Configuring the BMC Remedy AR System monitor adapter

You configure an adapter in Grid Manager. The configuration provides information about how the adapter interacts with the BMC Remedy Action Request System application (BMC Remedy AR System). While each adapter must have a unique name, you can create multiple adapters with the same adapter type to allow for different configuration properties.

The form view provides an easy-to-use interface for configuring adapters. The form view prevents human errors that might occur as a result of copying the configuration XML from the XML sample into the UI when configuring an adapter. You can switch to the XML view to configure those elements and attributes that are not available as fields on the form view or to configure all the elements and attributes using XML only. However, after you switch to the XML view and save the configuration in the XML from that view, you cannot thereafter use the form view for modifying that configuration.

To configure the monitor adapter

1. Log on to the TrueSight Orchestration Grid Manager.
2. Access the adapters page by clicking the Manage tab; then click the Adapters tab.
3. In the Adapters in Repository list, select the ro-adapter-remedy-monitor check box to configure an monitor adapter.
4. Click Add to Grid to include the adapter in the Adapters on Grid list.
5. Click Configure corresponding to the newly added adapter.
6. On the Add an Adapter Configuration page, perform the following substeps to configure the adapter using the form view or jump to step 7 to configure the adapter using the XML view:
   1. Enter a name for the adapter.
   2. Enter a description for the adapter.
   3. Under Properties, enter or select values for the configuration elements.
      Include all required elements indicated with an asterisk (*).
7. (Optional) Configure the adapter in the XML view using the following substeps:
   1. Enter a name and a description for the adapter.
   2. Click Switch to XML View to specify elements and attributes that are not in the form view, starting with step.
   3. On the Warning message that appears, click Switch View.

   4. Copy the configuration elements and attributes into the Properties text box, and then click OK.

      Note

      If the default value for an optional element is acceptable, omit the element. Do not include empty elements.

   5. On the Warning message that appears, click Save.
      
      This action saves the adapter configuration with settings in the XML view permanently. The newly configured adapter is now listed in the Adapters on Grid list.

To configure the load balancer with the BMC Remedy AR system monitor adapter

If your Remedy AR System server group contains a load balancer, you must configure the load balancer with the monitor adapter. You use a hardware load balancer to improve the scalability and availability of BMC Remedy AR System servers. The load balancer distributes the traffic from multiple clients to several servers, preventing BMC Remedy AR System servers from becoming overloaded. A load balancer provides solutions to issues relating to performance, hardware capacity, system downtime, and so on in high-load environments.

To configure the load balancer, you have to add a mapping for the IP addresses of the load balancer and other servers in the BMC Remedy AR System servers' group in the ar.cfg file of each server in the group. 

For example, consider AR Server 1 and AR Server 2 in the BMC Remedy AR System servers' group. The IP address of AR Server 1 is IP1, AR Server 2 is IP2, and the load balancer is L-IP. These IP addresses are mapped as follows to the local BMC Remedy AR System server's IP address:

• For AR Server 1, add the following entries to the corresponding ar.cfg file:
  Map-IP-Address: L-IP IP1
Map-IP-Address: IP2 IP1


  Alert-Ignore-Actual-Client-IP: T
  Alert-Send-Timeout: 30

   

• For AR Server 2, add the following entries to the corresponding ar.cfg file:
  Map-IP-Address: L-IP IP2
Map-IP-Address: IP1 IP2


  Alert-Ignore-Actual-Client-IP: T
  Alert-Send-Timeout: 30

   

  Note

  Even if there is no load balancer, the IP address mappings are required for the BMC Remedy AR System servers' group.

  
  To configure the load balancer with the monitor adapter, see the <target> element description in Configuration node elements for monitor adapter.
  
  The following table shows the configuration node elements for BMC AR Remedy monitor adapter that you can specify using the form view, XML view, or both. You cannot use the form view to configure elements and attributes that do not have an entry in the UI label column. To configure such elements and attributes, you have to switch to XML view.

  
  Configuration node elements for the monitor adapter

  UI label	Element	Description	Required
  None	<config>	Contains the configuration elements to connect to a specific server, along with login credentials	Yes
  Target	<target>	Specifies the host name or IP address of the BMC Remedy AR system server Note If the Remedy AR Server group uses a load balancer, you must set the <target> element of the monitor adapter to the IP address of the load balancer.	Yes
  Schemas	<schemas>	Contains the <schema> elements	No
  Schema	<schema>	Specifies the BMC Remedy AR System schema to be cached upon adapter attachment to a peer, restart of a peer, or immediately following a reset-cache action In the absence of this element, the schema will be cached the first time it is called by an adapter request.	No
  Port	<port>	Specifies the remote connection port number In the absence of this element, a default value of '0' will be assigned. This default will cause the BMC Remedy AR System to use its default TCP/IP port number.	No
  User Name	<user-name>	Specifies the user name to connect to the BMC Remedy AR System server	Yes
  Password	<password>	Specifies the password that corresponds to the specified <user-name>	No
  Rpc Number	<rpc-number>	Specifies the RPC port number In the absence of this element, a default value of '0' will be assigned. The default will cause the BMC Remedy AR System to use its default RPC port number.	No
  Poll Interval	<poll-interval>	Specifies the frequency, in seconds, to re-register with the BMC Remedy AR System host This will re-establish any dropped connections with the BMC Remedy AR System host. In the absence of a specified poll-interval, a default value of '900' will be assigned. This default will prompt for re-registration with the BMC Remedy AR System host every 15 minutes.	No
  Alert Listener Port	<alert-listener-port>	Specifies the port on which the adapter will listen for BMC Remedy AR System notifications In the absence of this element, a default value of 0 will be assigned. The default will cause the protocol to provide the first available port on which to listen.
  Delete Alerts	<delete-alerts>	Deletes alerts from schema after being marked as read Valid values: true, false Note If this element is set to true and the <username> provided is for a user with insufficient privileges to delete a record, the alert will remain in the schema, marked as read, and a warning level message will be logged. In the absence of this element, a default value of false will be assigned.	No
  Maximum Registration Retries	<maximum-registration-retries>	Specifies the number of retries the adapter makes to connect to the Remedy AR System application The registration retry frequency is determined by the <polling-interval> element. If the registration fails due to authentication errors, there are no retries. Default value: 3	No
  Maximum Alerts Per Second	<maximum-alerts-per-second>	Specifies the count of unread alerts to be processed per second It limits the rate at which the monitor adapter retrieves unread alerts from the BMC Remedy AR System server. If the monitor adapter goes down for a long period and this element is enabled, no Out-of-Memory errors occur.	No
  Query	<query>	Used to provide additional querying capability to add more filtering criteria to the default query	No

The following figure shows the XML template for monitor adapter configuration.

XML template for monitor adapter configuration

<config>
 <target></target>
 <schemas>
   <schema></schema>
   <schema></schema>
 </schemas>
 <port></port>
 <user-name></user-name>
 <password></password>
 <rpc-number></rpc-number>
 <poll-interval></poll-interval>
 <alert-listener-port></alert-listener-port>
 <delete-alerts></delete-alerts>
</config>

Enabling custom logging

To enable custom logging for the adapter, you must specify a log file name. You can also provide additional parameters for logging.

• Log File Name: Provide a name for the log file.
  This file will be stored in the AO_HOME/tomcat/logs directory. If Log File Max Backup Index value is greater than 0, the log file name is suffixed with the backup index. For example, if the parameter value is a.log, backup log files will have names, such as a.log.1, a.log.2.
• Log File Size: Specify a size limit for the log file. 
  If the value specified for Log File Max Backup Index is greater than 0, when the specified size is reached, the current file is renamed with the suffix .1. Otherwise, the log file will be reset and over-written. The default value is 10MB. The available units are KiloBytes (KB), MegaBytes (MB) or GigaBytes (GB).
• Log File Max Backup Index: Enter the maximum number of backup files allowed. The default value is 10.
• Log File Append: Select this option to append new log information to the existing information in the file. If unselected, the file will be overwritten with new log information.

• Log Level: Enter the logging level using one of the following choices:

  Logging level	Description
  DEBUG	The most detailed logging level; logs low-level messages, normal execution, recoverable erroneous conditions, and unrecoverable erroneous conditions
  INFO (default)	Logs normal execution, recoverable erroneous conditions, and unrecoverable erroneous conditions
  WARN	Logs recoverable erroneous conditions and unrecoverable erroneous conditions
  ERROR	The least detailed logging level; logs only error conditions that are not usually recoverable

Encrypting an element's contents

You can add the attribute secure="true" to an XML adapter element XML view to ensure that the element's contents is encrypted when displayed.