Integrating with Icinga

As a tenant administrator, perform the following steps to configure a connection with Icinga, verify the connection, and view the collected events and metrics data in various BMC Helix applications.

Supported versions

This connector supports Icinga version 2.x for data collection.

Planning for the connection

Review the following prerequisites to help you plan and configure a connection with Icinga.

Icinga prerequisites

Ensure that the user account that you plan to use while configuring a connection with Icinga has the following permissions:

• config/query 
• events/* 
• objects/query/*
• status/query 
• types
• variables

BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations prerequisites

In the following list, third-party product refers to Icinga.

• 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 5665).

Configuring the connection with Icinga

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 Icinga  tile.
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 distinguish the multiple instances configured from the same source server. For example, you can name your instances ICINGA_PROD, ICINGA_TEST, and so on.

      
      

   2. Specify the Icinga host name and port number (default value is 5665).
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 data types 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.

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 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.

    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.

Viewing data in BMC Helix applications

View data collected from Icinga in multiple 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 IcingaEvent class.
   

Incoming events from Icinga are processed in BMC Helix Operations Management through a set of rules to determine whether the incoming event contains the results of the same test on the same node and then processed accordingly. For more information, see Event-deduplication-suppression-and-closure-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 Monitors tab shows the list of service names that are specified in Icinga for service monitoring. Additionally, you can also see Icinga's internal services to monitor host performance.
   The Performance Overview tab shows the metrics graph.
   
   

For information about metrics, see Viewing collected data .

Mapping of attributes between Icinga and BMC Helix Operations Management

The following table shows the mapping between Icinga and BMC Helix Operations Management :