Create the Connector Configuration File

Building a Custom Connector Using the Sample Connector › How to Build a Custom Connector › Connector Configuration Files › Create the Connector Configuration File

Create the Connector Configuration File

To create the connector configuration file, you must use the template file myMDR_template.xml provided with the Sample connector installer kit. The template file includes various comments about properties that help you create your configuration file.

Follow these steps:

Unzip the file connector-installkit.zip available at SOI_HOME\SampleConnector\InstallKit.
The connector-installkit folder is extracted into the SOI_HOME\SampleConnector\InstallKit folder.
Open the ..\connectors\resources\ConnectorConfigTemplates folder, and locate the template XML file myMDR_template.xml.
Create a copy of the template file, rename the copied file (for example, <MdrProduct>_template.xml), and open the renamed file in a text editor.
Note: During installation, the installer replaces the word template in <MdrProduct>_template.xml with the location of the domain manager server to which the connector is pointing (MdrProdInstance).

The XML file opens in the text editor.
Complete the following parameters, and save the file:
Note: Notice that several properties already have default tokenized values in the template file. These properties typically require custom values that users supply during installation.

MdrProdInstance

Identifies the domain manager instance. For example, ABC123.ca.com.

This parameter is helpful when you have multiple instances of a product installed in your enterprise. You can enter a tokenized value so that the user can define the domain manager instance during installation.

MdrProduct

Specifies a unique identifier (as defined by the open enumeration, MdrProductEnum) naming the domain manager. For example, CA:09998.

name

Specifies the name as <MdrProduct>_<MdrProductInstance>. For example, CA:09998_ABC123.ca.com.

State

Specifies whether the connector is set to enabled or disabled state. Enabled and notEnabled are the valid values.

ImplementationClass

Specifies the following parameters in the ImplementationClass section:

descriptorClass

Specifies the implementation of the com.ca.connector.metadata.ConnectorDescriptor interface for the connector. Set to com.ca.usm.ucf.utils.USMBaseConnectorDescriptor.

name

Specifies the name of the Java class for the connector that implements the com.ca.connector.runtime.Connector interface.

policy

Specifies the policy file used to transform raw data collected from a domain manager into USM data.

sbpolicy

Specifies the policy file used to transform USM data into domain manager format for create, update, or delete requests.

ConnectionInfo

Specifies any configuration values that you must make available to the connector. Any attribute and its assigned values listed in this tag are passed to the initialize method of the connector when the connector starts. These properties often required tokenized values that a user must supply during installation.

EncryptedProperties

Specifies which of the attributes listed in ConnectionInfo must be stored and treated as encrypted values. It includes the following parameter:

name

Specifies the comma-separated list of attribute names.

ConnectorControls

Specifies the following set of Boolean flags that control various aspects of how the framework uses the connector:

Note: 1 and 0 are the two valid values for these flags. 1 represents that the flag is turned on and 0 implies that it is turned off.

dns_resolution

Specifies whether to use DNS resolution to resolve device names. If a reliable DNS mechanism is not in place (for example, no DNS server on the network, or CIs not defined to the DNS), disable DNS lookups to prevent CI resolution and normalization failure.

Default: 1

getCIsAtStartUp

Specifies whether to rediscover CIs every time the connector starts. You typically enable this control so that your connector always provides a current record of all CIs from their domain managers. Turn this control off if the connector does not support collecting CIs at startup, which applies for Level 1 and 2 integrations.

Default: 1

getRelationshipsAtStartup

Specifies whether to rediscover relationships every time the connector starts. You typically disable this control so that relationships are only obtained and imported as a part of service model imports. You should only enable this control if you require relationship CIs outside of imported service models.

Default: 0

isRemotable

Specifies whether to allow the connector framework to access the connector remotely for create, update, and delete operations on the source domain manager. Only enable this control if you have coded the create(), update(), and delete() methods for inbound to connector operations.

Default: 1

performDeltaProcessing

Specifies whether to process and publish deltas on CIs between the time the connector or SA Manager was last stopped or restarted. When enabled, this setting also performs delta processing on relationships if the getRelationshipsAtStartup property is enabled.

Default: 1

useAlertFilter

Specifies whether to filter alerts based on their existence in a managed service in CA SOI. If the control is turned on, the connector only sends domain manager alerts that are associated with a CI that is part of an existing managed service in CA SOI. If the control is turned off, the connector forwards all alerts from the domain manager, regardless of whether they relate to a service.

Default: 1

useServiceFilter

Specifies whether to send all relationships to CA SOI or only the ones associated with modeled services. Set the control to true to run relationships through a service filter and receive only the relationships associated with modeled services.

Default: 1

LICURLS

Helps CA SOI to allow launch of web-based UIs in context of an Item or Alert. A connector can specify URL information for any web-based UIs that the domain manager provides. You can then launch the URL in context of an Item or Alert from the CA SOI user interfaces. The URL parameter under LICURLS defines a single launch-in-context URL to be displayed in the CA SOI UI context menus. You can define multiple URL entries by including multiple configuration entries. URL includes the following parameters:

Type

Specifies whether a URL is associated with an Item or an Alert. Possible values of Type are Item or Alert.

seqNum

Specifies the identifier for the URL and the order in which URLs are displayed. For a connector, each URL of a specific Type must have a unique seqNum.

url

Specifies the URL string to launch. URLs are formed using substitutable parameters. Typically, you can include any property of an Item in the URL. To specify a substitutable parameter, enclose it within {}.

Examples are url=”{Protocol}://{host}:{Port}/CIPortal?id={MdrElementID}”, url =”http://{host}:7070/sam/ui?parm={UrlParms}”, url=”http://www.ca.com”, url=”{UrlParams}”, or url=”http://www.google.com/search?q={MdrElementID}”.

Protocol

(Optional) Identifies the protocol portion of the URL (if needed by the URL). For example, Protocol=”http” or Protocol=”https”.

host

(Optional) Identifies the host name portion of the URL (if needed by the URL).

Port

(Optional) Identifies the port number to use in the URL (if needed by the URL). For example, Port="8080”.

Label

Specifies the string that the CA SOI user interface displays. This can be any string that easily identifies the URL being launched. For example, Label=”Spectrum IM OneClick UI”.

BindingProtocol

Specifies the transport protocol on which connectors are published as a service. It includes the following parameter:

supportedProtocols

Specifies the supported protocols, which are jms and ws.

connector-type-meta-data

Specifies the connector properties describing the capabilities of the connector. These properties are common to all instances of the connector.

instance-meta-data

Specifies the connector properties specific to a particular instance of the connector.

The connector configuration file is created.