Enabling the Approval Process for a Service Request

The approval capability if enabled in Cisco Managed Services Accelerator (MSX) allows the user with relevant permissions to approve or reject a service request.

An approver can approve or reject the following request types:

  • New service request

  • Update to an existing service request

  • Service cancellation request

For more information on permissions required to enable approvals for a user, see the latest version of Cisco Managed Services Accelerator (MSX) Platform and Service Pack Permissions Addendum.

The approval metadata must be enabled at the service defintion level. This metadata must be imported using the 'Import' service POST request in the Catalog Service API.

To enable Approval, add the following metadata using the Import service POST request in the Catalog Service API.

For more information on the API, refer to the Swagger documentation that can be accessed from the MSX portal > Account Settings. 

"approvals": {
        "supportedApprovalOperations": [
            "NEW_ORDER","UPDATE_ORDER","DELETE_ORDER"

You can use the same API to edit the allowed operations (New service, Update Service, Unsubscribe) for Approvals. After enabling the Approval functionality for a service offering, any users with APPROVE_SERVICE permission can approve or reject a service request.

The following is a ConsumeService API sample that includes the Approvals metadata. 

{
  "id": "16daba64-f788-4138-8977-6d5def97e16a",
  "name": "cloudvpn",
  "configuration": {},
  "options": [],
  "properties": [],
  "offers": [
    {
      "id": "17b1d14c-60ee-4cce-8475-b9e2bb0fa9a8",
      "name": "basic",
      "approvals": {
        "supportedApprovalOperations": [
            "NEW_ORDER","UPDATE_ORDER","DELETE_ORDER"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "ab0ef666-965a-4c20-b97e-709ab66394f8",
      "name": "medium",
      "approvals": {
        "supportedApprovalOperations": [
									    "NEW_ORDER","UPDATE_ORDER","DELETE_ORDER"
        ]
      }
    },

"offers": [
    {
      "id": "17b1d14c-60ee-4cce-8475-b9e2bb0fa9a8",
      "name": "basic",
      "approvals": {
        "supportedApprovalOperations": [
            "NEW_ORDER","UPDATE_ORDER","DELETE_ORDER"
        ]

Approving or Rejecting a Service Request

When a new service order is submitted, the service request goes through an approval process before it is provisioned. For information on how to order a new service for Cisco MSX Managed Device, SD-WAN, SD-Branch, CUTD, and SD-Access service packs, see the service pack user guides on cisco.com.

Only an approver user or a user with approver privilege can approve or reject a request. If notifications are enabled, the approvers are notified of the pending approvals. An approver can approve or reject the following request types: For a service provider user, the status of the submitted order will stay in pending state until it is approved or rejected. If the notifications are configured for the service provider, the user will be notified of the status through an email or REST API.

  • New service request

  • Update to an existing service request

  • Service cancellation request


Note
Only an approver user or a user with approver privileges can perform this process.

Using this procedure, you can approve or reject the service request.

Before you begin

Configure notifications if you want to notify approvers or service provider users about the status of the approvals. See Enabling Notifications for Events.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Cisco MSX portal using your credentials.

Step 2

From the left pane, click Approvals to view a list of pending service requests.

Step 3

Select a request and click Approve or Reject. If rejected, provide a reason for rejection.

The user will be notified about the status.