Integrating with Micro Focus NNMi to collect metrics

Micro Focus NNMi provides the ability to monitor the physical and virtual networks. By using NNMi, view the network fault, availability, and performance in your network infrastructure.

Configure an integration with Micro Focus NNMi, to view the metric data from Micro Focus NNMiand derive actionable insights.

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 Micro Focus NNMi, verify the connection, and view the collected data in various BMC Helix applications.

Supported versions

BMC Helix Intelligent Integrations supports version 2022 of Micro Focus NNMi for collecting data.

Task 1: To plan for the connection

Review the following prerequisites to help you plan and configure a connection with Micro Focus NNMi.

Micro Focus NNMi prerequisites

The Micro Focus NNMi REST API user account that you plan to use for connecting to Micro Focus NNMi must be mapped
to the NNMi Web Service Clients user group.

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 Micro Focus NNMi.

Task 2: To configure the connection with Micro Focus NNMi

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 Micro Focus NNMi Metrics tile.
Specify the following details for the source connection:
1. Specify a unique instance name.
2. Specify the Micro Focus NNMi metrics host name.
3. Specify the Micro Focus NNMi SFTP port number depending on the connection protocol ( default value is 80).
4. Select the SFTP option to use an SFTP connection to the Micro Focus NNMi host.
5. Specify the directory in which metric files are stored on the Micro Focus NNMi host.
6. Specify whether you want to skip the connection check to the Micro Focus NNMi host.
7. Specify the user name and password. Ensure that the specified user can access the Micro Focus NNMi REST API.
8. Specify the time (in minutes) after which connection should timeout and no further attempts should be made to connect to the Micro Focus NNMi host.
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.

Click a data type and specify the configuration parameters in the Collectors section as described in the following table:

Parameter Name	Description	Data Type
Parameter Name	Description	Micro Focus NNMi 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.	Applicable Default: 5 minutes
Metric Files Directory	Specify the directory in which metric files are stored on the Micro Focus NNMi host. Important: This path should be the same that you have provided in step 3(e) while configuring the source connection.	Applicable
Metric Files Done Directory	The path in which processed metric files are to be moved to prevent reprocessing of the same data.	Applicable
Delete files when done	Select this option if you want the processed files to be deleted rather than moving them to a new location.	Applicable
Metric Categories	Select the categories for which you want to collect metric data. This list of categories is updated automatically from Micro Focus NNMi .	Applicable
Jobs	Select all or a subset of jobs from the list. This list of jobs is updated automatically from Micro Focus NNMi .	Applicable

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 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.

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.

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 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 will be 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.