Integrating with Nagios XI

Nagios XI provides a monitoring, alerting, graphing, and reporting platform for your entire infrastructure, including servers, operating systems, applications, network devices, websites, hypervisors, cloud servers, and much more.

Configure an integration with Nagios XI, to view the event and metric data from  Nagios XI in BMC Helix Operations Management and derive actionable insights.

As a tenant administrator, perform the following steps to integrate with Nagios XI, verify the integration, and view the collected event and metric data in various BMC products.

Plan for the connection

• Choose the BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations deployment mode and review the corresponding port requirements. For information about various deployment modes and port requirements, see Deployment scenarios.
• Based on the deployment mode, either use BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations or deploy the BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations on-premises gateway. For more information, see Deploying the BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations on-premises gateway.

To integrate with Nagios XI

1. In BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations, on the CONNECTORS tab, clickin the SOURCES panel.

2. Click the Nagios tile.
3. Specify the following details for the source connection:
   1. Specify the Nagios XI host name.
   2. Specify the Nagios XI HTTP or HTTPS port number depending on the connection protocol. The default port number is 80.
   3. Select the HTTPS option to use an https connection to the Nagios XI host.
   4. Specify a valid token id to access the API. Ensure that the token has the required permissions to access the API. 
      For more information, see the Nagios XI documentation.
      
   5. Specify the timezone.
4. Click VALIDATE AND CREATE.
   The specified connection details are validated and the corresponding source connection is created in the Source Connection list.

5. Select the source connection that you created from the list if it is not selected already.
   

   Important

   The destination host connection is created and configured automatically for each tenant when the source connection is created.

6. Ensure that the options for the datatypes for which you want to collect data are selected.

7. Configure the collectors for the selected data types by clicking the respective data type in the Collectors section. Specify the parameters for the selected data type, as explained in the following table:

   Parameter Name	Data Type
   	Nagios Events	Nagios Metrics
   Collection Schedule Specify the data collection frequency, in minutes.  Default: 5 minutes Example (minutes): Collection Schedule is set to 5 mins.  Current time is 00:30. If you run the collector just after 00:30, data is collected every 5 mins, first at 00:30 and next at 00:35, and so on. For more information about how this parameter affects data collection, see Data collection schedule.
   Data Collection Window Specify the historical time period (in minutes) from the current time for which the data should be collected.  Default: 5 minutes  Example: Collection Schedule is set to 5 mins. Data Collection Window is set to 5 mins. Current time is 00:30. If you run the collector just after 00:30, data is collected first at 00:30 for the interval, 00:25 - 00:30, and next at 00:35 for the interval, 00:30 - 00:35, and so on. For more information about how this parameter affects data collection, see Data collection window.
   Data Latency Specify the time (in minutes) by which the data time window should be shifted back on the timeline. This parameter is useful in delayed data availability situations. Default: 0 minutes Example: Collection Schedule is set to 5 mins. Data Collection Window is set to 10 mins. Data Latency is set to 2 mins. Current time is 00:30. If you run the collector just after 00:30, data is collected first at 00:30 for the interval, 00:18 to 00:28 and next at 00:35 for the interval, 0:23 to 00:33, and so on. For more information about how this parameter affects data collection, see Data latency.
   Hosts Select all or a subset of hosts from the list. This list is updated automatically from Nagios XI.
   Services Select all or a subset of services from the list. This list is updated automatically from Nagios XI.

8. Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data types.

9. Configure the distributors for the selected data types by clicking the respective data type in the Distributors section. Specify the parameters for the selected data type, as explained in the following table:
   

   Parameter name and description
   Max Batching Size Specify the maximum number of data items to send in a single POST request to the destination API. The batch size depends on the destination’s ability to buffer the incoming data. Default: 250
   Max Batching Delay Specify the maximum time (in seconds) to wait before building a batch and processing. Default: 3 seconds
   Base Retry Delay Specify the initial time (in seconds) for which to wait before retrying to build a batch and processing. The waiting time increases in the following sequence: n1, n2, n3, and so on, where n indicates the number of seconds. Default: 2 seconds Example: Base Retry Delay is set to 2 seconds. Retry is performed after 2, 4, 8, 16, ... seconds.
   Max Intra-Retry Delay Specify the maximum limit for the base retry delay.  Default: 60 seconds Example: Max Intra-Retry Delay is set to 60 seconds. Base Retry Delay is set to 2 seconds. Retries are performed 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,... seconds later again.
   Max Retry Duration Specify the total time for retrying a delivery. For REST destinations, a delivery is a batch of data items in one POST request.  Default: 5 minutes Example: Max Retry Duration is set to 8 hours. Base Retry Delay is set to 2 seconds. Requests are sent for 2+4+8+16+32+64+132... until 8 hours in total duration is reached. After that, no subsequent attempts are made to retry the delivery. The assumption here is that if there is an outage or other issue with the destination tool, recovery should take less than the value of the Max Retry Duration parameter to be completed.

   
   
10. Click CREATE DISTRIBUTORS to create the required distributor streams for the selected data types.
11. Click one of the following buttons:
    
    • SAVE STREAM: Click this button if you want to edit the integration details before creating the instance. After you save the stream, the connector that you just created is listed in the SOURCES panel. Move the slider to the right to start the data stream.
    • SAVE AND START STREAM: Click this button if you want to save the integration details and start receiving the data immediately.

          For more information about the data streams, see Starting or stopping data streams.

To verify the integration

From BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations , on the SOURCES panel, confirm that the data streams for the integration you created are running. Data streaming is indicated by moving colored arrows.

• A moving blue arrow () indicates that the event stream is running. Event data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.
• A moving red arrow (  ) indicates that the metric stream is running. Metric data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.

To view events in BMC Helix Operations Management

1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, select Monitoring > Events.
2. Filter the events by the NagiosEvent class.

Incoming events from Nagios XI are processed in BMC Helix Operations Management through a set of deduplication rules to determine whether the incoming event is a duplicate event or a new event. For more information, see Event deduplication and suppression for reducing event noise.

For more information about events, see Monitoring and managing events

To view metrics in BMC Helix Operations Management

1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, select Monitoring > Devices.
2. Click the links for the required device.
3. On the Monitors tab, click the required monitor.
   The Performance Overview tab shows the metrics graph. For information about metrics, see Viewing collected data .

To view situations in BMC Helix AIOps

Before you view situations in BMC Helix AIOps, create a Business Service model in BMC Helix Discovery. For information about creating models, see Creating a model .  

In BMC Helix AIOps, on the Overview page to view the services and situations for the event and topology data received from Nagios XI.