What's New for CSA

CSA 4.80 has the following new features:

• Remote Console Access
• CSA Product Tour Video
• Built in Universal CMDB Integration
• Integrated Compliance with ITOC (IT Operation Compliance)
• Simplified Content Authoring
• Improved User Input Validation
• Service Management Console Dashboard
• Subscription Management

Remote Console Access

The remote console access functionality provides easy access to the provisioned servers from CSA. Each server component in the service instance details page of the Marketplace Portal has an option to establish direct connection with the server.

• Sessions: You can open multiple sessions through the portal. These sessions are opened in an HTML5 supported browser. The console sessions are independent of the Marketplace Portal session.
• Protocols: SSH, RDP and VNC are the supported protocols. The protocols and the protocol ports are configurable.
• User preferences: You can choose the protocol that you wish to use to connect to the server. The remote console service saves your preferred protocol and uses this preference for the subsequent connections. The preferences can be reset and set again.
• Multiple connections: Every connection is opened in a new browser window and allows you to have multiple connections open at the same time with multiple servers.
• Authentication: To log on, you have to provide the user name and password for the servers.

CSA Product Tour Video

CSA Product tour video is introduced in CSA 4.80 release. You can view this video from the CSA dashboard. It serves as a use case driven quick reference on how easy it is to use various product features. This video demonstrates how easy it is to create CSA components such as, resource providers, service designs, service offerings, and so on.

Built in Universal CMDB Integration

A new palette named HPE CSA (CI Type based) is available in CSA which contains new component types that are aligned to HPE Universal CMDB’s CI Type system. When sequenced service designs are built using components based on this new component type, a direct deployment of such design or subscription to a service offering created from such service design will generate the equivalent topology of provisioned service instance in HPE Universal CMDB by creating the CI instances for each of those components with appropriate relationships and tenancy.

Integrated Compliance with ITOC (IT Operation Compliance)

The key features of integrated compliance with ITOC are:

• Service Offering Manager configures the compliance policy and maintenance window at service offering level.
• Assignment of compliance policy on post fulfillment of a service and initiation of policy enforcement automatically.
• Compliance score of a service in operation console.
• Overall compliance score of the environment and per consumer organization in Management Console Dashboard.

Simplified Content Authoring

Service design and component authoring experience has been improved and simplified further by the following new features:

1. New designer for OO (Operation Orchestration) flow Authoring with CloudSlang:
   1. OO Designer embedded in Cloud Service Management Console with seamless launch from the same UI.
   2. Authoring of OO flow in graphical UI designer in CloudSlang language with textual representation.
   3. Publishing of authored flow into OO Central for consumption in CSA lifecycle action.
2. Improved parameter exchange between OO flow and CSA lifecycle actions:
   1. OO author can now create OO flows with input or output parameter defined, not based on CSA tokens without requiring any knowledge of CSA APIs and model, but focusing on the specific problem domain.
   2. CSA Action Wizard now provides automatic configuration of mapping between OO flow input or output parameter and CSA lifecycle action properties.
   3. CSA underlying provisioning engine manages the exchange of OO flow input parameter value passing and updates CSA model with output parameter value. It is also not required to make CSA Process Instance API to notify CSA of the completion of OO flow, as completion of OO flow is monitored by CSA.

3. A new CSA Internal Action Scale Component has been introduced which can be used to scale in and scale out components without requiring any custom OO flow.

Improved User Input Validation

Semantic validation feature allows service implementer to implement custom validation logic following any business rules for enforcing input fields to contain only valid values which helps in reducing failure in service request.

• Configures Java script based validation script for subscriber option properties and to input parameters to User Operations.
• Ability to pass values from multiple input field as tokens and the current value of a field to the Java script allowing advanced business logic implementation for input validation.
• Execution of input validation logic during initial ordering of subscription, modification of subscription and user operation execution on provisioned components.

Service Management Console Dashboard

An enhanced dashboard experience for administrators:

• Persona based dashboard widgets providing at a glance information of the environment.
• Improved navigational menu.

Subscription Management

Transfer of group owned subscription is now possible from Marketplace Portal and Cloud Service Management Console.