Integrating with SAP HANA

You can view the collected data in various BMC Helix applications and derive the following benefits:

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

Supported versions

BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations supports the following versions of  SAP HANA for data collection:

• 2.00
• 1.1.0.0

Planning for the connection

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

SAP HANA prerequisites

Ensure that the SAP HANA user you plan to use for connecting to the SAP HANA database has the read-only permissions to the following entities:

• _SYS_STATISTICS schema
• STATISTICS_ALERTS_BASE, STATISTICS_CURRENT_ALERTS and STATISTICS_ALERT_INFORMATION views

To connect to the SAP HANA instance by using the TLS protocol, perform the following steps:

1. Open the /opt/bmc/hii/ docker-compose.yaml file with a text editor.
2. Update the file:
   
   • In the swp-mediator section, add the following entry:
     - ./conf/cacerts:/opt/java/lib/security/cacerts
   • In the swp-broker section, add the following entry:
     - ./conf/cacerts:/usr/lib/jvm/zulu-8-amd64/jre/lib/security/cacerts
3. Save and close the file.

BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations prerequisites

• 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 30015).

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

Configuring the connection with SAP HANA

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 

   SAP HANA

    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 SAP_Host_PROD, SAP_Host_TEST, and so on.

      
      

   2. Specify the SAP HANA database host name and the port number. The default port number is 30015.
   3. Enter the database user name and password for the SAP HANA database host.
   4. Specify the schema name.
   5. (Optional) Select the TLS Encryption option and specify the following details if the SAP HANA instance supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol:
      • Specify a host name to verify the identity of the server, instead of the host name, if the connection is established from a client on the same host as the server. In a single-host system, a mismatch might arise between the host named in the certificate (actual host name) and the host used to establish the connection (localhost).
      • Select the Validate Certificate option to specify that the server’s certificate is validated.
      • Specify the path to the Trust Store file that contains server’s public certificates with the file format and the password to access the Trust Store file.

      • Specify the the location of the Java Key Store (JKS) with file format and the password to access the private key from the key store file.
        For more information about TLS protocol related parameters, see client-side TLS/SSL connection properties (JDBC) in the SAP HANA documentation.

   6. Specify the time, in seconds, after which no attempt should be made to establish the connection (d efault value is 30 seconds) .
   7. Specify the maximum amount of time allowed for a collection task to be completed.
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. 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:
   

   Parameter name	Description
   Collection Schedule	Specify the data collection frequency by using one of the following methods: Constantly, by specifying the schedule in minutes, hours, or day using the Duration option Default: 5 minutes Example: Collection Schedule is set to 5 mins. Current time is 00:30. If you run the collector just after 00:30, data is collected every 5 mins, first at 00:30 and next at 00:35, and so on.   Periodically, by specifying the schedule through a cron expression using the Cron schedule option  A cron expression is a string consisting of five subexpressions (fields) that describe individual details of the schedule.  These fields, separated by blank spaces, can contain any of the allowed values with various combinations of the allowed characters for that field. Default: */5 * * * * (evaluates to 5 minutes) Format: Minutes Hours (24-hour format) Day of Month Month Day of Week Example: If you specify 10 15 3 7 * , data is collected at 15:10 hours every third day in the month of July. For more information about how this parameter affects data collection,  see Data collection schedule.
   Data Collection Window	Specify the historical time period (in minutes) from the current time for which the data should be collected. Default: 5 minutes Example: Collection Schedule is set to 5 mins.  Data Collection Window is set to 5 mins.  Current time is 00:30. If you run the collector just after 00:30, data is collected first at 00:30 for the interval, 00:25 - 00:30, and next at 00:35 for the interval, 00:30 - 00:35, and so on. For more information about how this parameter affects data collection, see Data collection window.
   Data Latency	Specify the time (in minutes) by which the data time window should be shifted back on the timeline. This parameter is useful in delayed data availability situations. Default: 0 minutes Example: Collection Schedule is set to 5 mins.  Data Collection Window is set to 10 mins. Data Latency is set to 2 mins.  Current time is 00:30. If you run the collector just after 00:30, data is collected first at 00:30 for the interval, 00:18 to 00:28 and next at 00:35 for the interval, 0:23 to 00:33, and so on. For more information about how this parameter affects data collection, see Data latency.
   Status	Select one event status from the list.
   Categories	Select all or subset of categories installed on the host to collect the events: None                   Availability           Memory                 Disk                   CPU                    Configuration          Sessions/Transactions  Backup                 Diagnosis Files        Security
   Severities	Select all or a subset of severities from the following list: Error High Information Low Medium

9. Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data types.
10. Configure the distributors for the selected data types by clicking the respective data type in the Distributors section and specify the parameters for the selected data type, as explained 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 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 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 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 connection you created are running. Data streaming is indicated by different colored moving arrows.

A moving blue arrow ( ) indicates that the alert stream is running. Event data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.

Viewing data in BMC Helix applications

View data collected from SAP HANA 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 alerts by the SAPHanaAlert class.
   

Incoming alerts from SAP HANA are processed in BMC Helix Operations Management through a set of deduplication rules to determine whether the incoming alert is a duplicate alert or a new alert. For more information, see Event-deduplication-suppression-and-closure-for-reducing-event-noise.

For more information about events, see Monitoring and managing events.

Viewing Situations in BMC Helix AIOps

Before you view situations in BMC Helix AIOps, ensure that the following prerequisites are met: 

1. CIs are present in BMC Helix Discovery or BMC Helix AIOps for the events that are being collected from SAP HANA .
2. Create a Business Service model in one of the following applications:

   • BMC Helix Discovery. For more information, see Managing models.

   • BMC Helix AIOps. For more information, see Creating service models. 

3. Perform one of the following tasks:

   • To view ML-based situations, the AIOps Situations feature is enabled in BMC Helix AIOps. For more information, see Enabling the AIOps features.

   • To view policy-based situations, the correlation policy is created in BMC Helix Operations Management. For more information, see Creating and enabling event policies.

To view Situations

1. In BMC Helix AIOps, go to the Situations page.
   This page shows the Situations created from the events that are ingested into BMC Helix Operations Management. 

2. Click the required Situation to view the messages contained in the Situation and other details such as priority and severity of the message. 
   For information about Situations, see Monitoring situations.

Mapping between SAP HANA and BMC Helix Operations Management

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