Generic - Database extractor (Java)

• Make sure that you can reach your database server from the ETL engine machine by running the ping <your_db_server_ip> command 
• Make sure that you can remotely access your database server using telnet from the ETL engine machine, by running the telnet <your_db_server_ip> <your_db_server_port> command 
• Connect to your database using a software client.
• If the username is part of a Windows domain, verify that the username is specified in the YOURDOMAIN\username format. Verify that your settings match to the settings that are used to connect to the same database with a software client.

You must configure the ETL to connect to the generic database for data collection. ETL configuration includes specifying the basic and optional advanced properties. While configuring the basic properties is sufficient, you can optionally configure the advanced properties for additional customization.

A. Configuring the basic properties

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

To configure the basic properties:

1. In the Helix Capacity Optimization Console, 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 following tabs: Run configuration, Entity catalog, SQL query, and Connection parameters.
3. On the Run configuration tab, complete these steps:
   1. From the ETL module list, select Generic - Database Extractor. The name of the ETL is displayed in the ETL task name field. You can edit this field to customize the name.

   2. Specify the datasets that you want to add to the ETL run configuration. The ETL collects data of metrics that are associated with these datasets.

      1. Click Edit.
      2. Select one (click) or more (shift+click) datasets from the Available datasets list and click >> to move them to the Selected datasets list.

      1. Click Apply.

      Important: The ETL collects data on metrics associated with the datasets that are available in the Selected datasets list. Make sure that you select the CST dataset to import the buffer table data. For details, see Overview-of-datasets-in-an-ETL-task and Dataset-reference-for-ETL-tasks. 

4. On the Custom structure tables tab, complete the following steps. For details on custom structure tables, see Collecting-data-for-custom-structure-tables.
   1. In Table names, specify the buffer table identifier that you received while creating the buffer table by using the data mart API. The identifier starts with the BUF_  prefix. For details, see Datamart-API-endpoints. 
      Important: BUF_ prefix is automatically added to the name if the identifier is missing. 
   2. In Behavior, perform the following operations related to custom structure tables:
      • Load data into a buffer table in append or update mode.
      • Remove data from a buffer table in delete mode.
      • Truncate (empty) a buffer table.
5.  Click the Entity catalog tab and select one of the following options:
   • Shared Entity Catalog: Select if the other ETLs access the same entities that are used by this ETL.
     • From the Sharing with Entity Catalog list, select an entity catalog name that is shared between ETLs.
   • Private Entity Catalog: Select if you want to use this ETL independently.
6. On the SQL query tab, build the SQL extraction query.
   • SQL query hints: Provides hints for including the mandatory and optional parameters in the SQL extraction query.

   • SQL query: Specify the SQL extraction query. You can select the required parameters and operators from the list and add them to the text area. This tab is only available when a custom database query has to be built in order to get the data from a generic source. The query must be formatted using the format supported by the database extractor. Do not add comments in the SQL query. Commenting is based on line formatting and is not maintained when the query is stored and run from the database.

     About the extraction query

     You can use the :PARL placeholder parameter one or multiple times in a query; the parameter is replaced by the last saved lastcounter value.

     #Example 1
     SELECT TS,DURATION,DS_SYSNM,SYSNM,OBJNM,VALUE FROM TABLE WHERE TS > :PARL
       
     #Example 2
     SELECT TS,DURATION,DS_SYSNM,SYSNM,OBJNM,VALUE FROM TABLE WHERE TS > :PARL OR ACTIVITYDATE > :PARL
   • SQL parameters number: Select the number of custom parameters that you need to add to the query. You can add up to 10 custom parameters to the query.

7. Click the Connection parameters tab, and configure the following properties:

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   The following image shows the basic properties configuration.
   
   

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

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9. Click Save.
   The ETL tasks page shows the details of the newly configured Generic - Database (Java) ETL.

(Optional) B. Configuring the advanced properties

You can 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.
   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.
   Datasets	Specify the datasets that you want to add to the ETL run configuration. The ETL collects data of metrics that are associated with these datasets. Click Edit. Select one (click) or more (shift+click) datasets from the Available datasets list and click >> to move them to the Selected datasets list. Click Apply. The ETL collects data of metrics associated with the datasets that are available in the Selected datasets list.
   Default last counter	Set the default timestamp (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) to use when the ETL executed for the first time.

   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.

   Format customization

   Property	Description
   Timestamp format	Specify a format that should be used by the ETL if the user tables or CSV files use an unsupported format. <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS> is the supported format. Depending on the type of ETL used, you might need to specify a custom format.
   Percentage format	Reflects the format in which percentage metrics are imported. If the percentage metric is out of 1 then, select 0 to 1 If the percentage metric is out of 100 then, select 0 to 100

   SQL query

   Property	Description
   Lastcounter column	Specify which is the lastcounter column that will be used to identify new data; generally this is set as the timestamp (TS).
   Lastcounter type	Choose last counter type either as Date or Generic.

   Additional properties

   Property	Description
   List of properties	Specify additional properties for the ETL that act as user inputs during run. 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 view mode. Click Add. In the etl.additional.prop.n field, specify an additional property. Click Apply. Repeat this task to add more properties.

   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 . It uses one of the other ETLs that share a lookup to create a new entity. The default selection is False.

   Scheduling options

   Property	Description
   Hour mask	Specify a value to run the task only during particular hours within a day. For example, 0 – 23 or 1, 3, 5 – 12.
   Day of week mask	Select the days so that the task can be run only on the selected days of the week. To avoid setting this filter, do not select any option for this field.
   Day of month mask	Specify a value to run the task only on the selected days of a month. For example, 5, 9, 18, 27 – 31.
   Apply mask validation	Select False to temporarily turn off the mask validation without removing any values. The default selection is True.
   Execute after time	Specify a value in the hours:minutes format (for example, 05:00 or 16:00) to wait before the task is run. The task run begins only after the specified time is elapsed.
   Enqueueable	Specify whether you want to ignore the next run command or run it after the current task. Select one of the following options: False: Ignores the next run command when a particular task is already running. This is the default selection. True: Starts the next run command immediately after the current running task is completed.

3. Click Save.
   The ETL tasks page shows the details of the newly configured Generic - Database (Java) 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 check whether the Generic Database (Java) data is refreshed in the Workspace.

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.

Verify that the Generic Database data is refreshed:

1. Click Workspace.
2. Expand Generic - Database extractor (Java) > Systems.
3. In the left pane, verify that the hierarchy displays the database instances.
4. Click an instance, and click the Metrics tab in the right pane.
5. Check if the Last Activity column in the Configuration metrics and Performance metrics tables displays the current date.

The following image shows sample metrics data.

(For Custom structure tables only) Verify that the data is imported or updated in this buffer table:

1. Click Administration > Data marts. 
   The Data mart page lists the Out-of-the-box and custom data marts available in the system. The buffer tables are listed with the Type as Custom structure table. 

1. Click the name of the buffer table to view its contents. 

For details, see Managing-data-marts.