Integrating with Amazon Managed Services for Prometheus to collect metrics


Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus is a serverless, Prometheus-compatible monitoring service for container metrics that makes it easier to securely monitor container environments at scale. 

Configure an integration with Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus ( AMP) to view the metric data from AMP in BMC Helix Operations Management and derive actionable insights.

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

ConnectorSteps.png

Planning for the connection

  • Depending on the location of the third-party product (SaaS, on-premises), 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 AMP.


Configuring the connection with AMP

  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 add_icon.pngin the SOURCES panel .
  3. Click the AWS 

    Prometheus

     Metrics 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 AMP_Host_PROD, AMP_Host_TEST, and so on.


    2. Specify the AMP metrics host name.
    3. Specify the AMP port number (default value is 443).
    4. Specify the access key ID associated with your AWS account or bucket.
    5. Specify the secret access key associated with your AWS account or bucket.
    6. Specify an AWS region.
    7. Specify the workspace created in AWS for Prometheus metrics. 
    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 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:

    The [confluence_table-plus] macro is a standalone macro and it cannot be used inline. Click on this message for details.

  8. Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data type.
  9. 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 and processing a batch.Default: 3 seconds 
    Base Retry Delay
    Specify the initial time (in seconds) for which to wait before retrying to build and process a batch.
    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 type.
  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 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 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.

AWS_Prometheus_MetricsStream .png

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 metrics in BMC Helix Operations Management

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. 

  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.
    AWS_Promethus_Metrics.png
    For information about metrics, see Viewing collected data.

 

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