Creating IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connections

About this connection

By connecting with IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact, IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps can then leverage your existing IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact deployment to run automation policies that you manage with IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact. New policies that you create in IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact can reference the the extension framework API for IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps. With these policies, you can write automation processes in IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact to complete operations in IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps, such as to query alerts and incidents, and request changes to alerts.

Note: You can create multiple connections between IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps and IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact. Each connection must point to a unique Impact endpoint.

When you create the connection in IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps to IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact, the connection automatically creates the RESTful DSA data source in IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact. To complete the integration with IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connection after creating the connection in IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps, you need to edit this RESTful DSA data source in IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact to define your authentication settings for communicating with IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps API. After editing and verifying the authentication settings, you can begin to create and run your automation policies from IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact.

Note: If the Netcool/Impact cluster uses a non-default cluster name ("NCICLUSTER"), the connector may fail to validate the connection. For more information, see Impact connector fails for Impact server with non-default cluster name.

Before you begin

• Ensure that you have IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact Version 7.1 or later and IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps 4.1.0 installed.

• Obtain the following details for your IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact deployment:

  • The GUI server URL (example: https://noi-impact.fyre.ibm.com:16311)

  • The Back-end server URL (example https://noi-impact.fyre.ibm.com:9081)

  • The administrator username and password for connecting to the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact endpoint.

  • A valid CA certificate for IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact if the endpoint is secured by SSL/TLS. If self-signed this means all the certificates from all the server.

    You can extract these certificates from your IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact deployment with openssl:

    • For the GUI server (port 16311)

      openssl s_client -showcerts -servername noi-impact.mycluster.com -connect noi-impact.mycluster.com:16311 </dev/null
      

    • For the backend server (port 9081)

      openssl s_client -showcerts -servername noi-impact.mycluster.com -connect noi-impact.mycluster.com:9081 </dev/null
      

    You can have multiple certificates, which you then need to combine to add to your connection settings when defining the connection. A combined certificate resembles the following structure:

    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    ABCDEfGHIjklMnOPQrSTUVWXYZABCdefghiJ1k2LMNoPQRSTUVwxYZABCDEFGhij
    ... Server 1 ...
    r+wGXNPwrw==
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    ABCDEfGHIjklMnOPQrSTUVWXYZABCdefghiJ1k2LMNoPQRSTUVwxYZABCDEFGhij
    ... Server 2 ...
    ZYXWVUTSRqpoNnLKJiHGFEDCBAZYXwvutsrQ1p4ONMlKJIHGFEdcBAZYXWVUTsrq
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    

Creating an IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connection

To create an IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connection, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to IBM Cloud Pak Automation console.

2. Expand the navigation menu (four horizontal bars), then click Define > Data and tool connections.

3. On the Data and tool connections page, click Add connection.

4. From the list of available connections, find and click the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact tile.

   Note: If you do not immediately see the connection that you want to create, you can filter the tiles by type of connection. Click the type of connection that you want in the Category section (Events).

5. On the side-panel, review the instructions and when ready to continue, click Connect.

6. On the Add connection page, define the general connection details:

   • Name: The display name of your connection.

   • GUI Server URLs of Impact endpoint: Enter the GUI URL or URLs for the endpoint. For high availability environments with multiple URLs, enter the URLs as a comma-separated list. For example, https://impact-1, https://impact-2.

   • Backend Server URLs of Impact endpoint: Enter the backend URL or URLs for the endpoint. For high availability environments with multiple URLs, enter the URLs as a comma-separated list. For example, https://impact-1, https://impact-2.

   • User ID: Enter the administrator user ID for connecting to the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact endpoint.

   • Password: Enter the administrator user password for connecting to the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact endpoint.

   • Impact Certificates: Enter the valid CA certificate for IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact to use for verifying the SSL/TLS connection to the REST services for IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact.

   • Deployment options: Select one of the options, Local or Remote. Local deploys the connection in the same cluster and project (namespace) where IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps is installed. Alternatively, Remote deploys the connection in your chosen location, such as a different network region, on SaaS, or a remote on-premises VM, cluster, or container.

     Note: If you select Remote, after adding the connection, you are provided with a bootstrap command to finish the deployment.

7. Click Done. You are redirected to the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact page for the connection.

   Your new connection is listed in the table on the page. The connection has an intial status of Initializing. After a few minutes, the status changes to Running if your connection is successful. With your connection successful and running, you now need to configure the connection in IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact.

8. Configure the connection in IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact.

   To complete the connection, you need to edit the RESTful DSA data source in IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact.

Editing an IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connection

After you create your connection, you can edit the connection. For example, if you want to add or change the listed GUI or backend URLs for the Impact endpoint, or to update the User ID or password. To edit a connection, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to IBM Cloud Pak Automation console.

2. Expand the navigation menu (four horizontal bars), then click Define > Data and tool connections.

3. Click the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connection type on the Manage connections tab of the Data and tool connections page.

4. On the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact page, click the name of the connection that you want to edit. Alternatively, you can click the options menu (three vertical dots) for the connection and click Edit. The connection configuration opens.

5. Edit your connection as required. Click Save when you are done editing.

Your connection is now edited.

Deleting an IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connection

If you no longer need your connection and want to delete it entirely, you can delete the connection from the console.

To delete a connection, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to IBM Cloud Pak Automation console.

2. Expand the navigation menu (four horizontal bars), then click Define > Data and tool connections.

3. Click the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connection type on the Manage connections tab of the Data and tool connections page.

4. On the IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact connections page, click the Delete icon for the connection that you want to delete.

5. Enter the name of the connection to confirm that you want to delete your connection. Then, click Delete.

   Your connection is deleted in IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps. To fully remove the connection, update IBM Tivoli Netcool/Impact to remove the IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps connection details.