Install and run the EPIC client

This section provides a high-level overview of the steps you need to take to get EPIC working with xMatters. You can consult the topics in the remainder of this guide for more detailed information about each step.

To install and run EPIC:
  1. Verify that your system meets the minimum requirements and is running the correct version of Java.
  2. Download and install the EPIC client.
  3. Configure xMatters users for EPIC.
    • Create an xMatters user with the user ID epic. (It does not matter which roles are assigned to this user: a user with this name simply needs to exist in the system.)
    • Create a web service user that EPIC can use to access xMatters. You will add this user's login information to the transport.properties file.  
    • For more information on adding users to xMatters for EPIC, see Add EPIC users to your company.
  4. Configure EPIC with login credentials for xMatters.
    • Modify the transport.properties file to contain the login credentials of the EPIC web service user and information about any proxy servers that are required to access external network resources. For more information about configuring the transport.properties file, see Configure the transport.properties file.
  5. Encrypt the EPIC configuration files so that login credentials are not stored in plain text.
  6.  Create the ZipSync archive:
    • For detailed information on the ZipSync archive file format, see ZipSync mode CSV File Content.
    • If you want to synchronize data from the external management system on a regular basis, you may want to incorporate an ETL tool such as Pentaho to transform data from the external management system into the required ZipSync file format. For tips on creating ZipSync data files, see Best practices for creating ZipSync data files.
    • Determine whether the data you are synchronizing is owned by xMatters or the external management system. For more information about external ownership of data, see External ownership and locking.
    • Determine whether to make a full mirror copy of the data during each synchronization or to only update the data that has changed since the last synchronization. For more information about running EPIC in mirror mode and update mode, see The manifest.xml file.
  7. Run EPIC in ZipSync mode
  8. View the status of EPIC data synchronization jobs.
    • Log on to xMatters as a company supervisor to view the synchronization report. For more information about interpreting the synchronization report and troubleshooting errors, see Synchronization reports.
  9. Configure notifications to inform when EPIC jobs complete.
    • To notify recipients when an EPIC job completes, enable a system communication plan for xMatters EPIC synchronization. You can add recipients directly to the system communication plan or configure subscriptions that allow users to self-subscribe to EPIC notifications.