Creating incidents from AppDynamics alerts via BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit

As an administrator, you can integrate BMC Helix ITSM with AppDynamics to create incidents in BMC Helix ITSM when an alert is created in an AppDynamics policy for a monitored application. With this integration, agents can track alerts occurring in your applications and work on those alerts from BMC Helix ITSM.

You can create one incident for one policy that can contain multiple health rules, events, and alerts. The following image gives an overview of the mapping between an incident and an alert:

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, along with BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit provides an out-of-the-box integration template that you can use to integrate BMC Helix ITSM with AppDynamics. You configure the integration in BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker and deploy the integration template to your BMC Helix iPaaS environment.

This integration provides the following capabilities under the Notification feature in BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker:

Before you begin

Make sure you have the following items:

• A valid  BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit  subscription.

• Administrator access to the AppDynamics account.

• Administrator access for BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker and BMC Helix ITSM users to run this integration.

• A policy with at least one health rule in AppDynamics.

• The RunCommand plugin for BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit.

• The Create BMC Helix ITSM incident from Appdynamics alerts Update 2022-03-01  project file downloaded to your system from the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker page on the Electronic Product Distribution site.

View the AppDynamics event details in the BMC Helix ITSM incident

After you implement the integration by using BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit, you can view the AppDynamics event details in the corresponding BMC Helix ITSM incident.

AppDynamics to BMC Helix ITSM data flow

Task 1: To configure the integration

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
2. On Workspace, click Multi-Cloud Broker.

3. To launch BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, click Visit Deployed Application.
   

   Tip

   You can access BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker directly by entering the URL https://hostName:portNumber/helix/index.html#/com.bmc.dsm.mcsm/login and logging in as a tenant administrator.

4. Click Settings .

5. Select Start Here > Quick Configuration Guide.

   The Quick Configuration Guide page is displayed.

6. On the Step 1: Choose configuration tab, under Notification, select Appdynamics Alert to ITSM Incident.

   Important

   In Choose Configuration, Helix iPaaS (powered by Jitterbit) is selected by default. Do not change this value.

   

7. On the Step 2: Perform configurations tab, perform the following steps:

   1. Add an operating organization, if you have not already done so.

   2. Add AppDynamics as the vendor organization, if you have not already done so.

   3. To add the vendor metadata, click Map vendors and perform the following steps:

   1. On the Map Vendors page, click Map Vendor.

   2. Complete the fields as described in the following table:

      Field	Action
      Description	Enter a description for the vendor metadata configuration.
      Ticketing Technology Provider	From the list, select AppDynamics.
      (Optional) Instance Name	If you are using multiple instances of AppDynamics, enter the name of the instance that you are using for this integration.
      Add Mapping	After you select the ticketing technology provider, click Add Mapping. BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker displays the default values in the Instance URL field, and the Vendor Field Mapping and Display Field Mapping sections.
      Instance URL	This field is autopopulated. Do not update the default value.
      Vendor Field Mapping	By default, the basic AppDynamics fields are mapped in this section. Do not update the default mappings.
      Display Field Mapping	By default, the basic AppDynamics fields are mapped in this section. If you want to map additional fields to display in the BMC Helix ITSM UI, add the relevant mappings by clicking.
      Enable Local ITSM Communication	By default, this toggle key is enabled.  If you want to use BMC Helix Integration Service as the underlying integration platform, disable this toggle key.
      Integration platform	Select Jitterbit.

   3. Click Save.

      Important

      For this integration, you need not define a filter condition by using the Define filter criteria to fetch ITSM incidents to Multi-Cloud Broker link.

   4. In the Configure Appdynamics Alerts integration section, refer to the configuration steps listed and select the check boxes as you complete each step.

   5. Click Save.

Task 2: To import the integration project file

1. Log in to BMC Helix iPaaS and navigate to Cloud Studio.
2. Select your organization.
3. On the projects page, click Import.

4. Click Browse to navigate to and select the JSON file that you downloaded from the Electronic Product Distribution site.
   The Project Name and Organization fields are automatically populated. The default project name is displayed. You can change the project name.

5. From the Environment list, select the environment to which you want to import this integration template, and click Import.
   The project opens after the integration template is imported.
6. To open the project file at a later time, select the environment where the integration templates are available, select the project name, and click View/Edit.

Task 3: To update the project variables for the integration template

1. Click the ellipsis ... next to the project name and select Project Variables.
   

2. Update the project variables as described in the following tables:

   • BMC Helix iPaaS project variables

     Project variable	Action
     BHIP_API_Name	Enter the name for API that is created in BMC Helix iPaaS to receive BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker webhook requests. The default value of this variable is set to BMCHelixITSMIncidentAndAppdynamicsAlert. If required, you can change the name.
     BHIP_API_User_Roles	Specify the organization roles that should have access to the new API. You can add multiple, comma separated values. Important: If you do not specify any value, all the organization roles get access to the new API.
     BHIP_MCB_API_Profile_User_Name	The integration template creates an API in BMC Helix iPaaS to handle requests from BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker. Enter the user name that should be used while creating the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker API profile.
     BHIP_MCB_API_Profile_User_Password	The integration template creates an API in BMC Helix iPaaS to handle requests from BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker. Enter the password that should be used while creating the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker API profile.
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type	The integration templates create APIs to accept requests from a vendor. Enter one of the following API authentication mechanisms that you want to use with this API: BASIC ANONYMOUS APIKEY
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_User_Name	Enter the user name for the security profile that you want to use with the vendor API.  Important: Provide a value for this variable, only if you select the BASIC option in BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type.
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_User_Password	Enter the password for the security profile that you want to use with the vendor API.  Important: Provide a value for this variable, only if you select the BASIC option in BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type.
     BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_ApiKey_Name	Enter the APIKEY name for the security profile that you want to use with the vendor API.  Important: Provide a value for this variable, only if you select the APIKEY option in BHIP_Vendor_API_Profile_Type.
     BHIP_Host	Enter the BMC Helix iPaaS instance URL where you want to run this project. Important: Make sure that you do not enter any leading or trailing spaces.
     BHIP_User_Name	Enter the user name for the BMC Helix iPaaS instance.
     BHIP_User_Password	Enter the password for the BMC Helix iPaaS instance.
     Enable_BMC_Helix_To_Vendor_Integration	By default, this variable is enabled. Important: This variable is used for internal reference and you must not disable it.
     Enable_Vendor_To_BMC_Helix_Integration	By default, this variable is enabled. Important: This variable enables the creation of BMC Helix ITSM incidents from AppDynamics alerts.

   • AppDynamics project variables

     Project variable	Action
     AppDynamics_HostUrl	Enter the AppDynamics host URL. Important: Make sure that you do not enter any leading or trailing spaces.
     AppDynamics_AccountName	Enter the AppDynamics account name.
     AppDynamics_Application_ID	Enter the application ID in AppDynamics in which you want to add an action when the integration is run.
     AppDynamics_Username	Enter the user name to access the AppDynamics account.
     AppDynamics_Password	Enter the password for the user name that you provided earlier.
     Add_Action_To_Policy	Enter true or false. If you enter true, the template automatically creates an HTTP request template and an action, and add it to the policy that you specify in Policy_Name. Then, from the policy, you can remove the actions and HTTP request templates that you added manually. If you enter false, after you run the template, no new HTTP request template or action is automatically created in the policy. The template only creates the BMC Helix iPaaS security profiles and APIs. From the API Manager, get the API URL and credentials, and append them to the relevant places in the policy action or template.
     Policy_Name	Enter the name of the AppDynamics policy for which you want to implement the integration. To add multiple policies, add comma separated values; for example, Policy 1, Policy 2, Policy 3.

   • BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker project variables:

     Project variable	Action
     MCB_Host	Enter the BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker host URL to which the AppDynamics alerts should be synchronized. Important: Make sure that you do not enter any leading or trailing spaces.
     MCB_User_Name	Enter the user name that enables users to interact with BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker.
     MCB_User_Password	Enter the password for the provided user name.
     MCB_Vendor_Name	This variable is autopopulated. Do not change the default value.

     The following variables are inputs from BMC Helix ITSM. Either enter values for these variables or map appropriate AppDynamics fields if the data is available:

     Project variable	Action
     ITSM_Company_Name	Enter the company name for which the integration template needs to be run; for example, Calbro Services.
     ITSM_Customer_First_Name	Enter the first name of the BMC Helix ITSM customer.
     ITSM_Customer_Last_Name	Enter the last name of the BMC Helix ITSM customer.
     ITSM_Incident_Type	Enter any of the following incident types for which a corresponding AppDynamics alert should be created:: User Service Restoration User Service Request Infrastructure Restoration Infrastructure Event Security Incident

Task 4: To deploy and enable the project

Deployment is a one-time activity that initializes the integration configurations. The UI displays a message for the deployment status.

The following image shows the steps to deploy the project and then enable it by deploying the workflow:

(Optional) Task 5: To set the time for API debug mode

By default, the debug mode is set to 2 hours after you run the integration. Debug logs are updated for the time set for the debug mode. To increase the debug mode for a longer period of time, perform the following steps:

1. In BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit, select API Manager > My APIs.

2. Open the BMC_Helix_ITSM_Incident_And_AppDynamics_Event_Vendor_To_MCB API.
   This API creates a BMC Helix ITSM incident from an AppDynamics alert.

3. Select Enable Debug Mode Until: and set it for the required date and time.

4. Save and publish the API.

Related topics

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker overview

Leveraging integration technologies to integrate BMC Helix ITSM and third-party applications