VMware

Introduction

VMware is a virtualization and cloud computing software that distributes the work of a given virtual server across multiple physical hosts. VMware also enables each physical host to run multiple virtual server instances.

Prerequisites

• Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (RP4VM) should integrated with vSphere

• vCenter read-only access is necessary for resource identification and monitoring.

  • The bare minimum role must have the checkbox for Propagate to children enabled and be Read-Only.

    Steps for vCenter user creation with required discovery and monitoring permissions.

    1. Go to Menu and select Administration.
       

    

    2. Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.
    3. Select the required domain from the Domain list box and click Add User.

    

    4. Enter the required details and click Add.

    

    5. Under Groups, select a group from the Group Name and add members by clicking ADD MEMBERS.
       Note: Click ADD GROUP to add a new group.

    

    

    6. Search for the user in the Add Member and click SAVE.

    

    7. Under Access Control, click Global Permissions.

    

    8. Select the user and click +.

    

    9. Search for the user and select the role from the Role list.

    

    10. Select Propagate to children checkbox and click OK.

    

    Note: Username of the vCenter is <name of the user>@<domain name>

• For vCenter appliance monitoring:

  • Apply SSH credentials to the vCenter server.

  • Users must have the appropriate privilege to execute commands on the vCenter appliance command prompt. For example, the privilege to execute commands such as shell and help api list.

    Steps to create SSH user for appliance monitoring.

    1. Once a user with the super administrator role successfully logged into vCenter using ssh.
       Note: The default user with a super administrator role is root.

    2. Create a local user account for the vCenter appliance, i.e., admin or super admin using the command localaccounts.user.add --role (admin/superadmin) --username(test) --password,.
       Example: localaccounts.user.add --role admin --username TestUser --password

    3. When prompted, enter and verify the new local user’s password.

    4. To switch to bash shell from appliance-shell.
       Command>shell
       Note: if the above command does not work, we recomment using
       Command>bash
       To set appliance shell as the default shell run below command in the vCenter.
       chsh -s /bin/appliancesh <Opsramp-SSH-username>
    5. Exit the shell first, then the vCenter appliance.

    6. Login to the created new user role with ssh and we can execute the command service-control --status will work in the new user role directly.

    See Create a Local User Account in the vCenter Server Appliance and Enable Access to the VCSA Bash shell or Appliance Shell for more information.

• For ESXi hardware metrics, enable CIM APIs and open port 5989 on individual ESXi servers and use the template VMware ESXi Hardware Status for monitoring.

• The user accounts configured for VMware integration must have privileges to access CIM APIs. Configure CIM and CIM Interaction permissions to access the host hardware metrics. Refer to Host CIM Privileges in the VMware documentation.

• From vcenter version 8.0 the CIM monitoring is to be enabled manually using the command esxcli system wbem set -e true by connecting to the respective esxi using ssh credentials as mentioned in the Control Access for CIM-Based Hardware Monitoring Tools in the VMware documentation.

• Enable default port 443 on vCenter.

  Steps to assign CIM permissions to users.

  1. vCenter User should have Host CIM and CIM interaction privileges.
  2. Click Menu and then select Administration.
  3. In the Administration section, click Roles.
  4. Select the role assigned to the user.
  5. On the right-hand side of the screen, click Privileges.
  6. Check to see if the privileges listed are the ones that should be assigned to the user.
  

  7. Alternatively, grant the rights by taking the following actions:
     

     • Click Edit role action and select the provider.

     

     • On the Edit Role page, check box the CIM and CIM interaction.
     • Click NEXT.

     

  8. The VMware Host should have the CIM Service functioning.
     

     

  9. Enable gateway IPAddress access to 5989,5988 port.
     

     

  10. CIM Secure Server and CIM Server services should be in running state.
      

      

  11. Able to telnet from the gateway to 5989 port.
      For example: telnet <vmware-host-IP> 5989
      Notes:

      • If you assign CIM privileges to vCenter Account then it will allow you to perform host hardware monitoring or else create and assign.
      • CIM credentials on each host Steps to assign CIM permissions to vCenter Account (yet to work).

Classic Gateway

• Allow port 443 between (vCenter or ESXi host) and OpsRamp Gateway
  
• Allow port 5989 between (vCenter or ESXi host) and OpsRamp Gateway for CIM based monitoring

NextGen Gateway

• Allow port 443 between (vCenter or ESXi host) and (nodes, load balancers)
  
• Allow port 5989 between (vCenter or ESXi host) and (nodes, load balancers) for CIM based monitoring

Hierarchy of vCentre

Compute

  — Compute
    — Datacenter
      — Cluster
        — Host
          — Virtual Machine

Storage

  — Storage
    — Datastore

Install the integration

1. From All Clients, select a client.
2. Navigate to Setup > Account.
3. Select the Integrations and Apps tab.
4. The Installed Integrations page, where all the installed applications are displayed. If there are no installed applications, it will navigate to the Available Integrations and Apps page.
5. Click + ADD on the Installed Integrations page. The Available Integrations and Apps page displays all the available applications along with the newly created application with the version.
6. Search for the application using the search option available. Alternatively, use the All Categories option to search.

7. Click ADD on the VMware.
8. The Configuration page is displayed, enter the below information:
   • Name: Configuration name.
   • IP Address/dnsName: IP Address or DNS Name of the vCenter.
   • CredentialSet: You can select a credential from the list or add a credential.
     Note: To add a credential:
     • Click + ADD available in the CredentialSet dropdown. The ADD CREDENTIAL page is displayed. Enter the following information:
       • Name: Credential name.
       • Description: Brief description of the credential.
       • User Name: User name. If you use a domain account to access vCenter, specify the domain with the username in the format <name of the user>@<domain name>.
       • Password: Password of the vCenter
       • Confirm Password: Confirm password
       • Port: Port of the vCenter. Set 443 for a secure connection.
       • Secure: Select the Secure checkbox for encryption.
       • Connection Timeout (ms): Timeout in milliseconds.
     • Click ADD to add the credential to the credential list.

• vCenter Plug-ins Configurations: Enable the vSAN or VxRail check box and enter VxRail manager IP Address.
  Note:
  • For VxRail Components discovery and monitoring, Virtual Machine Discovery is mandatory.
  • For vSAN components discovery and monitoring, VMware Cluster discovery is Mandatory.

9. Event Schedule: Enable the Event Schedule checkbox.
   Notes:
   • Event Schedule option is displayed if and only if Discovery Schedule option is enabled.
   • VMware Inventory begins when following events are identified at Vcenter: VmClonedEvent, VmDeployedEvent, VmCreatedEvent, VmRemovedEvent, VmRestartedOnAlternateHostEvent, VmRelocatedEvent, VmMigratedEvent, DrsVmMigratedEvent.
10. FILTER BY RESOURCE TAG: Click Any or All of the rules below to match any one or all of the conditions you define for filtering.
11. Enter/select the values in the Key, Operator, and Value fields for filtering the resources.
12. FILTER BY RESOURCE TYPE:
    • ALL: All the existing and future resources will be discovered.
    • SELECT: You can select one or multiple resources to be discovered.
13. PERFORM ACTION: Select the Manage Device checkbox, if you want the discovered devices to be managed.
14. Discovery Schedule: Discovery is triggered based on the scheduled time. New resources added to the environment are automatically discovered. Choose one of the following Recurrence Patterns:
    • Hourly
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • Monthly
    • None (On-demand discovery)
15. Click NEXT.

16. In the Installation page, select an existing registered gateway profile, and click FINISH.
    Note: The selected gateway should be up and running.

17. The VMware integration is installed and displayed on the INSTALLED INTEGRATIONS page.

View VMware details

The discovered resource(s) are displayed in Infrastructure > Resources >VMware, with Native Resource Type as VMWareHost. You can navigate to the Attributes tab to view the discovery details.

Assign Monitoring templates to the resource

1. Go to Infrastructure > Resources > VMware.
2. On the Resources page of VMware, click resource name > resource Details > Monitors > Template.
3. On the Templates screen, click +Assign Templates.

4. In the Apply Templates section, AssignTemplates > Available templates, select the templates and click the > button.
5. Click Assign. The Templates screen displays the selected templates.

The gateway monitors the application using the assigned templates and displays the results in a graphical format.

While applying a template to a resource, you can customize the default configuration parameters applied to that template.

To confirm the monitoring of VMware resource, review the following:

• The graph is plotted for each metric in the template.
• Alerts are generated for metrics in the template by giving thresholds.

The Metrics tab to view the metric details for VMware.

VMware Recommended templates

The recommended templates for VMware in each entity level

VMware Alarms Document

Create custom alarm metrics

1. Navigate to Setup > Monitoring > Events.
2. Click +Add at the right top corner.
3. For Adapter Type, select VMware.
4. In the name field, the metric name should be added as follows:

For user defined alarms, the sysname is null. In that case, add the metric name in this format: “vmware_vcenter_alarm_”+alarmName. Here, alarmName should not have any spaces.
Example: If a user defines an alarm with name memory Limit Alarm, then the metric name should be created as vmware_vcenter_alarm_memoryLimitAlarm.

Key Use Case

The following paramaters outlines the current design for events and alarms:

Retrieving all alarms and events on vCenter

When an alarm or event template is assigned to vCenter, all alerts pertaining to vCenter, Data Centers, DataStores, Hosts, and VMs are mapped to the vCenter.

Configuration parameters

Deprecated Parameters

The following two configuration options are being deprecated starting with the 14.1.0 gateway version:

• Vmware.vcenter.process.native.alarms
• Vmware.vcenter.process.thirdparty.alarms

Supported alarms

Currently OpsRamp supports the below alarms

VMware Events Monitoring

Create custom events

1. Navigate to Setup > Monitoring >Events.

2. Click +Add at the right top corner.

3. For Adapter Type, select VMware.

4. In the name field, enter EventId from vCenter Server 8.0 IA (Build 20519528) Events Events as the metric name.

   Note: While creating the metric, it is required to replace “.” with “_“in the metric name.

Key Use Case

We have recently updated the VMware events and alarms to provide comprehensive details on how these alarms and events are generated. Below outlines the current design for events and alarms:

Retrieving alarms on individual resources

• If an alarm template is assigned on a Host, all alerts related to the Host are mapped accordingly.
• If an alarm template is assigned on a Datacenter, all alerts related to the Datacenter are mapped accordingly.
• If an alarm template is assigned on DataStores, all alerts related to DataStores are mapped accordingly.
• If an alarm template is assigned on VMs, all alerts related to VMs are mapped accordingly.
• To retrieve only vCenter-specific alarms:
  • Assign the alarm template to the vCenter level and configure the parameter ‘vmware.vcenter.alarm.receive.child.alarms’ to ‘no’.

Configuration Parameters

Configuration Parameters	Description
vmware.vcenter.event.policy	Any events added to the template and with the option set to "include" will be sent from the gateway to the cloud. All events in the end device will be triggered from the gateway to the cloud if this parameter is set to "all".
vmware.vcenter.event.include.severity.list	It indicates that such events, regardless of their severity, will be triggered from the gateway to the cloud. If they include "unknown,info,warning,error,user" events. Only these events are triggered
vmware.vcenter.event.queue.type	Queue type has three categories. Ignore: If the vmware host is in schedule maintenance, the events will be ignored, i.e. they won't be triggered at cloud end. Send To Maintenance Queue: During the vmware host maintenance, the events are moved to the maintenance queue. Default: The events are moved to the monitoring queue even though the vmware hosts are in maintenance
vmware.events.regex.match	When a regular expression is given as input to the "vmware.events.regex.match" pattern, the event will only be processed if its simple class name or class name or canonical class name matches the regular expression. Here, the "vmware.vcenter.event.policy" should be set to "all". Note: The default value of this parameter is set as "None".

VMware Authentication Failure Notification

Discovery

Displaying a failure message in the activity when the discovery process fails.

Monitoring

The OpsRamp tool sends an authentication failure alert with the metric name ‘vmware.auth.error’ specifically for VMware vCenter or ESXi hosts. This alert is triggered when monitoring is stopped due to issues related to connection, authentication failures, or other related issues. The alert is activated only when the following vCenter monitoring template is applied to vCenter, and we discover vCenter through integration.

vCenter Template Names: VMware vCenter Performance - v5.

When we apply the following ESXi monitoring template on ESXi Host, and we discover ESXi through integration.

Host Template Names: VMware Host Performance - v6.

Recommended Metrics for Availability