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.

OpsRamp collects inventory and performance data using the following methods:

• Uses SOAP APIs to access vCenter and ESXi hosts
• Connects via SSH to monitor appliances
• Retrieves host hardware data through CIM APIs
• Gathers vSAN inventory and metrics using Python APIs
• Uses REST APIs to collect VxRail inventory and performance data

Supported Target Versions

• Validated on VMware 6.0.0, 6.5.0, 7.0.0, 8.0.0, 8.0.0 U2 and 8.0.0 U3
  
  Note: Not all metrics are supported,
  see VMware Recommended templates for more details.

Prerequisites

• Ensure that the end device (vCenter or ESXi host) is reachable from the OpsRamp gateway. Use the following command to verify connectivity: ping <device IP address>
  

• Classic Gateway
  Allow inbound and outbound traffic between the OpsRamp gateway and the vCenter or ESXi host server APIs (REST, SOAP, Python, etc.) on the respective port.
  The default port is 443.
  To verify connectivity, use: telnet <device IP address> <port>
  Allow inbound and outbound traffic between the OpsRamp gateway and the vCenter or ESXi CIM interface for CIM-based monitoring.
  The default port is 5989.

• NextGen Gateway
  Allow inbound and outbound traffic between nodes or load balancers and the vCenter or ESXi APIs (such as REST, SOAP, or Python-based interfaces).
  The default port is 443.
  Allow inbound and outbound traffic on the CIM monitoring port (default: 5989) between nodes/load balancers and the vCenter or ESXi CIM interfaces for hardware-level monitoring.
  The default port is 5989.

• Inventory and performance monitoring
  

  • To enable inventory and performance monitoring, create a vCenter user with at least the Read-only role. Make sure to select the “Propagate to children” checkbox when assigning the role.
    

    
    

    Follow the below steps to create a vCenter user with the required permissions for discovery and performance monitoring.

    

    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>

• 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.

• Host hardware monitoring through CIM

  • Enable CIM APIs on each ESXi server, open port 5989 for communication, and apply the “VMware ESXi Hardware Status” template for monitoring.
    

  • You can retrieve ESXi host hardware data using either a vCenter user or an ESXi host user. To retrieve data using a vCenter user, follow these steps:
    

    • 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

    Steps to assign CIM permissions to vCenter 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).
  
  

  • To retrieve CIM data using an ESXi host user, follow these steps:
    

    Steps to assign CIM permissions to vCenter users.

    Note

        Admin permission are required for CIM Monitoring to the standalone ESXI host user.
    

    1. Log in to host. Click Manage –> Users –> Add user.
    2. Enter the details and click Add.

    
    

    3. Right click on Host and select Permissions.

    
    

    4. Select the required role from the list, check the Propagate to all childre option, and click Assign role to apply permissions across all associated objects.

    
    

    
    
    Steps to create user with CLI commands

    1. Log in to the ESXi host using SSH credential.

    2. Create the user using the following command.

       esxcli system account add --id <username> --password <password> --description <description> --role <role>
       

    3. Use the following command to modify the role assigned to a user on host.

       esxcli system permission set --id=<username> --role=<roleName>
       

       or
       

       vim-cmd vimsvc/auth/entity_permission_add <moid> <username> <isGroup> <role> <propagate>
       

       Example: Adding ‘admin’ role to a user of the EXSI host.
       esxcli system permission set –id=‘cim’ –role=‘Admin’
       vim-cmd vimsvc/auth/entity_permission_add vim.Folder:ha-folder-root cim false Admin true
       

       Note

               If you create a custom role without assigning any privileges, vCenter assigns it as a read-only role with three system-defined privileges: **System.Anonymous**, **System.View**, and **System.Read**. These privileges are not visible in the vSphere Client but are required to access certain properties of managed objects. All predefined roles in vCenter Server include these three privileges by default.
       

    
    

• For RP4VM monitoring, Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (RP4VM) should be integrated with vSphere.

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

The following discovery and monitoring behaviours are applicable from versions 17.0.0 and later.

Discovery

When the discovery process fails, the system displays a failure message in the activity log and generates an authentication alert against the gateway device.

Monitoring

The OpsRamp tool sends an authentication failure alert with the metric name vmware.auth.error against the gateway resource. This alert triggers when monitoring stops due to connection issues, authentication failures, or other related issues.

Recommended Metrics for Availability

Troubleshooting VMware discovery and monitoring

The following are the troubleshooting steps for vmware discovery and monitoring

1. If the discovery of the vmware integartion fails, please verify the following steps.
   
   • Check whether the device ip address is pinging from the gateway it’s being discovered using the following command.
     ping <ip_address of the vcenter/esxi host>
     
   • Check whether the device able to telnet from the gateway to 443 port.
     telnet <ip_address of the vcenter/esxi host> 443
     
   • Check whether the vcenter is able to connect to the SOAP using the below curl command.
     curl -vvv -k -X POST -H “Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8” -H “SOAPAction: urn:vim25/5.5” -d@data.xml https://<ip_address>/sdk
     While executing the command, the following should be the data.xml file where the username and password should be replaced accordingly.
     

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
     <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:urn="urn:vim25">
      <soapenv:Header/>
      <soapenv:Body>
      <urn:Login>
       <urn:_this type="SessionManager">SessionManager</urn:_this>
       <urn:userName>(User_name)</urn:userName>
       <urn:password>(Password)</urn:password>
      </urn:Login>
     </soapenv:Body>
     </soapenv:Envelope>
     

     This should return a response code of 200.
     The prerequisite should be met for the vcenter for performance,appliance and CIM monitoring. For more information see Prerequisites.
     

   • Ensure the vCenter meets all prerequisites outlined in the document for enabling performance monitoring, appliance monitoring, and CIM monitoring.
   • The following are the steps to enable additional discovery and monitoring logs, and collect VMware discovery data from the gateway and its logs.
     Step 1:
     Log in to the gateway, and then enter the Gateway command line using the following command: gcli
     Step 2:
     
     • Enable following logs in GCLI to collect inventory bin/Json from Cloud i.e, the VMware discovery information.
       

       VMware discovery flags
       flag add vcenter.inventory.bin.log on 60
       flag add vcenter.inventory.json.log on 60
       flag add vcenter.inventory.log on 60
       flag add vxrail.log on 60
       flag add vxrail.inventory.log on 60
       flag add vxrail.inventory.log1 on 60
       flag add vxrail.inventory.log2 on 60

     • Enable the following monitoring gcli flags for monitoring logs.

       VMware monitoring flags
       flag add vmware.log4 on 60
       flag add vmware.log5 on 60
       flag add vmware.log6 on 60
       flag add vmware.log7 on 60
       flag add vmware.log8 on 60
       flag add vmware.alrm.log on 60
       flag add vmware.evt.log on 60
       flag add vmware.evt.log2 on 60
       flag add vmware.evt.log2 on 60
       flag add vmware.alarm.info on 60
       flag add vmware.alarm.def on 60
       flag add vmware.validate.auth.alert on 60
       flag add vxrail.mon.log on 60
       flag add vsan.mon.log on 60
       flag add vmware.exception.log on 60
       flag add vmware.monitor.log on 60
       flag add vmware.metric.log on 60
       flag add vmware.event.log on 60
       flag add vmware.log on 60
       flag add vmware.collector.mgr.log on 60
       flag add vmware.collector.mgr.log1 on 60
       flag add vmware.alarm.log on 60
       flag add vmware.event.log on 60
       flag add vmware.log on 60
       flag add vmware.newalarm on 60
       flag add vmware.dbalarm on 60

       
       

     Step 3:
     Exit from gcli using the command exit.
     Step 4:
     Scan the vmware discovery profile.
     The following is the command to check vprobe logs.
     tail -100f /var/log/app/vprobe.log
     Check in logs whether bin/Json files generated or not. If generated check in /var/log/app/tmp location. Observe generated JSON file that contains all the required inventory information and share the /var/log/app/vprobe.log file and all the files from /var/log/app/tmp/.
     

     Note

         Move all files to **/home/ruser/** and change the file permissions, if required example chmod 755 *.json and download the files.
     

     • To set log level from gcli if required.
       Syntax: loglevel set <absolute path of the class> <log level> <number of minutes>
       Example: loglevel set com.vistara.gateway.plugin.smis.ibm.IBMSMISCommunicator INFO 60.
2. Follow these steps to check the hardware component state on the respective host if there is any issue related to hardware monitoring:
   • Login to the host through vmware host client (UI). Navigate to monitor > hardware to find the hardware components and their states.
     
     
   • Also check the component state through vmware vsphere client. Navigate to Monitor > Hardware Health under the required host.
     
     
3. If there is any issue with the metric data (i.e, if customer claims that opsramp graph is showing wrong metric data), we can check the value for the same metrics in the graphs through vsphere client and compare the data with opsramp graphs. The following are the steps for the same:
   1. Login to vsphere client using vcenter credentials.
   2. Select the required device (for example, host).
   3. Navigate to monitor > performance > overview to get the basic metrics graphs.
      
   4. Navigate to monitor > performance > Advance to get all metric graphs. Filtering metrics and components in each metric can also be done here using Chart Options.
      
      
4. To check alarm and event data in vcenter.
   1. Login to vsphere client using vcenter credentials.
   2. Click on vcenter device and navigate to Monitor > Issues and alarms to check alarms and Tasks and Events > Events to check events data.
      
5. If there are large number of sessions created on vcenter with user agent “pyvmomi”, check if vSAN and VxRail templates got assigned on the resources (host, clusters, VMs) in opsramp portal and remove if those are not required (i.e, if vSAN and VxRail support are not available in the vcenter).
   
   

   Note

   In case of vmware integration edit, ensure to edit and update the discovery profile even if there are no changes to ensure that VxRail IP address or vSAN-related updates take effect.

Integration Version History

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