BMC PATROL for Windows Azure architecture

The collector that is used to gather the cloud data from Windows Azure is a Java process. The PATROL Agent launches the external process and continues to communicate with this process through a PATROL Scripting Language (PSL) channel.

Windows Azure cloud platform supports monitoring of the cloud environment by using Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs. The Windows Azure handler provided by BMC PATROL for Windows Azure uses REST APIs to gather data for the Knowledge Module (KM).

The following are the major steps involved:

1. The PATROL Agent initiates the request to collect the data.
   The collection request initiated by the PATROL Agent is in a pre-defined format. The KM starts one or multiple external processes for data collection.
2. The external process collects the necessary cloud data.
   The Windows Azure handler collects the cloud data.
3. The external process sends the data back to the PATROL Agent in an appropriate format.
4. The PATROL Agent reads the data and takes the necessary action on the data.
   The necessary action taken by the KM and the PATROL Agent can involve creating a required instance or setting the appropriate parameters.

The following figure shows how BMC PATROL for Windows Azure interacts with Windows Azure through Windows Azure storage service.