HP NNMi ETL

“Moviri Integrator for TrueSight Capacity Optimization – HP NNMi” allows extracting capacity relevant measurements from HP NNMi (HP Network Node Manager i) network monitoring tool and feeding them to CO.

The integration supports the extraction of both performance and configuration data across network components monitored by NNMi. Configuration parameters are available to allow devices filtering, metrics filtering, historical recovery, limiting data volume processed in a single run and many other settings.

The documentation is targeted at BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization administrators, in charge of configuring and monitoring the integration between BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization and HP NNMi.

Requirements

Official name of data source software

• “HP NNMi” or HP Network Node Manager i software

Supported versions of data source software

• HP NNMi Version 9.10 to 10.x

Supported configurations of data source software

Moviri – HP NNMi Extractor supports NNMi mandatorily configured with SPI "performance for metrics".

Installation

Datasource Check and Configuration

Enabling iSPI Performance for Metrics CSV Export process

In order to make data available to third party solutions, HP NNMI with SPI “Performance for metrics” provides a data export command, which can export different csv files on local filesystem.
The integration between BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization and HP NNMi takes advantage of this method.

NNM iSPI Performance for Metrics contains a component called “Network Performance Server” (NPS). This component is used by other iSPIs as well. The NPS provides both out-of-the-box and highly customizable reporting tools across any iSPI domain. The iSPI Performance for Metrics in particular focuses on fundamental network interface (SNMP MIB-II) and device component performance variables. It continuously collects, stores, and manages performance-related metrics from across your network and includes multiple pre-built reports for exploring that data.

The configureCsvExport.ovpl utility enables you to export the NPS data (live or summarized) to CSV files. After you initiate the data export process, the NPS places the CSV files in the designated directory at regular intervals of time. In order to configure this process, please follow this procedure:

1.     Log on to the NPS system with the administrative or root privileges.

2.     Run the following command to export the live data:

• On Windows

<Install_Dir>\NNMPerformanceSPI\bin\configureCsvExport.ovpl -p <Extension_Pack> -a "LIVE,<Target_Dir>"

• On Linux

/opt/OV/NNMPerformanceSPI/bin/configureCsvExport.ovpl -p <Extension_Pack> -a "LIVE,<Target_Dir>"

3.     Run the following command to export the summarized data:

• On Windows

<Install_Dir>\NNMPerformanceSPI\bin\configureCsvExport.ovpl -p <Extension_Pack> -a "SUMMARY,<Target_Dir>"

• On Linux

/opt/OV/NNMPerformanceSPI/bin/configureCsvExport.ovpl -p <Extension_Pack> -a "SUMMARY,<Target_Dir>"

Replace in the command described before the <Extension_Pack> placeholder with the name of the considered extension pack. Use the following list for the extension packs provided with the NPS and iSPI Performance for Metrics:

• Interface Health: Interface_Health
• Component Health: Component_Health

Logfile of the process can be found in: /var/opt/OV/NNMPerformanceSPI/logs/prspi.log

Connector configuration

Connector configuration attributes

There are three sections (tabs) in the ETL run configuration page where the behaviour of “Moviri Integrator for BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization - HP NNMi” can be specified:

• NNMI Files location
• Time Management
• Extraction Filters

NNMI Files location

Time Management

Extraction Filters

Guidelines to choose the right ETL configuration

In order to set the ETL configuration that match your needs, in this paragraph some common use cases are presented.

Scenario 1: “Typical” network capacity analysis and planning

Goal: ensure the right network capacity (traffic and device resource utilization)
Environment size: medium/big
Environment peculiarity: quite steady
Planning time period:  long (6-12 months)
Outputs: Analyses and forecast on network traffic growth and threshold violation date

Scenario 2: “in-depth” network capacity analysis and planning for particular services/applications/devices

Goal: react on short-term growth (traffic and device resource utilization)
Environment size: small
Environment peculiarity:   new service introduction / across a change of application or devices
Planning time period:  short (weeks)
Outputs: Growth trend, short-term forecast, correlation between resource utilization and service business drivers (users, transactions)

Scenario 3: Quality network capacity analysis and planning

Goal: ensure the right network capacity and quality
Environment size: medium
Environment peculiarity: quite steady
Planning time period:  medium-long (3-12 months)
Outputs: Analyses and forecast on network traffic and errors on interfaces, correlation between errors and device usage metrics

The choice of correct configuration brings you benefits also in terms of shorter execution time and saved disk space on database.

Every NNMi ETL instance configuration applies to all devices selected, if there are different scenario needs for different devices, is recommended to create many ETL instances with different configuration which filters on particular devices (e.g. There are both a big and stable environment (scenario 1) and the introduction of a new service (scenario2))

Data volume considerations

The following table is a reference to estimate the data volume produced daily by NNMi  ETL for each device, interface and module based on which metric filter in ETL configuration is active.

As a reference, it has been chosen a device with 24 active interfaces

In a data center with 3 network interfaces for each server and devices with 24 interfaces, the volume of samples collected using System+ traffic filter (as in par 4.1.1 – scenario 1) is approximately :

Historical data extraction

In order to perform a historical recovery of data, please use “recovery mode properties” settings:
Recovery mode active= true and filling the two properties “since date” and “to date” in order to specify the time window. When recovery mode is active, the lastcounter will not be updated and max day to extract will be ignored.

If the ETL is newly created and has no lastcounter defined, the “default lastcounter” is used.

The pre-condition for an historical extraction is the presence of csv files in the selected time period

Supported Platforms and Metrics

For all metrics imported by the ETL and described below in this section, the following apply:

• Supported BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization Entity Type: Network device 

Troubleshooting

For ETL troubleshooting, please refer to official BMC documentation available here.

Missing data can also represent a common problem; as shown above, in this case a WARNING would be associated to the ETL task. This can be due to a number of scenarios, among which:

• CSV files are not present in selected directory
• CSV file name pattern does not match the file name
• CSV files have been already parsed and a suffix have been appended after parsing the first time
• BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization ETL Recovery mode is active, but in the export directory the files have been deleted.
• The filters in BMC TrueSight Capacity Optimization ETL custom properties configuration are too strict and does not extract any device, check ETL configuration.

Configuration and Performance/Business Metrics Mapping

The ETL parse csv file produced by NNMi +SPI Performance for metrics. 
The metrics supported by the ETL are stored in NNMi Extension packs “Component” and “Interface”.

Performance metrics

Configuration metrics