This lab will introduce you to a full IT service management suite supporting the ITIL process framework.
Learning objectives:
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Understand how ITSM software is used to support collaborative ITSM processes
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Document a simulated IT service for your team and execute various ITSM processes against it
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Consider the implications of this lab in light of other course learnings
iTop is enterprise software. It consists of many screens that help you add, update, and delete across a complex, shared data model. It is intended as a tool to structure collaboration, in the form of defined processes.
First, ssh with X-windows to seis660.gps.stthomas.edu.
If you are going to use X-windows, you should log in with the following options if you are on a Mac:
ssh -XC -c blowfish-cbc,arcfour [email protected]
If you are on a PC using Putty or MobaXterm, you will have a checkbox (that may have defaulted to checked) to enable X. You’re on your own to figure out compression options.
Once logged in, bring up Firefox over X:
firefox -XC -no-remote &
then, using that Firefox window, log in to:
Default user name is "admin," no password. (Don’t do this in the real world.)
At the same time, using a LOCAL browser (not the Firefox where you have iTOP), go to the iTop documentation at:
Here is the scenario: you are four teams within a larger organization.
Team 1: customer facing ecommerce site
Team 2: back office supply chain/inventory
Team 3: ERP system
Team 4: infrastructure (data center & end user computing, including email)
Instructions
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Set up your teams (we won’t use the existing teams in iTOP - however, the existing data may help you understand how to set things up)
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Name them TeamX where X={1-4}
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as admin, give each person on your team an ID and password (Configuration Management|Contacts) - use your St. Thomas email ID and no password. (Don’t do this in the real world.)
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assign each to the appropriate team
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Critical note
There are dozens of possible screens in iTop, and the lab does not document them all with screenshots. It would start to become very redundant.
You will find that the behavior of iTop is very consistent. You can create, search, modify, and delete objects and their relationships. Feel free to explore and experiment. This is a lab simulation and you cannot damage anything. It will be deleted and recreated at the end of the course.
You can create relationships to things that are not your own. Just don’t delete or modify anything someone else has created.
Please, prefix anything you create with "TX" where X is your team name. For example, Team Four might create a server "T4-email-srv" representing their email server.
Refer to the iTop instructions, course readings (especially Betz), and online ITSM/ITIL materials as necessary.
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Set up your configuration items
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Each team has one application solution running on two physical servers
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team 1: "ecom"
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team 2: "s-chain"
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team 3: "SAP"
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team 4: "email"
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You should create your application solution as a CI, and create the servers
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Perform the following actions, as many as you have time for:
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Execute a Change against a CI
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Initiate and fulfill a service request for access against one of your services, or another team’s.
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Register an Incident against a CI
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Register a Problem against a CI
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Set up a new service contract
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Virtualize your servers
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Be creative!
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Create a new application solution.
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Add new, or new kinds, of resources/CIs to your application.
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Note, since we do not have actual systems that the CIs are representing (this will change) you do not do anything "real" to resolve an Incident or execute a Change. Simply fill out the form "as if" you have done so.
Discuss:
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What parts of the reference architecture are fulfilled by this tool?
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What do you think of this tool in light of current industry trends to virtualization and faster cycle times?
Grading:
I will be evaluating each team based on the effort I see in the tool. We will walk through each team’s efforts next Friday.