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Managing blackouts using the event API

Two main ways of communication can be used to send events to the cell and manage blackouts. Depending on architecture or security impacts one or both methods can be used.

Here is a summary for each solution:

Solution

Communication details

Benefits

Drawbacks

Msend

From host to BMC Impact manager over TCP

Can be buffered on Windows / AIX/HP-UX and RedHat Linux

Exist on all plateforms using msend.pl

Needs connectivity to cell target (host / port / key)

Rest API

Using the TrueSight Web services REST API

Can be integrated in other developments

 

 

Using msend utility

The msend utility can be used to send events in order to manage blackout periods.

The generic syntax of the msend command line is as follows. Please see further paragraphs to use it ins specific contexts.

msend –q –n <remote cell name> -a <ClassName> –b “SlotX=ValueX;SlotY=ValueY”

 

Using  the rest API

Events can be sent to TrueSight using the  REST API of TrueSight. Please consult the BMC documentation for more details, for example :

https://communities.bmc.com/docs/DOC-44797

 

Create Objects blackouts using events

Using msend utility

Definition

In order to create a blackout period using the msend command line with several arguments:

The classname to create periods is SET_MAINTENANCE

Available slotnames are:

Slot name

Description

Host

Host to set in blackout mode

Maintenance_application_class

Application Class to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_instance

Instance to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_parameter

Parameter to set in blackout mode

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

MaintStart

Start timestamp

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970 (epoch time)

MaintStop

Stop timestamp

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970 (epoch time)

Action

Type of BLACKOUT.

Must be one of: CLOS, BLACKOUT, REOPEN

ApplyToNonClosedEvents

Define if this period apply on events existing before period start

Default: NO.

Must be one of: NO, SinceBlackoutCreation, EveryExistingEvents

Proprietaire

Period owner

Commentaire

Comment on this blackout period

 

Sample

Using the msend command line with arguments (shell script)

NowTS=$(date +%s)
StartTS=$(($NowTS + 10))
StopTS=$(($StartTS + 120))
msend -q -n CellName -a SET_MAINTENANCE -b "Host=mysserver2; Maintenance_application_class=.*; Maintenance_instance=.*;Maintenance_parameter=.*;MaintStart=$StartTS;MaintStop=$StopTS;Action=REOPEN;Proprietaire=Robot;Commentaire='This server will reboot in few seconds'"

 

This will create the  following blackout periods: Starting 10 seconds from now and with with a 120 seconds duration.


 

Using the REST API:

Authentication


Send event


Will create

Delete Objects blackouts using msend

This section is describing how to delete existing periods but have no impact on existing events.

 Definition

 In order to delete a blackout period using the msend command line with several arguments:

 The classname to destroy existing periods is UNSET_MAINTENANCE.

The following slots must be equal to the creation ones:

Slot name

Description

Host

Host to set in blackout mode

Restriction: Should be as exact as possible

Maintenance_application_class

Application Class to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_instance

Instance to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_parameter

Parameter to set in blackout mode

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

MaintStart

Start timestamp

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970

MaintStop

Stop timestamp

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970

Sample

Using the msend command line with arguments :

 

NowTS=$(date +%s)
StartTS=$(($NowTS + 10))
StopTS=$(($StartTS + 120))

msend -q -n CellName -a SET_MAINTENANCE -b "Host=mysserver2; Maintenance_application_class=.*; Maintenance_instance=.*;Maintenance_parameter=.*;MaintStart=$StartTS;MaintStop=$StopTS;Action=REOPEN;Proprietaire=Robot;Commentaire='This server will reboot in few seconds'"
read
msend -q -n CellName -a UNSET_MAINTENANCE -b "Host=mysserver2; Maintenance_application_class=.*; Maintenance_instance=.*;Maintenance_parameter=.*;MaintStart=$StartTS;MaintStop=$StopTS"

Will delete previoulsy created blackout periods


Stop running Object blackout using msend

This section is describing how to stop existing periods, this will have impact on existing events but will not delete periods.

Definition

 In order to stop a blackout period using the msend command line with several arguments:

The classname to delete existing periods is STOP_MAINTENANCE.

The following slots must be equal to the creation ones:

Slot name

Description

Host

Host to set in blackout mode

Maintenance_application_class

Application Class to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_instance

Instance to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_parameter

Parameter to set in blackout mode

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

MaintStopDelay

Duration (en seconds) from event to real period removal.

Sample

Using the msend command line with arguments :

 

NowTS=$(date +%s)
StartTS=$(($NowTS + 10))
StopTS=$(($StartTS + 120))

msend -q -n CellName -a SET_MAINTENANCE -b "Host=mysserver2; Maintenance_application_class=.*; Maintenance_instance=.*;Maintenance_parameter=.*;MaintStart=$StartTS;MaintStop=$StopTS;Action=REOPEN;Proprietaire=Robot;Commentaire='This server will reboot in few seconds'"

msend -q -n CellName -a STOP_MAINTENANCE -b "Host=mysserver2; Maintenance_application_class=.*; Maintenance_instance=.*;Maintenance_parameter=.*;MaintStart=$StartTS;MaintStop=$StopTS;Action=REOPEN;Proprietaire=Robot;Commentaire='This server will reboot in few seconds'"

 

Will create blackout periods:


 

msend -q -n CellName -a STOP_MAINTENANCE -b "Host=mysserver2; Maintenance_application_class=.*; Maintenance_instance=.*;Maintenance_parameter=.*;MaintStart=$StartTS;MaintStop=$StopTS;Action=REOPEN;Proprietaire=Robot;Commentaire='This server will reboot in few seconds'"

 

Will stop the blackout .

 

Stop and delete running periods using msend

This section is describing how to stop existing periods, this will have impact on existing events and will delete periods.

 This can only be used on Object / Date periods.

Definition

 In order to stop a blackout period using the msend command line with several arguments:

The classname to delete existing periods is STOPANDDDESTROY_MAINTENANCE.

The following slots must be equal to the creation ones:

Slot name

Description

Host

Host to set in blackout mode

Restriction: Should be as exact as possible

Maintenance_application_class

Application Class to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_instance

Instance to set in blackout mode.

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

Maintenance_parameter

Parameter to set in blackout mode

Restriction: Can be as exact as possible, support regular expressions. Default=.* (all)

MaintStart

Start timestamp

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970

MaintStop

Stop timestamp

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970

Sample

Using the msend command line with arguments :

 msend -q -n CellName -a STOPANDDESTROY_MAINTENANCE -b "Host=mysserver2; Maintenance_application_class=.*; Maintenance_instance=.*;Maintenance_parameter=.*;MaintStart=$StartTS;MaintStop=$StopTS;Action=REOPEN;Proprietaire=Robot;Commentaire='This server will reboot in few seconds'"

Will stop and delete previously created blackout period:


 

It will impact events and remove period definition.

 

Create Custom Blackouts

Definition

Custom blackouts (see chapter) can be created using events. The content of such events must be inline with the definition of an existing custom blackout definition.

Using events to manage custom blackouts requires to load the files CustomMaintenance_Event.baroc and CustomMaintenance_Event.mrl KB files (see chapter )

The classname to create periods is SET_CUSTOM_MAINTENANCE.

Slot values to provide in the event are as follows.

Slot name

Description

CustomBlackoutName

Name of the custom blackout type.

This name must correspond to one of the custom blackout types as stored in the file CustomPeriods.cfg (see chapter)

SelectorSlotsList

List of the event slots that are used to build the slot conditions in the custom blackout.

SelectorOperatorsList

List of the test operators used to build the slot conditions.

The number of elements in the list must match the number of slots listed in the SelectorSlotsList

Supported operators are : "has_prefix", "has_suffix", "ip_match", "contains", "match_regex", "equals", "not_equals", "greater_or_equals", "smaller_or_equals", "greater_than", "smaller_than"

SelectorValuesList

List of the values used to build the slot conditions.

The number of elements in the list must match the number of slots listed in the SelectorSlotsList

IsaCalendar

Flag. Default is NO.

-       If set to YES, the blackout will be of type “calendar”, using the TIME_FRAME object provided in the slot CalendarName

-       If set to NO, the blackout will be of type “date based”, using the MaintStart and MaintStop slot values.

MaintStart

Start timestamp. Considered only if IsaCalendar=NO

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970 (epoch time).

Will be set to the current time if empty.

MaintStop

Stop timestamp. Considered only if IsaCalendar=NO

Integer value: the number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970 (epoch time)

CalendarName

Name of TIME_FRAME to use. Considered only if IsaCalendar=YES

Action

Type of BLACKOUT. Default is REOPEN

Must be one of: CLOS, BLACKOUT, REOPEN

Proprietaire

Optional - Period owner (user)

Group

Optional - Period owner (group)

Commentaire

Optional - Comment on this blackout period

 

-       The event API only supports slots (as set in SelectorSlotsList) of type STRING or ENUM

-       The event API does not support the “within” and “outside” test operators

-       The API cannot verify is the provided values (CustomBlackoutName, SelectorSlotsList, SelectorOperatorsList) are inline with the definition of an existing custom blackout.

 

Sample

The following sample uses the custom blackout definition provided in Custom blackout full sample

msend -q -n CellName –

SET_CUSTOM_MAINTENANCE;
CustomBlackoutName=FullCapabilities;
SelectorSlotsList=['mc_host_class','mc_host,'mc_object_class','mc_object','location’];
SelectorOperatorsList=[‘equals’,’has_prefix’,’contains’,’equals',’equals’];
SelectorValuesList=[‘windows’,'vm-','NT_LOGICAL_DISKS','C:',’Houston’];
MaintStart=1530018301;
MaintStop=1530028301;
Proprietaire=ppx;
Commentaire=”CLI custom blackout”;
END

 

 Delete Custom Blackouts

Use the class UNSET_CUSTOM_MAINTENANCE with the same following slot values as for SET_CUSTOM_MAINTENANCE :

  •      CustomBlackoutName
  •       SelectorsSlotsList
  •       SelectorOperatorsList
  •       SelectorValuesList
  •        IsaCalendar
  •       CalendarName
  •       MaintStart
  •       MaintStop

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