Integrate with Zenoss

What does the integration offer?

The Zenoss integration plugin utilizes the full capabilities of Jira Service Management and provides bi-directional integration with Zenoss. The integration leverages Jira Service Management’s Zenoss-specific executable and JEC utility to create alerts automatically and synchronizes alert status between Zenoss and Jira Service Management.

Set up the integration

The following steps describe integrating Jira Service Management and Zenoss using the Jira Service Management Zenoss integration plugin. Note that slight alteration to these instructions may be necessary depending on the exact Linux distribution and your Zenoss configuration.

Installation prerequisites

The installation packages support the following systems:

• RedHat-based Linux distributions

• Debian-based Linux distributions

Install the Jira Service Management plugin for Zenoss

Jira Edge Connector (abbreviated as JEC) is a prerequisite for configuring the outgoing authentication of Zenoss integration. You can combinedly use JEC and Zenoss scripts to update alerts on Zenoss. With this setup, you can deploy your own script, modify the ones provided, or run customized actions on Zenoss. Download the latest version of the Zenoss package.

Instructions for RedHat-based distributions

Run the following command: 

rpm -i jsm-zenoss-<your_version>.rpm

Before rpm upgrades, back up your configuration files.

The rpm package does not overwrite the existing configuration during upgrades. It saves the new default configuration file as integration.conf.rpmnew. To upgrade from version 201X-XX-XX to 2.X.X, add the --force parameter. For example: rpm -U --force jsm-zenoss-<your_version>.rpm. Read more about config file handling for rpm upgrades.

Instructions for Debian-based distributions

Run the following command: 

dpkg -i jsm-zenoss-<your_version>.deb

Add a Zenoss integration

To add a Zenoss integration in Jira Service Management, complete the following steps:

1. Go to your team’s operations page.

2. On the left navigation panel, select Integrations and then Add integration.

3. Run a search and select “Zenoss”.

4. On the next screen, enter a name for the integration.

5. Optional: Select a team in Assignee team if you want a specific team to receive alerts from the integration.

6. Select Continue.
   The integration is saved at this point.

7. Expand the Steps to configure the integration section and copy the API key.
   You will use this key while configuring the integration in Zenoss later.

8. Select Turn on integration.
   The rules you create for the integration will work only if you turn on the integration.

Configure the Jira Service Management plugin in Zenoss

The plugin uses a golang-executable file (included in the plugin as send2jsm) to create, acknowledge, and close alerts in Jira Service Management. To make send2jsm work, you need to make some configurations. The following table lists the parameters and states if they are mandatory.

Configuration parameters

Configure the golang-executable file in any of the following three methods:

Method 1: Configure from conf file

Configure from the /home/jsm/jec/conf/integration.conf file. This overwrites any configuration you previously made in the script.

Method 2: Configure by using Golang flags

Configure by entering flags into the command of the notification created in Zenoss, described in the “Configure triggers in Zenoss” section in this article. Use -apiKey flag for your apiKey.

To send additional custom arguments, add them after the flags. For example, customArgName1 customArgValue1 customArgName2 customArgValue2. Parse custom arguments by adding {{_payload.customArgName}} to wherever is needed in the input fields. To learn more about using raw parameters, see dynamic fields.

Method 3: Configure from script

Configure apiKey send2jsm.go script. Build the script again and put the new executable into the /home/jsm/jec/scripts directory. Learn more about the location of the send2jsm.go and how to build a go script in the “Source for and recompiling send2jsm” section in this article.

Configure triggers in Zenoss

1. Select Events > Triggers from the Navigation menu.

2. Create a trigger named Jira Service Management.

3. Select Events > Triggers from the Navigation menu.

4. Select Notifications from the left panel.

5. Create a notification.

6. Select the notification created earlier and select Edit.

7. Under the "Notification" tab, enable the notification and select the "Send Clear" checkbox.

8. Select the trigger you created earlier from the list and select Add.

9. Under the "Content" tab:
   Add optional -eventState=close to Clear Command. send2jsm executable does not try to get event details from Zenoss and directly closes the event's alert in Jira Service Management. /home/jsm/jec/scripts/send2jsm -evid=${evt/evid}

10. Under the "Subscribers" tab, select the subscribers and select SUBMIT.

Configure Jira Service Management to update Zenoss

This step is optional.

Use JEC and the script to update alerts on Zenoss. This enables deployment of your own scripts/ability to modify the ones provided and execute customized actions on Zenoss. To execute actions in Zenoss, JEC gets the configuration parameters from the configuration file at /home/jsm/jec/conf/config.json.

Configuration parameters

The downloaded package includes the JEC utility (found in /usr/local/bin) and the script that JEC needs to run (found in /home/jsm/jec/scripts). Be sure to run JEC after configuring it. Read more about running JEC.

Source for and recompiling send2jsm

The source for the executable send2jsm is found in /usr/bin/ and send2jsm.go, in /home/jsm/jec/scripts respectively. They can also be downloaded from the repository. To change the behavior of the executable, edit send2jsm.go and build it by using the following command: go build send2jsm.go. Find out how to install go. The executable in the plugin is built for linux/386 systems.

FAQ and troubleshooting

If the integration is not working, review this section and follow the prescribed guidelines.

1. Zenoss alerts aren’t getting created in Jira Service Management

Run the following test command from the shell and check if a test alert is created in Jira Service Management: 

/home/jsm/jec/scripts/send2jsm -test

• If you get a "Trace/breakpoint trap" error, the send2jsm plugin isn't compatible with the server distribution. Rebuild send2jsm.go according to the specific server environment as described in the “Source for and recompiling send2jsm” section in this article.

• If the alert is created in Jira Service Management, the integration is configured correctly. Zenoss is probably not notifying the Jira Service Management contact for alerts. Check your Zenoss alert notifications log.

• If the alert is not created in Jira Service Management, check the logs at /var/log/jec/send2jsm.log.
  Look for the following errors in the log file:

  • If you see "RestException[Could not authenticate.]" in the logs, Jira Service Management couldn't identify the API key. Check if the API key is set correctly per the steps outlined in the “Configure the Jira Service Management plugin in Zenoss” section.

  • If unsure of the problem, set the plugin's log level to debug and try again. Contact us and share the logs.

• If there is no /var/log/jec/send2jsm.log file or there are no logs in it, check the following:

  1. Check if the Zenoss user has permission to write to /var/log/jec directory. The installation package should automatically do this for you. If you face issues, run the following command: 
     chown -R zenoss:jsm /var/log/jec

  2. Check the Zenoss server logs at /opt/zenoss/log/zeneventd.log. See if there are error logs regarding send2jsm. Contact us with the logs as needed.

Setting send2jsm plugin's log level to DEBUG

Set the send2jsm plugin's log level to DEBUG. Open the /home/jsm/jec/conf/integration.conf file and change the line send2jsm.logger=warning to zenoss2jsm.logger=debug.

2. The Zenoss alert isn’t acknowledged when the alert is acknowledged in Jira Service Management

Check the alert logs.

• If "Posted [Acknowledge] action to Zenoss.." is not present in the log, Jira Service Management didn't send the Acknowledge action to Zenoss. Check the integration configuration, it might not have a matching the alert action.

• If only the "Posted [Acknowledge] action to Zenoss.." log occurs followed by no related logs, it might mean JEC is having connection problems. Check the logs.

3. Couldn’t open Zenoss RPM package

• If you figure out while installing the rpm package that the package is obsolete, use rpm -i jsm-zenoss-1.0.4-rpm-x86-64.rpm --nodeps instead.

• If you get "is already installed" error, use rpm -i jsm-zenoss-1.0.4-rpm-x86-64.rpm --force instead.