Workflow

You can link to your corporate AlgoSec FireFlow Change Management System (CMS) (default) or to AFA supported external systems like ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, HP ServiceCenter, or any other ticketing system supporting Web-based access.

Ask your AlgoSec representative for more details about links to external CMS system.

Linking to FireFlow CMS

On the Workflow page you can specify a CMS ticket ID in the relevant rule comment in the AFA Policy tag.

You can define a format to which the device rule comments must comply, so ASMS automatically recognizes them as containing a change request ID and creates a link for them.

Wherever a rule is displayed in an AFA report and its comment includes a link, you can click the link to get more information about the change in the CMS (who requested it, who authorized it and when, etc.).

To define the format for device rule comments links

For FireFlow CMS only

Do the following:

  1. In AFA, access the AFA Administration area > Options tab.

  2. In the Options Menu area, click Workflow.

    The Workflow tab page appears with default FireFlow values.

  1. In the Change Request ID Format area, define a format to which the device rule comments must comply, so AlgoSec recognizes them as containing a change request ID. See below Change request ID format.
  2. Click OK.

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Change request ID format

You can define a format to which the device rule comments must comply, so AlgoSec recognizes them as containing a change request ID. Only properly formatted rule comments are linked to the CMS change request.

AFA looks for the following format in the rule comments:

<Before><Change_Request_id><After>

Where <Before> and <After> are fixed strings, and <Change _Request_id> is a Perl regular expression.

Note: about Perl regular expressions

\d represents a digit

\s represents a space

\w represents an alphanumeric character

Examples:

\d\d\d\d-\d\d comments must contain a change request number like 1234-56
\d\d-\d\d-\d\d\d\d comments must contain a date like 01-01-2007
[A-Z]{2}\s*\d+ comments must contain two capital letters, then zero or more spaces, then one or more digits (such as, "AK  123")

For example:

Field Input

Before

Change Request #

Change Request id

\d+

After

#

  • This comment will become a link: 'Change Request #1234#'

  • This comment will not become a link: 'Change Request 1234#' , because <Before> is not equal to 'Change Request #'

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