Integrating with Amazon Managed Services for Prometheus to collect metrics
You can view the collected data in various BMC Helix applications and derive the following benefits:
BMC Helix application | Type of data collected or viewed | Benefits |
---|---|---|
BMC Helix Operations Management | Metrics | Use alarm and variate policies to detect anomalies and eliminate false positives for more accurate results while monitoring the health of your system. For more information, see Detecting anomalies by using static and dynamic thresholds. |
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.
Task 1: To plan 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 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.
- 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.
Task 2: To configure the connection with AMP
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 Integrations on-premises gateway - Use the following URL to access BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations: https://<hostName>:<portNumber>/swpui
- On the CONNECTORS tab, click
in the SOURCES panel.
Click the AWS Prometheus Metrics tile.
- Specify the following details for the source connection:
Specify a unique instance name.
- Specify the AMP metrics host name.
- Specify the AMP port number (default value is 443).
- Specify the access key ID associated with your AWS account or bucket.
- Specify the secret access key associated with your AWS account or bucket.
- Specify an AWS region.
- Specify the workspace created in AWS for Prometheus metrics.
- 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).
- Click VALIDATE AND CREATE.
The specified connection details are validated and the corresponding source connection is created in the Source Connection list. Select the source connection that you created from the list if it is not selected already.
Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Collectors section as described in the following table:
Parameter name
Description
Data Type
Prometheus Metrics
Collection Schedule
Select one of the following options to specify the data collection frequency:
- Duration: When you select this option, data collection happens constantly. Specify the schedule in minutes, hours, or day.
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. Cron schedule: When you select this option, data collection happens periodically. Specify the schedule by using a cron expression.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Jobs
Select all or a subset of jobs from the list.
This list of jobs is updated automatically from AMP.
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Metric Namespaces
Select all or a subset of metric namespaces from the list.
This list of namespaces is updated automatically from AMP.
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Label Name
Select a label from the list.
This list of labels is updated automatically from AMP.
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Label Values
Select all or a subset of label values from the list.
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- Duration: When you select this option, data collection happens constantly. Specify the schedule in minutes, hours, or day.
- Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data type.
- 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 seconds
Example: 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 seconds
Example: 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 minutes
Example: 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.
Device Filters and Metrics filtersDevice and Metrics filters help remove unwanted data and send only the required data to BMC Helix applications. The data is filtered by using the regular expression (regex) provided for device name, monitor name, monitor type, and metrics, and is sent to BMC Helix applications. Device Name Regex Specify the regex for the device name. Metrics for devices whose names match the regex are sent to BMC Helix applications.
Examples:- To send data for the devices that contain the string Linux in their names, specify the regex as .*Linux.*.
- To send data for the devices that contain the string Cisco and Linux, specify the regex as (?=.*Cisco)(?=.*Linux).*.
- To send the data for the devices whose names start with the string Linux, specify the regex as ^Linux.*.
If you are using multiple regex, make sure that the regex do not conflict.
For example, do not enter .*Linux.* and ^(?!.*Linux).* together. The former regex sends metrics for the devices whose names contain the string Linux, while the latter regex sends metrics for the devices whose names do not contain the string Linux.Monitor Name Regex Specify the regex for the monitor name. Metrics for the monitors whose names match the regex are sent to BMC Helix applications.
Examples:- To send data for the monitors that contain the string system in their names, specify the regex as .*system.*.
- To filter out the data for monitors that contain system in their name, specify the regex as ^(?!.*system).*.
- To send the data for monitors whose names start with the string system, specify the regex as ^system.*.
If you are using multiple regex, make sure that the regex do not conflict.
For example, do not enter .*system.* and ^(?!.*system).* together. The former regex sends metrics for the monitors whose names contain the string system, while the latter regex sends metrics for the monitors whose names do not contain the string system.Monitor Type Regex Specify the regex for the monitor type. Metrics are sent to BMC Helix applications for the monitor type that matches the regex.
Examples:- To send data for the monitor type that contains the string health, specify the regex as .*health.*.
- To send data for the monitor type that starts with the string health, specify the regex as ^health.*.
- To filter out the monitor type that contains the string health, specify the regex as ^(?!.*health).*.
If you are using multiple regex, make sure that the regex do not conflict.
For example, do not enter, ^health.* and ^(?!.*health).* together. The former regex collects metrics for the monitor type whose names contain the string health, while the latter regex collects data for the monitor types whose names do not contain the string health.Metrics Regex Specify the regex for the metrics. Metrics are sent to BMC Helix applications whose names match the regex.
Examples:- To send metrics that contain the string avg in their names, specify the regex as .*avg.*.
- To filter out the metrics that contain the string avg, specify the regex as ^(?!.*avg).*.
- To send metrics whose names start with the string avg, specify the regex as ^avg.*.
If you are using multiple regex, make sure that the regex do not conflict.
For example, do not enter, .*avg.* and ^(?!.*avg).* together. The former regex sends metrics whose name contains the string avg, while the latter regex sends metrics whose name does not contain the string avg. - Click CREATE DISTRIBUTORS to create the required distributor streams for the selected data type.
- 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.
For more information about data streams, see Starting-or-stopping-data-streams.
Task 3: To verify 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.
A moving red arrow () indicates that the metric stream is running. Metric data is pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.
To view metrics in BMC Helix Operations Management
- In BMC Helix Operations Management, select Monitoring > Devices.
- Click the links for the required device.
On the Monitors tab, click the required monitor.
The Performance Overview tab shows the metrics graph.
For information about metrics, see Viewing collected data.