05_chatops.md

ChatOps Demo

The ChatOps demo will connect a chat bot to Slack. Then we will configure a new ChatOps command, called an action alias, that will execute our action tutorial.nasa_apod_rabbitmq_publish.

Create Slack bot

Our first task will be to connect StackStorm ChatOps to our Slack workspace. For these steps, we assume that you are a Workspace Admin, if not you'll need to have your Workspace Admin follow these steps and give you back the API Token for the bot.

Navigate to "Your Workspace" -> Adminsitrator -> Manage Apps

In the search box type "Bots" and click on the "Bots" app

Click on "Add Configuration"

In the username field, pick a username for your bot then press "Add Integration"

Copy down the API Token field (1) , we will need this for StackStorm. You can also edit the Full Name (2) field of the bot, this will be the name displayed. To finish up, press the Save Integration button (3).

Configure ChatOps

We will now take the Slack API Token for the Slack bot and configure StackStorm ChatOps to connect using this information.

The StackStorm ChatOps config file is /opt/stackstorm/chatops/st2chatops.env.

Edit this file and set the following fields:

1. HUBOT_NAME = Full Name of your bot in Slack
2. HUBOT_ADAPER = Uncomment this field
3. HUBOT_SLACK_TOKEN = Value of your Slack API Token
4. HUBOT_SLACK_EXIT_ON_DISCONNECT = Uncomment this field

sudo vi /opt/stackstorm/chatops/st2chatops.env

Contents of the file:

export ST2_HOSTNAME="${ST2_HOSTNAME:-localhost}"

#####################################################################
# Hubot settings

# set if you don’t have a valid SSL certificate.
export NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0

# Hubot port - must be accessible from StackStorm
export EXPRESS_PORT=8081

# Log level
export HUBOT_LOG_LEVEL=debug

# Bot name
export HUBOT_NAME=StackStorm
export HUBOT_ALIAS='!'

....

######################################################################
# Chat service adapter settings

# Uncomment one of the adapter blocks below.
# Currently supported: slack, hipchat, xmpp, yammer, spark, irc, flowdock.
# For using other adapters refer to the "Using an external adapter" doc:
# https://docs.stackstorm.com/chatops/chatops.htm

# Slack settings (https://github.com/slackhq/hubot-slack):
#
export HUBOT_ADAPTER=slack
export HUBOT_SLACK_TOKEN=xoxb-133155492256-xxx-yyyy
# Uncomment the following line to force hubot to exit if disconnected from slack.
export HUBOT_SLACK_EXIT_ON_DISCONNECT=1

Create ChatOps API key

Next we need to create a StackStorm API key that the ChatOps bot will use to communicate with the StackStorm API:

st2 apikey create -k -m '{"used_by": "st2chatops"}'

Copy this key into the st2chatops.env file and assign it to the value of:

sudo vi /opt/stackstorm/chatops/st2chatops.env

Contents of the file:

######################################################################
# StackStorm settings

# StackStorm API endpoint.
export ST2_API="${ST2_API:-https://${ST2_HOSTNAME}/api}"

# StackStorm auth endpoint.
# export ST2_AUTH_URL="${ST2_AUTH_URL:-https://${ST2_HOSTNAME}/auth}"

# StackStorm stream endpoint.
export ST2_STREAM_URL="${ST2_STREAM_URL:-https://${ST2_HOSTNAME}/stream}"

# StackStorm API key
export ST2_API_KEY=xyz123

Restart the StackStorm ChatOps service:

sudo systemctl restart st2chatops

Test ChatOps in Slack

Login to Slack and Direct Message the bot with the string help. This will ask the bot for a list of all commands. It should respond with output similar to:

You can now invite the bot into channels by either mentioning the bot's name in a channel, or by running the /invite command in a channel.

Creating an Action Alias

When you type !help in a channel with a ChatOps bot, or help (no !) in a Direct Message, the bot will respond with a list of commands, known as action aliases. In short an action alias is a way to map a chat message into a StackStorm action invocation. The message may contain input parameters that will be forwarded on to the action when it is executed.

Action aliases live in a pack's aliases/ directory, so for our tutorial pack this would be /opt/stackstorm/packs/tutorial/aliases.

Let's create a new action alias that allows us to invoke our tutorial.nasa_apod_rabbitmq_publish action from ChatOps.

To do this we will create a new metadata file /opt/stackstorm/packs/tutorial/aliases/nasa_apod_rabbitmq_publish.yaml with the following content:

---
name: "nasa_apod_rabbitmq_publish"
pack: "tutorial"
action_ref: "tutorial.nasa_apod_rabbitmq_publish"
description: "Publishes the NASA Astronomy Picture Of the Day to a RabbitMQ queue"
formats:
    - "nasa apod rabbitmq publish date {{ date }} message {{ message }}"
result:
    format: |
        Received the following output from our mission:
          {{ execution.result }}

---

NOTE If you're struggling and just need the answer, simply copy the file from our answers directory:

cp /opt/stackstorm/packs/tutorial/etc/answers/aliases/nasa_apod_rabbitmq_publish.yaml /opt/stackstorm/packs/tutorial/aliases/nasa_apod_rabbitmq_publish.yaml

---

To register this action alias we'll perform a reload command:

st2ctl reload --register-aliases

The ChatOps bot polls the StackStorm API periodically for new aliases. If we wait long enough (2 minutes or 120 seconds) then the alias will be available. Alternatively, if we want the alias to be available immediately we can simply restart the service:

sudo systemctl restart st2chatops

Testing the Action Alias

To invoke the action alias we will simply type the following string in chat as a Direct Message to the bot:

nasa apod rabbitmq publish date 2018-07-04 message Hello From ChatOps!!!

You should see a set of responses in the channel:

Check the RabbitMQ queue to make sure that the message was received:

rabbitmqadmin get queue=demoqueue count=99