Integrating with SolarWinds NPM

SolarWinds NPM is a software that enables you to detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues. 

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

  • BMC Helix Operations Management
    BMC Helix Operations Management displays alerts as events, even though SolarWinds NPM separates events and alerts. 
  • BMC Helix Discovery
  • BMC Helix AIOps

Related topics

Supported-out-of-the-box-integrations-for-BMC-Helix-Intelligent-Integrations

Editing-and-deleting-integrations

Event-deduplication-and-suppression-for-reducing-event-noise


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.

Supported versions

This connector supports the following versions of SolarWinds NPMfor data collection:

  • 12.5
  • 2019.4
  • 2020.2

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 17778).

In the preceding list, third-party product refers to SolarWinds NPM.

Configuring the connection with SolarWinds NPM

  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 

    SolarWinds NPM

    .

  4. Specify the source connection details:

    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 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 17778).

    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).
  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 types.
  10. Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Distributors section as described in the following table:
  11. Click CREATE DISTRIBUTORS to create the required distributor streams for the selected data types.
  12. 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.


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.

SolarWinds_Streams.png

  • Moving dark blue arrows (EventsStream_Icon.png) indicates that alert and event streams are running. Event data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.
  • A moving red arrow (MetricsStream_Icon.png) indicates that metric stream is running. Metric data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.
  • A moving light blue arrow (TopologyStream_Icon.png) indicates that 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

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

Incoming events from SolarWinds NPM 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 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 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 Managing models. 

In BMC Helix AIOps, on the Overview page, view the services and situations for the event and topology data received from SolarWinds NPM.

 

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