Integrating with IBM Turbonomic
You can maximize the benefits of IBM Turbonomic and Instana by setting up a two-way integration. Turbonomic uses the Intana REST APIs to collect application infrastructure data and Instana uses the Turbonomic REST APIs to collect action information. Both Instana and Turbonomic must monitor the same infrastructure resources for successful integration.
To set up the two-way integration, configure Turbonomic to fetch data from Instana, and enable Instana by configuring the Turbonomic sensor to receive data (or actions) from Turbonomic. After you install the Instana host-agent, enable the Turbonomic sensor by using the agent configuration file. After configuring the Turbonomic sensor, you can view actions from Turbonomic in the Instana UI.
Do not run the Instana host agent as the root user.
Instana collects action information based on the actions Turbonomic creates for the entities it discovers through its Instana probe. This probe is configured on the Turbonomic server by creating a Target definition. The Turbonomic Target is defined with the Instana server’s host or IP and an API token that is created on the Instana server.
The Turbonomic sensor polls Turbonomic APIs every 10 minutes to retrieve the executed and recommended actions. It uses a unique key, SnapshotID, to link Instana entities with the corresponding Turbonomic actions. The sensor collects
and stores Turbonomic actions information about both executed and recommended actions for the application infrastructure entities.
These actions include the following entities: applications, services, endpoints, virtual machines, containers, JVMs, database servers, and K8s workload controllers and namespaces.
The Turbonomic sensor uses the Instana automation framework to automate the data retrieval and correlation process.
See the following sections to learn how to integrate Turbonomic with Instana:
Support information
Supported operating systems
The Turbonomic sensor supports the same operating systems as the Instana host agent. For more information, see the supported operating systems section of host agent installation-topic for your selected agent, such as Supported operating systems for Unix.
Supported Turbonomic versions
The Turbonomic sensor supports Turbonomic 8.13.6 and later.
Prerequisites
Before you enable the Turbonomic sensor to set up a two-way integration between Turbonomic and Instana, complete the following steps:
- Deploy the Turbonomic Kubeturbo probe. For more information, see KubeTurbo deployment requirements.
- Add Instana as a target in Turbonomic. For more information, see Adding an Instana target.
- Enable the Instana automation actions framework for your Instana backend. For more information, see Managing automation. To run Turbonomic actions, make sure that the Instana user has the Running of automation actions permission.
Configuring Turbonomic sensor
Instana collects Turbonomic action information using the Turbonomic Sensor. This sensor collects the action data by using the Turbonomic REST APIs. By default, the Turbonomic sensor is disabled. To enable and configure the sensor, update the agent configuration file as shown in the following example:
# Turbonomic Sensor
com.instana.plugin.turbonomic:
enabled: true
host: '<INSERT_TURBONOMIC_SERVER_HERE>' # Turbonomic Server Host or IP address in https://x.x.x.x format
target: '<INSERT_TURBONOMIC_TARGET_NAME>' # Name of the target (Instana Server) as configured in Turbonomic
auth:
username: <INSERT_USERNAME_OF_TURBONOMIC_SERVER_HERE> # User must have administrator, deployer, or automator authority.
password: <INSERT_PASSWORD_OF_TURBONOMIC_SERVER_HERE>
You must configure only one agent for the Turbonomic sensor. One sensor collects all of the Turbonomic action data for the entire environment. Enabling the Turbonomic sensor on multiple agents consumes additional capacity and bandwidth.
You must have administrator, deployer, or automator authority to be able to use the Turbonomic API to collect actions.
Viewing Turbonomic actions
After you enable the Turbonomic sensor, you can view the executed and recommended actions from Turbonomic in the Instana UI. These actions help optimize the usage of the entities that Instana monitors.
Executed actions
The Instana Actions swimlanes on the Application and Infrastructure perspective widgets display when Instana or Turbonomic actions applied and their impact on the widgets KPI. Selecting the Action in the Actions swimlane starts a modal window that shows details of the executed action. If the Action represents more than one action, the modal window includes a scrollable list and displays details for the selected action. The swimlane displays the following action details:
- Name
- Initiator - Instana user who executed the action
- Start Time
- End Time
- Type - Turbonomic actions are labeled as External
- Turbonomic action risk description
The modal window includes an Investigate button that navigates to Analytics > Applications/Calls. To get detailed call data for application performance analysis, click Investigate.
The Actions swimlanes on the Application perspective display actions for all infrastructure entities that support the application. Action swimlanes on the Infrastructure perspective display actions specific to the selected infrastructure entity.
Application perspective
To view the executed actions on the Applications perspective, complete the following steps:
- From the navigation menu in the Instana UI, select Applications.
- Click an application perspective. On the Summary tab, you can see the actions that are executed by Turbonomic in the Actions swimlane with the application KPIs to indicate the impact of the action on the KPIs.
- Click the action in the Actions swimlane. The Action History dialog is displayed with the details of the executed action.
Infrastructure perspective
To view the executed actions on the Infrastructure perspective, complete the following steps:
- From the navigation menu in the Instana UI, select Infrastructure.
- On the Map tab, click a tower specific to the monitored host.
- Click Open Dashboard. You can see the actions that are executed by or from Turbonomic in the Actions swimlane with the entity KPIs to indicate the impact of the action on the KPIs.
- Click the action in the Actions swimlane. The Action History dialog is displayed with the details of the action.
Automation action history
The Automation > Action History tab shows all the executed actions. Turbonomic actions are labeled as External under the action Name. The Action History displays the Instana user who executed the action under Initiator, action Start Time, End Time, Event Name, and Status (In Progress, Failed, or Success). Selecting a Turbonomic action opens a modal window that displays the Turbonomic action risk description and the Instana host agent that runs the Turbonomic sensor.
To view the executed actions on the Automation page, complete the following steps:
- From the navigation menu in the Instana UI, select Automation.
- Click the Action History tab. You can view a list of executed actions.
- Click an executed action from the list to view its details.
Recommended actions
Turbonomic recommended actions to improve the entities that are monitored by Instana are retrieved from Turbonomic and show in context of the Applications affected.
Application perspective
The Optimizations tab in Application perspective displays the actions that are currently recommended by Turbonomic for all infrastructure entities that are related to the application. These actions are shown in the Recommended resource actions table with a category distribution widget. The application latency KPI widget is also displayed to provide a performance summary.
The Recommended resource actions table lists the action information, the action name, category, and the number of impacted applications. To open the Resource optimization details modal window, select the Run icon in the action row. This modal window provides detailed information about the impact of the action on the resource for which the action and the list of impacted applications. The modal window also displays the number of services each application provides and a link to the Turbonomic server. For more information on the action, open the Action Details page of the Turbonomic server by clicking the link. A Turbonomic user login is necessary to access the Turbonomic server.
To access the Optimizations tab:
- From the navigation menu in the Instana UI, select Applications.
- Click an application dashboard.
- Select the Optimizations tab.
Running Turbonomic actions
You can run actions that are displayed in the Recommended resource actions table directly from their Resource optimizations details modal. The Run Action button is used to send an accept request to the Turbonomic server. To send a request, complete the following steps:
- In the Recommended resource actions table, click the Run icon for an action.
- In the Resource optimization details modal, note the impact of the action will have on the affected resource.
- Click the Run Action.
- In the notification pop-up, click the link to open the Action History tab and view the status of the action.
Click Run icon to identify the Instana agent whose Turbonomic sensor will send the action accept request to the Turbonomic server. Click Run Action to display a link to the Automation page which can be used for monitoring the completion status of the action.
You must have permission to run automation actions on Instana to run the Turbonomic actions.
- This feature is enabled by default. To disable it, set the feature flag `feature.resource.optimization.actions.enabled` to `false`.
- If this feature flag is set to `false`, the **Optimizations** tab in application perspective is not displayed.
- If the Turbonomic sensor was configured in an agent, you must unconfigure it.