BMC Helix Operations Management Extractor

Before you begin

• To collect data by using this ETL, make sure that BMC Helix Continuous Optimization, BMC Helix Operations Management, and BMC Helix Discovery are available on the same tenant. 

• Make sure that the PATROL Agents and Knowledge Modules are installed in your BMC Helix Operations Management environment. For information about the supported PATROL Agent and KM versions, see Supported PATROL Agents and Knowledge Modules (KMs). For information about PATROL Agents, see BMC PATROL Agent 21.3 for BMC Helix Operations Management.

Basic properties of the ETL

Some of the basic properties display default values. You may modify these values if required.

To configure the basic properties:

1. Navigate to Administration > ETL & System Tasks > and select ETL tasks.
2. On the ETL tasks page, click Add > Add ETL under the Last run tab. The Add ETL page displays the configuration properties. You must configure properties in the Run configuration tab.
   
   
   
3. In the Run configuration section, from the ETL module list, select BMC - Helix Operations Management Extractor. The name of the ETL is displayed in the ETL task name field. You can edit this field to customize the name.
   

4. (Optional) Override the default values of properties in the following tabs:

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5. Click Save. 
6. The ETL tasks page shows the details of the newly configured BMC Helix Operations Management ETL. 
   

Advanced properties of the ETL (optional)

You may configure the advanced properties to change the way the ETL works.

To configure the advanced properties:

1. On the Add ETL page, click Advanced.

2. Configure the following properties:
   

   Run configuration

   Property	Description
   Run configuration name	Specify the name that you want to assign to this ETL task configuration. The default configuration name is displayed. You can use this name to differentiate between the run configuration settings of ETL tasks.
   Deploy status	Select the deploy status for the ETL task. For example, you can initially select Test and change it to Production after verifying that the ETL run results are as expected.
   Description	A short description of the ETL module.
   Log level	Specify the level of details that you want to include in the ETL log file. Select one of the following options: 1 - Light: Select to add the bare minimum activity logs to the log file. 5 - Medium: Select to add the medium-detailed activity logs to the log file. 10 - Verbose: Select to add detailed activity logs to the log file. Use log level 5 as a general practice. You can select log level 10 for debugging and troubleshooting purposes.

   Collection level

   Property	Description
   Metric profile selection	Select the metric profile that the ETL must use. The ETL collects data for the group of metrics that is defined by the selected metric profile. Use Global metric profile: This is selected by default. All the out-of-the-box ETLs use this profile. Select a custom metric profile: Select the custom profile that you want to use from the Custom metric profile list. This list displays all the custom profiles that you have created. For more information about metric profiles, see Adding-and-managing-metric-profiles.
   Levels up to	Specify the metric level that defines the number of metrics that can be imported into the database. The load on the database increases or decreases depending on the selected metric level.To learn more about metric levels, see Adding-and-managing-metric-profiles.

   Additional properties

   Property

   Description

   List of properties

   Specify additional properties for the ETL that act as user inputs during runtime. You can specify these values now or you can do so later by accessing the "You can manually edit ETL properties from this page" link that is displayed for the ETL in the edit mode. Click Add. Add an additional property in the etl.additional.prop.n box. Click Apply. Repeat this task to add more properties. This ETL supports the following additional properties: helix.extract.prop.duration: By default, Patrol Agent collects data every 1 minute and the ETL aggregates 15 minutes of metrics data. Use this property to customize the metric aggregation window. The valid values are between 15 and 1440. For example, set helix.extract.prop.duration as 15. helix.extract.prop.entities: The BMC Helix Operations Management ETL extracts metrics from multiple entity types. Use this property to select specific entity type from which you want to extract data. The valid values are Linux, Windows, AIX, Solaris, and LWP. For example, set helix.extract.prop.entities as linux.  extract.change.namespace: This property duplicates shared metrics of BMC Helix Operations Management ETL and VMware ETL in separate namespaces.  When this property is set to false, shared metrics are assigned the opt:meas namespace. This is the default value.  When this property is set to true, shared metrics are duplicated as opt:meas:vn and opt:meas namespaces.  You can also assign values to these properties later from the ETL configuration window.

   Loader configuration

   Property	Description
   Empty dataset behavior	Specify the action for the loader if it encounters an empty dataset: Warn: Generate a warning about loading an empty dataset. Ignore: Ignore the empty dataset and continue parsing.
   Maximum number of rows for CSV output	A numeric value to limit the size of the output files.
   Remove domain suffix from datasource name (Only for systems)	Select True to remove the domain from the data source name. For example, server.domain.com will be saved as server. The default selection is False.
   Leave domain suffix to system name (Only for systems)	Select True to keep the domain in the system name. For example: server.domain.com will be saved as is. The default selection is False.
   Skip entity creation (Only for ETL tasks sharing lookup with other tasks)	Select True if you do not want this ETL to create an entity and discard data from its data source for entities not found in Continuous Optimization. It uses one of the other ETLs that share a lookup to create a new entity. The default selection is False.

3. Click Save.

The ETL tasks page shows the details of the newly configured BHOM ETL.

After you configure the ETL, you can run it to collect data. You can run the ETL in the following modes:

A. Simulation mode: Only validates connection to the data source, does not collect data. Use this mode when you want to run the ETL for the first time or after you make any changes to the ETL configuration.

B. Production mode: Collects data from the data source.

A. To run the ETL in the simulation mode

To run the ETL in the simulation mode:

1. Navigate to Administration > ETL & System Tasks, and select ETL tasks.
2. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.
   
   
   
3. In the Run configurations table, click Edit  to modify the ETL configuration settings.
4. On the Run configuration tab, ensure that the Execute in simulation mode option is set to Yes, and click Save.
5. Click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
6. On the ETL tasks page, check the ETL run status in the Last exit column.
   OK Indicates that the ETL ran without any error. You are ready to run the ETL in the production mode.
7.  If the ETL run status is Warning, Error, or Failed:
   1. On the ETL tasks page, clickin the last column of the ETL name row.
   2. Check the log and reconfigure the ETL if required.
   3. Run the ETL again.
   4. Repeat these steps until the ETL run status changes to OK.

B. To run the ETL in the production mode

You can run the ETL manually when required or schedule it to run at a specified time.

To run the ETL manually

1. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.
2. In the Run configurations table, click Edit  to modify the ETL configuration settings. The Edit run configuration page is displayed.
3. On the Run configuration tab, select No for the Execute in simulation mode option, and click Save.
4. To run the ETL immediately, click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
   When the ETL runs, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the BMC Helix Continuous Optimization database.

To schedule the ETL run in the production mode

By default, the ETL is scheduled to run daily. You can customize this schedule by changing the frequency and period of running the ETL.

To configure the ETL run schedule:

1. On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL, and click Edit task. The ETL details are displayed.
   
2. On the Edit task page, do the following, and click Save:
   • Specify a unique name and description for the ETL task.
   • In the Maximum execution time before warning field, specify the duration for which the ETL must run before generating warnings or alerts, if any.
   • Select a predefined or custom frequency for starting the ETL run. The default selection is Predefined.
   • Select the task group to which you want to assign the ETL task.
3. Click Schedule. A message confirming the scheduling job submission is displayed.
   When the ETL runs as scheduled, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the BMC Helix Continuous Optimization database.

Verify that the ETL ran successfully and confirm that the BMC Helix Operations Management data is refreshed in the Workspace. The ETL aggregates 15 minutes of PATROL Agent data.

To verify whether the ETL ran successfully

1. Click Administration > ETL and System Tasks > ETL tasks.
2. In the Last exec time column corresponding to the ETL name, verify that the current date and time are displayed.
3. In the Last exit column corresponding to the ETL name, verify that the status is OK.
   In case of WARNING or ERROR, click in the last column of the ETL name row to review the log files.

To verify that the BMC Helix Operations Management data is refreshed:

1. In the Workspace tab, expand BMC Helix Operations Management Extractor > Systems.
2. In the left pane, verify that the hierarchy displays the instances.
3. Select an instance and click the Metrics tab in the right pane.
4. Confirm that the Last Activity column in the Configuration metrics and Performance metrics tables displays the current date. 

The following image shows sample metrics data. To learn more about these metrics and other related concepts, see Entities, metrics, lookup information for the BMC - Helix Operations Management extractor.