Integrating with Datadog

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 Datadog, verify the connection, and view the collected data in various BMC Helix applications.

Supported versions

This connector supports Datadog API version v1 for data collection.

Task 1: To plan for the connection

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

Datadog prerequisites

Create a Datadog user with standard role and obtain the API token and application key for that user.

The standard role has the following permissions by default:

• APM Read
• CI Visibility Read
• Dashboards Read
• Incidents Read
• Monitors Read
• Notebooks Read
• RUM Apps Read
• SLOs Read

For more information, see the following sections in the Datadog documentation:

• Datadog roles and permissions

• API and Application Keys

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 mode, 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.

• You have the latest Technology Knowledge Update (TKU) required to collect the topology data only for hosts from the third-party product. To obtain the latest TKU, see Schedule and Roadmap

• 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 Datadog.

Task 2: To configure the connection with Datadog

1. Depending on the deployment mode, perform one of the following steps to 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 Datadog 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 Datadog_Host_PROD, Datadog_Host_TEST, and so on.

      
      

   2. Specify the Datadog host name and port number (default port number is 443). 
   3. Specify the Datadog HTTP or HTTPS port number depending on the connection protocol.
   4. Select the HTTPS  option to use an https connection to the Datadog host.
   5. Specify the API version V1 token and application key.
      
      
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 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:
   
   

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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. 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 the status as No Runs 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.

Task 3: To verify 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 moving colored arrows.

• A moving 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 metrics stream is running. Metric data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.
• A moving light blue arrow () indicates that the topology stream is running. Topology data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.

To view data in BMC Helix applications

View data collected from Datadog  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 DatadogEvent class.
   

Incoming events from Datadog (except from an unknown host) 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 more 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 Performance Overview tab shows the metrics graph. For information about metrics, see Viewing collected data.
   

To view 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 Datadog   .
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 Managing 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.

To view topology in BMC Helix Discovery

1. In BMC Helix Discovery, select Explore > Data. 

2. Click the Host List link.
   The Host List page shows the list of host names and its other attributes received from Datadog. For information about entities in the infrastructure, see Managing your IT infrastructure.

3. Click the entity name to view its topology.

The following figures show the topology data for a host in the Datadog UI and in the BMC Helix Discovery UI:

To view services in BMC Helix AIOps

1. In BMC Helix AIOps, go to the Services page.
   This page shows the datadoghost service. 
   
   
2. To view the impact on the service, hover over the service.
   The impact score in percentage and Situations, events, incidents, or configuration items (CIs) associated with a service are displayed.  
3. Click the service to view the health summary, causal analysis, health insights, and other key metrics of interest.

For more information about services, see Monitoring services.

Mapping of event attributes between Datadog and BMC Helix Operations Management

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

Mapping of metrics attributes between Datadog and BMC Helix Operations Management

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