Adapter integrations enable the Operations Center server to connect to and communicate with various management systems.
Your environment is likely to have many AppManager integrations configured to communicate with AppManager Control Center. You will need to create and configure one Operations Center NetIQ AppManager Control Center adapter to import element hierarchy structures and data. You will also need to create and configure an Operations Center NetIQ AppManager adapter for each instance of AppManager. When you create the AppManager Control Center adapter, you can choose to have Operations Center discover the AppManager repositories that are connected to Control Center and create the required NetIQ AppManager adapters.
For ease-of-use, a NetIQ AppManager adapter is automatically created as a part of the procedure in Section 2.2, Installing Operations Center Server and Dashboard. You will need to configure the properties for this adapter, and then create additional adapters for all other instances of AppManager.
This section covers basic configuration of the NetIQ AppManager Control Center and NetIQ AppManager adapters. For information about additional configurations such as configuring for Windows Authentication, adding NetIQ Alarm Comments, and using SXL templates to transform event messages, see NetIQ AppManager
in the Operations Center Adapter and Integration Guide.
To configure the NetIQ AppManager Control Center adapter:
In a Java-enabled web browser, type http://server_name:80 to start the Operations Center console, where server_name is the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) hostname of the server that is running Operations Center and 80 is the default port setting on Windows. On UNIX, the default server port is 8080.
Log in using the login credentials for the default administrator account:
user name: admin
password: formula
As soon as possible, change the passwords on all default user accounts. For more information, see Special User and Group Accounts
in the Operations Center Security Management Guide.
(Conditional) If you have not previously created at least one AppManager adapter, Operations Center prompts you to create one. Click Yes to create an AppManager adapter.
By default, when the dialog to create the adapter opens, NetIQ AppManager Control Center is selected as the adapter type.
(Conditional) If at least one AppManager adapter exists and you are adding a Control Center adapter:
From the Explorer pane, expand Administration > Adapters.
Right-click NetIQ AppManager Control Center and select Properties.
In the left pane, click Adapter.
Specify the adapter properties.
The following properties relate to connectivity:
Control Center Version: The version of Control Center that is installed.
Database: The name of the Control Center repository (CCDB) and the jTDS properties for establishing a connection to the CCDB. The default is NQCCDB;loginTimeout=60;socketTimeout=300.
loginTimeout specifies a timeout, in seconds, for establishing the connection.
socketTimeout specifies a timeout, in seconds, for database communications. If there is a faulty network connection, the communications time out after this period.
If database queries require significant time to return results, to set a high enough socket timeout to alleviate the risk of the timeout being triggered while results are still being gathered on the database server. However, if the connection ends unexpectedly, setting the socket timeout value too high could result in the next query not being executed until the connection is re-established and the timeout value is reached.
For more information about jTDS properties, see The jTDS Project web site
If the CCDB is located on a named instance of a database, declare the instance name after the database name, separated by a semi-colon. For example:
NQCCDB;instance=SQL208R2
Database Type: The database type for the CCDB. The default type is mssql.
Hostname: The name of the SQL Server that hosts the CCDB.
Password: The password for connecting to the CCDB.
Port: The port on which the SQL Server listens. The default is 1433, which is the standard SQL Server port configuration.
User Name: The user name for connecting to the CCDB.
The following properties relate to scheduling and data retrieval:
SCM Job Delay: The number of seconds to wait after the core element structure is built before running the SCM job process. This process also updates element condition information.
Service Map Query Schedule: Specifies how often to run the query to update element drawings and layouts from the CCDB. The default is onstart & every 5 minutes between 00:00 and 23:59 on MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN.
As this is the most expensive query to run, schedule it to run less frequently or during non-peak hours.
State Query Schedule: Specifies how often to run the query to update element state information from the CCDB. The default is onstart & every 30 seconds between 00:00 and 23:59 on MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN.
Structure Query Schedule: Specifies how often to run the query to update element structures from the CCDB. The default is onstart & every 5 minutes between 00:00 and 23:59 on MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN.
The following properties are standard options for all Operations Center adapters:
Alarm Columns: A comma-separated list that determines which alarm columns display and the order in which the alarm items display (date/time, rule, etc.) in the Alarms view.
Hierarchy File: A file in the Operations_Center_installation_path/database directory that contains an XML description of the element hierarchy to build below the adapter element. The default is NetIQ(r) AppManager Control CenterHierarchy.xml. Do NOT change this value unless Technical Support instructs you to do so.
Max Runtime Info Alarms: Configuration for alarms used by the adapter for internal processing. The default is 200. Do NOT change this value unless Technical Support instructs you to do so.
Script.onError: A script that executes if the adapter fails. For example, the script can print the reason for the failure as a message using log.info(msg).
Script.onInitialized: A script that executes when the adapter initializes.
Script.onStarted: A script that executes when the adapter starts, either manually or automatically when the Operations Center server starts. The default is @templates/ControlCenter/OnDIStart.fs. Do NOT change this value unless Technical Support instructs you to do so.
Script.onStopped: A script that executes after manually stopping the adapter.
(Optional) To automatically start the adapter after starting the Operations Center server, select Start adapter automatically.
Click Create.
(Conditional) If you did not configure the adapter to start automatically, manually start the adapter by right-clicking the adapter object and selecting Start Adapter.
Verify that the adapter starts and that the adapter and service model hierarchies build successfully:
Monitor the adapter status. When the adapter successfully starts, the status is OK (green) with a Connection established message.
Click Enterprise > Elements and confirm that the adapter structure was successfully built.
Click Enterprise > Service Models to confirm that the Control Center structure was successfully built.
It might take 5 to 10 minutes for the Service Model hierarchy to build after the BSCM job runs.
(Optional) If you want Operations Center to discover the AppManager repositories (QDBs) that are connected to Control Center and create the required NetIQ AppManager adapters:
From the Explorer pane, expand Administration > Adapters.
Right-click NetIQ AppManager Control Center and select Properties.
In the left pane, click Adapter.
Click Discover.
Operations Center queries the Control Center database (CCDB) for connected QDBs. The Validation column indicates whether an adapter already exists for a QDB.
For QDBs without an adapter defined, select the ones for which you want to create an adapter and then click Next.
Specify the credentials for connecting to the QDBs, and then click Next.
If a single user name and password can connect to all of the QDBs, you can specify the credentials one time. If different credentials are required for different QDBs, you must specify the credentials for each QDB.
For information about specifying the AppManager adapter properties or manually creating an AppManager adapter, see the below procedure.
To configure NetIQ AppManager adapters:
In a Java-enabled web browser, type http://server_name:80 to start the Operations Center console, where server_name is the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) hostname of the server that is running Operations Center and 80 is the default port setting on Windows. On UNIX, the default server port is 8080.
Log in using the login credentials for the default administrator account:
user name: admin
password: formula
As soon as possible, change the passwords on all default user accounts. For more information, see Special User and Group Accounts
in the Operations Center Security Management Guide.
(Conditional) If you have not previously created at least one AppManager adapter, Operations Center prompts you to create one. Click Yes to create an AppManager adapter.
(Conditional) If at least one AppManager adapter exists and you are adding an adapter:
From the Explorer pane, expand Administration > Adapters.
Right-click NetIQ AppManager and select Properties.
In the left pane, click Adapter.
Specify the adapter properties.
AlarmColumns: A comma-separated list that determines which alarm columns display and the order in which the alarm items display (date/time, rule, etc.) in the Alarms view.
The default date/time in Operations Center is mapped to the LastOccurConsoleTime for AppManager. Agent occurrence times can be displayed using FirstOccurTimeString and LastOccurTimeString. For example:
Last Occurrence (Agent)=LastOccurTimeString
CacheEventDetails: Determines whether the AppManager adapter retains event details in memory. The event details are additional formatted text that is available as a pop-up window on some events (alarms).
The default behavior is to display event details only when users request them. If you have automations that interrogate the AgentMsglong alarm property, you might want to enable CacheEventDetails. If you enable the option, the cache will consume more memory and the AppManager adapter will take longer to start.
ControlCenterExtensions: Enables special extensions used with AppManager Control Center and enables the SCM job to communicate with the adapter. The default is false.
IMPORTANT:It is important to update the ControlCenterExtensions property to true.
DbHost: The name of the SQL Server that hosts the QDB.
DbName: The name of the QDB. The default is QDB.
If the QDB is located on a named instance of SQL Server, declare the instance name after the database name, separated by a semi-colon:
QDB;instance=instance_name
For example:
QDB;instance=SQL208R2
DbPassword: The password for connecting to the QDB.
DbPort: The port on which the SQL Server listens. The default is 1433, which is the standard SQL Server port configuration.
DbProperties: Enter a value when it is necessary to override a database connection property.
For example, some versions of SQL Server require setting AutoCommit to False, but the default setting in DbProperties is AutoCommit=true. Use DbProperties to set it to false.
To specify multiple properties, separate the name and value pairs with a comma.
DbUser: The user with unrestricted access to the QDB. The default is sa.
DiscoveryViews: A list of views to discover at adapter startup. The default is Master, which allows the discovery of all views that are in the Master management group in Control Center. Add custom views separated by a comma.
IMPORTANT:Do not remove Master from the DiscoveryViews property values, as it is required to view AppManager servers in Operations Center.
ReconTimer: The AppManager adapter schedules reconciliation events every x number of minutes following the completion of the previous reconciliation event. Use the ReconTimer property to specify the number of minutes for the time interval.
For example, if it takes 30 minutes to reconcile the differences each time and the schedule for ReconTimer is 15 minutes, the entire reconciliation event actually takes 45 minutes. The default is 0.
ReformatEventFields: Alarm column names that require Operations Center to truncate leading characters. For example, if the KPName column contains ###:NT_CPU but only NT_CPU should display, the entry is:
KPName=:
Use any character as the truncation delimiter. If more then one alarm column requires truncation, use a comma to separate the field name and delimiter value pairs. For example:
KPName=:,ChildComment=&.
Script.onError: A script that executes if the adapter fails. For example, the script can print the reason for the failure as a message using log.info(msg).
Script.onInitialized: A script that executes when the adapter initializes.
Script.onStarted: A script that executes when the adapter starts, either manually or automatically when the Operations Center server starts.
Script.onStopped: A script that executes after stopping the adapter.
(Optional) To automatically start the adapter after starting the Operations Center server, select Start adapter automatically.
Click Create.
(Conditional) If you did not configure the adapter to start automatically, manually start the adapter by right-clicking the adapter object and selecting Start Adapter.
Verify that the adapter starts successfully:
Monitor the adapter status. When the adapter successfully starts, the status is OK (green) with a Connection established message.
Click Enterprise > Elements and confirm that the adapter structure was successfully built.
If necessary, create and configure additional NetIQ AppManager adapters for each instance of AppManager in your environment.