Defining Big Cloud Fabric Observer jobs

You configure Big Cloud Fabric Observer jobs to dynamically load data from the Big Cloud Fabric REST interface.

Before you begin

Ensure you have the Big Cloud Fabric service details to hand, such as username, password, hostname and port.

The observer is installed as part of the core installation procedure.

Remember: Swagger documentation for the observer is available at the following default location: https://<your host>/1.0/bigcloudfabric-observer/swagger

About this task

The Big Cloud Fabric Observer job extracts Big Cloud Fabric resource information via REST. The observer loads and updates the resources and their relationships within the Agile Service Manager core topology service.

bigcloudfabric_observer_common.sh: The configuration file you use to customize Big Cloud Fabric Observer settings.; The parameters defined here are then used by the bigcloudfabric_observer_load_start.sh to trigger the Big Cloud Fabric Observer jobs.
Tip: Alternatively, you can set the appropriate environment variables. If an environment variable is set, it takes precedence over the configuration file settings.

You define and start the following job.

LDAP job: Run this job whenever you need Big Cloud Fabric topology data refreshed.; By default, these jobs are one-off, transient jobs that carry out a full upload of all requested topology data when they are triggered.; You can also run these jobs (again) manually from the Observer UI, or schedule them to run at set times when you configure them.

The Big Cloud Fabric Observer loads the following resources and their relationship into the Agile Service Manager core topology service:

Table 1. Big Cloud Fabric resources and relationships loaded by the Big Cloud Fabric Observer LDAP job
Vertex	Description
Access Leaf	Access Leaf Switch part of DC fabric
Access Port	Access Leaf Switch port connected to Compute Node and Spine Switch port
Spine Switch	Spine Switch part of DC fabric
Spine Switch Port	Spine Switch port connected to Access Leaf Switch and L3 Router Port

Procedure

To edit the parameters in the configuration file

Open the bigcloudfabric_observer_common.sh configuration file and edit the following parameters:

Table 2. Big Cloud Fabric Observer Ldap job parameters
Parameter	Action	Details
Unique ID	Enter a unique name for the job	Required
Proxy hostname	Specify the proxy server name	Required
Proxy Port	Specify the proxy port number for the REST API	Required
Proxy username	Specify the proxy username	Required
Proxy password	Specify the proxy password in encrypted form. To encrypt the password, run the encrypt_password.sh script in the $ASM_HOME/bin directory.	Required. Must be encrypted.
BCF authentication URL	Specify the BCF authentication URL.	Required
BCF Controller Host Name	Specify the BCF controller hostname in string format. The hostname is taken from the job parameter.	Required. Note: The BCF controller hostname value (together with the proxy hostname and username) identifies the source of data for a Big Cloud Fabric Observer job instance. If your BCF controller hostname changes after a job is created, you must create more than one job instance. BCF controller hostname changes after job Create one job instance for each BCF controller hostname. BCF controller hostname DOES NOT change after job Create a single job instance with all BCF controller hostnames specified.
HTTPS or HTTP connection to the BCF authentication server	Specify whether the connection to the BCF authentication server should be `HTTPS` (secured) or `HTTP`.	Required
HTTPS or HTTP connection to the BCF proxy server	Specify whether the connection to the BCF proxy server should be `HTTPS` (secured) or `HTTP`.	Required
Trust all certificates Verification	Choose whether Trust all certificates Verification is `true` or `false`.	Required. When set to `true`, the observer will trust all certificates.
Delay between two api calls (in seconds)	Specify the delay between retries	Optional
Concurrency Level	Specify the Concurrency Level, with a minimum of `3` and a maximum of `5`.	Optional
Authentication system certificate	Specify the BCF Authentication system certificate to be used (if any).	Optional. Required if the HTTPS or HTTP connection to the BCF authentication server parameter is true. To obtain authentication certificates using OpenSSL and store them as secrets, see Defining observer security.
Proxy system certificate	Specify the BCF proxy system certificate to be used (if any)	Optional. Required if the HTTPS or HTTP connection to the BCF proxy server parameter is true. To obtain proxy certificates using OpenSSL and store them as secrets, see Defining observer security.
SSL Host Name Verification	Choose whether SSL validation is true or false.	Optional. When SSL validation is set to `false`, the observer will make HTTPS connections without validating the proxy hostname of the provided certificate.
Connection timeout (milliseconds)	Enter the time at which the connection actions time out.	Optional. Must be a value greater than 0 (zero), and the default is 5000 (5 seconds).
Read timeout (milliseconds)	Enter the time at which the read actions time out.	Optional. Must be a value greater than 0 (zero), and the default is 5000 (5 seconds).
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. If you set them at less than 15 minutes, a warning is displayed, as the frequency can impact system performance.
Observer job description	Enter additional information to describe the job.	Optional

For encryption: Run the encrypt_password.sh script in the ASM_HOME/bin directory:

./bin/encrypt_password.sh

Enter and then confirm the password. The encryption utility returns an encrypted version.

To start the LDAP job

To start the Big Cloud Fabric LDAP job, use the following command:
```
$ASM_HOME/bin/bigcloudfabric_observer_load_start.sh
```

Results

This job loads all requested data, and runs only once. Run this job whenever you need the topology data refreshed.

What to do next

You can also use the following scripts:

bigcloudfabric_observer_load_stop.sh: Stops the Load job
bigcloudfabric_observer_job_list.sh: Lists the status of current jobs
bigcloudfabric_observer_log_level.sh: Sets the log level

Remember: As an alternative to being configured using the Observer Configuration UI, observer jobs have scripts to start and stop all available jobs, to list the status of a current job, and to set its logging levels. These scripts can be run with -h or --help to display help information, and with -v or --verbose to print out the details of the actions performed by the script, including the full cURL command. For the on-prem version of Agile Service Manager, observer scripts are configured for specific jobs by editing the script configuration files.