Integrating with Azure Monitor

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

Planning for the connection

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

Azure Monitor prerequisites

Make sure that the Azure subscription IDs that you plan to use have the Global Reader role assigned. This role is a read-only role that allows you to query data from Azure Monitor by using API calls. For more information about assigning roles, see the Azure Monitor documentation.

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.

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

Configuring the connection with Azure Monitor

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 Azure Monitortile.
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 Azure_Monitor_Alerts, Azure_Monitor_Alerts_TEST, and so on.

      
      

   2. Specify the Azure Monitor Tenant Id, Client Id, and Client Secret.
   3. Specify the Azure resource URL (default value is https://management.azure.com/).
   4. Specify the Azure authentication host (default value is management.azure.com).
   5. Specify the Azure Active Directory (AD) authentication host (default value is login.microsoftonline.com).
   6. Specify the number of maximum concurrent REST API requests that should be executed during a collection schedule (default value is 5).
   7. Click Proxy and specify if 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. Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Collectors section as described in the following table:

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8. Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data types.

9. Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Distributors section as described in the following table:

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   This macro generates standalone content. As a consequence you need to make sure to use a syntax that separates your macro from the content before and after it so that it's on a line by itself. For example in XWiki Syntax 2.0+ this means having 2 newline characters (a.k.a line breaks) separating your macro from the content before and after it.
   

10. Click CREATE DISTRIBUTORS to create the required distributor streams for the selected data types.

11. 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.

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 MSAzureAlert class.
   

Incoming events from Azure Monitor 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 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 the situations for the event data received from Azure Monitor.

For information about situations, see Monitoring and investigating situations.