Managing Connectors

You can use the connectors available in BMC Helix Cloud Cost to collect the cost data of your environment. Connectors are configurable modules. They connect to the data sources and collect data. Depending on the technologies, different connectors are available for data collection. 

To manage the connectors configured in your environment, from the navigation bar, click Configure icon > Connectors. The Manage Connectors page is displayed. This page displays a list of connectors that are configured for collecting cost and utilization data. You can add a new connector, edit an existing connector, manually start or stop the data collection process, and re-download a connector from this page.

Adding a connector

1. From the Manage Connectors page, click Add a Connector.
   A list of supported connectors is displayed. 
2. Select a connector and click Continue. 
   The Configure Connector page is displayed. 
3. On the Configure Connector page, configure the required properties and save the properties.
   A confirmation message about the request for data collection processing is displayed. The Manage Connectors page shows the details of the newly configured connector.

Downloading a connector

(For on-premise connectors only) Select Download from the connector menu to download or re-download the connector.

You might want to re-download a connector in the following scenarios:

• A previous download of connector failed.
• A previously downloaded connector is in the Suspended state.
• A previously downloaded connector is in the Downloaded state.

After re-downloading a connector, the earlier connector cannot be used.

Editing a connector

The editing option enables you to modify the connector configuration.

1. From the connector menu, select Edit. 
2. On the Edit Connector Configuration page, modify the required properties and save the configuration. 
   A confirmation message indicating that the changes are saved is displayed.

Deleting a connector

1. From the connector menu, select Delete. If a connector is in the Running state, disable the connector before deleting it. 
   The connector is deleted and removed from the Manage Connectors page.

   Note

   Data associated with the connector is not deleted.

2.  You can delete unused connectors that are in one of the following states:

• 
  
  • Disabled
  • Suspended
  • Downloaded

Updating the connector

If a newer version of a connector is available, you can update the connector accordingly to the latest version. This helps in avoiding compatibility conflicts between newer versions of policies and existing connectors. If you have an older connector in a tenant and if you try to configure a newer version of the connector, the connector might not be compatible with the policies currently mapped to it.

If a newer version is available for the connector that you have already configured, an information banner is displayed on the connector panel on the Manage Connectors page.

To update the connector:

1. If the connector is not in disabled state, select Disable from the connector menu to disable it. The data collection stops when you disable the connector.  
2. Log into the host of the connector and stop the connector service.
3. In command prompt, change the directory to locate the install.bat file.
4. To stop the connector, run the install.bat stop command.
5. Return to the Manage Connectors page and select Download from the menu to download the updated connector.
   The latest version of the connector is downloaded.
6. After the new connector is downloaded, from the Manage Connectors page, select Enable from the connector menu.
7. Configure the new connector on the new host. 
8. On the new host, in command prompt, change the directory to locate the install.bat file.
9. To start the connector, run the install.bat start command. 
   The connector is updated to it's latest version. 

Enabling and disabling a connector

To enable a connector:

From the connector menu, select Enable. When you enable a connector, Cloud Cost connects to the data source and starts fetching information from the source.

The state of the connector is updated to Enabled. 

To disable a connector:

From the connector menu, select Disable. When you disable a connector, Cloud Cost stops collecting the data from the data source. 

The state of the connector is updated to Disabled. 

Reviewing the status of a connector

On the Manage Connectors page you can view the following information about each connector:

• Date and time of the download
• Time since the connector has been in the Suspended state
• Errors, if applicable

Active or enabled connectors can be in one of the following states:

• Running: The connector receives data from the data source, and therefore the data collection process is active. The connector can now collect specific resource information.
• Downloaded: The connector has just been downloaded and will possibly go into the Running state once the data collection process starts. Once the connector is in the Running state, it cannot be re-downloaded.
• Suspended: The connector does not receive data from the data source at it's scheduled polling interval and therefore enters the temporarily suspended state. 
• Disabled: The user manually disables or deactivates the data collection.

The error or warning icon displays the cause of the error.

Collecting data on demand

When configuring a connector, the collection cycle is set to On Demand by default. You can also select an appropriate unit of time (days, minutes, hours) to schedule the data collection frequency. Both, On Demand and Scheduled collection modes enable you to run on-demand data scans. 

On the Manage Connectors page, the Evaluate Now option enables you to collect data on demand. This option is useful when you want to perform an ad-hoc scan of the existing connectors that have long intervals between two collection cycles that is based on a set schedule. The Evaluate Now option triggers the collection cycle immediately instead of or in addition to setting a scheduled scan in the future.

To run an on-demand scan on a connector in the Running state: