Integrating with CA UIM

As a tenant administrator, it's important that you can monitor the connected systems and quickly identify and resolve any issues. The BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations CA UIM connector collects alarms and metrics data from CA UIM.

BMC Helix application	Type of data collected or viewed	Benefits
BMC Helix Operations Management	Events (from CA UIM) alarms	Use a centralized event view to monitor, filter, and manage events, and perform event operations in one place. Process events to help identify actionable events quickly from a large volume of event data. For more information, see Monitoring events and reducing event noise.
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.
BMC Helix AIOps	Situations (created from events)	Improve the mean time to resolve (MTTR) based on the situation-driven workflow. Lower the mean time to detect or discover (MTTD) and the time required for investigating tickets. For more information, see Monitoring situations.
BMC Helix Dashboards	Events and metrics	Create dashboards to get a consolidated view of data collected from third-party products across your environment. Improve the efficiency of your system by monitoring the key performance metrics and r espond to issues quickly to minimize the down time. For more information, see Creating custom dashboards

Supported versions

BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations supports version 20.3.3 of CA UIM for data collection.

Task 1: To plan for the connection

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

CA UIM prerequisites

Ensure that you have the following permissions to access CA UIM REST API:

Alarm Details
Basic Management
Web Service

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.
The on-premises gateway must be able to reach the third-party product on the required port (default is 80).

In the preceding list, third-party product refers to CA UIM.

Task 2: To configure the connection with CA UIM

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 CA UIM tile.
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 CAUIM_Host_PROD, CAUIM_Host_TEST, and so on.
2. Specify the CA UIM host name.
3. Specify the CA UIM HTTP or HTTPS port number depending on the connection protocol (default port number is 80).
4. Select the HTTPS option to use an https connection to the CA UIM host.
5. Enter the user name and password for the CA UIM host.
6. Specify the time, in seconds, after which no attempt should be made to establish the connection (d efault value is 30 seconds).
7. 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.
Important
The destination host connection is created and configured automatically when the source connection is
created.
Ensure that the options for the datatypes for which you want to collect data are selected.
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:
Note: The ✅️ symbol indicates that this field is applicable to the data type:
Click CREATE COLLECTORS to create the required collector streams for the selected data types.

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	CA UIM Alarms	CA UIM Metrics
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 Management when 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.. Important: 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.. Important: 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).*. Important: 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.. Important: 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.	❌️	✅️
Events FiltersEvents filters help remove unwanted data and send only the required events to BMC Helix applications. The data is filtered by using the regular expression (regex) provided for host, message, and detailed message and is sent to BMC Helix applications.
Host Regex	Specify the regex for the host name. Events for the hosts whose names match the regex are sent to BMC Helix applications. Examples: To send data for the host name /inventory/pricing, specify the regex as ^/inventory/pricing$. To filter out data whose host name contains the string inventory, specify the regex as *^(?!.inventory).**. To send the data for the host whose names start with the string inventory, specify the regex as ^inventory.. Important: If you are using multiple regex, make sure that the regex do not conflict. For example, do not enter .(inventory). and ^(?!.inventory).** together. The former regex sends events for the hosts whose names contain the string inventory, while the latter regex sends events for the hosts whose names do not contain the string inventory.	✅️	❌️
Message Regex	Specify the regex for the event message. Messages for the events that match the regex are sent to BMC Helix applications. Examples: To send events whose messages contain the string HRV alert, specify the regex as *.HRV alert**. To filter out the events whose message contains the string HRV alert, specify the regex as ^(?!.HRV alert).**. To send events whose message starts with the string HRV alert, specify the regex as ^(HRV alert).. Important: If you are using multiple regex, make sure that the regex do not conflict. For example, do not enter .HRV alert. and ^(?!.HRV alert).** together. The former regex sends events whose message contains the string HRV alert, while the latter regex sends events whose message do not contain the string HRV alert.	✅️	❌️
Detailed Message Regex	Specify the regex for the detailed message. Detailed messages for the events that match the regex are sent to BMC Helix applications. Examples: To send events whose detailed message contains the string ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s, specify the regex as *.ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s.**. To filter out the events whose detailed message contains the string ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s, specify the regex as ^(?!.ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s).**. To send the events whose detailed message starts with the string ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s, specify the regex as ^(ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s).. Important: If you are using multiple regex, make sure that the regex do not conflict. For example, do not enter .ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s. and ^(?!.ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s).** together. The former regex sends events whose detailed message contains the string ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s, while the latter regex sends events whose message do not contain the string ci_display_name: easyTravel-k8s.	✅️	❌️

Click CREATE DISTRIBUTORS to create the required distributor streams for the selected data types.
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.

Important
For 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 metric stream is running. Metric data will be pushed according to the configured Collection Schedule interval.

To view data in BMC Helix applications

View data collected from CA UIM in multiple BMC Helix applications.

To view events in BMC Helix Operations Management

In BMC Helix Operations Management, select Monitoring > Events.
Filter the events by the CA_UIM_Alarm class.

Incoming events from CA UIM 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

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.

Viewing Situations in BMC Helix AIOps

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

CIs are present in BMC Helix Discovery or BMC Helix AIOps for the events that are being collected from CA UIM .
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 Modeling services.
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

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 .
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 CA UIM and BMC Helix Operations Management

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

Event attribute	CA UIM	BMC Helix Operations Management
Status	Closed	Closed
Status	Open	Open
Severity	Critical	Critical
	Info	Info
	Minor	Minor
	Major	Major
	Warning	Warning
Title	Title	Message