Defining VMware vCenter Observer jobs

The VMware vCenter Observer is installed as part of the core installation procedure. Use the VMware vCenter Observer when you have VMware vCenter installed in your environment to define jobs that dynamically load VMware vCenter data for analysis by Netcool Agile Service Manager.

To edit the parameters in the config file

1. Run the following command to check if a specific username has access to obtain the session-id token.

   curl -kX POST -u 'username':'password' -H "Content-Type: application/json" 'https://<host>/rest/com/vmware/cis/session'

   If the output is a value, then the username can be used to obtain a session-id token.
2. Open the vmvcenter_observer_common.sh config file and edit (at least) the following parameters:

   vcenter_api_url

   VMware vCenter REST API endpoint

   vcenter_username

   VMware vCenter user name for REST API

   vcenter_password

   VMware vCenter user password for REST API

   ssl_truststore_file

   VMware vCenter SSL trust store file for HTTPS authentication

   JKS is the supported format and the file is relative to $ASM_HOME/data/vmcenter-observer

   password_ssl_truststore_file

   Password to decrypt and encrypt VMware vCenter SSL trust store file

   Encryption requirement:

   The Load job requires passwords in encrypted form. To encrypt the vcenter_password and password_ssl_truststore_file, 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 will return an encrypted version.

   certificate

   The certificate name (in the /opt/ibm/netcool/asm/security directory)

3. Optional: Edit the following optional parameters:

   connect_read_timeout_ms

   Set the connection and read timeout value (in milliseconds).

   The default value is 5000.

   include

   The VMware vCenter host's name regex to discover.

   Specify an exact match or a regular expression match for a host's name in order to discover all its virtual machines.

   By default, it discovers all.

   connect_retry

   Set the connection retry times.

   The default value is 5.

   connect_retry_delay

   Set the time delay before trying to reconnect (in milliseconds).

   The default value is 1000.

To acquire VMware vCenter SSL certificate and build SSL truststore

4. Use the following command to use OpenSSL to connect to VMware vCenter over port 443, and extract a SSL Certificate from VMware vCenter to a <certificate_file_name>.crt file.

   echo -n | openssl s_client -connect {VMware vCenter IpAddress}:443 | sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/-END CERTIFICATE-/p' > ./{certificate_file_name}.crt

5. Use the following Java keytool command to import the VMware vCenter certificate file into a keystore and encrypt the keystore with a given password.

   keytool -import -v -trustcacerts -alias {VMware vCenter Hostname} -file {certificate_file_name}.crt -keystore {keystore file name} -storepass {your password to encrypt keystore}

6. Copy the keystore file ({keystore file name}) to the $ASM_HOME/security directory to complete the SSL setup.

To start the Load job

7. To start the VMware vCenter Observer Full Topology Upload job, use the following command:

   $ASM_HOME/bin/vmvcenter_observer_query_start.sh

   This job loads all requested topology data. Run this job whenever you need VMware vCenter topology data refreshed.