WebHookd

Overview

The Unified Assurance Event WebHook Aggregator is a generic daemon message listener that receives messages from HTTP(S) requests, parses the results with customizable rules, and creates de-duplicated events within Unified Assurance.

WebHook Aggregator Setup

  1. Review the logic in the rules files referenced in the configuration to see the processing that will be done when HTTP requests are received:

    • "LoadRules" will be run during application startup to load data that might be needed during processing.

    • "IncludeRules" will be read during application startup to load additional files that might be called during processing.

    • "BaseRules" will be run for each device that is selected based on the configuration.

    Update the logic as needed.

  2. Enable the default Service, unless a specific configuration option is needed.

    Configuration -> Broker Control -> Services

  3. Configure devices to send HTTP(S) messages to the server where the WebHook Aggregator has been started.

Default Service

Field Value
Package Name coreCollection-app
Service Name Event WebHook Aggregator
Service Program bin/core/collection/WebHookd
Service Arguments
Service Description Gathers events over HTTP
Failover Type Standalone (Supported: Standalone, Primary/Backup)
Status Disabled
Privileged (Checked)

Default Configuration

Name Value Possible Values Notes
BaseRules collection/event/webhook/base.rules Text, 255 characters Relative path to Base Rules.
BranchDir core/default Text, 255 characters relative path to Rules dir
Host * Text, 255 characters DNS name or IP Address of the webhook aggregator server. Can associate to a particular interface. - NO RELOAD CONFIG SUPPORT
IncludeRules collection/event/webhook/base.includes Text, 255 characters Relative path to Include Rules.
LoadRules collection/event/webhook/base.load Text, 255 characters Relative path to Load Rules.
LogFile logs/EventWebHook.log Text, 255 characters Relative path to Log File.
LogLevel ERROR OFF, FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG Logging level used by application.
Port 10080 Integer Port for webhook server to collect messages. - NO RELOAD CONFIG SUPPORT
ShardID 1 Integer Database shard to be used.
Threads 3 Integer Number of process threads created. The aggregator takes a third of this value (rounded up) for database threads unless overridden by the "DBThreads" application configuration.
Capture Disabled Enabled/Disabled Optional - If enabled, the application will log all of the fields of the processed message as it sent into the database.
ConnectionSecurity None (Plaintext) None (Plaintext) / SSL (Secure on Connect) / TLS (Negotiated) Optional - Connection protocol required for incomming connections (i.e. if either SSL (Secure on Connect) or TLS (Negotiated) selected, non-secure connections are not available). If not specified, defaults to "None (Plaintext)". - NO RELOAD CONFIG SUPPORT
DBThreads Integer Optional - Number of database threads to be created. If not specified, defaults to a third (rounded up) of "Threads" application configuration.
DisableDNS Disabled Enabled/Disabled Optional - If enabled, uses IP address instead of hostname for the event Node.
FailoverBufferLimit 0 Integer Optional - Enables Failover Standby buffer that keeps N-seconds worth of syslogs and replays this buffer when becoming Failover Active. (0=off N=seconds to keep) See Tokens: $buffer and $received
FieldSetFile Text, 255 characters Optional - Path to csv file containing custom list of fields that will be used when inserting data. (Requires InsertSQLFile.)
InsertSQLFile Text, 255 characters Optional - Path to file containing custom SQL Insert statement for handling of event inserts. (Requires FieldSetFile.)

Best Practices

The following list shows the best practices for working with this application:

Rules

This aggregator uses the Unified Assurance standard rules architecture, which are 100% Perl syntax. Refer to the following articles to assist in rules creation:

Tokens

The aggregator exposes the following tokens for rules processing.

Token Description
$AppConfig Hash reference to the application configuration name-value pairs that were configured. (i.e. use $AppConfig->{'Host'} to retrieve the set value for 'Host'.)
$Event Reference to the hash that is used to create and insert the Event data into the database. Keys map to the fields within the table used and values assigned are inserted in the database to that field. (e.g. $Event->{'IPAddress'} = '192.0.2.1' to assign the event IP address to '192.0.2.1') At least the 'Node' and 'Summary' fields must be set, or no event is inserted.
$received Epoch time request was received by the aggregator
$buffer Flag for if was buffered during standby and was replayed (0 = No, 1 = Yes)
$node DNS Resolved Source of HTTP request
$ip IP of Source of HTTP request
$content The (decoded if needed) content of the HTTP request
$rawContent The raw content of the HTTP request
$headers The headers sent with the HTTP request
$uri The path that the HTTP request is sent to.
$discard_flag Flag for discard (0 = No, 1 = Yes)
$count Message Counter
$CustomHash Custom key, value cache available across all rules. Contents commonly defined in Load Rules then used in Base or other rules. NOTE: This variable is a shared object and any additional sub hashes or arrays must be shared before use or it will cause the error: "Invalid value for shared scalar". Instantiate the sub hash/array using '&share({})' e.g. 
$CustomHash->{SubObject} = &share({});
$StorageHash Internal cache used as the StorageHash option when calling rules functions such as FindDeviceID(). NOTE: The structure of this cache is subject to change! Not recommended for custom global storage or manual manipulation; use $CustomHash.

Administration Details

The following list shows the technical details you will need for advanced administration of the application: