayed as

column chart, remaining series as overlaid lines.

Dual Axis Area

and Line Chart

One category and two to eight series. First series displayed as

area chart, remaining series as overlaid lines.

Pareto Chart

One category and two to eight series. Series are displayed as

a stacked column chart with columns sorted in descending

order of value. The column chart is overlaid with a line chart

showing the cumulative total for each category.

Composite

Metrics

Single category, multiple metrics. Displays one tile per

category value, with each tile displaying one or more metrics

in a flexible format that includes a gauge or bullet graph and

may include headers, footers and a mini data grid.

Traffic Light


category value, with each tile displaying one or more metrics

in a flexible format that includes a traffic light status

indicator and may include headers, footers and a mini data

grid.

Composite Data

Grid

Single category, multiple metrics. Displays one data grid per

category value, with each data grid displaying one or more

metrics in a flexible format, including headers and footers.

Spark Line


category value, with each tile displaying one or metrics in a

flexible format that includes a spark line graph and may

include headers, footers, and a mini data grid.


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