The Service Management Automation User Conference (SMAC 2018) last week had over 90 sessions on all things BMC Remedy.

Session topics included ARS and ITSM 18.08, BMC Helix Multi Cloud Service Management, simplified integrations to other platforms and ticketing systems hands-on lab, automated regression testing, and container-based deployments of Remedy.

There is always something to learn when Doug Mueller gives a session and he led three on the last day. Here are a few highlights:

• Use Installer Phasing to pre-check upgrades. You are able to run the Phase 1 pre-check multiple times and address issues before the actual install. For example, you could run it one week in advance and the morning of the upgrade to see if anything has changed.
• You can save/restore server settings and use templates. This makes creating or upgrading server much easier. For example, have a server settings template for a mid-tier.
• If you have a large number of groups, look at hierarchical groups as a way to simplify maintenance and potentially improve performance.

The arsqled utility, to translate table and column names into words in log files, has been around for years but still worth mentioning. If you want to go deep into logs, there was a session on setting up a log aggregation server using Elasticsearch.

This was a terrific conference with great content and an opportunity to reconnect with the wider Remedy community. The hard work of the sponsors and organizers paid off and I am looking forward to next year.

#smaconf18 #T3SMAC #BMCSoftware #Remedy #multicloud #BMCHelix