Integrating with Micro Focus NNMi to collect events and topology


Micro Focus NNMi provides the ability to monitor the physical and virtual networks. By using NNMi, view the network fault, availability, and performance in your network infrastructure.

Configure an integration with  Micro Focus NNMi , to view the event and topology data from Micro Focus NNMi in BMC Helix Operations Management and BMC Helix Discovery and derive actionable insights.


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

Planning for the connection

Review the following prerequisites to help you plan and configure a connection with Micro Focus NNMi.

Micro Focus NNMi prerequisites

The Micro Focus NNMi REST API user account that you plan to use for connecting to Micro Focus NNMi must be mapped to the NNMi Web Service Clients user group.

BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations prerequisites

  • Depending on the location (SaaS, on-premises) of the third-party product, choose one or more BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations deployment modes and review the corresponding port requirements. For information about various deployment modes and port requirements, see Deployment-scenarios.
  • Based on the deployment modes, use the BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations SaaS deployment or the BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations on-premises gateway or both. For more information about the gateway, see Deploying-the-BMC-Helix-Intelligent-Integrations-on-premises-gateway.

  • The on-premises gateway must be able to reach the third-party product on the required port (default is 80).

In the preceding list, third-party product refers to Micro Focus NNMi.

Configuring the connection with Micro Focus NNMi

  1. Access BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations:
    • BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations SaaS – Log on to BMC Helix Portal, and click Launch on BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations.
    • BMC Helix Intelligent Integrationson-premises gateway – Use one of the following URLs to access BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations:
      • http://<hostName>:<portNumber>/swpui
      • https://<hostName>:<portNumber>/swpui
  2. On the CONNECTORS tab, click add_icon.pngin the SOURCES panel.
  3. Click the Micro Focus NNMi Events tile.
  4. Specify the following details for the source connection:
    1. Specify a unique instance name.

      Best practice
      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 NNMi_Host_PROD, NNMi_Host_TEST, and so on.


    2. Specify the Micro Focus NNMihost name.
    3. Specify the Micro Focus NNMiHTTP or HTTPS port number depending on the connection protocol (default value is 80).
    4. Select the HTTPS option to use an https connection to the Micro Focus NNMihost.
    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 the Micro Focus NNMiREST API.
    7. 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).
  5. Click VALIDATE AND CREATE.
    The specified connection details are validated and the corresponding source connection is created in the Source Connection list.
  6. 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 when the source connection is created.

  7. Ensure that the options for the datatypes for which you want to collect data are selected.
  8. Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Collectors section as described in the following table:

  9. Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data type.
  10. Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Distributors section as described in the following table:
  1. Click CREATE DISTRIBUTORS to create the required distributor streams for the selected data type.
  2. 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.


Verifying 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.

NNMi_Events_Topology_Streams.png

  • A moving red arrow (EventsStream_Icon.png) indicates that the event stream is running. Event data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.
  • A moving light blue arrow (TopologyStream_Icon.png) indicates that the topology stream is running. Topology data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.

Viewing data in BMC Helix applications

Important

If the event or metric data is ingested by using BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations, and the topology data is ingested through some other means, all the use cases in BMC Helix AIOps might not work as expected because the external IDs generated by BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations and BMC Helix Discovery differ. In addition, host name might differ in both the products. 

To view events in BMC Helix Operations Management

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

Incoming events from Micro Focus NNMi  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 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 Micro Focus NNMi . 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 Managing models.

In BMC Helix AIOps, on the Overview page to view the services and situations for the event and topology data received from Micro Focus NNMi .  For information about situations, see Monitoring and investigating situations.

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*