This topic provides an overview of the logical architecture of BMC Helix Cloud Cost Service. The architecture consists of the following components:
SaaS layers
BMC Helix Cloud Cost Service is architected as a SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution with virtual layers of components that interact through internal and external APIs to provide the user (or calling application) with a unified cost evaluation dashboard.
Connectors
BMC Helix Cloud Cost uses AWS Cloud connector to collect data and push that data to the cloud service using REST APIs. The connector first transforms the input data into a standardized Javascript Object Notation (JSON) payload and then sends it to the REST API.
The standardized JSON has the following fields:
- Payload type
- Payload
- Collection timestamp
- Source information such as host and source identification
- Arbitrary extensible JSON format described as “attribute:value” pairs that can represent a configuration, a vulnerability, a log line, a tweet, file content, and so on
Click here to view a sample JSON file that is pushed from the data collector to the AWS API Gateway.
{
"name": "<ServerName> Ex: vw-pun-blg-dv92",
"type": "<Object_type> Ex: SERVER",
"guid": "<guid for object type>
Ex: e5886dbb-3d6b-4b9d-a496-0d70884a02eb",
"os": "<OS_TYPE> Ex: Windows",
"collectionStartTime": "<Date String>
Ex: Fri, 19 Feb 2016 06:36:51 PST",
"collectionEndTime": "<Date String>
Ex: Fri, 19 Feb 2016 06:36:57 PST",
"resources": [{
"name": "<FullyResolved BSA Target Asset Name>
Ex: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\NoAutoUpdate",
"type": "<BSATargetAssetType> Ex: Registry Value",
"description": "<BSATargetAssetDescription>
Ex: This asset signifies the registry value of Windows OS.",
"recurseSubfolders": <BooleanValueForFetchingImmediateChildRecords>
true,
"assetAttributeValues":
[{
"name": "<Attribute1 Name> Ex: Integer Value (Windows)",
"type": "<Attribute1 Data Type i.e for Integer Type>
Ex: Integer",
"value": "<Attribute1 Value> Ex: 0"
},
{
"name": "<Attribute2 Name> Ex: String Value (Windows)",
"type": "<Attribute2 Data Type i.e. For String type>
Ex: String",
"value": "<Attribute2 Value> Ex: 0x00000000"
},
{
"name": "<Attribute3 Name> Ex: ValueList (Windows)",
"type": "<Attribute3 Data Type i.e. for List of String>
Ex: List [String]",
"value": "<Attribute3 Value i.e. list of values in array>
Ex: [0x00000000]"
}],
"id": <Unique id of BSA Target Asset> Ex: 23,
"parentId": <UniqueIDOfParentBSATargetAsset> Ex: 0
}]
}
BMC Helix Cloud Cost Service uses only cloud based connectors.
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Dashboard
The BMC Helix Cloud Cost Service Dashboard presents concise assessments for cost, resources and cloud service usage, and enables you to customize the data based on filters you define. The dashboard also shows billing summary and historical cost statistics of your resources. For more information, see Navigating-the-Dashboard .
