Google Cloud Platform - GCP API Extractor

Use the Google Cloud Platform - GCP API Extractor to collect configuration and performance data of your virtual machines that are provisioned in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) cloud. The collected data is used for analyzing and optimizing the capacity of your Google Cloud infrastructure.

If your setup is behind a firewall, ensure that the ETL can access the following API endpoints:

  • Billing: cloudbilling.googleapis.com
  • Stackdriver logging: logging.googleapis.com
  • Stackdriver monitoring: monitoring.googleapis.com
  • Cloud Resource manager: cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com
  • Compute engine: compute.googleapis.com
  • Storage bucket: storage-component.googleapis.com
  • Authentication: oauth2.example.com, www.googleapis.com

Additionally, if you encounter issues with API requests due to 1e100.net domain, include it in the firewall allow rules.

Collecting data by using the GCP API ETL

To collect data by using the GCP API ETL, do the following tasks:

I. Complete the preconfiguration tasks.

II. Configure the ETL.


Step I. Complete the preconfiguration tasks

Before you configure and run the ETL, complete the following tasks:

StepDetails
Subscribe to the Google Cloud Platform.
    1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.
    2. Select your email preferences, accept the terms of service, and click Agree and continue.
    3. Sign up for a free trial or apply for a paid subscription.

Create projects to manage virtual machine instances, billing, and Cloud Platform services.

All the Google Cloud Platform resources, such as Google Compute Engine virtual machines, Google Cloud Storage buckets, and Google App Engine instances are grouped under a project. Projects are required for using all Cloud Platform services, managing APIs, enabling billing, adding and removing collaborators, and managing permissions.


    1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.
    2. On the upper-left corner of the page, click Select a project next to Google Cloud Platform.

      If you have already created projects and updated any of them, the name of the last project that you worked on is displayed besides Google Cloud Platform. In this scenario, click the project name.

    3. Click the plus (plus) icon that is next to the search projects and folders text box.
    4. In the Project name field, specify a name for your project. The project ID is generated automatically.
    5. Click Create.
    6. On the upper-left corner of the page, click Select a project or the project name next to Google Cloud Platform. Your recently created project name is displayed in the list.
    7. Select the project, and click Open.
      The project dashboard is displayed, and you can start working in the project.

Create a service account to authenticate applications that run on your virtual machine instances to access other Google Cloud Platform services. 

If you want to retrieve data for multiple projects by using a single ETL, create a separate Service account key file for each project.

A service account acts as an identity for an instance or an application that runs on a virtual machine. You can use service accounts to create instances and other resources. A single instance can belong to a single service account only, and you can change the service account for the instance.


    1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.
    2. From the left navigation pane, click IAM & admin > Service accounts.
    3. Click Create Service Account.
    4. On the Create service account page, complete these steps:
      1. Specify a name for the service account. The service account ID is generated automatically.
      2. Select Compute Engine > Compute Viewer. This role provides read-only access to Compute Engine resources.



      3. Click Add Another Role, and select Monitoring > Monitoring Viewer. This role provides read-only access to monitoring and configuration data.
      4. (Optional) Grant access to specific users to use or administer this service account.
      5. Click Create Key, and retain the default selection as JSON for the key type.
      6. Click Create.
        The settings are saved, and a confirmation message is displayed. The private key for the account is saved to your computer.

        Ensure that you save this key securely. If this key is lost or tampered, you need to create a new key.

Add the email addresses of the service accounts for the projects (projects that are linked to the billing account) to the billing account, and assign the Billing Account Viewer role to each service account that you want to use for the ETL.
    1. Log in to the Google Cloud Console with your Google account credentials.
    2. Select the project that is linked to your billing account.
    3. In the left navigation pane, click IAM & admin > Service accounts.
    4. (Optional) Grant permissions to specific users to access and modify service account resources:
      1. At the upper-right corner, click Show Info Panel.
      2. Select the service accounts to be configured.
      3. Click Add Member, and add the email addresses of users to whom you want to grant access to your service account resources.
      4. Select an appropriate role.
      5. Save the changes.
        A confirmation message is displayed. You can grant multiple roles to users.
    5. Note down the email addresses of the service accounts that you want to use.
    6. Repeat steps b to e till you obtain the email addresses of the service accounts for all the projects that are linked to your billing account.
    7. In the left navigation pane, click Billing.
    8. Click ALL BILLING ACCOUNTS and then select the billing account that is linked to your projects.

    9. In the right pane, click SHOW INFO PANEL and do the following:
      1. In the Add members field, add the email addresses of the service accounts that you obtained in the earlier steps.
      2. From the Select a role list, select Billing > Billing Account Viewer.
      3. Click Add.
        The settings are saved, and a confirmation message is displayed.

Enable the Google Compute Engine APIs for data collection.

    1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.
    2. In the left navigation pane, click APIs and services > Dashboard. A list of APIs that are enabled is displayed.
    3. Ensure that the following APIs are enabled:
      1. Cloud Billing API
      2. Google Cloud APIs
      3. Stackdriver Monitoring API
    4. If the APIs are disabled, perform these steps to enable them:
      1. Click Enable APIs and Services.
      2. Search for the required APIs, select them, and click Enable.

Create a Stackdriver account.

A Stackdriver account contains the monitoring and other configuration information about Google Cloud Platform projects. To collect Stackdriver metrics, your GCP projects must be associated with a Stackdriver account.

You can associate projects while creating a Stackdriver account or can associate them later. You can create any number of Stackdriver accounts.

    1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform console with your Google account credentials.
    2. From the project list at the upper-left corner next to Google Cloud Platform, select the project that you want to enable for Stackdriver monitoring.
    3. In the left navigation pane, click Monitoring under Stackdriver.
    4. Select Create a new Stackdriver account, and click Continue.
    5. On the Create your free Stackdriver account page, verify the project name in the Google Cloud Platform project list, and click Create Account.
    6. (Optional) Select additional Google Cloud Platform projects that you want to enable for Stackdriver monitoring, and click Continue.
    7. (Optional) Add AWS accounts to monitor as a part of this Stackdriver account. Otherwise, click Skip AWS Setup.
    8. Read the instructions for installing Stackdriver agents, and click Continue.
    9. On the Get Reports by Email page, select a frequency of receiving the performance report by email, and click Continue.
    10. After you gather the required information, click Launch Monitoring.
      The Stackdriver Monitoring page is displayed.

Install the Monitoring agent.

Install the Stackdriver Monitoring agent on each of your virtual machines. This agent collects additional data from your virtual machines, which includes metrics and logs from third-party applications.

Remember

The Monitoring agent is available only with the Premium Tier subscription of Stackdriver.

  • For the installation instructions, see Installing the Monitoring Agent Open link .
  • For information about the service tiers for Stackdriver accounts, see  Service tiers for Stackdriver accounts Open link

Ensure that the time is correctly set on the host where the ETL engine runs.
BMC recommends to use the Network Time Protocol (NTP) client and synchronize the host clock with the network time server.

Step II. Configure the ETL

You must configure the ETL to connect to GCP for data collection. ETL configuration includes specifying the basic and optional advanced properties. While configuring the basic properties is sufficient, you can optionally configure the advanced properties for additional customization.

A. Configuring the basic properties

Some of the basic properties display default values. You can modify these values if required.

To configure the basic properties:

  1. In the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console, navigate to Administration ETL & System Tasks > and select ETL tasks.
  2. On the ETL tasks page, click Add > Add ETL under the Last run tab. The Add ETL page displays the configuration properties. You must configure properties in the following tabs: Run configuration, Entity catalog, and Google Cloud configuration
  3. On the Run configuration tab, select Google Cloud Platform - GCP API Extractor from the ETL module list. The name of the ETL is displayed in the ETL task name field. You can edit this field to customize the name.



  4. Click the Entity catalog tab, and select one of the following options:
    • Shared Entity Catalog:Retain the default selection to share the entity catalog with the GCP Billing and Usage ETL, which extracts cost and usage data of your GCP resources.

      • From the Sharing with Entity Catalog list, select the entity catalog name that is shared between ETLs.
    • Private Entity Catalog: Select if this is the only ETL that extracts data from the GCP resources.
  5. Click the Google Cloud configuration tab, and configure the following properties:

    PropertyDescription
    Service account key file directory

    Specify the path to the directory that contains the service account key files of projects. For example, <CPITHOME>/ServiceAccountKeyFiles/

    This directory must be on the server where the ETL engine runs.

    When you run the ETL, it uses all the service account key files (files that are in the valid JSON format) in this directory to collect data from your Google Cloud Platform project resources.

    Business Service hierarchy

    If you want to view data of your GCP resources by business services, retain the default selection of Create Business Service hierarchy based on specified tag key. Specify the appropriate tag key name. For example, service.

    Example scenario:
    You have VMs that are tagged as follows:

      • AS1: {user=John, Purpose=Dev, Service=Data Solutions}
      • vl-pub-bco-qa35: {user=Adam, Purpose=Production, Service=Data Solutions}
      • vl-pun-bco-qa20: {user=Jane, Purpose=QA, Service=Data Solutions}

    When you run the ETL, data is displayed in a hierarchy as follows:

    If you do not use business services, data is displayed as follows:


    The following image shows sample configuration values for the basic properties.



  6. (Optional) Override the default values of properties in the following tabs:

    PropertyDescription
    Module selection

    Select one of the following options:

    • Based on datasource: This is the default selection.
    • Based on Open ETL template: Select only if you want to collect data that is not supported by TrueSight Capacity Optimization.
    Module descriptionA short description of the ETL module.
    Execute in simulation modeBy default, the ETL execution in simulation mode is selected to validate connectivity with the data source, and to ensure that the ETL does not have any configuration issues. In the simulation mode, the ETL does not load data into the database. This option is useful when you want to test a new ETL task. To run the ETL in the production mode, select No.
    BMC recommends that you run the ETL in the simulation mode after ETL configuration and then run it in the production mode.


    PropertyDescription
    Associate new entities to

    Specify the domain to which you want to add the entities created by the ETL.

    Select one of the following options:

    • Existing domain: This option is selected by default. Select an existing domain from the Domain list. If the selected domain is already used by other hierarchy rules, select one of the following Domain conflict options:
      • Enrich domain tree: Select to create a new independent hierarchy rule for adding a new set of entities, relations, or both that are not defined by other ETLs.
      • ETL Migration: Select if the new ETL uses the same set of entities, relations, or both that are already defined by other ETLs.
    • New domain: Select a parent domain, and specify a name for your new domain.

    By default, a new domain with the same ETL name is created for each ETL. When the ETL is created, a new hierarchy rule with the same name of the ETL task is automatically created in the active state. If you specify a different domain for the ETL, the hierarchy rule is updated automatically.


    PropertyDescription
    Task groupSelect a task group to classify the ETL.
    Running on schedulerSelect one of the following schedulers for running the ETL:
    • Primary Scheduler: Runs on the Application Server.
    • Generic Scheduler: Runs on a separate computer.
    • Remote: Runs on remote computers.
    Maximum execution time before warningIndicates the number of hours, minutes, or days for which the ETL must run before generating warnings or alerts, if any.
    Frequency

    Select one of the following frequencies to run the ETL:

    • Predefined: This is the default selection. Select an hourly, daily, or weekly frequency, and then select a time and a day to start the ETL run accordingly.
    • Custom: Specify a custom frequency, select an appropriate unit of time, and then specify a day and a time to start the ETL run.

  7. Click Save.
    The details of the newly configured GCP API ETL are displayed.

(Optional) B. Configuring the advanced properties

You can configure the advanced properties to change the way the ETL works or to collect additional metrics.

To configure the advanced properties:

  1. On the Add ETL page, click Advanced.
  2. Configure the following properties:

    PropertyDescription
    Run configuration nameSpecify the name that you want to assign to this ETL task configuration. The default configuration name is displayed. You can use this name to differentiate between the run configuration settings of ETL tasks.
    Deploy statusSelect the deploy status for the ETL task. For example, you can initially select Test and change it to Production after verifying that the ETL run results are as expected.
    Log levelSpecify the level of details that you want to include in the ETL log file. Select one of the following options:
    • 1 - Light: Select to add the bare minimum activity logs to the log file.
    • 5 - Medium: Select to add the medium-detailed activity logs to the log file.
    • 10 - Verbose: Select to add detailed activity logs to the log file.

    Use log level 5 as a general practice. You can select log level 10 for debugging and troubleshooting purposes.

    Datasets

    Specify the datasets that you want to add to the ETL run configuration. The ETL collects data of metrics that are associated with these datasets.

    1. Click Edit.
    2. Select one (click) or more (shift+click) datasets from the Available datasets list and click >> to move them to the Selected datasets list.
    3. Click Apply.

    The ETL collects data of metrics associated with the datasets that are available in the Selected datasets list.


    PropertyDescription
    Metric profile selection

    Select the metric profile that the ETL must use. The ETL collects data for the group of metrics that is defined by the selected metric profile.

    • Use Global metric profile: This is selected by default. All the out-of-the-box ETLs use this profile.
    • Select a custom metric profile: Select the custom profile that you want to use from the Custom metric profile list. This list displays all the custom profiles that you have created.

    Levels up to

    Specify the metric level that defines the number of metrics that can be imported into the database. The load on the database increases or decreases depending on the selected metric level.To learn more about metric levels, see Aging class mapping Open link .


    PropertyDescription
    List of properties

    Specify additional properties for the ETL that act as user inputs during run. You can specify these values now or you can do so later by accessing the "You can manually edit ETL properties from this page" link that is displayed for the ETL in the view mode.

    1. Click Add.
    2. In the etl.additional.prop.n field, specify an additional property.
    3. Click Apply.
      Repeat this task to add more properties.


    PropertyDescription
    Empty dataset behaviorSpecify the action for the loader if it encounters an empty dataset:
    • Warn: Generate a warning about loading an empty dataset.
    • Ignore: Ignore the empty dataset and continue parsing.
    ETL log file nameThe name of the file that contains the ETL run log. The default value is: %BASE/log/%AYEAR%AMONTH%ADAY%AHOUR%MINUTE%TASKID
    Maximum number of rows for CSV outputA numeric value to limit the size of the output files.
    CSV loader output file nameThe name of the file that is generated by the CSV loader. The default value is: %BASE/output/%DSNAME%AYEAR%AMONTH%ADAY%AHOUR%ZPROG%DSID%TASKID
    Capacity Optimization loader output file nameThe name of the file that is generated by the TrueSight Capacity Optimization loader. The default value is: %BASE/output/%DSNAME%AYEAR%AMONTH%ADAY%AHOUR%ZPROG%DSID%TASKID
    Detail mode
    Specify whether you want to collect raw data in addition to the standard data. Select one of the following options:
    • Standard: Data will be stored in the database in different tables at the following time granularities: Detail (configurable, by default: 5 minutes), Hourly, Daily, and Monthly.
    • Raw also: Data will be stored in the database in different tables at the following time granularities: Raw (as available from the original data source), Detail (configurable, by default: 5 minutes), Hourly, Daily, and Monthly.
    • Raw only: Data will be stored in the database in a table only at Raw granularity (as available from the original data source).

    For more information, see Accessing data using public views Open link and Sizing and scalability considerations. Open link

    Remove domain suffix from datasource name (Only for systems) Select True to remove the domain from the data source name. For example, server.domain.com will be saved as server. The default selection is False.
    Leave domain suffix to system name (Only for systems) Select True to keep the domain in the system name. For example: server.domain.com will be saved as is. The default selection is False.
    Update grouping object definition (Only for systems) Select True if you want the ETL to update the grouping object definition for a metric that is loaded by the ETL. The default selection is False.
    Skip entity creation (Only for ETL tasks sharing lookup with other tasks) Select True if you do not want this ETL to create an entity and discard data from its data source for entities not found in Capacity Optimization. It uses one of the other ETLs that share a lookup to create a new entity. The default selection is False.


    PropertyDescription
    Hour maskSpecify a value to run the task only during particular hours within a day. For example, 0 – 23 or 1, 3, 5 – 12.
    Day of week maskSelect the days so that the task can be run only on the selected days of the week. To avoid setting this filter, do not select any option for this field.
    Day of month maskSpecify a value to run the task only on the selected days of a month. For example, 5, 9, 18, 27 – 31.
    Apply mask validationSelect False to temporarily turn off the mask validation without removing any values. The default selection is True.
    Execute after timeSpecify a value in the hours:minutes format (for example, 05:00 or 16:00) to wait before the task is run. The task run begins only after the specified time is elapsed.
    EnqueueableSpecify whether you want to ignore the next run command or run it after the current task. Select one of the following options:
    • False: Ignores the next run command when a particular task is already running. This is the default selection.
    • True: Starts the next run command immediately after the current running task is completed.

  3. Click Save.
    The details of the newly configured GCP API ETL are displayed.

Step III. Run the ETL

After you configure the ETL, you can run it to collect data. You can run the ETL in the following modes:

A. Simulation mode: Only validates connection to the data source, does not collect data. Use this mode when you want to run the ETL for the first time or after you make any changes to the ETL configuration.

B. Production mode: Collects data from the data source.

A. Running the ETL in the simulation mode

To run the ETL in the simulation mode:

  1. In the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console, navigate to Administration ETL & System Tasks, and select ETL tasks.
  2. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.



  3. In the Run configurations table, click Edit  to modify the ETL configuration settings.
  4. On the Run configuration tab, ensure that the Execute in simulation mode option is set to Yes, and click Save.
  5. Click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
  6. On the ETL tasks page, check the ETL run status in the Last exit column.
    OK Indicates that the ETL ran without any error. You are ready to run the ETL in the production mode.
  7.  If the ETL run status is Warning, Error, or Failed:
    1. On the ETL tasks page, click  in the last column of the ETL name row.
    2. Check the log and reconfigure the ETL if required.
    3. Run the ETL again.
    4. Repeat these steps until the ETL run status changes to OK.

B. Running the ETL in the production mode

You can run the ETL manually when required or schedule it to run at a specified time.

Running the ETL manually

  1. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.
  2. In the Run configurations table, click Edit  to modify the ETL configuration settings. The Edit run configuration page is displayed.
  3. On the Run configuration tab, select No for the Execute in simulation mode option, and click Save.
  4. To run the ETL immediately, click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
    When the ETL is run, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the TrueSight Capacity Optimization database.

Scheduling the ETL run

By default, the ETL is scheduled to run daily. You can customize this schedule by changing the frequency and period of running the ETL.

To configure the ETL run schedule:

  1. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL, and click Edit. The ETL details are displayed.

  2. On the Edit task page, do the following, and click Save:

    • Specify a unique name and description for the ETL task.
    • In the Maximum execution time before warning field, specify the duration for which the ETL must run before generating warnings or alerts, if any.
    • Select a predefined or custom frequency for starting the ETL run. The default selection is Predefined.
    • Select the task group and the scheduler to which you want to assign the ETL task.
  3. Click Schedule. A message confirming the scheduling job submission is displayed.
    When the ETL runs as scheduled, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the TrueSight Capacity Optimization database.

Step IV. Verify data collection

Verify that the ETL ran successfully and check whether the GCP data is refreshed in the Workspace.

To verify whether the ETL ran successfully:

  1. In the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console, click Administration > ETL and System Tasks > ETL tasks.
  2. In the Last exec time column corresponding to the ETL name, verify that the current date and time are displayed.

To verify that the GCP data is refreshed:

  1. In the TrueSight Capacity Optimization console, click Workspace.
  2. Expand (domain name) > Business Services > (system name) > Instances.
  3. In the left pane, verify that the hierarchy displays your new and updated GCP instances.
  4. Click a GCP virtual machine instance, and click the Metrics tab in the right pane.
  5. Check if the Last Activity column in the Configuration data and Performance metrics tables displays the current date.

The following image shows sample metrics data. To learn more about these metrics and other related concepts, see Entities, lookup information, and metrics for Google Cloud Platform.


Related topics

Collecting data

Working with ETLs Open link

Google Cloud Platform documentation Open link


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