Configuring the TrueSight Server Automation connector - Documentation for BMC Helix Intelligent Automation 24.2 (2024)

As an automation engineer, you configure the connector to establish a connectionand the actions supported by theTrueSight Server Automation application appear while creating a policy.

WhenBMC Helix Intelligent Automationreceives an event fromBMC Helix AIOpsorBMC Helix Operations Management for which you want to run NSH scripts in TrueSight Server Automation version 21.3, you can create an automation policy to execute the specified actions.

To configure a connector, the high-level process includes the following steps:

Before you begin

Before you configure the on-premises connector, ensure that you the following conditions are met:

• The server where you want to run and install the remote plugin matches the minimum requirements.
  For more information, seeSystem requirements.

• (For Linux) The GCC G++ compiler version is 5.4.0 or later.

  Click here to do the steps before you run the plugin

  1. Install and update GCC version 5.4.0 or later.

  2. Run the following command to unlink the current version.

     sudo unlink /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6

  3. Run the following command to copy the new version.

     sudo cp /usr/local/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 /usr/lib64

  See Also

  OJ Simpson docs: FBI releases 475 pages related to Nicole Brown Simpson, Ron Goldman murdersBoosting Efficiency: How Automation Simplifies Everyday Business Tasks - Westcom Networks

Optional Task: To reuse an existing plugin key

If you have configured any on-premises connector, you already have a plugin key. You can use the same key to configure any other on-premises connector.

1. Click Connectors > Available Connectorsand clickConfigureagainst the connector that you want to configure.
2. On the following message that appears on the configure connector page, click the download & install link.
   
   On the Configure On-premises Connector page, the plugin keys available for reuse are displayed.
   
3. Skip Task 2 and continue with Task 3 to configure the connector.

Optional task: To use a pass-through proxy server

If the host where you download the plugin to configure a connector does not have internet access, you can use a proxy server to configure the connector. The host where the connector is to be configured and the automation tool must be in the same network domain. You can also configure the proxy server with basic authentication mechanism.

1. Navigate to the remote-restapi-plugin directory.

2. Run the following command to create credentials for the proxy server without any authentication.

   For Linux

    credential.sh create -n proxy -i <hostname:port of the proxy server> -p proxy -a noauth 

   For Windows

   credential.bat create -n proxy -i <hostname:port of the proxy server> -p proxy -a noauth 

3. Run the following command to create credentials for the proxy server with basic authentication.

   credential.bat create -n proxy -i <hostname:port of the proxy server> -p proxy -a basic

   When prompted, enter the username and password for the proxy server.

4. Continue to the next task.

Task 3: To create credentials by using the plugin key

A plugin requires credentials to authenticate and execute various actions on the target applications that are defined in an automation policy. The credential CLI utility enables you to create, search, update, and delete credentials for a plugin.

The current release supports the credential CLI utility only on Linux. This server should be accessible from the server where the on-premise application is installed.

1. Navigate to the directory where you have extracted theremote-restapi-plugin.zipfile.
   Theremote-restapi-plugindirectory containscredential.sh.
2. Ensure that thecredential.shfile has the execute permission.

3. Run the followingcreateswitch command to create credentials.
   Whenever credentials are created, a unique credential provider ID is assigned to it.

   Sample command for Microsoft Windows

   credential.bat create -n <credentialsName> -i <http://host:port> -p <provider> -a <AuthenticationType>

   Sample command for Linux

   ./credential.sh create -n <credentialsName> -i <http://host:port> -p <provider> -a <AuthenticationType>

   Example

   ./credential.sh create -n tssa -t TSSA -i http://myTssaAbc.com:8340 -p tssa -a apikey

   In the example:

   • tssa is the name of the credentials.

   • http://myTssaAbc.com:8340 is the TrueSight Server Automationserver URL.

     Note

     Ensure that you do not provide the same URL while configuring any other connector.

   • tssa is the credential provider ID.

   • apikey is the authentication mechanism.

4. Enter the values for the following parameters when prompted:
   

   Parameter	Value
   username	Enter the TrueSight Server Automation BLAdmin user name. Valid value: BLAdmin
   password	Enter password for the user
   rolename	BLAdmins

   If the credentials are created successfully, a message appears.

5. (Optional) To create credentials in a single step, create a JSON file, which contains all the credentials required for configuring the connector and run the following command:
   

   credential.bat create -n <connector_name> -i <LOGIN_URL> -p tssa -a apikey -f C:\\TSSA_auth.json

   Click here to view the sample credentials JSON file

   { "auth": { "access_token": "$.session_id[0]", "bearer_parameter": "header", "login_action": { "<LOGING_URL>": { "post": { "parameters": [ ], "body": { "content": { "application/json": { "user_name": "username","password": "password","role_name": "rolename","authentication_type": "SRP" } } } } } } }}

Task 4: To provide a server-side SSL certificate

To configure the plugin to connect to any of the products running on HTTPS/SSL, do the following steps:

1. Download the server-side certificate and convert it into a .PEM format.
   In case of multiple products, convert and merge all individual certificates into a single .PEM file.
2. Copy and place the certificate in the server-certs directory located in the remote-restapi-plugin directory.
3. Continue to the next step to start and run the plugin.

Optional task: To start or run the plugin by using HTTPS

When you start or run the plugin, by default, the plugin runs by using the HTTP protocol. To run it on the HTTPS protocol, you must generate the client-side certificates and update the properties in the plugin.properties file to enable the support. On Linux-based operating systems, client-side certificates are automatically generated and added to a client-certs folder.

If you want to run it on the HTTPS protocol, perform the following steps:

For Microsoft Windows only

1. Navigate to the remote-restapi-plugin directory.
2. Create a new folder with and name it client-certs.
3. Generate a client certificate and the key of the host, in a PEM format, where the plugin will run.

4. Copy the certificate to the client-certs folder.

For Microsoft Windows and Linux-based operating systems

1. Navigate to the remote-restapi-plugin\config and open the plugin.properties file.
   The file contains the following new properties:

   Sample

   config.sslEnabled=falseconfig.sslPort=8443config.sslCertPath=<pathToTheClientCertificate.pem file>config.sslCertKeyPath=<pathToTheClientKey.pem file>

2. Specify the path to the folder where the certificate and key files are located.

3. Specify config.sslEnabled as true.

   Example

   config.sslEnabled=trueconfig.sslPort=8443config.sslCertPath=client-certs/client_cert.pemconfig.sslCertKeyPath=client-certs/client_key.pem

4. Save changes and continue to the next step.
   When you start the plugin, it runs by using an HTTPS server.

Task 5: To start and run the plugin as a service

If a remote plugin is installed as a service, you can start, stop, or restart it as any other service.BMC recommends that you run the plugin as a service as against running it as a batch or shell process. You can run remote plugin as a service only on Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Enterprise and CentOS 7 operating systems.

Before running a plugin as a service, ensure that the following prerequisites are fulfilled:

• You have administrative or root privileges on the host where the plugin is extracted.

• The host where the plugin is available is also accessible from the host where the application is installed.

To run the plugin as a service:

1. Navigate to the directory where you have extracted theremote-restapi-plugin.zipfile.

2. Run the install.bat (for Microsoft Windows) or install.sh (for Linux) command.
   You can also use the install.bat install command. The plugin now runs as a service. The following table lists the commands used to perform service-related actions:

   Command	Microsoft Windows	Linux
   Install	install.bat install	./install.sh install
   Start	install.bat start	./install.sh start
   Stop	install.bat stop	./install.sh stop
   Status	install.bat status	./install.sh status
   Uninstall	install.bat uninstall	./install.sh uninstall

   If a service is installed successfully, in the list of services available in the Microsoft Windows Service Manager, the remote restapi plugin service is displayed. On Linux servers, if you run the install.sh status command, a system process with the name BMC remote-restapi-plugin appears.

Optional: To start the plugin as a batch or shell process

After successfully creating the credentials, run the plugin to enable the connector.

1. Navigate to theremote-restapi-plugin/configdirectory, and replace thecreds.jsonfile with thecreds.jsonfile that you have downloaded whilecreating the plugin key.
2. Run therun.shscript to start the plugin.

Task 6: To test the plugin

BMC recommends that you test whether the plugin is able to connect to the automation tool or application successfully before creating automation policies.

1. In theBMC Helix Intelligent Automationconsole, clickConnectors > PluginKeys.
2. ClickActions > Testagainst the plugin that is used to configure the connector.
   A message appears that shows that the connection is successful.

The TrueSight Server Automationis configured and appears in theConfigured Connectorstabwith the status asConnected.

If the connector is not successfully connected, the status appears as Disconnected. Click theicon to view the errormessageand fix the configuration issue.