Release notes > What's new in Service Manager 9.51?

What's new in Service Manager 9.51?

Service Manager 9.51 includes the following new features, enhancements, and support changes:

Service Manager Service Portal

Feature Description
Order numbers and request numbers are searchable from Service Manager Interactions

Order numbers and request numbers generated on the Service Manager Service Portal side are now automatically synchronized to the Portal Order ID and Portal Request ID fields on the Service Manager Interaction detail form and search form.

Bi-directional attachments to Service Manager service and support requests To enhance communication between portal users and service desk personnel, attachments added in Service Manager Service Portal are visible in Service Manager and attachments added in Service Manager are visible in Service Manager Service Portal.
Service Manager Service Portal installation mechanism enhancements

The Service Manager Service Portal installation mechanism is enhanced in the following ways:

  • Service Manager Service Portal now can be installed on a Red Hat Linux system that has no Internet access.
  • The installer is redesigned to use a single shell script that automates the installation process.

    Note You still need to run additional scripts (such as enableSurvey and enableChat) to perform some post-installation tasks.

Support of Close action for service requests If fulfillment has not started for a service request (in pending approval or denied state), the request can be closed.
Simplified access control configuration for multiple groups For catalogs and catalog items, bulk actions make it possible to grant access to multiple groups with one operation.
New Calculated Representation group type In addition to LDAP and database representation groups, it is now possible to create a new calculated group by specifying criteria in the Identity application. For example, create a calculated group to restrict access to users that are in a specific geographical location.
Reverse proxy support New Ansible automation to help with configuration of Nginx reverse proxy for Service Manager Service Portal.
Two-way SSL support Service Manager Service Portal supports client authentication via certificate with Service Manager.

Instructions on how to migrate from Service Request Catalog to Service Manager Service Portal are available in the Service Manager Service Portal Administration Guide.

Smart Email

Feature Description
Propose knowledge documents from external libraries

Previously in an outbound email, the knowledge documents proposed by the virtual agent Sage only included KM articles from the SM knowledge library. Now, if the corresponding connectors (the SharePoint connector, file system connector, or HTTP connector) are set up in Smart Analytics, the proposed knowledge documents also includes SharePoint pages, documents on a file system, or web pages from external libraries.

Service Manager Collaboration

Feature Description
Propose knowledge documents from external libraries Previously in a chat, when you type your questions or issues, the virtual agent performs Smart Search with your access rights and provides you several links that are relevant to your question. The links only include Knowledge Management document links and Service Catalog item links. Now, if the corresponding connectors (the SharePoint connector, file system connector, or HTTP connector) are set up in Smart Analytics, the proposed knowledge documents also include SharePoint pages, documents on a file system, or web pages from external libraries.
Display Service Portal ticket ID

When you open an End User Chat window in Service Manager Service Portal, you can specify the Service Portal ticket number from the Previous Support Ticket ID drop-down list if you have submitted a support ticket before the chat.

Process Designer

Feature Description
Configurable child task behavior

By default, when a parent task is not created, the child task is created and moved to the "Active" state. You can now configure the child task to stay in the "Waiting" state in this situation.

For more information about how to do this, see Configure child task behavior when the parent task is not created.

Service Request Catalog

Feature Description
Language selection

You can now configure Service Request Catalog to display a language selection box on the login page.

For information about how to enable this feature, see Enable language selection on the Service Request Catalog login page.

Smart Analytics

Feature Description
Smart Search indexing

Smart Search indexing for "sclib" type knowledgebase libraries is enhanced in the following ways:

  • The back-end indexing mechanism is refactored to improve performance.
  • You can schedule indexing based on a time period record.
  • You can view the detailed status of indexing jobs.
Smart Search box

If you have Smart Analytics installed, a Smart Search icon is added to the top-right of the UI. Clicking the icon displays a search box that performs a Smart Search. This enables you to use the Smart Search feature of Smart Analytics to search for content wherever you are in the Service Manager UI, without having to navigate through menus.

Installation and upgrade

Feature Description

New server patch installation tool

Service Manager 9.51 includes a new server patch installation tool (PatchSetup.bat or PatchSetup.sh) and a new server patch uninstallation tool (PatchUninstall.bat or PatchUninstall.sh). The installation tool is located in the patch directory after you unzip the patch, and the uninstallation tool is created in the <SM Installation>\_uninstall directory after you run the installation tool.

Note Running these tools will overwrite the configuration files (such as the LWSSO configuration file and XML files for Jgroups) in the RUN directory in the Service Manager server installation directory. Remember to reapply any changes that you have made to these files after you run the patch installation or uninstallation tool.

For detailed information about how to use the new tools, refer to the Upgrade the Service Manager Server and Back out the Service Manager Server topics.

Demo data unload file

Service Manager 9.51 provides a demo data unload file (demodata.unl) for testing and demonstrating the new 9.51 features after you have upgraded to the 9.51 applications in a fresh installation environment. This demo data package is for Service Manager 9.51 Codeless only. To import the data package, you must use the Apply Demo Data wizard provided by Service Manager 9.51.

For detailed instructions about how to access the Apply Demo Data wizard and load the demo data unload file, see Service Manager 9.51 demo data.

User experience enhancements

Feature Description
Service Catalog search returns both cart items and non-cart items

By default, you can submit a Service Catalog request from Service Catalog > Order from Catalog, and then search for the desired cart items, or you can submit a Support Catalog request from Service Catalog > Non-cart Catalog Requests, and then search for non-cart services. In an out-of-box Service Manager system, these two search results use different formats and cannot be merged. However, you can now customize the Service Catalog search result to include both cart items and non-cart items for a better user experience.

For more information, see Customizing Service Catalog search result.

Command/Search box replaced with icon

The Command/Search box at the top of the UI is replaced with a command icon. Click the icon to display the Command/Search box.

This UI enhancement helps simplify the tool bar, provides a unified and consistent user experience across HPE software, and eliminates potential confusion between the Command/Search icon and the Smart Search icon.

Improved experience for RTL language displays

If you select a right-to-left (RTL) language (for example, Arabic) when you log in to Service Manager 9.51, the navigator panel is displayed on the right side of the UI to better align with the direction of the text. Additionally, the following changes improve the user experience when Service Manager is displayed in an RTL language:

  • The text of accordion items and tree items in the navigator pane is aligned to the right
  • The navigator toolbar is aligned to the right
  • The right and left arrow keys collapse and expand the tree, respectively (in LTR language versions, the key mapping is reversed)

New parameters, commands, and files

The following parameters, commands, and files were introduced in this release.

Name Type Description
emailout -debug Command The behavior of the -debug option is changed: it no longer automatically enables the -keepmail option, so that mail events sent successfully are no longer kept in the event queue.
Startup parameter: alignradsensitivitywithdb Parameter This parameter specifies whether RAD case sensitivity for string comparing is aligned with that of the HPE Service Manager database.

Added support

Service Manager 9.51 adds support for the following operating systems and technologies:

Operating systems

  • Windows Server 2016

  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 7.x, 6.x

  • Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SPx, 11 SPx

Databases

  • SQL Server 2016

Virtualization

  • Hyper-V 2016

Mobile OS

  • Android 6.x

For more information, see the Support Matrix.

Related topics

Service Manager version history
Enhancements
Fixed defects
Known issues, limitations, and workarounds
Deprecations