Integrating with AppDynamics

As a tenant administrator, perform the following steps to configure a connection with AppDynamics , verify the connection, and view the collected event, metric, and topology data in various BMC Helix applications.

Planning for the connection

Review the following prerequisites to help you plan and configure a connection with AppDynamics :

AppDynamics prerequisites 

The user account with which you plan to connect to AppDynamics has the following roles assigned:

• Applications & Dashboards Viewer
• Dashboards Viewer
• DB Monitoring User
• Server Monitoring user
• Universal Agent User
• Workflow Executor

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 443).

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

Configuring the connection with AppDynamics

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 the following URL to access BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations:
     https://<hostName>:<portNumber>/swpui
2. On the CONNECTORS  tab, click in the SOURCES panel .

3. Click the  

   AppDynamics

    APM, DB & EUM 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 AppDynamics_Host_PROD, AppDynamics_Host_TEST, and so on.

      
      

   2. Specify the AppDynamics 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 AppDynamics  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 AppDynamics 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 (d efault value is 5).
   5. Specify the AppDynamics account name.
   6. Use one of the following authentication methods :
      
      • Specify user name and password. Ensure that the specified user has the roles assigned specified in the AppDynamics prerequisites  section.

      • Select the Use oAuth2 option to specify client name and secret key. Ensure that the client name is registered as an API client in AppDynamics . For more information about generating the secret key, see AppDynamics documentation, Generate the Token through OAuth 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:

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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:
     

    Parameter name	Description
    Max Batching Size	Specify the maximum number of data items to send in a single POST request to the destination API. The batch size depends on the destination’s ability to buffer the incoming data.Default: 250
    Max Batching Delay	Specify the maximum time (in seconds) to wait before building a batch and processing.Default: 3 seconds
    Base Retry Delay	Specify the initial time (in seconds) for which to wait before retrying to build a batch and processing. The waiting time increases in the following sequence: n1, n2, n3, and so on, where n indicates the number of seconds.Default: 2 secondsExample:Base Retry Delay is set to 2 seconds.Retry is performed after 2, 4, 8, 16, ... seconds.
    Max Intra-Retry Delay	Specify the maximum limit for the base retry delay. Default: 60 secondsExample:Max Intra-Retry Delay is set to 60 seconds. Base Retry Delay is set to 2 seconds.Retries are performed 2, 4, 8, 16, 32,... seconds later.
    Max Retry Duration	Specify the total time for retrying a delivery. For REST destinations, a delivery is a batch of data items in one POST request. Default: 5 minutesExample:Max Retry Duration is set to 8 hours. Base Retry Delay is set to 2 seconds.Requests are sent for 2+4+8+16+32+64+132... until 8 hours in total duration is reached. After that, no subsequent attempts are made to retry the delivery.The assumption here is that if there is an outage or other issue with the destination tool, recovery should take less than the value of the Max Retry Duration parameter to be completed.
    Attributes To Be Dropped When Updating Events	Specify the event attributes that you do not want to be updated in BMC Helix Operations Managementwhen events are updated. For example, if you do not want an event's severity, source address, source category, and subcategory to be updated in BMC Helix Operations Management , you need to specify those attributes in a comma-separated format: severity,source_address,source_category,source_subcategory .Important:You can obtain the event attribute names in BMC Helix Operations Management, by exporting any event data in JSON, BAROC, XML, or CSV format . The exported file contains all attributes of the event data, and from there you can identify the attributes to be dropped.

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 instance that you 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.

   ImportantFor a data stream, the Run Latency (max/avg), Items (Avg per Run), and Last Run Status columns on the Streams page might show No Runs as the status during the data collection process. After the completion of the process, these columns are updated with an appropriate status.

   
   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.
• A moving red arrow () indicates that the metric stream is running. Metric data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.
• A moving light blue arrow () 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

To view events in BMC Helix Operations Management

1. In BMC Helix Operations Management, select Monitoring > Events.
2. Filter the events by the AppDynamicEvent (for AppDynamics events) or AppDynamicHRVEvent (for AppDynamics Health Rule Violations) classes.

Incoming events from AppDynamics  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 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 AppDynamics.

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 AppDynamics. 

For information about services, see Monitoring services. For information about Situations, see Monitoring situations.