eG Integration with Trouble Ticketing Systems
Contents
1. 20 Trouble Ticket Integration Using a Web Services Framework At run time this variable will change to report the exact user group been configured in ServiceDesk lt technician gt lt technician gt Should contain the static text that indicates the name of the technician responsible for resolving the alarm In the case of our standard output format eG_manager is the technician You can change this to reflect the name of any other technician who has lt level gt lt level gt Should indicate the support level In the case of our standard output format the support level is 7 lt status gt lt status gt Should contain the variable status that represents the status of the ticket At run time this variable will change to report the exact status lt service gt lt service gt Should contain the variable service that represents the name of the will change to to report the correct business service name business service impacted by the problem At run time this variable 10 The implementation of eG integration with ServiceDesk exists in a Java class file that is jarred with the REST API files required for connecting to ServiceDesk and a set of library files that support the implementation class file In eG this jar file is referred to as the TT integration archive file This jar file named ServiceDesk jar is available in the lt EG_INSTALL_DIR gt manager lib directory on the eG manager host2. By selecting the required check boxes against Allowed alarms you can indicate the alarm priorities for which the eG manager needs to execute the specified command To track the status of the command execution and to troubleshoot issues with the same use the ttexec log file that is automatically created in the lt EG_INSTALL_DIR gt manager logs directory You can specify the maximum size up to which this log file can grow in the Log file maximum size text box When the file reaches the specified size limit the details originally logged in the ttexec log file will be moved to another log file named ttexec log 1 and the newer information will be logged in the ttexec log file instead This log rotation mechanism helps ensure that the log file does not grow beyond control You can even indicate the type of information you want logged in the ttexec log file By default the log files capture both the errors and the standard output of the specified Command accordingly the Log entries for stdout also flag is set to Yes by default A sample log is provided below where both standard output and errors have been logged 05 11 200 1603252703 UNO Alamaicl M192 168 10 153 12572529030926 p ew OS ZOOOY lt wiMis Wikise 25a POr iey MCiiliewecilL Component Type VGeinieieie ComponentName gen1l33 NULL Layer Application Processes Desc Processes Process not running cmd gen133 Service AlarmId TOZ MGS 10 133 25752900A E WANT Hoy
3. Normal o ComponentType ComponentType The problem component type o ComponentName ComponentName The problem component name o Layer Layer the protocol layer to which the problem relates o Desc Desc a brief description of the problem This will include a pipe separated list of the following fields the site name if relevant to the test test name the alarm string a textual description of the problem and measurement host The description is not applicable if the alarm severity is Normal o Service s Service If more than one service is impacted this will include a comma separated list of services o DD DD This parameter is not available by default If required you can configure this parameter additionally for the command so that the output includes detailed diagnosis information In the output DD will be represented in the following format DDcolumn1 DDcolumn2 DDcolumn3 DDdata1 DDdata2 DDdata3 12 Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface In the eG user interface the detailed diagnosis pertaining to a single test measure descriptor combination is typically presented in a tabular format with rows and columns Accordingly in the command output for a specific test measure descriptor combination the variables DDco um1 DDcolumn2 etc will be substituted by the names of the columns in the detailed diagnosis and the variables DDdata DDdata2 etc will report the
4. against the TT system URL specify the Web Services Description Language WSDL URL via which the eG manager should connect to the web services interface of the third party TT system This URL should be of the following format that is recognized by the third party system If the connection needs to be authenticated then provide a valid user name and password against TT system user name and TT system password text boxes respectively Then against TT integration output format describe the format in which alarm output is to be sent to the specified TT system URL To implement the web services based integration of eG with a TT system a Java class file needs to be written 22 Trouble Ticket Integration Using a Web Services Framework 12 13 14 and then jarred along with the following e Web services API files required for connecting to the TT system e A set of library files that support the Java class file containing the integration logic To know how to write this Java class file contact support eginnovations com Once the Java class file is ready make sure you jar it with the files mentioned above eG refers to this jar file as the TT integration archive file For the integration to work the TT integration ar should be in the lt EG_INSTALL_DIR gt managerllib directory on the eG manager host To do so first set the Do you want to upload the integration archive flag to Yes and click the Update button alongside This wil
5. alarm Modification of an alarm can include any Introduction of the following cases e A change in the alarm priority This could be a switch to a higher or lower priority e A change in the alarm description For example originally a usage related alarm may have been raised on disk D of a server Later disk C of the same server might have experienced a space crunch causing another alarm to be raised In this case the description of the original alarm will change to indicate that both disks C and D are experiencing a problem but the alarm ID will not change Changes in alarm description may also happen if additional tests being run for the same layer indicate a problem A change may involve either an addition to the description as in the example above or a removal of one or more descriptors e g the space usage of disk C in the example above returning to a normal condition e A change in the list of impacted services Each alarm is associated with a start date and time The start date and time signifies when the alarm was first generated by the eG manager Any change in the state of the alarm during a subsequent time does not cause a change in the start date and time of the alarm Hence even if an alarm changes in priority at a later time its start date and time remain the same until the alarm is finally closed When an alarm is closed a normal alert is generated which will bear the current date and time In or
6. exceeds the specified limit then the output will not return the list of affected services and the detailed diagnosis information instead an empty string will appear next to the Services qualifier If the command length continues to exceed the specified limit even after truncating the services list and the DD the command execution will return an error Specify the length of the problem description in the Problem description length text box If the actual problem description exceeds the specified length the characters that fall beyond the specified limit will be truncated Finally click on the Update button to save the changes As described above the eG manager offers a high degree of flexibility in the configuration of the command that should be executed The periodicity at which the eG manager checks alarms and determines what information it should send to a TT system is determined by the setting of the MailCheckPeriod attribute in the MISC_ARGS section of the eg_services ini file in the lt EG_INSTALL_DIR gt manager config directory By default this value is 180 seconds 3 minutes 17 Trouble Ticket Integration Using a Web Services Framework Trouble Ticket Integration Using a Web Services Framework eG Enterprise can integrate with TT systems that support a web services API The eG manager establishes an HTTP S connection to a web services URL on the third party system and communicates alarm information to that TT system using
7. gt lt requester gt Should contain a static text indicating the user requesting for a 19 Trouble Ticket Integration Using a Web Services Framework trouble ticket Using ServiceDesk s self service portal you can add edit or remove requesters In the case of the standard output format above a requester named e G_manager has apparently being created Therefore the static text eG_manager is enclosed within these tags If the name of the requester is changed in ServiceDesk make sure that this text is also changed lt subject gt lt subject gt Should contain a slash separated list of variables representing the subject of the trouble ticket In the case of the standard output format above the following variables have been used in the subject and this is what they denote cname at run time this variable will change to display the exact name of the problem component cname at run time this variable will change to report the problem component type pdesc at run time this variable will change to report the problem description prior at run time this variable will change to report the problem priority You can add remove the subject variables at will but you cannot change the variable representation In other words you cannot change cname to name when defining the output format lt description gt lt description gt Should contain the variable that represents the
8. its web services API Upon receipt of an alarm the TT system automatically generates modifies closes trouble tickets Without the need for any complex instrumentation eG Enterprise can readily integrate with Manage Engine s ServiceDesk through its web services interface Section 4 1 of this chapter describes the procedure to integrate with ServiceDesk To integrate with any other help desk system that supports a web services interface you can easily fine tune eG s web services framework to suit your needs Section 4 2 of this chapter describes how this can be achieved 4 1 Integrating with ManageEngine s ServiceDesk ManageEngine ServiceDesk is a comprehensive Help Desk and Asset Management software that provides help desk agents and IT managers an integrated console to monitor and maintain the assets and IT requests generated from the users of the IT resources in an organization To integrate the eG manager with ServiceDesk do the following 1 Login to the eG administrative interface as admin with password admin 2 Invoke the Admin tile menu and select the Manager option from the Settings tile 3 From the MANAGER SETTINGS panel to the left of the page that appears select the TT Manager option 4 Scroll down the right panel to view the Trouble Ticket TT Integration section see Figure 4 1 18 Trouble Ticket Integration Using a Web Services Framework Trouble Ticket TT Integration Enable TT integration Yes No TT i
9. line interface that can be configured to automatically execute TT system specific commands as and when alarms are added modified or deleted in eG Enterprise This interface offers a way of communication between the eG Manager and a TT system e The eG Manager can also forward its alarm information to any web services interface that the Trouble Ticketing System may support to trigger the automatic creation closure as the case may be of trouble tickets Introduction Each chapter in this document discusses each of these integration modes in detail 1 1 3 Handling eG Alarms in a Trouble Ticketing System A trouble ticket system must be configured to process alarms reported to it by an eG manager The alarm ID must be used to uniquely identify an alarm The functions that the TT system must perform are e Determine if an alarm ID indicates a new alarm If yes open a new trouble ticket e If an alarm ID indicates an existing alarm check the priority of the alarm If the priority is Normal this implies that the alarm has been closed in eG Enterprise Hence close the corresponding trouble ticket in the TT system e If an alarm ID indicates an existing alarm and the priority of the alarm is not Normal update the corresponding trouble ticket with the current priority of the alarm and with its current description These functions often involve scripting configurations on the TT system Once the above steps are accomplished by reviewing th
10. lt User gt lt ComponentName gt apache7 7077 lt ComponentName gt lt lt lt lt lt ComponentType gt Web_server lt ComponentType gt sayer gt WEB_ TRANSACTIONS lt Layer gt Problem gt High request rate Current alarms page gopi lt Problem gt lt eG Alarm gt Note the difference in the format of the Alarmld This variable which is typically a numeric value has been expressed as lt ManagerIP gt _ lt a long value gt This is done to prevent duplication of alarm IDs across the multiple managers in a redundant manager cluster By default alarm IDs generated by the eG manager start from 1 whenever the manager restarts Therefore the UseUniqueld parameter in the TTMAIL section of the eg_services ini file in the EG_INSTALL_DIR manager config directory is set to Yes by default In order to ensure that alarm IDs are not re used i e do not start from 1 when the manager restarts set this parameter to No If need be you can make sure that the TT mails indicate the alarm priority using numbers instead of priority names such as critical major minor or normal For this purpose you will have to set the PriorityAsNumeric flag in the TTMAIL section to Yes By default this flag is set to No indicating that the priority of an alarm is indicated using the priority name by default If this flag is set to Yes instead then the default priority name number mappings defined in the TMAIL section will automatica
11. problem description i e pdesc At run time this variable will change to report the precise problem description lt callbackURL lt callbackURL gt Provide a valid callback URL within these tags When the cause for an eG alarm is resolved ServiceDesk will invoke this URL The URL functions as a notification to the eG manager indicating that the ticket is resolved If this URL callback URL is not provided ServiceDesk will not perform any additional operation on the ticket lt requesttemplate gt lt requesttemplate gt Within these tags specify the name of the request template to be used if any If no request template applies as in the case of our example above then enclose a hyphen within these tags Using ServiceDesk one can create different incident request templates each configured with a set of fields using which an incident is to be reported lt priority gt lt priority gt Should contain the variable that represents the problem priority i e prior At run time this variable will change to report the precise problem priority lt ayer lt layer gt Should contain the variable that represents the problem layer i e layer At run time this variable will change to report the problematic layer lt group gt lt group gt Should contain the variable that represents the user support group to which the technician responsible for resolving this alarm belongs
12. values that correspond to each column The detailed diagnosis information reported in the CLI output will typically be the DD information available in the eG database at the time of command execution by the eG manager A single alarm could have multiple tests measures and descriptors associated with it For each test measure descriptor combination there will be a corresponding DD entry in the command output line subject to the length restriction discussed in the Limitations section below The DD output for a single test measure descriptor combination will include the column names and data In the output these columns and their corresponding data will be separated using the separator If a specific combination does not have DD configured or there is no DD reported for that descriptor a value will be reported The DD output for each test measure descriptor combination will be separated using Detailed diagnosis information for a test measure descriptor combination could include rows of data In the command output the separator is used to separate multiple rows of DD data Each row of data in the DD would report values for several columns The values that correspond to each column will be separated using in the DD output 13 Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface A sample standard output of the default Command specification is given below Alera VIZ TEG LO WSs 126460595077655 S
13. DAIN Huei 30 ZOLOQY wintia ViSeasenan Priority 1 ComponentType Host system ComponentName win NULL Layer Operating System Desc SystemDetails High CPU utilization Processor 0 vin SystenmDerteila res menory 1s Mop Processoie O wim eree O C EURARGS 692 1 60 csrss 760 0 53 services 6960 53 js PID MEM ARGS 4032 7 83 tomcat 2112 6 33 firefox 3472 5 52 dbvis According to the above output the following alarm information will be sent to the third party TT system Qualifier Variable AlarmId 192 168 10 133_1256878963888 DATE 30 10 2009 TIME 10 32 43 Priority Critical ComponentType Generic ComponentName gen133 NULL Layer Application Processes Desc In our example the command line output clubs the information pertaining to two alarms related to a single test The description of the first alarm indicates the following the site affected if applicable In the case of our example no web site has been impacted by the Critical problem therefore only a hyphen is displayed instead in the output line The test that reported the problem In the case of our example this is SystemDetails test The alarm description In the case of the sample output this is High CPU utilization Processor_0 The measurement host In the case of the sample output this is win The description of the second alarm includ
14. Enterprise system Refer to the eG User Manual to know how to configure the mail server To direct email alerts generated by the eG manager to the TT system open the eg_services ini file in the lt EG_INSTALL_DIR gt manager config directory Specify the following in the TTMAIL section of the file TTMATL MailSubject MailTo OutputFormat lt eG Alarm gt n lt Priority gt prior lt Priority gt n lt AlarmId gt Salarmid lt AlarmId gt n lt Us er gt Suser lt User gt n lt ComponentName gt cname lt ComponentName gt n lt ComponentType gt Sctype lt Compone ntType gt n lt Layer gt layer lt Layer gt n lt Problem gt pdesc lt Problem gt n lt eG Alarm gt SeparateMails No IncludeAllCompUser No AllowedAlarms critical major minor UseUniqueld Yes PriorityAsNumeric No Critical Major 2 Minor 3 Normal 0 ApplyPriorityForAllTTMails No TestsList All Trouble Ticket Integration Using the TT Mail Interface SendNormalTTMails Yes Against the MailSubject parameter provide an appropriate subject for the alert mail To ensure that the mail subject reflects the problem component name problem component type the problem priority etc variables can be used in the MailSubject definition in the following format a armid user cname ctype layer prior pdesc The variable ga armid in the MailSubject ensures that the subject of the TT mail contains the alarm id Similarly the user cname ctype variables represent t
15. If changes are made to one more class API library files that are jarred to ServiceDesk jar you will have to regenerate the jar file and re upload it to the eG manager In such a case set the Do you want to upload the integration archive flag to Yes and click the Update button alongside This will invoke Figure 4 2 UPLOAD FILES Wrapper class ServiceDesk class TT Integration Archive File Figure 4 2 Uploading the TT integration jar file to the eG manager Here specify the name of the Wrapper class of the TT integration archive file and provide the full path to the TT Integration Archive File to be uploaded Use the Browse button for the path specification Finally click the Upload button 11 Then specify the TT system API key The authentication between ServiceDesk and the eG manager through this API key ManageEngine generates a unique key for the user whose credentials are specified against TT system user name and TT system password parameters in Figure 4 1 above The eG manager will not be able to use the ServiceDesk API if this key is not specified or an invalid key is specified 12 Then indicate what type of eG alarms need to be forwarded to ServiceDesk by selecting the check boxes corresponding to the alarm priorities listed in the TT system allowed alarms Trouble tickets will be generated by ServiceDesk only for the alarms of the chosen priorities 13 Finally click the Update button 21 Trouble Tic
16. OS 2009 Witla Hlos 257024 Priori ty Major ComponentType Generic ComponentName gen133 NULL Layer Application Processes Desc Processes Process not running notepad gen133 Service 03 11 2009 18 36 12 ERROR Executing command ech AlarmId MLO LG LO 13S 12572539662597 DAWE Now OS 20097 wrm 8ss2sa7 Briority Normal ComponentType Generic ComponentName gen133 NULL Layer Application Processes Desc Processes Process not running cmd gen133 Service TiMleriitel LIZ leg LO 1S5 1257253300255 DAE Wow 03 ZOOS WiMs VIE S2 SGU Priority Normal ComponentType Generic ComponentName gen133 NULL Layer Application Processes Desc Processes Process not running notepad gen133 Service 16 Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface 11 12 13 14 03 11 2009 18 36 12 ERROR ech is not recognized as an internal or external command If you want to capture only the errors set the Log entries for stdout also flag to No From the Date format to be used list box select the format in which the date time of the problem should be reported in the command output Specify the maximum permissible length of the command in the Command length text box By default the command line can have a maximum of 8191 characters You can alter this default setting by specifying a length of your choice in the Command length text box If the actual command length
17. PI is capable of interpreting problem inputs it receives and automatically generating updating trouble tickets only if the inputs are in XML format This is why by default the eG manager sends its alarm output in XML format to ServiceDesk The standard format as displayed against TT integration output format in Figure 4 1 is as follows lt Operation gt n lt Details gt n lt requester gt eG manager lt requester gt n lt subject gt cname ctype Spdesc Sprior lt subject gt n lt description gt Spdesc lt description gt n lt callbackURL gt CustomRep ortHandler do lt callbackURL gt n lt requesttemplate gt lt requesttemplate gt n lt priority gt prior lt priority gt n lt layer gt layer lt layer gt n lt group gt Sus er lt group gt n lt technician gt eG manager lt technician gt n lt level gt 1 lt level gt n lt status gt status lt status gt n lt service gt Service lt service gt n lt Details gt n lt Operation gt The text enclosed within angular brackets eg lt Operation gt are the XML tags that ServiceDesk s web services API recognizes These tags cannot be changed The text enclosed within an opening and a closing tag can either be static text or a variable These tags and the values they contain are discussed hereunder lt Operation gt n lt Details gt n The operations performed with REST APIare based on the operation parameter and is sent to the url via HTTP POST method lt requester
18. TE DATE TIME TIME Priority Priority ComponentType ComponentType ComponentName ComponentName Layer Layer Desc Desc Service s SService Command Arguments Allowed alarms Critical Major Minor Normal Log file maximum size MB 1 Log entries for stdout also 9 Yes No Date format to be used MMM dd yyyy v Command length chars 8191 Problem description length chars 6000 Figure 3 1 eG Manager settings for TT System CLI integration 5 Set the Enable CLI parameter in Figure 3 1 to Yes to enable this capability 6 In the Command text box echo is displayed by default indicating that the eG manager will execute an echo command by default to communicate with the TT system 7 The Command Arguments text box displays the default input parameters that the echo command takes during execution These default parameters are as follows AlarmId AlarmId DATE DATE TIME TIME Priority Priority ComponentType ComponentType ComponentName ComponentName Layer Layer Desc Desc Service s Service As you can see the each parameter is represented by a qualifier and a variable name While the qualifier is typically prefixed by a hyphen the variable name is prefixed by a symbol These variables will be substituted by actual values during runtime Using the qualifiers you will be able to tell what value follows For instance at runtime the parameter Priority Priority could appear as Priority Critical This implies that
19. Typically a component will be associated with those users who are responsible for resolving the issues with it However some users will be authorized by the eG Enterprise system to oversee the performance of all the components in the environment for eg the default users of the eG Enterprise system admin and supermonitor In most cases the responsibilities of such users will be more supervisory in nature and not administrative i e might not involve troubleshooting and problem redressal Therefore by default the eG Enterprise system will hide the ID of this user from the user list displayed in the TT mail output To ensure that the user list displays such a user ID too set the IncludeAllCompUser parameter in the eg_services ini file in the lt EG_INSTALL_DIR gt manager config to Yes By default this parameter will be set to No So when an email alert is received by the TT system the TT system generates a corresponding trouble ticket based on the information sent via mail The email interface of the TT system will record and maintain the alarm id and trouble ticket id mapping so that when the status of an existing alarm changes for example change in alarm priority change in alarm description etc the corresponding trouble ticket id is automatically updated with the change Similarly if an alarm is closed then upon receipt of an email reflecting the closure of the alarm the corresponding trouble ticket id will also be aut
20. arm to be raised In this case the description of the original alarm will change to indicate that both disks C and D are experiencing a problem but the alarm ID will not change Changes in alarm description may also happen if additional tests being run for the same layer indicate a problem A change may involve either an addition to the description as in the example above or a removal of one or more descriptors e g the space usage of disk C in the example above returning to a normal condition e A change in the list of impacted services If the ApplyPriorityForAllTTMails flag is set to Yes then the eG manager will send an email alert into the TT system Trouble Ticket Integration Using the TT Mail Interface even if one of the above modifications occur on an existing alarm as long as the priority of the modified alarm belongs to the list of priorities configured against AllowedAlarms On the other hand if the ApplyPriorityForAllTTMails flag is set to No then the eG manager will send email alerts only for every new alarm ID i e for the first alarm of an ID In this case the manager will ignore all subsequent changes to the priority of the alarm In the case of a redundant setup the TT mail output will slightly differ Given below is the sample output of a TT mail in a redundant manager setup lt eG Alarm gt IDEA GICAL IEW MOLING IER DICT GVE IEW lt AlarmId gt 192 168 10 7_1125999629278 lt AlarmId gt lt User gt balaji
21. d user cname ctype layer pdesc during run time will display the alarm priority alarm id the user associated with the problem component the problem component s name the problem component type the problem layer and the problem description as the case may be In a TT mail the value of each of the defined variables will be enclosed within the opening and closing tags defined in the OutputFormat For example take the case of the specification lt Priority gt prior lt Priority gt In the TT mail for a critical alarm this specification will appear as lt riority gt critical lt Priority gt These tags serve as qualifiers for the Trouble Ticket Integration Using the TT Mail Interface enclosed values In other words they indicate what value is displayed within These tags can also be modified if need be However the dollared variable names cannot be changed n acts as a separator for the values A sample TT mail output has been provided below lt eG Alarm gt lt Priority gt Normal lt Priority gt lt AlarmId gt 2 lt AlarmId gt lt User gt john lt User gt lt ComponentName gt king 7001 lt ComponentName gt lt ComponentType gt WebLogic server lt ComponentType gt lt Layer gt WL_SERVICE lt Layer gt lt Problem gt Many invocations DD lt Problem gt lt eG Alarm gt If the problem component is associated with multiple users then the user variable will display a comma separated user list
22. der to avoid conflicts duplication of alarm IDs generated by each of the managers in a redundant eG manager cluster the alarm ID is expressed as a string that is of the form lt eG_Manager gt _ lt numeric_value gt where the lt numeric_value gt is a timestamp of when the alarm was first generated Prior to generating an alarm the eG managers in a cluster synchronize with each other to ensure that duplicate alarms are not generated or that different alarm IDs are not generated for the same problem As in the case of email alerts and SNMP traps each manager in the cluster is responsible for generating alarms for agents that are directly reporting to the manager 1 1 2 Integration with Trouble Ticketing Systems The eG manager can be configured so that whenever an alarm undergoes a change either generation modification or closure the manager communicates this information to a TT system This communication can be in any of the forms mentioned below e In recent times many trouble ticketing systems have been found to embed a unique mail interface that receives email alerts of problems in the environment The eG Enterprise system can be configured to use this interface to send alarms generated by the eG manager as email alerts to the trouble ticketing system Based on the mails so received the trouble ticketing system may generate trouble tickets and forward them to the concerned maintenance personnel e The eG Manager supports a command
23. e TT mail However if every problem event in the environment should generate a separate TT mail then set the SeparateMails flag to Yes In such a case the variables in the MailSubject will be substituted by the corresponding details from the problem information Next specify the mail id to which the alerts need to be delivered against the MailTo parameter Multiple mail IDs can also be specified as a comma separated list The OutputFormat parameter signifies the format in which the alarm content needs to be mailed The default contents of a TT mail are characterized by the following OutputFormat specification lt eG Alarm gt n lt Priority gt prior lt Priority gt n lt AlarmId gt alarmid lt AlarmId gt n lt User gt Suser lt Use r gt n lt ComponentName gt cname lt ComponentName gt n lt ComponentType gt Sctype lt ComponentType gt n lt Lay r gt layer lt Layer gt n lt Problem gt Spdesc lt Problem gt n lt eG Alarm gt As stated earlier a single TT mail can comprise of details pertaining to numerous alarms Every such alarm definition within a TT mail will typically begin with the tag lt eG_A arm gt and end with the tag lt eG_A arm gt This essentially indicates that the details contained within these tags pertain to a single alarm These tags can be changed if so required For example you can specify lt A arm_info gt and lt Alarm_Info gt instead of lt eG_A arm gt and lt eG_Alarm gt The variables prior alarmi
24. e eG manager can be configured to different modes of integration with a TT system be it email integration command line integration or web services based integration Since the eG manager forwards the current status of an alarm to the TT system and since such transmission is done only at periodic intervals the eG Enterprise TT system integration does not capture all state transitions in the infrastructure being monitored For instance if the MailCheckPeriod setting is 3 mins an event that happens and gets corrected within 1 min is never captured in the TT system Consider changing the MailCheckPeriod setting to a lower value upto 1sec if you require higher sensitivity in trouble ticket tracking Obviously lower the value of the MailCheckPeriod greater is the overhead on the eG manager Trouble Ticket Integration Using the TT Mail Interface Trouble Ticket Integration Using the TT Mail Interface The eG manager can be configured so that whenever an alarm undergoes a change either generation modification or closure the manager communicates this information to a TT system This communication can be in the form of formatted email messages that can be processed by a TT system using email interfaces that it supports This communication will take effect only if the eG license enables trouble ticket integration Before performing the configuration ensure that a mail server and an admin mail id have been configured for the eG
25. e reported 696 as the PID 0 53 as the CPU js as the ARGS For the second test measure descriptor combination i e for the Free memory measure of the descriptor Processor_O reported by the SystemDetails test the DD output includes the following The columns in the DD are as follows PID MEM and ARGS as in arguments The DD for this test measure combination includes three rows of data In the first row of data the following values will be reported 4032 as the PID 7 83 as the MEM tomcat as the ARGS In the second row of data the following values will be reported 2112 as the PID 6 33 as the MEM firefox as the ARGS In the third row of data the following values will be reported 15 Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface 10 3472 as the PID 5 52 as the MEM 7 dbvis as the ARGS e DD information will be formatted for better display in eG user interface From the CLI however no such special formatting can be effected on the DD output e If an alert is raised on multiple descriptors hyphen will be provided if DD is not available for a specific descriptor Note e Detailed diagnosis could have special characters e g double quotes that may require special handling when passed to a CLI e If the command line execution fails when including DD CLI will resume execution by excluding the DD so that the alert does not get lost
26. e status of the trouble tickets administrators can be immediately aware of the current status of the infrastructure being monitored without having to login to the eG Enterprise console Introduction If a standalone i e non redundant eG manager is restarted all outstanding alarms and hence all open trouble tickets will be closed After the restart if an old problem re occurs the restarted manager will assign a new alarm ID to this problem as a result new trouble tickets will be opened for such problems In a redundant configuration when a manager is restarted it checks if the other manager is available If the other manager in the cluster is not available all outstanding alarms will be closed On the other hand if the other manager in the cluster is available then the manager being restarted will synchronize alarm information with the other manager When it detects a problem the restarted manager checks to see if the other manager in the cluster has already assigned an alarm ID to this problem If so then the restarted manager assigns the same ID to the problem In such a case new trouble tickets will not be opened for the existing problems In rare instances when there are rapid alarm transitions eg from critical to normal to critical state for the same component type component name layer priority combination in a redundant eG manager configuration the same alarm ID may be re used to refer to the new alarm The sam
27. e trouble tickets to be closed as and when an alarm is removed in eG Enterprise 1 1 How the eG Enterprise to TT System Integration Works 1 1 1 Alarms in eG Enterprise To understand how the integration of the eG manager with a trouble ticketing system works lets first consider what is an alarm An alarm in eG Enterprise is identified by an Alarm ID At any given instant of time an Alarm ID is a unique combination of the following attributes The problem component type a b The problem component i e network device application etc o The problem layer d The problem priority Critical Major Minor The eG monitoring interface lists alarms that currently exist in the eG Enterprise system The goal of the eG Enterprise integration with TT systems is to be able to forward updated information on current alarms to the TT system Every time there is a state change e g change of priority or correction of a problem detected in the monitored environment the eG manager checks the combination of component component type layer and priority combination for all open problems with their previous values to determine whether a new alarm has been generated an existing alarm has been modified or whether an existing alarm has been closed If a new alarm has been generated the eG manager assigns a distinct alarm ID for this alarm If an existing alarm has been modified or closed the eG manager retains the earlier assigned alarm ID for this
28. eG Integration With Trouble Ticketing Systems eG Enterprise v6 Restricted Rights Legend The information contained in this document is confidential and subject to change without notice No part of this document may be reproduced or disclosed to others without the prior permission of eG Innovations Inc eG Innovations Inc makes no warranty of any kind with regard to the software and documentation including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose Trademarks Microsoft Windows Windows NT Windows 2003 and Windows 2000 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in United States and or other countries The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners Copyright 2015 eG Innovations Inc All rights reserved The copyright in this document belongs to eG Innovations Inc Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user Table of Contents INTRODUCTION E 1 1 1 How the eG Enterprise to TT System Integration WOrkS ccceeeeeeseesessseeeseeseeseeececseesesseeseeseeaeeseseesesaeesesseeaeeaeeeeeees 1 1 1 1 Alarms in 6G Enter prises sss ass casisisssdsssesssansessessasens igtasesscosssusasivssesseeadusesbeasivesteagevatsapavoss cassasatees sevaucessvasaaeaseossdansevaeess 1 1 1 2 Integration with Trouble Ticketing Systems s i sccsscsscoassds lt c
29. eaes 19 Figure 4 2 Uploading the TT integration jar file to the eG manager Figure 4 3 Integrating the eG manager with anu third party TT system that supports a web services API cccsscesseseeeeceeceseeseeseeeeeeeeeeeeeneenee 22 Figure 4 4 Uploading the TT integration jar file to the CG manager eceeecceseeseeseeseeeeceeeeseesecsecsecseeesceseesecsecsecseeeeeaesaeesececeseseeaeeaeeaeeeeerseeeeaeeate 23 Introduction Introduction eG Enterprise includes extensive monitoring capabilities for IT Infrastructure components Problems detected by eG products can be reported to users in various ways via the web over email and via SNMP traps to any SNMP console Many enterprises use Trouble Ticketing TT systems to track problems with their IT infrastructures Besides tracking the current problems a trouble ticketing system enables an operator to dispatch service requests to the appropriate maintenance personnel Maintenance personnel can use the trouble ticket system to update and monitor the status of current problems and follow these through to final resolution The integration of eG Enterprise with TT systems facilitates the following actions to be automatically performed in the TT system based on the open alarms in eG Enterprise e trouble tickets to be opened in the TT systems as and when a new alarm is detected by eG Enterprise e trouble tickets to be modified as and when an existing alarm is modified in eG Enterprise
30. es the following the site affected if applicable In the case of the second alarm also no web site has been impacted by the Critical problem therefore only a hyphen is displayed instead in the output line The test that reported the problem In the case of our example this is SystemDetails test The alarm description In the case of the sample output this is Free memory is low Processor_0 The measurement host In the case of the sample output this is 14 Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface win Service Since no service has been impacted by the problem at hand only a is displayed here instead DD The sample output above includes the DD information pertaining to two test measure descriptor combinations For the first test measure descriptor combination i e for the CPU utilization measure of the descriptor Processor_QO reported by the SystemDetails test the DD output includes the following The columns in the DD are as follows PID CPU and ARGS as in arguments The DD for this test measure combination includes three rows of data In the first row of data the following values will be reported 692 as the PID 1 60 as the CPU csrss as the ARGS In the second row of data the following values will be reported 760 as the PID 0 53 as the CPU services as the ARGS In the third row of data the following values will b
31. he user with whom the alarm is associated the name of the problem component and the problem component type respectively Likewise the ayer prior and pdesc variables denote the problem layer the alarm priority and the alarm description respectively The is the separator but it can be changed You can rearrange the order of the variables and even omit a few variables if need be but the variable names and the symbol preceding the name should not be changed A sample subject has been provided below 1 john printer NULL Host_system NETWORK Critical Network connection down This mail subject has been described below gt 1is the alarm id john is the user with whom the problem component is associated printer NULL is the hostname of the problem component Host_system is the component type NETWORK is the layer name Vv Vv V WV WV Critical is the alarm priority gt Network connection down is the alarm description Also note that such a mail subject specification will work only if the SeparateMails flag in the TTMAIL section is switched on By default this flag is set to No indicating that a single TT mail will comprise of details pertaining to all the alarms that were raised by the eG Enterprise system during that point in time In such a case the variables in the MailSubject cannot be substituted by the corresponding problem information in this case therefore by default eGTTMail will appear as the subject of th
32. ket Integration Using a Web Services Framework 4 2 Integrating with any Third party TT System that Supports a Web Services Interface To achieve this follow the steps below 1 2 3 4 10 11 Login to the eG administrative interface as admin with password admin Invoke the Admin tile menu and select the Manager option from the Settings tile From the MANAGER SETTINGS panel to the left of the page that appears select the TT Manager option Scroll down the right panel to view the Trouble Ticket TT Integration section see Figure 4 1 Trouble Ticket TT Integration Enable TT integration Yes No TT integration system OTHERS v Name Sales Force TT system URL http www salesforce com TT system user name uname TT system password eoccce lt Component gt comp lt Component gt lt Priority gt Sprior lt Priority gt TT integration output format Do you want to upload integration archieve 5 Yes No TT system API key AHMPP3269P TT system allowed alarms Critical Major Minor Normal Figure 4 3 Integrating the eG manager with anu third party TT system that supports a web services API To enable integration via a web services interface set the Enable TT integration flag in Figure 4 3 to Yes By default this is set to No From the TT integration system drop down select OTHERS as the TT system with which the eG manager should integrate Next specify the Name of the TT system you want to integrate with Then
33. l invoke Figure 4 4 UPLOAD FILES Wrapper class Salesforce class TT Integration Archive File Upload Figure 4 4 Uploading the TT integration jar file to the eG manager Here specify the name of the Wrapper class of the TT integration archive file and provide the full path to the TT Integration Archive File to be uploaded Use the Browse button for the path specification Finally click the Upload button Then specify the TT system API key The authentication between the third party TT system and the eG manager is through this API key The eG manager will not be able to use the web service API of the TT system if this key is not specified or an invalid key is specified Then indicate what type of eG alarms need to be forwarded to the TT system by selecting the check boxes corresponding to the alarm priorities listed in the TT system allowed alarms Trouble tickets will be generated by the TT system only for the alarms of the chosen priorities Finally click the Update button 23 Conclusion Conclusion The eG Enterprise Suite has been specially designed keeping in mind the unique requirements of IT infrastructure operators For more information on the eG family of products please visit our web site at www eginnovations com For more details regarding eG Enterprise suite of products and the details of the metrics collected by the eG agents please refer to the following documents e Administering the eG Enterprise S
34. lly apply These default mappings are as follows Critical 1 Major 2 Minor 3 According to these mappings if the PriorityAsNumeric flag is set to Yes then in every TT mail sent subsequently critical priority will be represented by number 1 major priority by number 2 and minor priority by number 3 If required you can even change the numbers that should represent the alarm priorities For instance your priority name number mapping can be as follows Critical 10 Major 11 Minor 12 You can even configure the specific tests for which TT mails are to be sent using the TestsList parameter in the TTMAIL section By default this parameter is set to A indicating that the eG manager by default sends out TT mails for alarms related to all tests To restrict TT mail transmission to specific tests provide a comma separated list of tests against TestsList While providing test names here make sure you provide the lt nterna testnames gt and not Trouble Ticket Integration Using the TT Mail Interface the display names For instance say you want TT mails to be sent only when the eG manager raises alarms for the Processes test and the SystemDetails test To achieve this your TestsList specification should be as follows TestsList ProcessTest SystemTest In the specification above the internal name for Processes test is ProcessTest and the same for SystemDetals test is SystemTest To determine the internal name of a test do the fol
35. lowing 1 Open the eg _lang ini file from the lt EG_INSTALL_DIR gt manager config directory where is the language code that represents the language preference that you have set using the USER PROFILE page In this file the component types measure names test names layer names measure descriptions and a wide range of other display information are expressed in a particular language and are mapped to their eG equivalents 2 Now search the eg_lang ini file for the test name of interest to you For example to know the internal name of the SystemDetails test search the language file for the text SystemDetails 3 Since the eG equivalent of the SystemDetails test is SystemTest you will find a specification to that effect in the TEST_NAME_MAPPING section of that file For our example the specification would be as follows SystemTest SystemDetails In addition to the above a SendNormalTTMails flag also exists which is set to Yes by default This indicates that by default the eG manager sends out TT mails when a problem is resolved To turn off this capability set the SendNormalTTMails flag to No Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT CLI The eG manager can also be configured so that whenever it detects a new alarm a change in an existing alarm or a closure of an existing alarm it executes a command with the appropriate parameters indicating the current sta
36. ntegration system MANAGE ENGINE v TT system URL TT system user name TT system password lt Operation gt n lt Details gt n lt requester gt eC_manager lt requester gt n lt subject gt cname Sctype S pdesc TT integration output format Sprior lt subject gt n lt description gt pdesc lt description gt n lt callbackURL gt CustomReportHandler do lt callbackURL gt n lt requesttemplate gt m Do you want to upload integration archieve 9 Yes No Update e ServiceDesk jar jar TT system API key TT system allowed alarms Critical Major Minor Normal Figure 4 1 Integrating the eG manager with ManageEngine s ServiceDesk 5 To enable integration via the web services interface of ServiceDesk set the Enable TT integration flag in Figure 4 1 to Yes By default this is set to No 6 From the TT integration system drop down select MANAGE ENGINE as the TT system with which the eG manager should integrate 7 Then against the TT system URL specify the Web Services Description Language WSDL URL via which the eG manager should connect to ServiceDesk s web services interface This URL should be of the following format Attp lt ServiceDeskservername gt lt port number gt sdpapi lt module gt 8 If the connection needs to be authenticated then provide a valid user name and password against TT system user name and TT system password text boxes respectively 9 ServiceDesk s web services API known as REST A
37. omatically removed by the TT system However if you provide a comma separated list of alarm priorities against the AllowedAlarms parameter you can instruct the eG manager to feed the TT system with only those email alerts that pertain to the specified priorities This additionally ensures that Normal mail alerts are sent by the eG Enterprise system only when the alarms of the specified priorities are closed For example say that the AllowedAlarms parameter contains the value critical This indicates that the TT system will be alerted of only the critical issues in the eG Enterprise system This also indicates that the TT system will receive Normal mail alerts from the eG manager only when the critical alarms are closed and not the major or minor alarms Also by setting the ApplyPriorityForAllTTMails flag to Yes or No you can indicate whether the AllowedAlarms setting applies only to each new alarm ID that is raised by the eG manager or to modified alarms as well As already stated if an existing alarm has been modified the eG manager retains the earlier assigned alarm ID for this alarm The following are considered alarm modifications e A change in the alarm priority This could be a switch to a higher or lower priority e A change in the alarm description For example originally a usage related alarm may have been raised on disk D of a server Later disk C of the same server might have experienced a space crunch causing another al
38. sazschotsiteveessesadeesesssesecacdeieseseredsstesendiastdserersstedsivatest ecsets 2 1 1 3 Handling eG Alarms in a Trouble Ticketing System wo eeeceesssesesseeeeseeeceessecsecsessecseeaeeeecsesseesesseeaessseaseaeaes 3 TROUBLE TICKET INTEGRATION USING THE TT MAIL INTERFACE esesesesorseseseseseeeseceroeeeeesesoseeosseseseseseeesoeeeeesesosee 3 TROUBLE TICKET INTEGRATION USING THE EG TT CLil sesesesesesererereeeeeesssosssoeseseseseeeeereeeeeesesosoronorseseeeeeseseseeeeeesesse 10 TROUBLE TICKET INTEGRATION USING A WEB SERVICES FRAMEWORK ssesesesesesereeeeeesosososoeseseseseeeseroseeeeessesee 18 4 1 Integrating with ManageEngine s ServiceDesk sssseseeeesesssseerestssstetrseseststsrstsrsteneseststststntersrerstststeettntetetntssesesrerststeet 18 4 2 Integrating with any Third party TT System that Supports a Web Services Interface s s ssssesssssseesrersrserrersesrseersrsreee 22 CONCLUSION ssissecisssssscsscssscezssesscvscesssessssasvoassusssusaessssuesiesaceusbossensisuss ossesous oussusbseuessesnsnascessessessoy onbousaseusasssssuossessoe ssossesssssexossosess 24 Table of Figures Figure 3 1 eG Manager settings for TT System CLI integration 2 0 0 cececeeseesceseeseeseceeceseeseeseesecsecseceseeseesecsecsececeaeeaeeseesecseceseaeeaeeaeeaeeaeeeeseaeeneeaes 11 Figure 4 1 Integrating the eG manager with ManageEngine s ServiceDesk cccscsscsssceseeseeseeseeseeseeseesecsecsecseceeeeseeseesecaeceseaeeseeaeeaeeaeeeeseasene
39. the Priority of the problem is Critical 11 Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface e You can alter the qualifier if you need to but the variable names the preceded strings in the previous example should not be changed e The position of the qualifier variable pairs can be changed in the command line for instance you can move the Service Service parameter to appear next to the AlarmID AlarmId if you want to til e Though the eG manager executes a command line by default you can change this Command specification to execute a batch file script file executable instead S e The Command Arguments specification can include any special character that will work from the Windows command prompt or Unix shell except the hash character which is used as a separator between the command and the arguments e On Windows the eG manager runs as a service and hence has access to all the sysem defined environment variables You can use these variables as required in the script that is invoked by the Command specification Given below is the list of parameters the default Command Arguments display takes and a brief description of each parameter o AlarmId AlarmId unique identifier of the alarm o DATE DATE the date on which the problem occurred o TIME TIME the time at which the problem occurred o Priority Priority the problem priority whether Critical Major Minor
40. tus of the alarm Note that this capability is available for stand alone Windows managers and Windows managers operating in redundant clusters only Prior to configuring this capability on such managers the following pre requisites need to be fulfilled gt The eG trouble ticket manager capability should be enabled in the eG Enterprise license gt In case of a redundant manager configuration all the eG managers that are part of the cluster should have the trouble ticketing integration capability enabled in their respective licenses gt To receive detailed diagnosis information via CLI the eG license should enable the Detailed Diagnosis capability in case of a redundant manager configuration again all the eG managers that are part of the cluster should have the detailed diagnosis capability enabled in their respective licenses To configure the command to be executed do the following Login to the eG administrative interface as admin with password admin Invoke the Admin tile menu and select the Manager option from the Settings tile From the MANAGER SETTINGS panel to the left of the page that appears select the TT Manager option e LS The contents of the right panel will then change to display the Trouble Ticket TT Manager CLI section as depicted by Figure 3 1 below 10 Trouble Ticket Integration Using the eG TT Mail Interface Trouble Ticket TT Manager CLI Enable CLI Yes No Command echo Alarmid Alarmid DA
41. uite e Monitoring eG Enterprise e The eG Installation Guide e The eG Measurements Manuals We recognize that the success of any product depends on its ability to address real customer needs and are eager to hear from you regarding requests for enhancements to the products suggestions for modifications to the product and feedback regarding what works and what does not Please provide all your inputs as well as any bug reports via email to sales eginnovations com 24
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