Adding Outbound Notification Plug-Ins in
VMware Aria
Operations
VMware Aria
Operations
You add outbound plug-in instances so
that you can notify users about alerts or capture alert data outside of
VMware Aria
Operations
. You can configure one or more
instances of the same plug-in type if you need to direct alert information to
multiple target systems.
The Automated Action plug-in is activated by default.
If automated actions stop working, check the Automated Action plug-in and activate
it if necessary. If you edit the Automated Action plug-in, you only need to provide
the instance name.
Add a Standard Email Plug-In for
VMware Aria
Operations Outbound Alerts
VMware Aria
Operations
Outbound AlertsYou add a Standard Email Plug-In so that you can use
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to email
VMware Aria
Operations
alert notifications to your virtual infrastructure
administrators, network operations engineers, and other interested
individuals.Ensure that you have an email
user account that you can use as the connection account for the alert
notifications. If you choose to require authentication, you must also know the
password for this account.
- From the left menu, click, and then in the right pane, clickOutbound Settings.
- ClickAdd, and from thePlug-In Typedrop-down menu, selectStandard Email Plugin.The dialog box expands to include your SMTP settings.
- Enter anInstance Name.This is the name that identifies this instance that you select when you later configure notification rules.
- Configure the SMTP options appropriate for your environment.OptionDescriptionUse Secure ConnectionActivates secure communication encryption using SSL/TLS. If you select this option, you must select a method in theSecure Connection Typedrop-down menu.InvRealize Operations Manager, the Standard Email Plugin always uses the 'starttls' command when you select theUse Secure Connectioncheckbox and selectTLSas theSecure Connection Type.Requires AuthenticationActivates authentication on the email user account that you use to configure this SMTP instance. If you select this option, you must provide a password for the user account.SMTP HostURL or IP address of your email host server.SMTP PortDefault port SMTP uses to connect with the server.Secure Connection TypeSelect either SSL/TLS as the communication encryption method used in your environment from the drop-down menu. You must select a connection type if you select Use Secure Connection.InvRealize Operations Manager, the Standard Email Plugin always uses the 'starttls' command when you select theUse Secure Connectioncheckbox and selectTLSas theSecure Connection Type.Sender Email AddressEmail address that appears on the notification message.Sender NameDisplayed name for the sender email address.Credential TypeSelect theCredential Typefrom the list. If your Endpoint URL does not need any authentication, then selectNo Credentialfrom theCredential Typelist.CredentialAdd or edit theCredentialdetails. Click the plus icon to enter the details of the new credentials in theCreate New Credentialpane, and clickSave.This field appears only when you selectBasic Authenticationas theCredential Type.StartingVMware Aria Operations8.14, you could only view, add, modify, or delete credentials that you created or were assigned to you. You could view unassigned credentials only if you had the required permissions. When you upgrade toVMware Aria Operations8.16.1, you can deactivate theCredential Ownership Enforcementoption from Global Settings to be able to modify credentials created and owned by others. For more information, see List of Global Settings.Receiver Email AddressReceiver's email address.
- ClickSave.
- To start the outbound alert service for this plug-in, select the instance in the list and clickActivateon the toolbar.
This instance of the Standard Email Plug-In for
outbound SMTP alerts is configured and running.
Create notification rules that use the Standard Email
Plug-In to send a message to your users about alerts requiring their attention. See
User Scenario: Create a VMware Aria Operations Email Alert Notification.
Add a Log File Plug-In for VMware Aria
Operations Outbound Alerts
VMware Aria
Operations
Outbound AlertsYou add a Log File plug-in when you
want to configure
VMware Aria
Operations
to log alerts to a file on each of your VMware Aria
Operations
nodes. If you installed VMware Aria
Operations
as a multiple node cluster, each node processes and logs the alerts
for the objects that it monitors. Each node logs the alerts for the objects it processes. Ensure that you have write access to the file system
path on the target
VMware Aria
Operations
nodes. All alerts are added to the
log file. You can use other applications to filter and manage the logs.
- From the left menu, click, and then in the right pane, clickOutbound Settings.
- ClickAdd, and from thePlug-In Typedrop-down menu, selectLog File.The dialog box expands to include your log file settings.
- In theAlert Output Foldertext box, enter the folder name.If the folder does not exist in the target location, the plug-in creates the folder in the target location. The default target location is:/usr/lib/vmware-vcops/common/bin/.
- ClickSave.
- To start the outbound alert service for this plug-in, select the instance in the list and clickActivateon the toolbar.
This instance of the log file
plug-in is configured and running.
When the plug-in is started,
the alerts are logged in the file. Verify that the log files are created in the
target directory as the alerts are generated, updated, or canceled.
Add a Network Share Plug-In for VMware Aria
Operations Reports
VMware Aria
Operations
ReportsYou add a Network Share plug-in when
you want to configure
VMware Aria
Operations
to send reports to a shared location. The Network Share plug-in
supports only SMB version 2.1. Verify that you have read,
write, and delete permissions to the network share location.
- From the left menu, clickand then click theOutbound Settingstile.
- From theOutbound Settingspage, click theOutbound Settingstab, and then clickAdd.
- From thePlug-In Typedrop-down menu, selectNetwork Share Plug-in.The dialog box expands to include your plug-in instance settings.
- Enter anInstance Name.This is the name that identifies this instance that you select when you later configure notification rules.
- Configure the Network Share options appropriate for your environment.OptionDescriptionDomainYour shared network domain address.User NameThe domain user account that is used to connect to the network.PasswordThe password for the domain user account.Network share rootThe path to the root folder where you want to save the reports. You can specify subfolders for each report when you configure the schedule publication.You must enter an IP address. For example,\\. You can use the host name instead of the IP address if the host name is resolved to an IPv4 when accessed from theIP_address\ShareRootVMware Aria Operationshost.Verify that the root destination folder exists. If the folder is missing, the Network Share plug-in logs an error after 5 unsuccessful attempts.
- ClickTestto verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions.The test might take up to a minute.
- ClickSave.The outbound service for this plug-in starts automatically.
- To stop an outbound service, select an instance and clickDeactivateon the toolbar.
This instance of the Network
Share plug-in is configured and running.
Create a report schedule and configure it to send
reports to your shared folder.
Sample Log File Plug-In Output
Here is a sample log file plug-in output.
AlertId :: 9fb52c9c-40f2-46a7-a005-01bf24ab75e6 AlertStatus :: Active AlertControlState :: Open AlertGenerateTime :: Wed May 06 06:26:05 UTC 2020 (UTC = 1588746365585) AlertUpdateTime :: Wed May 06 06:26:05 UTC 2020 (UTC = 1588746365585) AlertMessage :: 9027 AlertSummaryLink :: https://10.27.82.96/ui/index.action#/object/all/1b852a3c-bbdf-41df-a64d-b40af9673b89/alertsAndSymptoms/alerts/9fb52c9c-40f2-46a7-a005-01bf24ab75e6 AlertType :: Storage - Performance AlertCriticality :: 4 AffectedResourceId :: 1b852a3c-bbdf-41df-a64d-b40af9673b89 AffectedResourceName :: JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 AffectedResourceKind :: VirtualMachine AffectedResourceParentsNames :: VM Entity Status:PoweredOn:all DistributedVirtualPortgroup:VM-Network-VLAN-820 VM Entity Status:PoweredOn:vc_evn-hs1-vc.company.com VMFolder:Discovered virtual machine HostSystem:evn1-hs1-0808.company.com AffectedResourceAdapterInstanceResourceName :: CompanyAdapter Instance:vc_evn-hs1-vc.company.com AlertOwner :: Anomalies :: VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 - [virtualDisk:Aggregate of all instances|totalWriteLatency_average] - HT above 30.5647619047619 > 25 VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 - [virtualDisk:Aggregate of all instances|totalWriteLatency_average] - HT above 30.5647619047619 > 15 VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 - [virtualDisk:Aggregate of all instances|totalWriteLatency_average] - HT above 30.5647619047619 > 30 Health :: 4.0 Risk :: 2.0 Efficiency :: 1.0 KPIFiring :: AlertTrigger :: Resource Message Info Alarm Reason Probability Prediction Time VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 HT above 30.5647619047619 > 30 HT above Unable to retrive value Unable to retrive value AlertRootCause :: null AlertRootCauseDetails :: null AlertName :: Virtual machine disk I/O write latency is high AlertDescription :: Virtual machine disk I/O write latency is high
Add an SNMP Trap Plug-In for VMware Aria
Operations Outbound Alerts
VMware Aria
Operations
Outbound AlertsYou add an SNMP Trap plug-in when you
want to configure
VMware Aria
Operations
to log alerts on an existing SNMP Trap server in your environment. Ensure that you have an SNMP
Trap server configured in your environment, and that you know the IP address or
host name, port number, and community that it uses.
You can provide filtering
when you define a Notification using an SNMP Trap destination.
- From the left menu, click, and then in the right pane, clickOutbound Settings.
- ClickAdd, and from thePlug-In Typedrop-down menu, selectSNMP Trap Plugin.The dialog box expands to include your SNMP trap settings.
- Enter anInstance Name.
- Configure the SNMP trap settings appropriate to your environment.OptionDescriptionDestination HostIP address or fully qualified domain name of the SNMP management system to which you are sending alerts.PortPort used to connect to the SNMP management system. Default port is 162.CommunityText string that allows access to the statistics. SNMP Community strings are used only by devices that support SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c protocol.UsernameUser name to configure SNMP trap settings in your environment. If the user name is specified, SNMPv3 is considered as the protocol by the plugin.If left blank, SNMPv2c is considered as the protocol by the plugin.SNMP uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as its transport protocol.Authentication ProtocolAuthentication algorithms available are SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512.Authentication PasswordAuthentication password.Privacy ProtocolPrivacy algorithms available are AES192, AES256.Privacy PasswordPrivacy password.Engine IDEngine ID serves as an identifier for the agent. It is used with a hashing function to generate localized keys for authentication and encryption of SNMP v3 messages.It is mandatory to specify the Engine ID when configuring the SNMP Trap plugin. If you do not add the Engine ID and save the SNMP Trap plugin instance, the field is auto-generated the next time you edit the settings.
- ClickTestto validate the connection.The Community and Username options are mutually exclusive. Define either one of them to avoid an error. If you add a user name, you can optionally define the Authentication Protocol and Authentication Password followed by the Privacy Protocol and Privacy Password. The privacy protocol and its password cannot be defined independent of the authentication protocol and its password.
This instance of the SNMP Trap
plug-in is configured and running.
When the plug-in is added, configure notifications for
receiving the SNMP traps.
Add a Service-Now
Notification Plug-In for Outbound Alerts
You add a Service-Now Notification
plug-in when you want to integrate Service Now ticketing system with
VMware Aria
Operations
. Service Now creates an incident whenever an alert is triggered in
VMware Aria
Operations
. Ensure that you have log in
credentials for Service-Now.
Ensure that you are assigned with IT
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) role in Service Now.
Using Service-Now Notification
Plug-In you can send alert notifications to the Service Now ticketing system to
create incidents. The incident includes information like the Caller, Category,
Subcategory, Business Service, and other attributes related to alerts.
- From the left menu, click, and then in the right pane, clickOutbound Settings.
- ClickAddand from thePlug-In Typedrop-down menu, selectService-Now Notification Plug-in.The dialog box expands to include your plug-in instance settings.
- Enter anInstance Name.
- Enter the Service Now URL.https://dev22418.service-now.com/
- Enter a value for the Connection Count.The connection count represents the maximum number of open connections allowed per node inVMware Aria Operations.
- Select yourHTTP Proxy.
- Select theCredential Typefrom the list.If your Endpoint URL does not need any authentication, then selectNo Credentialfrom theCredential Typelist.
- Add or edit theCredentialdetails. Click the plus icon to enter the details of the new credentials in theCreate New Credentialpane, and clickSave. This field appears only when you selectBasic Authenticationas theCredential Type.When you upgrade to the latest version ofVMware Aria Operations, all credentials get unassigned. TheVMware Aria Operationsadministrator must assign the credentials from theOrphan and Unassignedpage. For more information, see the topic, Managing Orphaned and Unassigned Content.
- To verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions, clickTest.
- ClickSave.
This instance of the Service-Now Notifications plug-in
is configured and running.
When the plug-in is added, configure notifications for
creating incidents in Service-Now ticketing system.
Notifications - Add a Slack Plugin for
Outbound Notifications
You can add a Slack plug-in to forward alerts and configure multiple notification
rules with different slack channels. The Slack plug-in allows you to receive pre-formatted
alert details with alert fields and helps you run
VMware Aria
Operations
using alert links to troubleshoot further.- From the left menu, click, and then in the right pane, clickOutbound Settings.
- ClickAddand from thePlugin Typedrop-down menu, selectSlack Plugin.The dialog box expands to include your plug-in instance settings.
- Enter anInstance Name.
- Enter a value for theConnection Count.The connection count represents the maximum number of open connections allowed per node inVMware Aria Operations.
- Select yourHTTP Proxy.
- To verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions, clickTest.
- ClickSave.
This instance of the Slack plugin is
configured and running.
When the plugin is added, configure notifications for
different slack channels.
Add a Webhook Notification Plugin for Outbound Instance
You can integrate Webhook with any endpoint REST API and configure outbound payload.
Ensure that you have login credentials for
Webhook.
- From the left menu, click, and then in the right pane, clickOutbound Settings.
- ClickAddand from thePlugin Typedrop-down menu, selectWebhook Notification Plugin.The dialog box expands to include your plugin instance settings.
- Enter anInstance Name.
- Enter the Webhook URL.For notifications that reference webhook outbound instances, the URL that you enter here serves as a base URL that is combined with the endpoint URL suffix defined in related webhook payload templates.
- Enter a value for theConnection Count.The connection count represents the maximum number of open connections allowed per node inVMware Aria Operations.
- Select yourHTTP Proxy.
- Select theCredential Typefrom the list.If your Endpoint URL does not need any authentication, then selectNo Credentialfrom theCredential Typelist.
- Add or edit theCredentialdetails. Click the plus icon and enter the details of the new credentials in the right pane, and clickSave.When you upgrade to the latest version ofVMware Aria Operations, all credentials get unassigned. TheVMware Aria Operationsadministrator must assign the credentials from theOrphan and Unassignedpage. For more information, see the topic, Managing Orphaned and Unassigned Content.The fields in theCreate New Credentialpane appear based on theCredential Typeyou select.Credential TypeFieldsBasic AuthenticationEnter the Name, User Name, and Password.Bearer TokenEnter the Name of the credential and the Token.OAuth AuthenticationEnter the following details:
- Name: Enter a name for the authentication.
- Grant Type: Select eitherClient CredentialsorPassword Credentials.
- Authentication URL: Enter the URL from where the access token can be retrieved.
- Client ID: Enter the client ID for the authentication URL.
- Client Secret: Enter the client secret for the authentication URL.
- User Name: Enter the user name for the authentication URL.This field appears only when the grant type isPassword Credentials.
- Password: Enter the password for the authentication URL.This field appears only when the grant type isPassword Credentials.
- Scope: Enter the labels to specify the access token. The labels specify the permissions that the access tokens will have.
- Send Credentials: Select eitherIn auth headerorIn body.
- In auth header: Sends the Client ID and Client Secret in the header.
- In body: Sends the Client ID and Client Secret in the payload body.
This field appears only when the grant type isClient Credentials. - Access Token Path: Enter your access token path.
- Validity Token Path: To keep track of when the token is going to expire, enter the validity token path and select the format from the drop-down list. You can choose one of the following formats:
- Second
- Milisecond
- Absolute Time
- Header Name: Enter a header name. By default, the header name is 'Authorization'.
- Prefix: Enter a prefix. By default, the prefix is 'Bearer'.
- HTTP Proxy: Select your HTTP Proxy.
CertificateEnter the following details:- Name: Enter the name of the certificate.
- Certificate: Enter the certificate in the X.509 format.
- Certificate Key: Enter the private key. The formats supported are Open SSL, PKCS1, and PKCS8
API KeyEnter the Name, API Key, and the API Value. - To verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions, clickTest.
- TheTestfeature does not currently support the Custom Templates. If the template contains a custom headers, the test might fail.
- ClickSave.
This instance of the Webhook Notification
plugin is configured and running.
Sample Email Alert
Here is a sample email for a newly created alert.
Alert Definition Name: Node is experiencing swapping due to memory pressure Alert Definition Description: Node is experiencing swapping due to memory pressure Object Name : VMware Aria Operations Node-VMwareAria Cluster Node Object Type : vC-Ops-Node Alert Impact: risk Alert State : warning Alert Type : Application Alert Sub-Type : Performance Object Health State: info Object Risk State: warning Object Efficiency State: info Control State: Open Symptoms: SYMPTOM SET - self
Symptom Name | Object Name | Object ID | Metric | Message Info |
---|---|---|---|---|
Node swap usage at Warning level | VMware Aria
Operations Node-VMware Aria Cluster Node | 50ec874a-2d7d-4e78-98b1-afb26fd67e58 | Swap|Workload | 59.183 > 30.0 |
Recommendations: Notification Rule Name: rule1 Notification Rule Description: Alert ID : badc2266-935d-4fb9-8594-e2e71e4866fc VCOps Server - VMwareAriaClusterNode Alert details(link)