VMware Aria

Overview

This document provides a detailed guide to integrating VMware Aria Operations with Callgoose SQIBS for real-time Incident Management, Incident Auto Remediation, Event-Driven Automation, and other Automation purposes.

The integration enables automatic creation, updating, and resolution of incidents in Callgoose SQIBS based on alerts triggered in VMware Aria Operations. The guide includes steps for setting up alerts in VMware Aria Operations, configuring webhook notifications, creating API filters in Callgoose SQIBS, and troubleshooting.

Prerequisites

• VMware Aria Operations Account: Access to VMware Aria Operations for creating alerts and managing notifications.
• Callgoose SQIBS Account: With valid privileges to set up API filters and receive notifications.
• Webhook/API Endpoint: Available in Callgoose SQIBS to receive alerts from VMware Aria Operations.

1. Obtain API Token and Endpoint Details

To integrate with Callgoose SQIBS, you first need to obtain an API token and find the API endpoint details.

Generate an API Token:

• Follow the guide on How to Create API Token in Callgoose SQIBS.

Find the API Endpoint:

• Refer to the Callgoose SQIBS API Endpoint Documentation to get the endpoint details where the JSON payloads from VMware Aria Operations will be sent.

2. Debugging and Troubleshooting

You can enable debugging in the API tokens used with VMware Aria Operations notifications for troubleshooting purposes.

• Enable Debugging:

• You can update the debug value when adding or updating an API token.
• When API tracking is enabled, logs are stored in the API log section for your review. The debugging option will automatically disable after 48 hours.
• When API tracking is turned off, no logs are saved in the API log.

• Using API Log for Troubleshooting:

• The API log provides detailed information on all API calls made to Callgoose SQIBS.
• You can check the JSON values in each API log entry for troubleshooting purposes.
• Use the information in the API log to create or refine API filters to ensure incidents are created correctly based on the API payloads received.
• Callgoose SQIBS creates incidents according to your API filter configuration, giving you full control over how alerts from different services trigger incidents and alerts for your support team or automation processes.

3. Configuring VMware Aria Operations to Send JSON Payloads

To configure VMware Aria Operations to generate the JSON payloads similar to the examples provided, follow the steps outlined below. These steps will guide you through setting up the necessary alerts and webhook notifications within VMware Aria Operations to ensure that the JSON payloads match those expected by Callgoose SQIBS.

3.1 Setting Up Alerts in VMware Aria Operations

To generate the required JSON payloads, you first need to set up alerts within VMware Aria Operations.

1. Log in to the VMware Aria Operations Console:

• Access the VMware Aria Operations platform using your account credentials.

2. Navigate to the Alerts Section:

• In the VMware Aria Operations console, go to Configure > Alerts > Alert Definitions.

3. Create a New Alert Definition:

• Click on Add to create a new alert definition.
• Specify Alert Conditions: Define the conditions that will trigger the alert, such as specific metrics, thresholds, or symptoms (e.g., CPU Usage > 90%).

4. Configure the Notification Method:

• Choose Webhook as the notification method to send data to a webhook.
• Webhook URL: Enter the webhook URL provided by Callgoose SQIBS.

3.2 Configuring the Webhook Notification

To ensure that the JSON payload sent matches the examples provided, follow these steps when configuring the webhook:

1. Add Webhook URL:

• In the Webhook URL field, enter the endpoint provided by Callgoose SQIBS.
• Ensure the protocol is HTTPS for secure data transmission.

2. Customize Payload Format:

• Ensure that the payload includes key fields like "resourceName", "status", "alertName", "severity", "timestamp", "alertId", and others as shown in the example payloads.

• Example Payload Setup:

json

{
  "resourceName": "$resourceName",
  "status": "$status",
  "alertName": "$alertName",
  "severity": "$severity",
  "timestamp": "$timestamp",
  "alertId": "$alertId"
}

• Placeholder Explanation:

• "$resourceName": Replaces with the name of the resource.
• "$status": Replaces with the current alert status.
• "$alertName": Replaces with the name of the alert.
• "$severity": Replaces with the severity level of the alert.
• "$timestamp": Replaces with the date and time of the alert.
• "$alertId": Replaces with a unique ID for the alert.

Test the Webhook Configuration:

• Before activating the webhook, perform a test to ensure that the JSON payload is correctly formatted and is being sent to the Callgoose SQIBS API endpoint as expected.
• Review the payload in Callgoose SQIBS to confirm that it matches the expected structure.

3.3 Finalizing and Testing

1. Save and Activate the Alert Definition:

• Once the alert definition and webhook are correctly configured, save the alert configuration and activate it.

2. Validate the Integration:

• Trigger the alert condition manually if possible to verify that the correct JSON payload is sent to Callgoose SQIBS.
• Resolve the alert to ensure the resolved state payload is also correctly sent and processed.

3.4 Additional Considerations

• Permissions: Ensure that the webhook has the necessary permissions to send alerts to the Callgoose SQIBS API endpoint.
• Security: Implement security measures such as HTTPS and API tokens to protect the data being transmitted between VMware Aria Operations and Callgoose SQIBS.
• Logging and Debugging: Use the debugging and logging features in Callgoose SQIBS to monitor incoming payloads and troubleshoot any issues with the integration.

4. Configuring Callgoose SQIBS

4.1 Create API Filters in Callgoose SQIBS

To correctly map incidents from the VMware Aria Operations alerts, you need to create API filters based on the JSON payloads received.

4.1.1 Example JSON Payloads from VMware Aria Operations

Alert Triggered (status: "ACTIVE")

json

{
  "resourceName": "vm-12345",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "alertName": "High CPU Usage",
  "severity": "Critical",
  "timestamp": "2024-08-05T12:00:00.000Z",
  "alertId": "abcd1234"
}

Alert Resolved (status: "CANCELLED")

json

{
  "resourceName": "vm-12345",
  "status": "CANCELLED",
  "alertName": "High CPU Usage",
  "severity": "Critical",
  "timestamp": "2024-08-05T12:30:00.000Z",
  "alertId": "abcd1234"
}

4.2 Configuring API Filters

4.2.1 Integration Templates

If you see a VMware Aria Operations integration template in the "Select Integration Template" dropdown in the API filter settings, you can use it to automatically add the necessary Trigger and Resolve filters along with other values. The values added by the template can be modified to customize the integration according to your requirements.

4.2.2 Manually Add/Edit the Filter

There are two filters that you can manually edit: Trigger and Resolve.

• Trigger Filter (For Creating Incidents):
• Payload JSON Key: "status"
• Key Value Contains: [ACTIVE]
• Map Incident With: "alertId"
• This corresponds to the unique alertId from the VMware Aria Operations payload.
• Incident Title From: "alertName"
• This will use the alert name as the incident title in Callgoose SQIBS.
• Incident Description From: Leave this empty unless you want to use a specific key-value from the JSON payload. If a key is entered, only the value for that key will be used as the Incident Description instead of the full JSON. By default, the Incident Description will include the full JSON values.
• Example: If you use the "alertName" key in the Incident Description From field, the incident description will be the value of the "alertName" key. In the example JSON payload provided earlier, this would result in a description like "High CPU Usage".
• Resolve Filter (For Resolving Incidents):
• Payload JSON Key: "status"
• Key Value Contains: [CANCELLED]
• Incident Mapped With: "alertId"
• This ensures the incident tied to the specific alertId is resolved when the alert status returns to CANCELLED.

Refer to the API Filter Instructions and FAQ for more details.

4.3 Finalizing Setup

1. Save the API Filters:

• Ensure that the filters are correctly configured and saved in Callgoose SQIBS.

2. Test the Integration:

• Manually trigger a VMware Aria Operations alert to test if incidents are created in Callgoose SQIBS.
• Resolve the alert in VMware Aria Operations and verify that the corresponding incident in Callgoose SQIBS is resolved.

5. Testing and Validation

5.1 Triggering Alerts

1. Simulate a Critical Event:

• Trigger a critical alert condition in VMware Aria Operations to test the integration.
• Verify that an incident is created in Callgoose SQIBS with the correct title and urgency.

5.2 Resolving Alerts

1. Acknowledge and Resolve the Critical Event:

• Resolve or acknowledge the alert in VMware Aria Operations to verify that the incident in Callgoose SQIBS is automatically marked as resolved.

6. Security Considerations

• API Security: Ensure that the Callgoose SQIBS API endpoint is correct and that you are using the correct API token.
• VMware Aria Operations Permissions: Ensure that the webhook configuration in VMware Aria Operations has appropriate permissions to send alerts to Callgoose SQIBS.

7. Troubleshooting

• No Incident Created: Verify that the webhook in VMware Aria Operations is correctly configured and that the JSON payload structure matches the API filters configured in Callgoose SQIBS.
• Incident Not Resolved: Ensure the resolve filter is correctly configured and that the payloads from VMware Aria Operations are being received and processed by Callgoose SQIBS.

8. Conclusion

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of how to integrate VMware Aria Operations with Callgoose SQIBS for effective incident management. By following the steps outlined, you can ensure that alerts from VMware Aria Operations are automatically reflected as incidents in Callgoose SQIBS, with proper resolution tracking when the issues are resolved.

For further customization or advanced use cases, refer to the official documentation for both VMware Aria Operations and Callgoose SQIBS:

• VMware Aria Operations Documentation
• Callgoose SQIBS API Token Documentation
• Callgoose SQIBS API Endpoint Documentation
• API Filter Instructions and FAQ
• How to Send API

This documentation will guide you through the integration process, ensuring that your incidents are managed effectively within Callgoose SQIBS based on real-time alerts from VMware Aria Operations.