IBM Z ChatOps Integration (Beta)

IBM Z based incidents can now be created from Instana. The IBM Z ChatOps alert channel supports sending alert notifications for Instana events to IBM Z ChatOps.

Setting up IBM Z ChatOps alert channel

To add the IBM Z ChatOps alert channel, click Settings > Alert Channels > Add Alert Channel in the Instana UI.

The Z ChatOps Incidents URL field needs to point to the IBM Z ChatOps instance to make a post request for incidents, such as https://your_microservice_server:your_port_number/ibm/bnz/v1/incident. For more information, see Integrating with IBM Z Chatops.

The Token field needs to be a JWT bearer token, which can be extracted from the IBM Z ChatOps Microservice.

The Channel field needs to contain the channel name from where you wish to receive alerts in your channel service (that is , **Mattermost**, which is a communication tool that is used to integrate with IBM Z ChatOps).

IBM Z ChatOps Alert Channel

Alert payload details

The alerts are received when an event is triggered in the Instana UI. A URL endpoint is provided when you create an IBM Z ChatOps alert channel. The alert payload that is received is sent to this URL endpoint.

When an IBM z/OS entity triggers an alert within Instana, a payload corresponding to the specific entity is sent to IBM Z ChatOps. Instana supports the following IBM z/OS entities:

  • CICS
  • Db2
  • IMS

The alert payload will contain the following information:

  • Id: ID of the event.
  • Summary: Title of the event.
  • Description: Description of the event.
  • Priority: Instana events that have a critical severity are mapped to high priority, and all other events are mapped to low priority.
  • Severity: Instana events that have a critical severity are mapped to critical severity, events with warning severity are mapped to minor severity, and rest of the events are mapped to low severity.
  • Category: Alert.
  • DateTime: Provides the reported and occurred timestamp in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) format.
  • Location: The Resource Name contains the name of the entity for which the event is triggered. Additional information is included for events on IBM Z entities as follows:
    • CICS: Sysplex Name, System Name, SMF ID.
    • Db2: SMF ID.
    • IMS: SMF ID.
  • Status: New or Closed event.
  • ReportedBy: Instana.
  • ChatTool Posted: Includes the name of the Mattermost channel that is provided by the user.
  • Links: Link to the Instana event is attached.
  • Customized Fields: Based on the type of event, the following data is attached in the alert:
    • CICS: Component, CICS Region and Cicsplex Name.
    • IMS: Component and IMS ID.
    • Db2: Component and Db2 ID.

Example

On open issues/incidents (CICS)

The following is an example of the alert payload of an IBM CICS event with the type as Issue and the status as Open:

IBM Z ChatOps Example 1.1 IBM Z ChatOps Example 1.2