Downloading and installing Docker connectors

Download and install these connectors to collect data from applications running docker containers. Use the Docker connector to collect data from third-party integrations, Linux-based environments, and so on.

Before you begin

Ensure that the host computer on which you plan to install the connector has a 2-core CPU and 16 GB RAM.
Ensure that you are downloading and installing the connector on one of the following operating systems:
- RHEL 8.x, 7.x
- CentOS 8.x, 7.x
- Ubuntu 20.x, 18.x
Ensure that you have installed docker version 18.01 or later.

To download and install a Docker connector

On the Integrations page, click the Available Integrations tab, and then click the Download and Install link for the connector.
On the Connector Download and Install page, perform the following steps:
1. From the Select the Connector Type list, select Docker Connector to collect metrics or logs from Linux or cloud platforms.
2. If a docker image does not exist in your system, or if you want a new docker image, click the Download link.
3. Enter the name of the connector and click Create and Download to download the connector shell script.
  For example, if you entered the connector name as my-bmc, the connector shell script is downloaded as install-connector-my-bmc.sh.
To communicate with the connector through a proxy server, perform the following steps:
1. Open the installation script (example: install-connector-my-bmc.sh).
2. Locate the following line: “echo 'FLUENTD_LOG_SIZE_BYTE=10000000' >> $ENV_VARIABLE_FILE_PATH”.
3. Before this line, add the following:
  echo 'HTTP_PROXY=http://<proxy server>' >> $ENV_VARIABLE_FILE_PATH
4. Save the file.
Copy the downloaded script and docker image file on a docker-enabled server.
Ensure that the docker image exists in the location where you copy the script.
To collect logs from files that are located outside the container, create mount points for the log directories in the docker create command in the downloaded script. For example, if logs are generated in the /var/logs directory on the host filesystem, create a mount point by adding the following argument to the docker create command in the script: -v /var/logs/:/fluentd/etc/log/.
Grant execute permission to the downloaded shell script, and then run the script.
For example, run the following commands:
chmod +x install-connector-my-bmc.sh
./install-connector-my-bmc.sh
Important: Script security and location
- Do not copy the script on any public domains.
- Copy the downloaded script in the same location as that of the docker image.
- Download the connector on a Docker host that can communicate with the integration source and BMC Helix APIs.
If you want to view the container logs, see the /opt/bmc/connectors/<connector_name>/logs/fluent.log file.

To verify connector installation

After the script runs and the connector is installed, the connector becomes available for selection on the Add Integrations page for each third-party product.

The connector can have one of the following statuses:

Active
Suspended

To find the container ID for a connector

On the server where you installed the connector, open the command line interface.
Run the following command:
docker ps
The container ID is highlighted in the following image with sample data:
The output of this command displays the following information:
- The docker container ID
- The build name
- The command to run the docker container:
  /run.sh
- The docker container creation timeline
- The docker container status and the timeline of the status
- The ports used by the docker container
- The connector name
  If multiple connectors are present on the container, they are all listed.

To reload a connector

On the docker container, obtain the container ID:
```
docker ps
```
Log in to the docker container and reload the connector by running the following command:
```
docker exec -it <containerID> bash reload.sh
```

Where to go from here

Collecting logs for BMC Helix Log Analytics