Integrating with SolarWinds NPM

As a tenant administrator, perform the following steps to integrate with SolarWinds NPM, verify the integration, and view the collected data in various BMC products.

Before you begin

• Have the egress IP of your tenant. Request the egress IP from BMC Software if you don't already have it.
• Ensure that you have a firewall rule to allow traffic from the egress IP to the SolarWinds NPM host on the listening port (default is 17778).

To integrate with SolarWinds NPM

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

2. Click 

   SolarWinds NPM

   .

3. Specify the source connection details:

   1. Specify a unique instance name.

      Recommendation

      We recommend that you specify the instance name in the following format:

      <sourceType>_<sourceControllerServerName>{_<InstanceQualifier>}

      The instance qualifier helps you to distinguish the multiple instances configured from the same source server. For example, you can name your instances as SolarwindsNPM_Host_PROD, SolarwindsNPM_Host_TEST, and so on.

   2. Specify the SolarWinds NPM host name.
   3. Specify the SolarWinds NPM HTTP or HTTPS port number depending on the connection protocol (default value is 9090).

   4. Select the HTTPS option to use an https connection to the SolarWinds NPM host.

      Warning

      We recommend that you do not select the Allow Unsigned Certificate option in a production environment. You might want to select this option to allow unsigned certificates in a test environment. See the SolarWinds NPM documentation to learn how to install SSL certificates.

   5. Specify the number of maximum concurrent REST API requests that should be executed during a collection schedule (default value is 5).
   6. Specify the user name and password. Ensure that the specified user can access SolarWinds NPM REST API.
   7. Specify the time, in seconds, after which no attempt should be made to establish the connection (default value is 30 seconds).
   8. Click Proxy and specify whether you want to configure a proxy server.
      If yes, specify the host name and port number (default value is 8888).
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 already selected.

   Important

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

6. Clear the options for which you don't want to collect data.

7. Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Collectors section as described in the following table:
8. Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data types.
9. Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Distributors section as described in the following table:
   
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 connector. 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 data immediately.

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

To verify the integration

In 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.

• Moving dark blue arrows () indicate that event and alert streams are running. Event and alert 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.
• A moving light blue arrow () indicates that the topology stream is running. Topology data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.

To view events in BMC Helix Operations Management

In BMC Helix Operations Management, select Monitoring > Events to view the events received from SolarWinds NPM.

For 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 the topology data in BMC Helix Discovery

In BMC Helix Discovery, select Explore > Data, and click <count> Import Records in the Miscellaneous section. The Import Record List page shows the CI records received from SolarWinds NPM. For information about records, see Managing your IT infrastructure.

To view services and situations in BMC Helix AIOps

Before you view services and 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, view the services and situations for the event and topology data received from SolarWinds NPM.