You add outbound plug-in instances so that you can notify users about alerts or capture alert data outside of VMware Aria Operations .

You can configure one or more instances of the same plug-in type if you need to direct alert information to multiple target systems.

The Automated Action plug-in is activated by default. If automated actions stop working, check the Automated Action plug-in and activate it if necessary. If you edit the Automated Action plug-in, you only need to provide the instance name.

Add a Standard Email Plug-In for VMware Aria Operations Outbound Alerts

You add a Standard Email Plug-In so that you can use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to email VMware Aria Operations alert notifications to your virtual infrastructure administrators, network operations engineers, and other interested individuals.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have an email user account that you can use as the connection account for the alert notifications. If you choose to require authentication, you must also know the password for this account.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings.
  2. Click Add, and from the Plug-In Type drop-down menu, select Standard Email Plugin.
    The dialog box expands to include your SMTP settings.
  3. Enter an Instance Name.
    This is the name that identifies this instance that you select when you later configure notification rules.
  4. Configure the SMTP options appropriate for your environment.
    Option Description
    Use Secure Connection
    Activates secure communication encryption using SSL/TLS. If you select this option, you must select a method in the Secure Connection Type drop-down menu.
    Note: In VMware Aria Operations, the Standard Email Plugin always uses the 'starttls' command when you select the Use Secure Connection checkbox and select TLS as the Secure Connection Type.
    Requires Authentication

    Activates authentication on the email user account that you use to configure this SMTP instance. If you select this option, you must provide a password for the user account.

    SMTP Host

    URL or IP address of your email host server.

    SMTP Port

    Default port SMTP uses to connect with the server.

    Secure Connection Type
    Select either SSL/TLS as the communication encryption method used in your environment from the drop-down menu. You must select a connection type if you select Use Secure Connection.
    Note: In VMware Aria Operations, the Standard Email Plugin always uses the 'starttls' command when you select the Use Secure Connection checkbox and select TLS as the Secure Connection Type.
    Sender Email Address

    Email address that appears on the notification message.

    Sender Name

    Displayed name for the sender email address.

    Credential Type Select the Credential Type from the list. If your Endpoint URL does not need any authentication, then select No Credential from the Credential Type list.
    Credential Add or edit the Credential details. Click the plus icon to enter the details of the new credentials in the Create New Credential pane, and click Save.
    This field appears only when you select Basic Authentication as the Credential Type.
    Note:

    Starting VMware Aria Operations 8.14, you could only view, add, modify, or delete credentials that you created or were assigned to you. You could view unassigned credentials only if you had the required permissions. When you upgrade to VMware Aria Operations 8.16.1, you can deactivate the Credential Ownership Enforcement option from Global Settings to be able to modify credentials created and owned by others. For more information, see List of Global Settings.
    Receiver Email Address

    Receiver's email address.
  5. Click Save.
  6. To start the outbound alert service for this plug-in, select the instance in the list and click Activate on the toolbar.

Results

This instance of the Standard Email Plug-In for outbound SMTP alerts is configured and running.

What to do next

Create notification rules that use the Standard Email Plug-In to send a message to your users about alerts requiring their attention. See User Scenario: Create a VMware Aria Operations Email Alert Notification.

Add a Log File Plug-In for VMware Aria Operations Outbound Alerts

You add a Log File plug-in when you want to configure VMware Aria Operations to log alerts to a file on each of your VMware Aria Operations nodes. If you installed VMware Aria Operations as a multiple node cluster, each node processes and logs the alerts for the objects that it monitors. Each node logs the alerts for the objects it processes.

All alerts are added to the log file. You can use other applications to filter and manage the logs.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have write access to the file system path on the target VMware Aria Operations nodes.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings.
  2. Click Add, and from the Plug-In Type drop-down menu, select Log File.
    The dialog box expands to include your log file settings.
  3. In the Alert Output Folder text box, enter the folder name.
    If the folder does not exist in the target location, the plug-in creates the folder in the target location. The default target location is: /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/common/bin/.
  4. Click Save.
  5. To start the outbound alert service for this plug-in, select the instance in the list and click Activate on the toolbar.

Results

This instance of the log file plug-in is configured and running.

What to do next

When the plug-in is started, the alerts are logged in the file. Verify that the log files are created in the target directory as the alerts are generated, updated, or canceled.

Add a Network Share Plug-In for VMware Aria Operations Reports

You add a Network Share plug-in when you want to configure VMware Aria Operations to send reports to a shared location. The Network Share plug-in supports only SMB version 2.1.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have read, write, and delete permissions to the network share location.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts and then click the Outbound Settings tile.
  2. From the Outbound Settings page, click the Outbound Settings tab, and then click Add.
  3. From the Plug-In Type drop-down menu, select Network Share Plug-in.
    The dialog box expands to include your plug-in instance settings.
  4. Enter an Instance Name.
    This is the name that identifies this instance that you select when you later configure notification rules.
  5. Configure the Network Share options appropriate for your environment.
    Option Description
    Domain Your shared network domain address.
    User Name The domain user account that is used to connect to the network.
    Password The password for the domain user account.
    Network share root

    The path to the root folder where you want to save the reports. You can specify subfolders for each report when you configure the schedule publication.

    You must enter an IP address. For example, \\IP_address\ShareRoot. You can use the host name instead of the IP address if the host name is resolved to an IPv4 when accessed from the VMware Aria Operations host.

    Note: Verify that the root destination folder exists. If the folder is missing, the Network Share plug-in logs an error after 5 unsuccessful attempts.
  6. Click Test to verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions.
    The test might take up to a minute.
  7. Click Save.
    The outbound service for this plug-in starts automatically.
  8. (Optional) To stop an outbound service, select an instance and click Deactivate on the toolbar.

Results

This instance of the Network Share plug-in is configured and running.

What to do next

Create a report schedule and configure it to send reports to your shared folder.

Sample Log File Plug-In Output

Here is a sample log file plug-in output.

AlertId :: 9fb52c9c-40f2-46a7-a005-01bf24ab75e6

AlertStatus :: Active

AlertControlState :: Open

AlertGenerateTime :: Wed May 06 06:26:05 UTC 2020 (UTC = 1588746365585)

AlertUpdateTime :: Wed May 06 06:26:05 UTC 2020 (UTC = 1588746365585)

AlertMessage :: 9027

AlertSummaryLink :: https://10.27.82.96/ui/index.action#/object/all/1b852a3c-bbdf-41df-a64d-b40af9673b89/alertsAndSymptoms/alerts/9fb52c9c-40f2-46a7-a005-01bf24ab75e6

AlertType :: Storage - Performance

AlertCriticality :: 4

AffectedResourceId :: 1b852a3c-bbdf-41df-a64d-b40af9673b89

AffectedResourceName :: JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44

AffectedResourceKind :: VirtualMachine

AffectedResourceParentsNames :: 
 VM Entity Status:PoweredOn:all
 DistributedVirtualPortgroup:VM-Network-VLAN-820
 VM Entity Status:PoweredOn:vc_evn-hs1-vc.company.com
 VMFolder:Discovered virtual machine
 HostSystem:evn1-hs1-0808.company.com

AffectedResourceAdapterInstanceResourceName :: 
 CompanyAdapter Instance:vc_evn-hs1-vc.company.com

AlertOwner :: 

Anomalies :: 
 VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 - [virtualDisk:Aggregate of all instances|totalWriteLatency_average] - HT above 30.5647619047619 > 25
 VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 - [virtualDisk:Aggregate of all instances|totalWriteLatency_average] - HT above 30.5647619047619 > 15
 VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44 - [virtualDisk:Aggregate of all instances|totalWriteLatency_average] - HT above 30.5647619047619 > 30

Health :: 
4.0
Risk :: 
2.0
Efficiency :: 
1.0
KPIFiring :: 

AlertTrigger :: 
 Resource                                        	 Message Info                  	 Alarm Reason	 Probability            	 Prediction Time        	
 VirtualMachine:JNJ_6nodes_Large_HA_4_10.27.83.44	 HT above 30.5647619047619 > 30	 HT above    	 Unable to retrive value	 Unable to retrive value	

AlertRootCause :: 
null
AlertRootCauseDetails :: null

AlertName :: Virtual machine disk I/O write latency is high

AlertDescription :: 
Virtual machine disk I/O write latency is high

Add an SNMP Trap Plug-In for VMware Aria Operations Outbound Alerts

You add an SNMP Trap plug-in when you want to configure VMware Aria Operations to log alerts on an existing SNMP Trap server in your environment.

You can provide filtering when you define a Notification using an SNMP Trap destination.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have an SNMP Trap server configured in your environment, and that you know the IP address or host name, port number, and community that it uses.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings.
  2. Click Add, and from the Plug-In Type drop-down menu, select SNMP Trap Plugin.
    The dialog box expands to include your SNMP trap settings.
  3. Enter an Instance Name.
  4. Configure the SNMP trap settings appropriate to your environment.
    Option Description
    Destination Host

    IP address or fully qualified domain name of the SNMP management system to which you are sending alerts.

    Port

    Port used to connect to the SNMP management system. Default port is 162.

    Community

    Text string that allows access to the statistics. SNMP Community strings are used only by devices that support SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c protocol.

    Username

    User name to configure SNMP trap settings in your environment. If the user name is specified, SNMPv3 is considered as the protocol by the plugin.

    If left blank, SNMPv2c is considered as the protocol by the plugin.

    Note: SNMP uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as its transport protocol.
    Authentication Protocol

    Authentication algorithms available are SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512.

    Authentication Password

    Authentication password.

    Privacy Protocol

    Privacy algorithms available are AES192, AES256.

    Privacy Password

    Privacy password.

    Engine ID Engine ID serves as an identifier for the agent. It is used with a hashing function to generate localized keys for authentication and encryption of SNMP v3 messages.

    It is mandatory to specify the Engine ID when configuring the SNMP Trap plugin. If you do not add the Engine ID and save the SNMP Trap plugin instance, the field is auto-generated the next time you edit the settings.

  5. Click Test to validate the connection.
    Note: The Community and Username options are mutually exclusive. Define either one of them to avoid an error. If you add a user name, you can optionally define the Authentication Protocol and Authentication Password followed by the Privacy Protocol and Privacy Password. The privacy protocol and its password cannot be defined independent of the authentication protocol and its password.

Results

This instance of the SNMP Trap plug-in is configured and running.

What to do next

When the plug-in is added, configure notifications for receiving the SNMP traps.

Add a Service-Now Notification Plug-In for Outbound Alerts

You add a Service-Now Notification plug-in when you want to integrate Service Now ticketing system with VMware Aria Operations . Service Now creates an incident whenever an alert is triggered in VMware Aria Operations .

Using Service-Now Notification Plug-In you can send alert notifications to the Service Now ticketing system to create incidents. The incident includes information like the Caller, Category, Subcategory, Business Service, and other attributes related to alerts.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have log in credentials for Service-Now.

Ensure that you are assigned with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) role in Service Now.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings.
  2. Click Add and from the Plug-In Type drop-down menu, select Service-Now Notification Plug-in.
    The dialog box expands to include your plug-in instance settings.
  3. Enter an Instance Name.
  4. Enter the Service Now URL.
    https://dev22418.service-now.com/
  5. Enter a value for the Connection Count.
    The connection count represents the maximum number of open connections allowed per node in VMware Aria Operations .
  6. (Optional) Select your HTTP Proxy.
  7. Select the Credential Type from the list.
    Note: If your Endpoint URL does not need any authentication, then select No Credential from the Credential Type list.
  8. Add or edit the Credential details. Click the plus icon to enter the details of the new credentials in the Create New Credential pane, and click Save. This field appears only when you select Basic Authentication as the Credential Type.
    Note: When you upgrade to the latest version of VMware Aria Operations, all credentials get unassigned. The VMware Aria Operations administrator must assign the credentials from the Orphan and Unassigned page. For more information, see the topic, Managing Orphaned and Unassigned Content.
  9. To verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions, click Test.
  10. Click Save.

Results

This instance of the Service-Now Notifications plug-in is configured and running.

What to do next

When the plug-in is added, configure notifications for creating incidents in Service-Now ticketing system.

Notifications - Add a Slack Plugin for Outbound Notifications

You can add a Slack plug-in to forward alerts and configure multiple notification rules with different slack channels. The Slack plug-in allows you to receive pre-formatted alert details with alert fields and helps you run VMware Aria Operations using alert links to troubleshoot further.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings.
  2. Click Add and from the Plugin Type drop-down menu, select Slack Plugin.
    The dialog box expands to include your plug-in instance settings.
  3. Enter an Instance Name.
  4. Enter a value for the Connection Count.
    The connection count represents the maximum number of open connections allowed per node in VMware Aria Operations .
  5. (Optional) Select your HTTP Proxy.
  6. To verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions, click Test.
  7. Click Save.

Results

This instance of the Slack plugin is configured and running.

What to do next

When the plugin is added, configure notifications for different slack channels.

Add a Webhook Notification Plugin for Outbound Instance

You can integrate Webhook with any endpoint REST API and configure outbound payload.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have login credentials for Webhook.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings.
  2. Click Add and from the Plugin Type drop-down menu, select Webhook Notification Plugin.
    The dialog box expands to include your plugin instance settings.
  3. Enter an Instance Name.
  4. Enter the Webhook URL.
    Note: For notifications that reference webhook outbound instances, the URL that you enter here serves as a base URL that is combined with the endpoint URL suffix defined in related webhook payload templates.
  5. Enter a value for the Connection Count.
    The connection count represents the maximum number of open connections allowed per node in VMware Aria Operations .
  6. (Optional) Select your HTTP Proxy.
  7. Select the Credential Type from the list.
    Note: If your Endpoint URL does not need any authentication, then select No Credential from the Credential Type list.
  8. Add or edit the Credential details. Click the plus icon and enter the details of the new credentials in the right pane, and click Save.
    Note: When you upgrade to the latest version of VMware Aria Operations, all credentials get unassigned. The VMware Aria Operations administrator must assign the credentials from the Orphan and Unassigned page. For more information, see the topic, Managing Orphaned and Unassigned Content.
    The fields in the Create New Credential pane appear based on the Credential Type you select.
    Credential Type Fields
    Basic Authentication Enter the Name, User Name, and Password.
    Bearer Token Enter the Name of the credential and the Token.
    OAuth Authentication Enter the following details:
    • Name: Enter a name for the authentication.
    • Grant Type: Select either Client Credentials or Password Credentials.
    • Authentication URL: Enter the URL from where the access token can be retrieved.
    • Client ID: Enter the client ID for the authentication URL.
    • Client Secret: Enter the client secret for the authentication URL.
    • User Name: Enter the user name for the authentication URL.
      Note: This field appears only when the grant type is Password Credentials.
    • Password: Enter the password for the authentication URL.
      Note: This field appears only when the grant type is Password Credentials.
    • Scope: Enter the labels to specify the access token. The labels specify the permissions that the access tokens will have.
    • Send Credentials: Select either In auth header or In body.
      • In auth header: Sends the Client ID and Client Secret in the header.
      • In body: Sends the Client ID and Client Secret in the payload body.
      Note: This field appears only when the grant type is Client Credentials.
    • Access Token Path: Enter your access token path.
    • Validity Token Path: To keep track of when the token is going to expire, enter the validity token path and select the format from the drop-down list. You can choose one of the following formats:
      • Second
      • Milisecond
      • Absolute Time
    • Header Name: Enter a header name. By default, the header name is 'Authorization'.
    • Prefix: Enter a prefix. By default, the prefix is 'Bearer'.
    • HTTP Proxy: Select your HTTP Proxy.
    Certificate Enter the following details:
    • Name: Enter the name of the certificate.
    • Certificate: Enter the certificate in the X.509 format.
    • Certificate Key: Enter the private key. The formats supported are Open SSL, PKCS1, and PKCS8
    API Key Enter the Name, API Key, and the API Value.
  9. To verify the specified paths, credentials, and permissions, click Test.
    Note:
    • The Test feature does not currently support the Custom Templates. If the template contains a custom headers, the test might fail.
  10. Click Save.

Results

This instance of the Webhook Notification plugin is configured and running.

Sample Email Alert

Here is a sample email for a newly created alert.

Alert Definition Name: Node is experiencing swapping due to memory pressure
Alert Definition Description: Node is experiencing swapping due to memory pressure
Object Name : VMware Aria Operations Node-VMwareAria Cluster Node
Object Type : vC-Ops-Node
Alert Impact: risk
Alert State : warning
Alert Type : Application
Alert Sub-Type : Performance
Object Health State: info
Object Risk State: warning
Object Efficiency State: info
Control State: Open
Symptoms:
SYMPTOM SET - self
Symptom Name Object Name Object ID Metric Message Info
Node swap usage at Warning level VMware Aria Operations Node-VMware Aria Cluster Node 50ec874a-2d7d-4e78-98b1-afb26fd67e58 Swap|Workload 59.183 > 30.0 
Recommendations:
Notification Rule Name: rule1
Notification Rule Description:
Alert ID : badc2266-935d-4fb9-8594-e2e71e4866fc
VCOps Server - VMwareAriaClusterNode

Alert details(link)