Using the Kafka Connector

In this topic, you can find information about using the Kafka connector.

You can send the data, which is collected by the vmware-vcenter collector manager to VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance.

Ensure that, the Collector Manager uses newly created Kafka connector.

Procedure

1. Edit the main configuration file of the vmware-vcenter Collector Manager, by running the following command:
   vi /opt/APG/Collecting/Collector-Manager/vmware-vcenter/conf/collecting.xml

   Output:

   <config xmlns="http://www.watch4net.com/APG/Collecting" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.watch4net.com/APG/Collecting collecting.xsd ">
     <connectors>
       <connector enabled="true" name="Backend" type="Socket-Connector" config="conf/socketconnector.xml" />
       <connector enabled="true" name="TOPO-Backend" type="Socket-Connector" config="conf/topoconnector.xml" />
       <connector enabled="true" name="Kafka" type="Kafka-Connector" config="Kafka-Connector/Default/conf/kafka-connector.xml" />
       <connector enabled="false" name="File" type="File-Connector" config="conf/file-connector.xml"/>
     </connectors>
     <filters>
       <!-- TOPO filters -->
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE_TOPO_VHF2" next="TOPO-Backend" config="Variable-Handling-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/variable-handling-filter-topo2.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE_TOPO_PTF1" next="VMWARE_TOPO_VHF2" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/vmware-tagging-topo.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE_TOPO_VHF1" next="VMWARE_TOPO_PTF1" config="Variable-Handling-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/variable-handling-filter-topo.xml"/>
    
       <!-- APG filters -->
       <filter enabled="true" name="FailOver" next="Backend Kafka" config="FailOver-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/failover-backend.xml" />
       <!-- Power Path tagging: Operations array workload distribution -->
       <filter enabled="true" name="PTF-PowerPath-Tagging" next="FailOver VMWARE_TOPO_VHF1" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/PTF-PowerPath-Tagging.xml" />
       <!-- User defined groups: used in chargeback reports -->
       <filter enabled="skip" name="User_Defined_Group_Management" next="PTF-PowerPath-Tagging" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/PTF-Group-Tagging.xml" />
       <!-- Business Unit & Application: used in inventory reports -->
       <filter enabled="skip" name="PTF-Business-Tagging" next="User_Defined_Group_Management" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/PTF-Business-Tagging.xml" />
       <!-- Customer-defined enrichment (ex: CMDB integration) -->
       <filter enabled="true" name="DataEnrichment" next="PTF-Business-Tagging" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/property-tagging-filter.xml" />
    
       <!-- Common filters -->
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-VIPR-PTF" next="DataEnrichment" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/PTF-ViPR-Tagging.xml" />
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-GroupFilter" next="VMWARE-VIPR-PTF" config="Group-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/virtualdiskpart.xml" />
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-CLEANUP" next="VMWARE-GroupFilter" config="Variable-Handling-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/variable-handling-filter-vmware-cleanup.xml"/>
      <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-CB-VHF" next="VMWARE-CLEANUP" config="Variable-Handling-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/variable-handling-filter-cb-vmware.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-CRF" next="VMWARE-CB-VHF" config="Cross-Referencing-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/crf_isused.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-NORM-PTF" next="VMWARE-CRF" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/PTF-Zero-Tagging.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-XIV-PTF" next="VMWARE-NORM-PTF" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/PTF-XIV-Tagging.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-PTF" next="VMWARE-XIV-PTF" config="Property-Tagging-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/vmware-tagging-fcwwn.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-PCF" next="VMWARE-PTF" config="Property-Concat-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/property-concat-filter-vmware.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-ICF" next="VMWARE-PCF" config="Inline-Calculation-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/icf-vmware-presentedcap.xml"/>
       <filter enabled="true" name="VMWARE-VHF" next="VMWARE-ICF" config="Variable-Handling-Filter/vmware-vcenter/conf/variable-handling-filter-vmware.xml"/>
    
     </filters>
     <collectors>
       <collector enabled="true" name="VMWareCollector" next="VMWARE-VHF" type="VMWare-Collector" config="VMWare-Collector/vmware-vcenter/conf/vmware-collector.xml" />
       <collector enabled="true" name="VMWareCollectorVMFiles" next="VMWARE-VHF" type="VMWare-Collector" config="VMWare-Collector/vmware-vcenter/conf/vmware-collector-vmfiles.xml" />
       <collector enabled="true" name="VMWareCollectorDatastoreClusters" next="VMWARE-VHF" type="VMWare-Collector" config="VMWare-Collector/vmware-vcenter/conf/vmware-collector-datastoreclusters.xml" />
     </collectors>
   </config>
   

   Note: Ensure that, you have defined your Kafka connector in the connector section. Also, ensure that you are referencing your Kafka connector in the chain of filters the collected data is sent to (see code in italic for more information).
2. To restart the collector manager, run the following command:
   /opt/APG/bin/manage-modules.sh service restart collector-manager vmware-vcenter