Integrating with Nagios XI


Nagios XI provides a monitoring, alerting, graphing, and reporting platform for your entire infrastructure, including servers, operating systems, applications, network devices, websites, hypervisors, cloud servers, and much more.

Configure an integration with Nagios XI, to view the event and metric data from  Nagios XI in BMC Helix Operations Management and derive actionable insights.


As a tenant administrator, perform the following steps to integrate with Nagios XI, verify the integration, and view the collected event and metric 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 443).

In the preceding list, third-party product refers to Nagios XI.

Configuring the connection with Nagios XI

  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.png in the SOURCES panel.
  3. Click the Nagios XItile.
  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 Nagios_Host_PROD, Nagios_Host_TEST, and so on.

    2. Specify the Nagios XI host name.
    3. Specify the Nagios XI HTTP or HTTPS port number depending on the connection protocol. The default port number is 80.
    4. Select the HTTPS option to use an https connection to the Nagios XI host.
    5. Specify a valid token id to access the API. Ensure that the token has the required permissions to access the API. 
      For more information, see the Nagios XI documentation.
    1. Specify the timezone.
  1. Click VALIDATE AND CREATE.
    The specified connection details are validated and the corresponding source connection is created in the Source Connection list.
  2. 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.

  3. Ensure that the options for the datatypes for which you want to collect data are selected.
  4. Configure the collectors for the selected data types by clicking the respective data type in the Collectors section. Specify the parameters for the selected data type, as explained in the following table:

  5. Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data types.
  6. Configure the distributors for the selected data types by clicking the respective data type in the Distributors section. Specify the parameters for the selected data type, as explained 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:
    • 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 the data immediately.

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

Verifying the connection

From 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.

Nagios_EM_Stream.png

  • A moving blue 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 red arrow ( MetricsStream_Icon.png) indicates that the metric stream is running. Metric 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 NagiosEvent class.

Incoming events from Nagios XI 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-suppression-and-closure-for-reducing-event-noise.

For more 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 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 to view the services and situations for the event and topology data received from Nagios XI.

 

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