Skip to main content

Actions

Introduction

Actions are an integral part of the monitoring ecosystem, where problems and issues are addressed and resolved. Actions can vary widely and come with several considerations:

  • Manual vs. Automated Actions: Determining whether the action should be manually executed by an operator or automatically by the system.

  • Approvals Required: Identify necessary approvals before executing the action.

  • Type of Action: Specifying the nature of the action, such as restarting a service, scaling resources, or sending notifications.

  • Nature of the Impact: Understanding the potential impact of the action on the system and its users.

The Virtana Wisdom supports the full lifecycle management of action configurations, including Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations. Each operation includes specific steps that interact with user interface elements.

Create an Action Configuration

Actions.png

  1. Navigate to Settings > Actions Configuration.

  2. Click on the "Add Action" button. Select the action type from the drop-down menu.

    You can select actions such as Slack, MatterMost, Teams, Https, and WebEx

  3. Enter the "Name" in the Name input field.

  4. Enter the "Webhook URL" in the Webhook URL input field.

  5. To test if the webhook URL is correct, click on Send Message.

  6. Click Add Action to save.

    action_policy.png

Update Action Configuration

  1. Locate an existing action configuration in the list.

  2. Click the "Action Name" in the row go to the edit configuration.

  3. Update the necessary fields (e.g., Name, Webhook URL).

  4. Click the "Save" button.

Delete Action Configuration

  1. Locate an existing action configuration in the list.

  2. Click the "Delete" icon next to the configuration.

  3. In the confirmation dialog, click "OK".

List Action Configurations

  1. Navigate to Configurations List:

    • Click on Settings > Actions menu item

  2. A list of all available action configurations is displayed.

Search Action Configuration by Name

search_action.png

  1. Click on Settings > Actions menu.

  2. Locate the search bar or search input field at the top of the configurations list page.

  3. Enter the name (or part of the name) of the action configuration you want to search for.

  4. Click the "Search" button.

    The list of action configurations remains filtered based on the search query until the search input is cleared or a new search is performed.

Default Action Policy

For each category of alarms (Info, Warning, and Critical), select the appropriate actions to be triggered. These actions can include notifications, alerts, or any predefined responses based on the severity of the alarm. Action configuration supports setting multiple actions, allowing you to configure various action types for both rules and actions settings.

default_action.png

Alarm Rules

To create Alarm rule:

  1. Navigate to Alarms >Rules >Create New Rule.

  2. To set up a new rule, choose the option for multiple action types as the target for notifications

  3. Based on the selections made in the rule configuration screen, the chosen multiple action types will be triggered, and notifications will be sent using the action service.

  4. For existing rules, you can edit and modify the action type selections as needed.

metric_rule.png

Create an HTTP Configuration

Here are the steps to use the newly added HTTP action type

  1. Navigate to Settings > Administration >Action menu.

  2. To create a new action, select Add Action from the drop-down menu and choose the HTTP type.

  3. Provide the Name, HTTP endpoint URL, JSON data payload. (Refer to the sample)

  4. Add the HTTP header key value pair. (Refer to the sample)

Note

Following is the sample JSON and the Header key values to enter.

In a document, we must provide a json sample format as an input. Refer to the following sample json for more details:

{  
	"title": "${title}", 
	"titleLink": "${link}", 
	"ruleId": "${ruleId}",  
	"caseId": "${caseId}",  
	"caseName": "${caseName}",  
	"caseDescription": "${caseDescription}",  
	"openTime": "${openTime}", 
	"entityName": "${entityName}",  
	"entityType": "${entityType}",  
	"ruleName": "${ruleName}", 
	"ruleType": "${ruleType}",  
	"thresholdValues":
	 [  
		<#list thresholdValues as value>   
	 {     
		"gaugeName": "${value.gaugeName}", 
	        "threshold": ${value.threshold?c},     
		"exceededValue": ${value.exceededValue?c}  
	 }	
		<#if value_has_next>, </#if>
 	  	</#list>
	 ], 
	 "sourceUuid": "${sourceUuid}",
	 "severity": "${severity}"

	 }

Description

  • ${title}: Case name

  • ${link}: Applaince Case Url

  • ${ruleId}: Case Rule Id,

  • ${caseId}: Case Id

  • ${caseName}: Case name

  • ${caseDescription}: Case Description

  • ${openTime}: Case Open Time (e.g., 2024-10-25 03:05:00 PDT)

  •  ${entityName}: Entity Name (e.g., qe-appdisc-01.lab.vi.local)

  • ${entityType}: Entity Type (e.g., ESXHost)

  • ${ruleName}: Alarm Rule Name

  • ${ruleType}: Alarm Rule Type

  • ${sourceUuid}: Applaince UUID

  • ${severity}: Case severity (e.g.,info, warning, critical)Threshold Values List (#list thresholdValues as value)

  • ${value.gaugeName}: Gauge Name

  • ${value.threshold}: Threshold

  • ${value.exceededValue}: Exceeded Value

Header key values to enter:

{ "Accept": "application/json"}

Here is the snippet

action.png

ServiceNow event notification via Actions

The ServiceNow event notification can be received via Actions in the Virtana environment. To integrate this, use the following sample JSON data playload:

{
    "records": [
        {
            "source": "Virtana",
            "event_class": "${sourceUuid}",
            "resource": "${entityName}",
            "node": "${sourceUuid}",
            "metric_name": "${caseName}",
            "type": "${entityType}",
            "severity": "1",
            "description": "${caseDescription}",
            "additional_info": "${link}"
        }
    ]
}

Enter the following in the Header key value pair section:

{
"Content-Type": "application/json",
"Authorization": "Basic <auth token>"
}

Replace the <auth token> with the actual basic auth token. A token can be generated with the command below.

  • Bash shell command for Linux or Mac users

    echo $(echo -n '<username>:<password>' | base64)

    Where <username> and <password> are the servicenow credentials.

  • Powershell command for Windows users -

    [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes("<username>:<password>"))

The details of how basic access authentication token is generated can be found on this Wikipedia page: Basic access authentication .

Slack App Webhook Url

You can integrate Slack with Virtana’s platform using Slack's Incoming Webhooks feature. This enables external services to send automated messages directly into specified Slack channels. Follow the steps below to generate and use a Slack Webhook URL.

slackpng.png

  1. Visit Slack API https://api.slack.com/apps.

  2. Click Create an App.

  3. Select From scratch.

  4. Enter an App Name and select the Slack Workspace for installation.

  5. Click Create App.

  6. In the app configuration page, go to the left-hand navigation pane.

  7. Click Incoming Webhooks.

  8. Toggle the option to Activate Incoming Webhooks.

  9. Scroll down to Webhook URLs for Your Workspace, click Add New Webhook to Workspace.

  10. Select the Slack Channel where you want messages to be posted.

  11. Click Allow to grant permission.

  12. Copy the generated Webhook URL displayed under Webhook URLs for Your Workspace.

  13. After authorizing, you'll be redirected back to the app's settings.

  14. Copy the webhook URL will be displayed under "Webhook URLs for Your Workspace.

  15. Use the webhook url in the add action in the UI.

Microsoft Teams App Webhook Url

teams_app.png

  1. Go to the Microsoft Teams app or the web version.

  2. Choose the Your Teams where you want to send messages using the webhook.

  3. Click on the "More options" (three dots) next to the channel name.

  4. Click on Apps menu.

  5. Click on Incoming Webhook and Add another team button.

  6. Select channel name and set up a "Connectors".

  7. To set up an Incoming Webhook, provide a name and select Create.

  8. Click on create button.

  9. After creation, the Webhook URL will be displayed. Copy this URL as you'll need it to send messages to the Teams channel.

  10. Use the webhook url in the add action in the UI.

Webex Chat App Webhook Url

webex.png

  1. Open your browser and go to Webex Developer Portal.

  2. Sign in to Your Webex Account.

  3. From the list of available options, choose Webhook as the app type.

  4. Selecting Webhook allows you to configure the app to receive data from Webex when specific events occur.

  5. Configure the Webhook:

    • Name: Give your webhook a name (e.g., Incoming Webhook for Space).

    • Target URL: Enter the endpoint where Webex should send JSON notifications.

    • Resource: Select what to monitor (e.g., messages).

    • Event: Choose the event type (e.g., created for new messages).

    • Filter: Add roomId to specify the Webex space.

    • Secret (optional): Set a secret key to verify incoming webhook data.

  6. Click Create to finalize and create your webhook.

In this section: