Moviri Integrator for BMC Helix Capacity Optimization - Entuity

“Moviri Integrator for BMC Helix Continuous Optimization – Entuity” allows extracting data from the Entuity network monitoring tool into BMC Helix Continuous Optimization for relevant capacity metrics.

The integration supports the extraction of both performance and configuration data across network components monitored by Entuity (also marketed as “Entuity Network Monitoring and Analytics for BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management” by BMC). Furthermore the connector is able to replicate relationships and logical dependencies among entities defined in Entuity into BMC Helix Continuous Optimization, thus enabling grouping and multiple perspectives.

The connector supports configuration parameters that allow devices filtering, metrics filtering, historical recovery, limiting data volume processed in a single run and many other settings.

The documentation is targeted at BMC Helix Continuous Optimization administrators, in charge of configuring and monitoring the integration between BMC Helix Continuous Optimization and Entuity.

• Requirements
• Datasource Check and Configuration
• Connector configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Configuration and Performance Metrics Mapping
• Lookup Fields

Requirements

Official name of data source software

“Entuity” (product marketed by Entuity company)

or

“Entuity Network Monitoring and Analytics for BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management” (product marketed by BMC through Market Zone program)

or

“Entuity for TrueSight Operations Management” (product marketed by BMC through Market Zone program)

Supported versions of data source software

• Entuity Network Monitoring and Analytics Version 9.0.00 to 14.0.00
• Entuity for TrueSight Operations Management 14.5.00 to 17.00
• Entuity 12.5 to 17.0

Supported configurations of data source software

Moviri – Entuity Extractor requires the configuration of the Data Export component. The supported DBMS is MySQL.

Datasource Check and Configuration

Preparing to connect to the data source software

In order to make data available to third party solutions, Entuity provide a data export module, which can export different (configurable) datasets to an external MySQL database.

The integration between BMC Helix Continuous Optimization and Entuity takes advantage of this feature. If there are active export jobs already in place, the BMC Helix Continuous Optimization-job can re-use the existing database instance; otherwise a MySQL database instance has to be identified in order to host a database schema in which Entuity job will write.

This is the step-by-step procedure to enable the daily data export:

1. Create an empty MySQL Database (default name is eye_bco) that is reachable from Entuity server and BMC Helix Continuous Optimization ETL Engine

2. Check which version of Entuity is installed: from Entuity menu choose Help → About Entuity

   

• Open the package: 
  “Moviri Integrator Version 2.5.00 for Helix Capacity Optimization.zip”
  and extract the file  “sw_data_export_def_bco_*****.cfg “ according to your Entuity version and installed modules:
  - Use sw_data_export_def_bco_165_QoS.cfg for Entuity version>=16.5 and QoS module enabled
  - Use sw_data_export_def_bco_165_noQoS.cfg for Entuity version>=16.5 and QoS module disabled
  - Use sw_data_export_def_bco_16orLess_QoS.cfg for Entuity version<=16.0 and QoS module enabled
  - Use sw_data_export_def_bco_16orLess_noQoS.cfg for Entuity version<=16.0 and QoS module disabled

1. The extracted cfg file contains Entuity data export configuration (datasets and job), which enable the daily data export for BMC Helix Continuous Optimization. Open it, edit the job connection parameters (see below) and rename the file to sw_data_export_def_bco_Entuity.cfg
   
   # BMC Helix Continuous Optimization Export Job configuration 
   
   [DataExportJob ~BCO Export Job]
   Description=BCO Export Job
   
   DbName=eye_bco                      #Enter here the name of MySQL export DB
   DbUser=<username>                 #Enter here username of MySQL export DB
   DbPassword=<password>          #Enter here password of MySQL export DB
   DbServer=<hostname>:<port>   #Enter here hostname and port of MySQL export DB
   
   ViewName=All Views
   
   Backfill= 604800                         #Enter time period (in seconds) of how far data
   #export should go to get data
   
   Ageout=1209600                       #Enter time period (in seconds) of how long data 
                                                     #should be retained
   
   Schedule=Daily
   
   Datasets=~BCO Devices,~BCO Modules,~BCO Processors,~BCO Processor Utilization,~BCO Processor Utilization Avg,~BCO Device Memory Utilization,~BCO Ports,~BCO Port Traffic,~BCO Port Fault,~BCO Router Resources,~BCO Switch Resources,~BCO Device View Membership,~BCO Memories,~BCO Memory,~BCO View,~BCO Latency,~BCO SNMP RespTime,~BCO MonitoredDevice,~BCO ClassMap,~BCO PolicyMap,~BCO QoS Class Map,~BCO Root
   
   IsEnabled=0
   
   For more details please see Entuity Data Export guide
2. Place configuration file “sw_data_export_def_bco.cfg” file into the ‘etc’ folder under Entuity/ENMA installation folder (e.g. /opt/entuity/etc).
3.  Edit the ‘etc/sw_data_export_def_site_specific.cfg’ file to add the following line: 
   !sw_data_export_def_bco.cfg
4. Shut the Entuity/ENMA package/service down if it is not already down.
5. Run the ‘install/configure’ utility making sure that the Data Export module is enabled.
6. Start the Entuity/ENMA package running.

7. Log into the web interface using the ‘’admin” user (default password is “admin”). Display the list of default Data Export jobs using Administration > Data Export > Jobs . This list should look as follows:
   
   

   The configuration of the “~BCO Export Job” can be viewed and should look as follows:

   

8. Go back to the Jobs page. An export can be initiated manually by clicking the “Run” for the “~BCO Export Job”. Check the status of the job by clicking “History”. If the job hasn’t finished try again in a minute or so.
9. The data will have been written to tables the export database.

10. The automatic daily scheduled running of the ~BCO Export Job can be enabled by checking the appropriate box on the Jobs page. It is preconfigured to maintain a 2 weeks rolling window of statistics and the first time the export is run it will export the previous 7 days. In a multi EYE-Server deployment the procedure needs to be applied on all EYE-Severs whose monitored devices have to be imported into BMC Helix Continuous Optimization. In this case, each EYE-Server deployment needs to target a different database. Multiple databases can be hosted by the same server. 

    

Connector configuration

Connection parameters configuration

The Entuity ETL needs to be configured in order to successfully connect to MySQL export database. Select the following properties under the ETL run configuration, Connection parameters panel:

• Database type: “Other database”

• JDBC driver: your MySQL JDBC driver of choice, that must be present on the ETL engine in the following path: <<

  BMC Helix Continuous Optimization

   installation directory>>/etl/libext  (e.g. /opt/bmc/BCO/etl/libext)

Multiple data export job configuration

Entuity supports environments with different Entuity server instances, in order to manage them in BMC Helix Continuous Optimization, it must be performed the same data export configuration procedure (see par. 3.6) in all the Entuity instances and all the instances are properly configured through the Entuity page Administration -> Multi-Server Administration (for detail see Entuity documentation).

The BMC Helix Continuous Optimization export jobs (one on each Entuity server) can write data

• in the same MySQL database (the ETL consider each Job as a different source) -> one ETL instance is enough to read all data
  
  

• in different  MySQL database -> is needed one ETL instance for each MySQL database (different configurations in the connection parameters panel, see par. 3.6.7) and different configurations in Entuity export file (see par 3.6.4)

• Is NOT supported to configure export jobs of two different Entuity schema versions (Entuity 12.5-14.5 and EYE 2012) in the same MySQL database.

Connector configuration attributes

Guidelines to choose the right ETL configuration

In order to set the ETL configuration that match your needs, in this paragraph some common use cases are presented.

The choice of correct configuration brings you benefits also in terms of shorter execution time and saved disk space on database.

Every Entuity ETL instance configuration applies to all jobs/devices selected, if there are different scenario needs for different jobs/devices, is recommended to create many ETL instances with different configuration which filters on particular jobs/devices (e.g. There are both a big and stable environment (scenario 1) and the introduction of a new service (scenario2))

Data volume considerations

The following table is a reference to estimate the data volume produced daily by Entuity  ETL for each device, interface and module based on which metric filter in ETL configuration is active (see “Filters on metric to import” in par. 5.3)

As a reference, it has been chosen a device with 24 active interfaces

In a data center with 3 network interfaces for each server and devices with 24 interfaces, the volume of samples collected using System+ traffic filter (as in par 5.3.1 – scenario 1) is approximately :

Historical data extraction

In order to perform a historical recovery of data, please use “recovery mode properties” settings:
 Recovery mode active= true and filling the two properties “from date” and “to date” in order to specify the time window. When recovery mode is active, the lastcounter will not be updated.

If the ETL is newly created and has no lastcounter defined, the “default lastcounter” is used.

The pre-condition for an historical extraction is the presence of data inside the Entuity export DB.

Supported Platforms

For all metrics imported by the ETL and described below in this section, the following apply:

• Supported 

  BMC Helix Continuous Optimization

   Entity Type: Network device, Router, Switch, Firewall

Troubleshooting

For ETL troubleshooting, please refer to official BMC documentation available here.

Configuration and Performance Metrics Mapping

The ETL connects to the Entuity data export DB and extracts data from a set of defined tables. The metrics supported by the ETL are stored in tables populated by the job “~BCO Export Job”.

There are some differences in the data model between Entuity 12.5 or later versions and EYE 2012, in the following tables are present two columns that specify which metrics belongs to which version

 Performance metrics

Configuration metrics

Lookup Fields

The ETL for Entuity supports the multiple lookup methodology available in BMC Helix Continuous Optimization. This means that, for each BMC Helix Continuous Optimization entity, more than one lookup values is stored.

Lookup values for Systems

Considering a system named hq01 with Entuity internal identifier 1-730, the lookup table is filled-up by the ETL with the following fields:

Lookup values for Domains

Considering a domain named “FW & VPN” with Entuity internal identifier “Firewalls & VPN”, the lookup table is filled-up by the ETL with the following fields: