Downloading and installing Helm Package 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 Helm Package containers. Use the Helm Package 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 Helm Package version 3.2.4 or later.

To enable Helm Package connectors in your environment

1. Run one of the following commands to get an Ops-Key:

   echo alias -n <namespace> get secret ops-secrets -o yaml | grep ops-api-key | awk '{print $2}' | base64 -d

   or

   echo <OPS-API-KEY> | base64 -d

2. Run the following command within the pods to enable the Helm Package connector for the tenant; make sure that curl is installed.

   curl -X POST 'http://featureflag:8000/api/v1/admin/tenantfeatures' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'x-bmc-ops-api-key:<OPS_KEY>' -d '{"Name":"connector-openshift-support","Status":true,"Tenant":"<Tenant_ID>","Solution":"ADE","FeatureLevel":"feature"}'
3. Refresh or re-login to the  BMC Helix Developer Tools to verify that the Helm deployment option is enabled.

To download and install a Helm Package connector

1. On the Integrations page, click the Available Integrations tab, and then click the Download and Install link for the connector.
   
   
    
2. On the Connector Download and Install page, perform the following steps:
   1. From the Select the Connector Type list, select Connector Helm Package to collect metrics or logs from Linux or cloud platforms.
   2. If a Connector Helm Package does not exist in your system, or if you want a new Helm Package, click the Download link.
   3. Enter the name of the connector.
   4. In OpenShift, the namespace is the project space where users can deploy the artifact. Enter the namespace.

   5. The secret name is the name that you create to pull images from containers.bmc.com. Create and enter the secret name by running the following example command: 

      kubectl create secret docker-registry <secret-name> --docker-server=containers.bmc.com --docker-username=<docker-username> --docker-password=<token>  -n <namespace>

   6. In OpenShift, Persistent Volume Claims (PVC) is the only option to map the host path. To create the PVC, you need a storage class. Get the storage class from OpenShift by running the following command:

      oc get sc
   7. Enter the storage size. The storage size is the size of the PVC volume that you need to create. The recommended storage size is 2 Gigabyte.
   8. Click Create and Download to download the values.yaml file.
3. Copy the downloaded Helm Package tar file and the values.yaml file to the OpenShift controller.

4. Extract the Helm tar file, and then run the following command:

   helm install <release name> devtools-connector -f <values.yaml file path>

   Important
   Enter the release name in lowercase characters.

5. Ensure that the pod is deployed in the specified namespace after the Helm command is run.
6. (Optional) If you are configuring the Helm Package connector, follow these instructions in the Kubernetes environment.
   1. Go to the values.yml file.

   2. In the securityContext area, delete the existing statements, and add the following statements:

      runAsUser: 0
      runAsNonRoot: false

      Important

      OpenShift supports Docker connectors only.

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 disable Helm Package connectors in your environment

1. Run the following command to disable the Helm Package connectors in your environment:

   curl -k -X PUT 'http://featureflag:8000/api/v1/admin/tenantfeatures' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'x-bmc-ops-api-key:<OPS_API_KEY>' -d '{"Name":"connector-openshift-support","Status":false,"Tenant":"<TENANT_ID>","Solution":"ADE","FeatureLevel":"service"}'

2. Run the following command to delete the Helm Package connectors from your environment:

   curl -X DELETE 'http://featureflag:8000/api/v1/admin/tenantfeatures/<Id>' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'x-bmc-ops-api-key:<OPS_API_KEY>'

    

3. Refresh or re-login to the  BMC Helix Developer Tools to verify that the Helm deployment option is disabled.

To uninstall Helm Package connectors

To uninstall, run the following command: