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EMC PPMA Rest API

Monitoring Connector Assets​

Monitored Objects​

The Monitoring Connector EMC PowerPath Management Appliance collects metrics for:

  • Hosts

Collected Metrics​

Metric nameDescriptionUnit
host statusHost powerpath status, possible to set string-based alerts
hostname#host.paths.total.countNumber of total paths for the host
hostname#host.paths.dead.countNumber of dead paths for the host
hostname#host.volumes.total.countNumber of volumes attached
hostname#host.volumes.dead.countNumber of dead volumes attached
hostname#host.volumes.degraded.countNumber of degraded volumes attached

Prerequisites​

To control your EMC PPMA, the Rest API must be configured.

E.g: https://dl.dell.com/content/docu98223_PowerPath-Management-Appliance-3.x-Rest-API-Reference.pdf?language=en_US

Setup​

  1. Install the Centreon Plugin on every Poller:
yum install centreon-plugin-Applications-Emc-Ppma-Restapi
  1. On the Centreon Web interface in Configuration > Monitoring Connector Manager, install the Emc PPMA Rest API Monitoring Connector

Host configuration​

  • Add a new Host and apply the App-Emc-Ppma-Restapi-custom Host Template

Once the template applied, some Macros have to be configured:

MandatoryNameDescription
XPPMAAPIPORTPort used (Default: 443)
XPPMAAPIPROTOSpecify https if needed (Default: 'https')
XPPMAAPIUSERNAMEEMC PPMA username
XPPMAAPIPASSWORDEMC PPMA password
PPMAAPIEXTRAOPTIONSAny extra option you may want to add to the command (eg. a --verbose flag)

By default, Host Template App-Emc-Ppma-Restapi doesn't have Service Template attached. You may want to:

  • attach Service Template to Host Template App-Emc-Ppma-Restapi-custom
  • use service discovery

FAQ​

How to check in the CLI that the configuration is OK and what are the main options for ?​

Once the Plugin installed, log into your Poller using the centreon-engine user account and test by running the following command (Parameters such as api-username or api-passwordhave to be adjusted):

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins/centreon_emc_ppma_restapi.pl \
    --plugin=apps::emc::ppma::restapi::plugin \
    --mode=hosts \
    --hostname='10.30.2.79' \
    --port='443' \
    --proto='https' \
    --api-username='myapiusername' \
    --api-password='myapipassword' \
    --filter-name='centreontest' \
    --warning-paths-dead='0' \
    --critical-paths-dead='1' \
    --verbose

Output example:

OK: All hosts are ok | 'centreontest1#host.paths.total.count'=976;;;0; 'centreontest1#host.paths.dead.count'=0;0;0:1;0;976 'centreontest1#host.volumes.total.count'=136;;;0; 'centreontest1#host.volumes.dead.count'=0;;;0;136 'centreontest1#host.volumes.degraded.count'=0;;;0;136 'centreontest2#host.paths.total.count'=976;;;0; 'centreontest2#host.paths.dead.count'=0;0;0:1;0;976 'centreontest2#host.volumes.total.count'=136;;;0; 'centreontest2#host.volumes.dead.count'=0;;;0;136 'centreontest2#host.volumes.degraded.count'=0;;;0;136
checking host 'centreontest1'
    status: powerPathManagedpath total: 976, dead: 0
    volume total: 136, dead: 0, degraded: 0
checking host 'centreontest2'
    status: powerPathManagedpath total: 976, dead: 0
    volume total: 136, dead: 0, degraded: 0

The command above monitors hosts named centreontest (--filter-name='centreontest') and managed by EMC PPMA (--mode=hosts).

It uses api-username (--api-username='myapiusername'), an api-password (--api-password='myapipassword') and it connects to the host 10.30.2.79 (--hostname='10.30.2.79') on the port 443 (--port='443') using https (--proto='https').

This command would trigger a WARNING alert if the number of dead paths is over 0 (--warning-paths-dead='0') and a CRITICAL alarm over 1 (--critical-paths-dead='1').

All the options that can be used with this plugin can be found over the --help command:

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins/centreon_emc_ppma_restapi.pl \
    --plugin=apps::emc::ppma::restapi::plugin \
    --mode=hosts \
    --help

Why do I get the following error:​

UNKNOWN: 500 Can't connect to 10.30.2.79:443​

This error message means that the Centreon Plugin couldn't successfully connect to the EMC PPMA Rest API. Check that no third party device (such as a firewall) is blocking the request. A proxy connection may also be necessary to connect to the API. This can be done by using the --proxyurl='http://proxy.mycompany:8080' option in the command.

UNKNOWN: 501 Protocol scheme 'connect' is not supported​

When using a proxy to connect to the EMC PPMA Rest API, this error message means that the Centreon Plugin library does not support the proxy connection protocol.

In order to prevent this issue, use the curl HTTP backend by adding the following option to the command: --http-backend='curl'.