Architecture of a CM System

Introduction to ConSol CM System Architecture

ConSol CM is a Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) application that can be run in a standard application server on Unix/Linux or Windows systems. JBoss and Wildfly are supported.

In this chapter, a short overview of the ConSol CM system architecture will be provided.

A detailed list of supported operation systems, application servers, database systems, and other systems, as well as storage and CPU requirements is given in the current System Requirements.

Basic System Architecture

ConSol CM is a Java EE application which is based on the classical three-tier architecture. The ConSol CM server is deployed in an application server and accesses a relational database. Two web interfaces are available as client interfaces: the standard interface is the ConSol CM Web Client, which is used by the engineers to work on the tickets. Another web client is the ConSol CM portal, CM/Track. This provides access to the system for customers who might want to know some basic facts about the status of their tickets. The two Java applications which are used to configure ConSol CM are the Admin Tool and the Process Designer. Both can be downloaded from the ConSol CM start page using Java Web Start (JWS). JWS is a component of every recent Java edition, so no extra installation is required on the PCs or Laptops you want to use to administer the system. On the contrary - you can do this from every regular web client with a supported web browser. Please make sure that the versions of all components which are used in your company meet the system requirements.

Figure 3: ConSol CM - Basic system architecture

CM Database

The ConSol CM database (CM DB) is a relational database which can be operated as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL system.

A detailed list of supported operation systems, application servers, database systems, and other systems, as well as storage and CPU requirements is given in the current System Requirements.

System Architecture with Reporting Infrastructure

In order to allow Business Intelligence (BI) tools or other applications to build specific reports, OLAP cubes, and other analyses, ConSol CM provides a data warehouse (DWH) as one of its standard components. The DWH is a separate database (or database scheme, see below). The DWH is filled by a Java EE application called ConSol CM Reporting Framework (CMRF).

The ConSol CM standard function set comprises two components which enable reporting:

Separate application servers for ConSol CM and CMRF (standalone mode):

Figure 4: ConSol CM - Infrastructure with CMRF and DWH (2 servers)

One application server for ConSol CM and CMRF (overlay mode):

Figure 5: ConSol CM - Infrastructure with CMRF and DWH (1 server)

When the DWH has been established, BI (Business Intelligence) applications can be used to create reports, data cubes, and other reporting output formats. Please see the following example with the PentahoTM BI Suite.

For DWH Management from an operator's point of view, please refer to section Operating the Data Warehouse.

Separate application servers for ConSol CM and CMRF (standalone mode):

Figure 6: ConSol CM - Reporting infrastructure (2 servers)

One application server for ConSol CM and CMRF (overlay mode):

Figure 7: ConSol CM - Reporting infrastructure (1 server)

DWH Database

Components for Email Interactions

One of the core functionalities of ConSol CM is integration with mail servers. This allows ConSol CM to send and to receive emails. For the engineer, this means new tickets can easily be opened via email and the entire communication regarding a case is located in the respective ticket, including all incoming and outgoing emails.

In order to receive emails, ConSol CM connects to a mail server and retrieves emails from one or more mailboxes. ConSol CM acts like a regular email client (e.g., Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook) and uses standard email protocols like IMAP or POP3. If you want to use the secure version, IMAPs and POPs are also supported, in which case the required certificates have to be installed on the server. For a detailed explanation about how to send encrypted emails with CM, please refer to the ConSol CM Administrator Manual, section Email Encryption.

Please note that you might be dealing with different types of certificates here.

A certificate which is required to establish the connection between CM and an email server usually has to be placed in the key store of the application server.

Certificates which are required to encrypt emails which are written by the CM engineers using the Web Client have to be managed using the Admin Tool. This is explained in great detail in the ConSol CM Administrator Manual, section Email Encryption.

In order to send emails, ConSol CM uses an SMTP server.

Figure 8: ConSol CM - Mail server interactions

Please see also the explanations in the section Email.

Indexer

In order to perform effective searches in the database, ConSol CM builds an index for each ticket field, customer field, and resource field which should be included in a search. Furthermore, the engineer data, the ticket comments and the attachments are indexed by default. The indexes are stored in the file system. Please refer to the section File system structure for an explanation of the index directory structure, and read the detailed introduction to the entire topic in the section Index. The section Operating the indexer of the current manual treats the topic from a system operator's point of view.

LDAP Authentication

As standard feature, ConSol CM can use LDAP authentication in the Web Client and/or in the portal (CM/Track). Depending on the configuration of your LDAP server (e.g., Microsoft Active Directory), a user name and password might be required to establish the LDAP connection. All LDAP parameters are stored as ConSol CM system properties.

Figure 9: ConSol CM - LDAP authentication (Web Client)