Parallels

Symptoms

The main intent of the article is to explain how to apply synchronisation and in which cases it should be used.

You may require synchronisation in cases which could be categorized by the following groups:

1. applying changes in resource configurations, made from a service template, to existing subscriptions.
2. applying changes in resource configurations, made from a service plan, to existing subscriptions.
3. setting up a correspondence between price and notification schedule settings in a service plan and in existing subscriptions


Please, refer to Resolution section of this article to learn how to perform synchronisation for each case.

For information concerning resolving the problems with synchronization, please refer to the articles below:

1. ID=5624 [Synchronization] Resolving the issue with resources in reseller's ST

Resolution

1. The changes related to group 1 can be applied to subscriptions in the following way:

After reconfiguration of resources included in some service template is completed, open this template in PBA (Product Director -> Plan Manager -> Service Templates) and switch to Resources tab. Click on the modified resource and then use Synchronize button.

Within such kind of synchronisation  a resource amount will be copied from a service template to subscriptions in POA if the resource is not included in resource rates of a plan (pem.setResourceTypeLimit method).   If a resource is included in plan rates then PBA uses SetServiceParam method and copies all the resource amounts from PBA subscription to POA subscription. (please note, that in this case no synchronisation of PBA subscription with a plan is performed).

Available parameters

- According to above-mentioned, select a proper value of  'Install to Subscriptions' parameter while perfroming the synchronisation.
- 'Update Reseller's Customers' option allows to apply synchronisation to Reseller's Customers subscriptions (if they are based on a delegated template or a delegated plan).
- 'Start Date after' and 'Start Date before'  - The start Date of a subsciption must satisfy this time range to be synchronized. If these dates are not specified then synchronisation will be applied to all subscriptions.


2. The synchronisation of service plans' resources with subscriptions can be processed either from a subscription or from a service plan (groups 2):

-If you need to synschronize a particular subscription with all the resources of a plan, go to  Operation Director -> Support Manager -> Subscriptions, find the required subscription and click Synchronize.
-If you need to make a synschronisation between a particular subscription and a particular resource of a plan, go to  Operation Director -> Support Manager -> Subscriptions, find the required subscription and swich to Resources tab, check the resource and click Synchronize.
-if you would like to synchronize the whole set of resources included in some plans with all the subscriptions created on its base, open Product Director -> Plan Manager -> Service Plans, find the plan and use Synchronize button.
-in case you are synchronizing a particular resource of a plan with all the subscritions created on its base, open Product Director -> Plan Manager -> Service Plans, find the plan, switch to Resources tab, choose the resource and use Synchronize button.

As a result the screen with available synchronisation options will appear. Check necessary options in accordance with the type of changes made to resources configuration:

Specify, which subscriptions should be synchronized

- 'Start Date after' and 'Start Date before'  - The start Date of a subsciption must satisfy this time range to be synchronized. If these dates are not specified then synchronisation will be applied to all subscriptions.

Resource(s) sync options

-Install new resource(s) - select it if new resources were added to a plan
-Use 'Remove obsolete resource(s)' if some resources were deleted from a plan*
-'Update Prices' can be used for synchronizing the prices of resources, specified in a plan with subscriptions. Besides, the following settings of resources will be synchronized: 'Charge Per Unit', 'Charge for Upgrade', 'Include If Zero', price descriptions, 'Show in CP'
-'Update Limits' - you should check it if the limits of some resource(s) were modified. Besides limits, 'Measurable' option of a resource will be synchronized.
-'Install into Provisioning System' - depending on this option the limits of resources will be updated in both  POA  and PBA subscriptions ('Install into Provisioning System'=Immediatly or Resource Order) or the synchronisation will influence PBA subscriptions only ('Install into Provisioning System'=Not Install).

*Please, note, that resources won't be deleted from a subscription in the following cases:
-there is any uncompleted order for this resource (you may see an order number in subscriptions' resources)
-if ordered amount is greater than 0 (you may see it within a subscription)

3. Also the synchronization between a plan and a subscription can be used to apply the changes in prices and notification schedule to existing subscriptions. It can be done from a plan with a help of 'Subscription sync options' section. After synchronization, price changes come into effect from the next billing date. Other settings are applied immediately.

Available options:

-'Update Subscription Prices': will synchronize the prices specified in subscription periods and 'Billing Information' section of a plan with exception of Customer Class
-'Update Subscriptions with freezed prices'-the prices specified in subscription periods will be set to subscriptions even if Freeze Prices=Yes for them
-'Update Notification Schedule' allows to apply notification schedule, specified in a plan to subscriptions.
-'Update Subscription Service Terms' (beginning with 4.4)can be used for service term synchronisation

Some notes:

1. If you decrease the included amount of a resource in a template or plan and perform synchronisation afterwards, the new limits will be set in subscriptions, but if a customer have already used this amount, then they won't be physically deleted from subscription.
Ex, a customer was sold a subscription with 10 mailboxes included. A customer has used 8 mailboxes. Then the included amount was decreased to 5 and synchronized with customer's subscription. After that the customer will not be able to create the 9th mailbox, but 3 overused mailboxes (5-8=-3) won't be deleted.