Integrating with IBM Netcool

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

Planning for the connection

• 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 8080).

In the preceding list, third-party product refers to IBM Netcool.

Configuring the connection with IBM Netcool

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, clickin the SOURCES panel.
3. Click the IBM Netcool 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 Netcool_Host_PROD, Netcool_Host_TEST, and so on.

      
      

   2. Specify the IBM Netcool host name.
   3. Specify the IBM Netcool HTTP or HTTPS port number depending on the connection protocol (default value is 8080).

   4. Select the HTTPS option to use an https connection to the IBM Netcool 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 IBM Netcool 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 the IBM Netcool REST 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 for each tenant 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 selected data types.
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 types.
2. Click one of the following buttons:

1. • 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 connection

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.

A moving dark blue arrow () indicates that the event stream is running. Event data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.

Viewing data in BMC Helix applications

To view events in BMC Helix Operations Management

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

Incoming events from IBM Netcool 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 situations in BMC Helix AIOps

Before you view 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, view situations for the event data received from IBM Netcool.