Downloading and installing Podman connectors

A connector is a container or a stand-alone agent that facilitates data collection and consumption from the integrated solutions. It provides a runtime environment that enables communication with BMC Helix Platform.

As an administrator, first download and install the connector to enable the addition of integrations.  You can use a single connector for multiple integrations. However, for better performance, we recommend that you use separate connectors for each integration.

Download and install the Helm Package connectors to collect data from applications running Podman containers. Use the Podman connector to collect data from third-party integrations, Linux-based environments, and so on.

Before you begin

• Ensure that the host computer on which you plan to install the connector has a 2-core CPU and 16 GB RAM.
• Ensure that you are downloading and installing the connector on one of the following operating systems:
  • RHEL 9.x, 8.x
  • CentOS 7.x
  • Ubuntu 20.x
• Ensure that you have installed Podman version 1.6.0 or later.

To download and install a Podman connector

1. Ensure that you have the following permissions:
   • Permission for docker commands and install docker image
   • Permission to access to the /opt/bmc directory as the installer mount path to create files and folders
   • Permission to the mkdir/chmod/chown directory commands to provide relevant permissions to the internal docker fluent user
2. On the  Integrations page, click the  Available Integrations  tab, and then click the  Download and Install  link for the connector.
   
   
   
   
3. On the Connector Download and Install page, perform the following steps:
   1. From the  Select the Connector Type  list, select  Podman Connector  to collect metrics or logs from Linux or cloud platforms.
   2. If a Podman image does not exist in your system, or if you want a new Podman image, click the  Download  link.
   3. Enter the name of the connector and click Create and Download to download the connector shell script.
      For example, if you entered the connector name as  my-bmc, the connector shell script is downloaded as  install-connector-my-bmc.sh.

4. Copy the downloaded script and Podman image file on a Podman-enabled server.
   
   

   Important

   Script security and location: Copy the downloaded script in the same location as that of the Podman image.

5. Ensure that the connector build image exists in the location where you copy the script.

6. Grant the run permission to the downloaded shell script, and then run the script.
   For example, run the following command:
   install-connector-my-bmc.sh
   
   

   Important

   Script security and location: Do not copy the script on any public domains.

To verify connector installation

After the script runs and the connector is installed, the connector is available for selection on the Add Integrations page for each third-party product.

To find the container ID for a connector

1. On the server where you installed the connector, open the command line interface.

2. Run the following command:

   podman ps

   The container ID is highlighted in the following image with sample data:
   
   

   The following parameters are the container details:

   • Podman container ID
   • Build name

   • Command to run the Podman container:

     /run.sh
   • Podman container creation timeline
   • Podman container status and the timeline of the status
   • Ports used by the Podman container
   • Connector name

To reload a connector

When there are updates to the connector ,  it reloads automatically. However, you can reload the connector manually by performing the following steps:

1. On the Podman container, obtain the container ID by running the following command:

   podman ps

2. Log in to the Podman container and reload the connector by running the following command:

   podman exec -it <containerID> bash reload.sh