Dynatrace Cloud Automation

To have Dynatrace Cloud Automation send alerts to the flow trigger, you need to configure a webhook and set it to use the trigger URL.

1. In Cloud Automation, select Uniform from the left-hand menu.



2. On the Uniform page, select the webhook-service row.

   

3. Click Add subscription.

   

The Create subscription window opens.



4. Fill in the following fields:
   • Task:The task that triggers the woebhook.
   • Task suffix: The task suffix sets whether the webhook is active or passive. Passive webhooks do not require a response from xMatters before continuing the sequence. Active webhooks stop a sequence from progressing until a response is received from xMatters. We recommend using passive webhooks whenever possible.
     • To create a passive webhook, set the task suffix to started. Selecting started disables the "Send finished event" menu as no response is required to continue the sequence. This is the recommended option to ensure Dynatrace Cloud Automation processes sequences at the expected rate.

       

     • To create an active webhook, set the task suffix to triggered, then set the Send finished event radio button to either automatically or by webhook receiver.
       • If you use automatically, the sequence continues without needing a response from xMatters, which is similar to a passive webhook.
       • If you select by webhook receiver, Cloud Automation stops the sequence and waits to receive a response from the xMatters Finish Cloud Automation Event step before continuing.

         

   • Request Method: POST
   • URL: Paste the trigger URL you copied from the Dynatrace Cloud Automation Event trigger in Flow Designer. Add the target names of any recipients you want xMatters to notify when the alert fires.
     • For URL authentication, use an ampersand to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Emma Pearson and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Antares service, you'd add &recipients=epearson,antares to the end of the URL.
     • For other authentication types, use a question mark to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Barry Gull and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Cassiopeia service, you'd add ?recipients=bgull,cassiopeia to the end of the URL.
     • You must URL-encode any special characters or spaces in the target names.
     • If you want to mask parts of the trigger URL, you can use a Dynatrace secret. For example, if the authentication method is URL Authentication, you can mask the API key in the trigger URL.
   • The Filter by stages and services field is optional.
   • Click Add custom header and supply the authentication method:
   • For URL Authentication:
     • Name: Content-Type
     • Value: application/json

   For Basic and API Key authentication you must Base64 encode the username and password (or API Key and secret) of an xMatters user with permission to access the workflow. You can create a Base64 encoded username and password (or API Key and secret) at https://www.base64encode.org/ or by typing echo “username:password” | base64 into a terminal.

   • For Basic Authentication:
     • Name: Authorization
     • Value: Basic<Base64_encoded_value>
       
   • For API Key Authentication: 
     • Name: Authorization
     • Value: Basic <Base64_encoded_value>
   • Paste the following payload in the Custom payload field:
   Copy

   {
   "data": {
   "project": "{{.data.project}}",
   "service": "{{.data.service}}",
   "stage": "{{.data.stage}}"
   },
   "id": "{{.id}}",
   "source": "{{.source}}",
   "specversion": "{{.specversion}}",
   "time": "{{.time}}",
   "type": "{{.type}}",
   "shkeptncontext": "{{.shkeptncontext}}"
   }

5. Click Create subscription.

You're ready to use the webhook to trigger automated flows, including steps such as sending alerts and initiating incidents, though we always recommend testing before putting things into use.

You can mask different parts of the xMatters trigger URL with a secret. The following instructions describe how to create a secret to mask the API key and webhook recipients in this sample URL (bolded section):

https://company.xmatters.com/api/integration/1/functions/d15bb1da-713f-4e23-9fd7-dabb8544cf0c/triggers?apiKey=947d3639-25f2-43f8-824f-26480dee8e4d&recipients=admin

1. In Dynatrace Cloud Automation, click Uniform from the left-hand menu.



2. On the Uniform page, select Secrets, then click Add secret.



3. Fill in the following fields:
   • Name: Name of your secret or group of secrets.
   • Scope: keptn-webhook-service
   • Key: Easily identifiable name to represent the key-value pair for the secret. (For this example: 'apikey-recipients')
   • Value: The part of the URL you want to mask. (For this example, the part of the URL containing the API Key and recipients information: apiKey=947d3639-25f2-43f8-824f-26480dee8e4d&recipients=admin)

   

4. Click Add secret to save your secret.

Now that you've created the secret, here's how to use it when you configure your webhook:

1. Add the trigger URL to the field and remove the part of the URL that you masked with a secret.



2. Click the key icon on the upper-right corner of the URL field and choose the secret you created for that URL from the drop-down menu.

Your xMatters trigger URL should now function correctly, with the API key and recipients information masked by the secret.

The person responding to the notification has the following response options:

• Acknowledge: Acknowledges the notifications and stops escalations.
• Escalate: Immediately escalates the alert to the next on-call resolver in a targeted group.
• Close: Ends the xMatters alert and stops notifying all targeted recipients.
• Initiate Incident: Initiates an incident in xMatters.