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 by Netcool Agile Service Manager.

1. On the Observer jobs page, perform one of the following actions:

   To edit an existing job

   Open the List of options overflow menu next to the job and click View & edit.

   To create a new job

   Click Add a new job + and select the IBM Agile Lifecycle Manager Observer tile.

   Choose either alm or rm from the job type drop-down.

2. Edit the following parameters, then click Save to save your job and begin retrieving information.
   Important: The value of the IBM Agile Lifecycle Manager instance name parameter needs to be the same for both jobs to allow for the topology to be combined.

   Table 1. ALM Observer parameters for alm jobs

   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 job security. On-prem Create and store the certificate in the ASM_HOME/security directory. OCP Obtain the authentication certificate using OpenSSL and store it as a secret.
   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. Tip: You can define access scope for locations, project names, namespaces, etc.
   Generate debug support file	Set the optional Generate debug support file 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. The file is saved to the following locations: On-prem $ASM_HOME/logs/<obs>-observer/ On OCP /var/log/itsm/<obs>-observer	Optional
   Observer job description	Enter additional information to describe the job.	Optional
   Job schedule	Specify when the job should run, and whether it should run at regular intervals. By default the job runs immediately, and only once. Optionally you can specify a future date and time for the job to run, and then set it to run at regular intervals after that.	Optional. Transient (one-off) jobs only. If you set a job schedule, the run intervals must be at least 90 seconds apart, and if you set them at less than 15 minutes, a warning is displayed, as the frequency can impact system performance.

   Table 2. ALM Observer parameters for ALM rm (Resource Manager) jobs

   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 job security. On-prem Create and store the certificate in the ASM_HOME/security directory. OCP Obtain the authentication certificate using OpenSSL and store it as a secret.
   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. Tip: You can define access scope for locations, project names, namespaces, etc.
   Generate debug support file	Set the optional Generate debug support file 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. The file is saved to the following locations: On-prem $ASM_HOME/logs/<obs>-observer/ On OCP /var/log/itsm/<obs>-observer	Optional
   Observer job description	Enter additional information to describe the job.	Optional
   Job schedule	Specify when the job should run, and whether it should run at regular intervals. By default the job runs immediately, and only once. Optionally you can specify a future date and time for the job to run, and then set it to run at regular intervals after that.	Optional. Transient (one-off) jobs only. If you set a job schedule, the run intervals must be at least 90 seconds apart, and if you set them at less than 15 minutes, a warning is displayed, as the frequency can impact system performance.