BMC Remedy Action Request System

BMC Remedy Action Request System (ARS) is a proprietary application server developed initially by Remedy Corp and acquired by BMC Software in 2002. It is best known as being part of the BMC Remedy IT Management Suite, a set of applications that runs over ARS.

ARS architecture

ARS main component is the AR Server, that executes the workflow rules and performs the main tasks. AR Server is accompanied by a set of services like Atrium Integration Engine or the Email engine that complete the server functionality of the system.

Clients can connect to AR Servers to allow user interaction. The most common clients are:

• BMC Remedy User - Used to submit, modify, and search records. Currently discontinued, but still used for version 7.6.4 and previous.
• BMC Remedy Developer Studio - Development utility for ARS versions 7.x and up. Based on the Eclipse IDE
• BMC Remedy Mid-Tier - Web based user client. The mid-tier is the most commonly used client, allowing user to connect and execute Remedy applications from a browser.
• BMC Remedy Import - Used to import data into the system.
• BMC Remedy Alert - Used to send instant notifications to users.

ARS development

Screenshot of an ARS based helpdesk application.

ARS development can be considered as a fourth-generation programming language where the developer literally draws the application forms, set its properties and creates the workflow rules. The user interface and behavior are completely data driven, where all development items (workflow rules, forms, etc.) are coded and stored in tables. The system automatically creates the required database elements (like tables or indexes) and forces the execution of the defined workflow rules.

Applications using Action Request System

BMC Software is also the main developer of ARS applications. Following is a list of the best known applications built within the Action Request System framework.

• BMC Atrium CMDB - an implementation of an ITIL-style configuration management database (CMDB)^[1]
• BMC Service Request Management (previously linked to self-service)
• BMC Remedy Help Desk (previously linked to Helpdesk)
• BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management (previously linked to Service Desk (ITSM))
• BMC Remedy Change Management (previously linked to Service Desk (ITSM))
• BMC Remedy Customer Support (previously linked to Customer Support)
• BMC Service Level Management (previously linked to Service Level Management)
• BMC Remedy Asset Configuration Management (previously linked to Asset management)

References

External links

• BMC - BMC Software Home Page
• IT Service Management - Remedy IT Service Management
• TheRemedyForIT.com Independent online resources.