Configuring ALM Observer jobs
Using the Agile LifeCycle Manager Observer, you can define jobs that dynamically load data associated with intent from the Agile LifeCycle Manager for analysis.
Before you start
Important: The ALM Observer supports IBM Agile Lifecycle Manager 2.2.
Attention: The ALM observer supports the discovery of Cloud Pak for Network Automation (CP4NA) and has been tested against versions 2.3.x and 2.4.x. The ALM observer was first developed to integrate with the legacy Telco Network Cloud Manager (TNCM) Orchestrator (TNCO/ALM). A re-branding from ALM (Agile Lifecycle Manager) to CP4NA happened, while the observer retained its ALM name. The observer has some level of backward compatibility with the legacy ALM.
Ensure you have the Agile LifeCycle Manager Kafka server host and topics to hand, such as the Agile Lifecycle Manager server, the Kafka port, and the topics used for lifecycle events.
Important: To access Agile LifeCycle Manager remotely, you must ensure that the Agile LifeCycle Manager installation is configured with the KAFKA_ADVERTISED_HOST_NAME so as to allow remote connections. For more information,
see the Configuration reference topic in the Agile LifeCycle Manager documentation: Configuration reference 
Enabling access to the URL routes
To access the URL routes for the topology Swagger documentation, see the Enabling access to URL routes topic.
About this task
The Agile LifeCycle Manager Observer jobs listen to the Kafka 'state change' topics of Agile Lifecycle Manager, as well as the Agile Lifecycle Manager Resource Manager. Information is extracted from Agile Lifecycle Manager about Assemblies and Resources and a topology is created.
After installation, you define and start the following two jobs.
Listen for Agile Lifecycle Manager events ('alm' job)
The alm job is a long-running job that monitors its source for updates and runs until it is explicitly stopped, or until the observer is stopped.
Listen for Resource Manager events ('rm' job)
The rm job is a long-running job that monitors its source for updates and runs until it is explicitly stopped, or until the observer is stopped.
Procedure
Define or edit the following parameters, then click Run job to save and run the job.
Encryption requirement: See the Configuring observer jobs security topic for more information.
Important: The value of the IBM Agile Lifecycle Manager instance name parameter needs to be the same for both jobs to allow the topology to be combined.
Listen for lifecycle events ('alm' job) parameters
| Parameter | Action | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Unique ID | Enter a unique name for the job | Required |
| IBM Agile LifeCycle Manager instance name | Use this to identify the Agile LifeCycle Manager installation and any associated Resource Managers | Required |
| Group ID | Use this to identify the Kafka group ID to be used | Required |
| Connection | Use this to specify the Kafka Host and Port to be used | Required |
| ALM State Change Topic | Use this to identify the Agile LifeCycle Manager Kafka topic name to be consumed. | Required |
| ALM Service State Transition Topic | Use this to identify the Agile LifeCycle Manager State Transition Kafka topic name to be consumed. | Required |
| Secured or unsecured Kafka connection | Select false or true to make secured or unsecured connection to the CP4NA server. The default is 'false'. | Required. When set to 'true', you must also provide the credentials and target system certificate parameters. See the following topic for more information on obtaining connection and credential details: IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation: Configuring Kafka connections |
| Kafka username | Enter the username of the secured Kafka cluster. | Required only if the parameter for secured connection has been set to 'true'. |
| Kafka password | Enter the password of the secured Kafka cluster. | Required only if the parameter for secured connection has been set to 'true'. |
| Certificate | Enter the certificate of the secured Kafka cluster. | Required only if the parameter for secured connection has been set to 'true'. For more information, see Configuring observer jobs security |
| Access scope | Enter text to provide a scope for the resources. Access scope can help map alerts to resources when resources in different scopes share the same parameters, such as matchTokens. | Optional. You can define access scope for locations, project names, namespaces, etc. |
| Generate debug support file | Set this parameter to 'True' in order to capture the output of the next scheduled job run as a file. This file will be stored with an observer's log files and can be used to debug observer issues, for example at the request of your designated Support team, or while using a test environment. For one-off jobs (that is, Load jobs), this parameter reverts to 'False' after the next completed run. To examine the output produced, you can load the generated debug file using the File Observer. | Optional |
| Observer job description | Enter additional information to describe the job | Optional |
Listen for Resource Manager events ('rm' job) parameters
| Parameter | Action | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Unique ID | Enter a unique name for the job | Required |
| IBM Agile Lifecycle Manager instance name | Use this to identify the Agile LifeCycle Manager installation and any associated Resource Managers | Required |
| Group ID | Use this to identify the Kafka group ID to be used | Required |
| Connection | Use this to specify the Kafka Host and Port to be used | Required |
| Topic | Use this to identify the Agile Lifecycle Manager Resource Manager Kafka topic | Required |
| Secured or unsecured Kafka connection | Select false or true to make secured or unsecured connection to the CP4NA server. The default is 'false'. | Required. When set to 'true', you must also provide the credentials and target system certificate parameters. See the following topic for more information on obtaining connection and credential details: IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation: Configuring Kafka connections |
| Kafka username | Enter the username of the secured Kafka cluster. | Required only if the parameter for secured connection has been set to 'true'. |
| Kafka password | Enter the password of the secured Kafka cluster. | Required only if the parameter for secured connection has been set to 'true'. |
| Certificate | Enter the certificate of the secured Kafka cluster. | Required only if the parameter for secured connection has been set to 'true'. For more information, see Configuring observer jobs security |
| Access scope | Enter text to provide a scope for the resources. Access scope can help map alerts to resources when resources in different scopes share the same parameters, such as matchTokens. | Optional. You can define access scope for locations, project names, namespaces, etc. |
| Generate debug support file | Set this parameter to 'True' in order to capture the output of the next scheduled job run as a file. This file will be stored with an observer's log files and can be used to debug observer issues, for example at the request of your designated Support team, or while using a test environment. For one-off jobs (that is, Load jobs), this parameter reverts to 'False' after the next completed run. To examine the output produced, you can load the generated debug file using the File Observer. | Optional |
| Observer job description | Enter additional information to describe the job | Optional |