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Connections

What are Connections?

A connection refers to the link between an Adapter and other external systems, such as a vCenter Server, other databases, or cloud services. These connections allow an Adapter to gather performance and capacity data about your virtual or physical infrastructure operations, which can then be analyzed and presented in a unified, comprehensive view. VMware Aria Operations uses this data to help automate and simplify operations management.

Creating a connection usually involves specifying the IP address or hostname of the external system, along with the appropriate credentials to access that system. After establishing the connection, an Adapter can collect data from the connected system.

Warning

Credentials for connections are stored in plain text in the project connections file. For this reason, we recommend that this file is not included in version control (it is included in the .gitignore file by default), and credentials should be revokable and have the minimum set of permissions necessary for the Adapter to function (Usually Read-Only is sufficient).

In addition, sometimes it is desirable for an Adapter to query VMware Aria Operations' SuiteAPI. To facilitate using the API, credentials and connection information are automatically provided to the Adapter when running on a Cloud Proxy. To mimic this when running locally using mp-test, mp-test needs the SuiteAPI hostname, username, and password.

Note

Suite API documentation can be found on any VMware Aria Operations Cluster, by opening https://[[vmware_aria_operations_cluster_hostname]]/suite-api/doc/swagger-ui.html.

When setting up a new connection, mp-test will ask if you want to set up the connection information for the SuiteAPI. If you are not using this functionality, this can be skipped, otherwise, the hostname should be the VMware Aria Operations Cluster hostname, and the username and password can be any user with permission to access the Suite API. mp-test will also prompt if you want to set the SuiteAPI credentials as the project default. If you select 'yes', then every connection in this project will use the provided credentials, unless they explicitly override them. To learn more about how Suite API connections are handled, see the project connections file documentation.

How are Connections Stored?

Connections are stored locally in the project connections file located in the root of the project. If no project config file exists at the time of creating a connection, one will be created.

Managing Connections

Creating New Connections

To create a connection, run mp-test and then select New Connection. mp-test will then create a new connection by parsing over the object model and using any identifiers and credentials. The new connection is then stored in the project connections file in the root of the project.

Editing Existing Connections

To edit connections, simply modify the key-values in the project connections file located at the project's root that correspond to the value you want to change.

Example

To edit the container_memory_limit for connection with name large-memory, we can edit the key-value for container_memory_limit inside the connection object (line 44).

config.json
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{
  "connections": [
      {
          "certificates": [],
          "credential": {},
          "custom_collection_number": null,
          "custom_collection_window": null,
          "identifiers": {
              "host": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "example.com"
              },
              "container_memory_limit": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": false,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "512"
              },
              "port": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "443"
              }
          },
          "name": "small-memory",
          "suite_api_hostname": null,
          "suite_api_password": null,
          "suite_api_username": null
      },
      {
          "certificates": [],
          "credential": {},
          "custom_collection_number": null,
          "custom_collection_window": null,
          "identifiers": {
              "api": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "ecample.com"
              },
              "container_memory_limit": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": false,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "4096"
              },
              "port": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "443"
              }
          },
          "name": "large-memory",
          "suite_api_hostname": null,
          "suite_api_password": null,
          "suite_api_username": null
      }
  ],
  "default_memory_limit": 1024,
  "docker_port": 8080,
  "suite_api_hostname": "hostname",
  "suite_api_password": "password",
  "suite_api_username": "username"
}

Deleting Connections

To delete a connection, remove the connection object from the connections list in the project connections file at the root of the project that corresponds to the connection you want to delete.

Example

To remove the connection with name medium-memory, we can delete the highlighted connection object

config.json
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{
  "connections": [
      {
          "certificates": [],
          "credential": {},
          "custom_collection_number": null,
          "custom_collection_window": null,
          "identifiers": {
              "host": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "example.com"
              },
              "container_memory_limit": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": false,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "512"
              },
              "port": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "443"
              }
          },
          "name": "small-memory",
          "suite_api_hostname": null,
          "suite_api_password": null,
          "suite_api_username": null
      },
      {
          "certificates": [],
          "credential": {},
          "custom_collection_number": null,
          "custom_collection_window": null,
          "identifiers": {
              "api": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "example.com"
              },
              "container_memory_limit": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": false,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "1024"
              },
              "port": {
                  "part_of_uniqueness": true,
                  "required": true,
                  "value": "443"
              }
          },
          "name": "medium-memory",
          "suite_api_hostname": null,
          "suite_api_password": null,
          "suite_api_username": null
      },
  ],
  "default_memory_limit": 1024,
  "docker_port": 8080,
  "suite_api_hostname": "hostname",
  "suite_api_password": "password",
  "suite_api_username": "username"
}