Integrating with VMWare vROPS


vRealize Operations (vROps) is an IT operations management platform of VMWare, to monitor and manage the performance, capacity, and health of IT infrastructures, using the AI/ML technology.

Configure an integration with VMware vROps, to view the alert, metric, and topology data from VMware vROps in the following products and derive actionable insights:

  • BMC Helix Operations Management
    BMC Helix Operations Management displays VMware vROps alerts as events.
  • BMC Helix Discovery
  • BMC Helix AIOps


As a tenant administrator, perform the following steps to integrate with VMware vROps, 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 VMware vROps host on the listening port (default port is 443).

To integrate with VMware vROps

  1. In BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations, on the CONNECTORS  tab, click add_icon.pngin the SOURCES panel.
  2. Click 

    VMware vROps

    .

  3. Specify the following details for the source connection:
    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 vROps_Host_PROD, vROps_Host_TEST, and so on.

    2. Specify the VMware vROps host name and port number (default value is 443).
    3. Ensure that the HTTPS check box is selected to indicate that you plan to use an https connection to the VMware vROps host.

      Caution

      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 VMware vROps  documentation to learn how to install SSL certificates.

    4. Specify the number of maximum concurrent REST API requests that should be executed during a collection schedule (default value is 5).
    5. Specify the user name and password. Ensure that the specified user can access the VMware vROps REST API.
    6. Specify the time, in seconds, after which no attempt should be made to establish a connection (default value is 30).
    7. Click Proxy and specify if 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 selected already.

    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 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 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.

VmWarevrOps_Streams_224.png

  • A moving dark blue arrow (EventsStream_Icon.png) indicates that event data is being streamed. 
  • A moving red arrow (MetricsStream_Icon.png) indicates that metric data is being streamed. 
  • A moving light blue arrow (TopologyStream_Icon.png) indicates that topology data is being streamed.

To view events in BMC Helix Operations Management

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

Incoming events from VMware vROps 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 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 VMware vROps. 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 VMware vROps.

 

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