Working with the Connectors Table

Stellar Cyber can connect to other resources in your network. This allows you to collect information from your IdP, endpoint security, vulnerability scanners, and other systems, as well as to push actions to your firewalls. The connectors table lists all connectors that have been configured.

The table behaves like all other Stellar Cyber tables. You can change the displayed columns, sort by columns, and export the displayed list, for example. This table also includes a Last Activity column, which is the timestamp for the last successful activity for that connector.

There are several columns in the Connectors table. To see the default columns, click the icon () in the table header and select Reset Columns.

To see all the columns that you can display in the table, click Columns. You can add or remove columns in the table using check boxes.

Some of the columns are as follows:

• Name—the name of the connector

• Category—the connector category, for example, IdP, Endpoint Security, or Firewall

• Content Type—the content type of the logs, for example, Alerts or Events

• Interval—the configured interval, for example, 5 minutes

• Run On—the device on which the connector runs, for example, Data Processor

• Status—the status of the connector. See Connector Status in Connector Table for details.

For a list of connectors and their supported functions, refer to: Connector Types & Functions.

Use this topic to understand how to:

• Add a new connector
• Edit an existing connector
• Test a connector
• Delete a connector
• Analyze connector details / statistics
• View full connector details

For guidance ingesting log data, refer to Ingesting Logs.

Connector Status in Connector Table

The connector status is displayed in the Connector table in the Status column. There are different colors for different statuses in the user interface. In addition, a message displays when you hover over the Status, for example: No data received in the past 24 hours.

Category	Status Priority	Color	Number	Message	Description
Status not available	1	Clear	-1	Status not available	Connector status is not supported for this connector.
Status not available	1	Clear	-1	Status not available, please upgrade the sensor	The sensor the connector runs on must be upgraded to the latest version to support connector status.
Connector is inactive	2	Grey	1	Connector is not added to DA profile	Connector is not added to a Data Analyzer (DA) profile.
Last activity failed	3	Red	2	{{Fail reason}}” or “Last checked request failed with a {{http or status}} code	Request from connector failed. If a properly formatted error message was returned that will be displayed, else only the code.
Test failed	3	Red	4	Test failed: {{}}	Test failed, and the reason will be displayed if there was a properly formatted error message.
No data in the past 24 hours	4	Amber	3	No data received in the past 24 hours	The connector is active (added to a DA profile), but it has not received data in the past 24 hours.
Healthy	-	Green	0	Nil	None of the listed issues.

Notes:

• Color is shown in the UI. The connector record from the connector API will have status.code for Number, and status.message for Message. Automatic connector status is only available for Collect-enabled sensors. Respond-only connectors will get their status only through connector tests.

• Status Priority is the order of status overwriting the rest. Test failed will overwrite Last activity failed when a test is performed, but if there is failed activity in the automatic checks, Last activity failed will overwrite to show what could be the latest error as the time window for checking failed activity is 15 minutes ago to present time.
  

  Successfully receiving data will clear Last activity failed, Test failed, and No data in the past 24 hours if status is available for the connector and the connector is active. Status is updated every 5 minutes unless a test is performed.

• Invalid credentials or configurations may not generate requests that will trigger Last activity failed. Unless you run a test, this status may remain as No data received in the past 24 hours.

Adding and Editing Connectors

Adding and editing provide the same configuration options; the only difference is that you can't edit the General configuration options. Click Create to create a new connector or to edit an existing connector. After you have obtained the credentials for your external service and configured API or other access for Stellar Cyber community, there are three basic steps to configuring a connector in Stellar Cyber.

For detailed steps on obtaining credentials, configuring, and testing specific connectors, select your connector from the Connector Types & Functions.

For a quick overview, click through the slides below:

Testing a Connector

When you add (or edit) a connector, we recommend that you run a test to validate the connectivity parameters you entered. (The test validates authentication and connectivity).

1. Click System | Connectors (under Integrations). The Connector Overview appears.

   

2. Locate the connector by name that you added, or modified, or that you want to test.

3. Click Test at the right side of that row. The test runs immediately.

   Note that you may run only one test at a time.

Testing Connectors in Bulk

You can select several connectors to test them in bulk. You can select up to 10 connectors. Do not navigate away from the test page or the process may halt.

To test connectors in bulk:

1. Select at least one connector in the Connectors table using the check box on the left. A new heading row is displayed with a Test button, as well as a Clear all option.

   

2. Using the check boxes, select up to 10 connectors to test in bulk. If you select more than 10 connectors, the following message is displayed and the Test button is no longer available.

   

3. When you have the desired connectors selected, click the Test button in the heading row. The Connectors Test dialog is displayed, which shows the progress of each test. Also note that in the background, any running tests are displayed as In Progress.

   

4. View the results of the tests in the Connectors Test dialog. Successfully completed tests are displayed in green, while Failed tests are displayed in red.

   

   A failed test may produce a status code.

   

5. Click Close to exit the Connectors Test dialog.

6. You can click Clear all to remove the check box selections.

Deleting a Connector

To delete a connector you must first remove it from the data analyzer profile (firewall and vulnerability scanner connectors are not included in data analyzer profiles, so can skip these steps):

1. Click System | Data Analyzer Profile.

2. Click the button next to the profile containing the connector. The EDIT DATA ANALYZER PROFILE screen appears.

3. Find the connector in the Added field under Optional Data Source.

4. Click next to the connector. The connector is immediately removed.

5. Click Submit. The profile is saved, and the connector is no longer in use.

When the connector is removed from all data analyzer profiles, you can delete it:

1. Click System | Connectors.

2. Click next to the connector you want to delete. A confirmation dialog box appears.

3. Click OK. The connector and configuration information are immediately deleted.

   If you see a warning that Data source is in use, cannot be deleted, the connector is still in a data analyzer profile. Remove it from all profiles.

Analyzing Connector Details

Connectors send statistics to the DP, quantifying the data being sent and its source once per minute. This data is stored in the Sensor Monitoring (aella-ade) index on the DP. You can analyze this data using the Threat Monitoring interface (see procedure below). A summary of the connector configuration and ingestion are also provided in the Connector Details Page , from which you can also jump to the Threat Monitoring interface, with context. Access Connector Details by clicking the name of the connector from the connector list.

1. Log in to Stellar Cyber.

2. Navigate to Investigate | Threat Hunting.

3. Click the Indices dropdown and make sure that the Sensor Monitoring index is selected.

4. Scroll down to the Document table, enter msgtype:40 in the Search field, and press Enter to filter on just this msgtype. This is the msgtype that quantifies ingestion by connector.

5. The table updates to show all entries passing the global filters at the top of the display for Message Type 40. You can add the Connector Name column to see where the data came from.

   

   The other key fields to look for are as follows:

   • engid_name—the name of the connector

   • http_code—the return code from the API

   • in_bytes_delta—the size of the events pulled

   • in_records_delta—the number of events sent to the DP

   • out_bytes_delta—the size of the messages pulled

   • out_records_delta—the number of events sent to the DP

Viewing Full Connector Details

Click the down arrow on the Connector Overview page to view full details for a connector.

Some of the fields are as follows:

Fields do not display if they are None or if they do not apply.

• category—the connector category, for example, idp, email, firewall

• content_type—the content type of the logs, for example, ["events"] or ["threats"]

• interval—the configured interval

• log_type—the type of log, for example, ad (Active Directory) or proofpoint_tap

• run_on—the device on which the connector runs, for example, dp (Data Processor)

• status—the information about the status:

  {"code":3,"message":"No data received in the past 24 hours","status_time":"2023-11-02 11:24:26"}

  • code—the status code from 0 to 4 as follows:

    CONNECTOR_HEALTHY_CODE = 0

    CONNECTOR_NOT_ADDED_TO_DA_CODE = 1

    CONNECTOR_ACTIVITY_FAIL_CODE = 2

    CONNECTOR_NO_DATA_CODE = 3

    CONNECTOR_TEST_FAIL_CODE = 4

  • message—the status message associated with the code

  • status_time—the status timestamp