VMware

Warning

If you are using the VMware integration, it is recommended to switch to the VMware Collection Agent plugin to ensure that you are getting the latest updates and features.

Overview Copied

The VMWare Collection Agent plugin monitors metrics from a VMware vSphere through the VmwareCollector collector.

VMware metrics Copied

The VmwareCollector monitors metrics of managed entity types such as HostSystem or VirtualMachine. Metrics can be monitored through the performance manager by supplying performance counters or by accessing the properties path.

Performance counter groups and labels Copied

Managed entity properties path Copied

Refers to the managed entity class member variable path. The paths are added in the configuration as a list of properties in order to monitor entity properties.

Prerequisite Copied

Geneos environment Copied

The VMware Collection Agent plugin requires the following versions of Geneos components:

The VMware Collection Agent plugin jar file is packaged with Netprobe, and is stored in the collection_agent folder. Alternatively, you can download separate binaries for the VMware Collection Agent plugin from ITRS Downloads.

Set up your Collection Agent plugin Copied

Set up your collector in the Gateway Setup Editor by adding the following configuration in Dynamic Entities > Collectors. For more information, see Collectors in Dynamic Entities.

Configuration reference Copied

Below is an example YAML file which may require some changes for your project’s configuration:

collectors:
# VMware collector configuration
- name: vmware
type: plugin
class-name: VmwareCollector

# URL to connect to the vSphere servers (required)
url: ${env:VMWARE_URL}
# Basic authentication used to connect to the vSphere (required)
username: ${env:BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME}
password: ${env:BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD}

# Interval (in millis) between collections (optional, defaults to five minutes).
# collectionInterval: 300000

# Collection level used for availability of counters, used only for vCenter servers (optional, default unused)
# Please see documentation for reference link to see full list of available counters per level.
# collectionLevel: 1

# Entity and group configuration (required).
# This lists the entities and metrics to be monitored by the collector.
# Please see documentation for further details.
entityGroups:
  VirtualMachine:
    #filter: .*(NAME1|NAME2).*
    info:
      - runtime.bootTime
      - runtime.powerState
      - runtime.toolsInstallerMounted
      - runtime.cleanPowerOff
      - runtime.dasVmProtection.dasProtected
      - runtime.faultToleranceState
      - runtime.numMksConnections
      - runtime.onlineStandby
      - runtime.question.text
      - runtime.host.value
      - runtime.recordReplayState
      - runtime.suspendInterval
      - runtime.suspendTime
      - runtime.toolsInstallerMounted
      - runtime.connectionState
      - runtime.memoryOverhead
      - summary.quickStats.guestHeartbeatStatus
      - summary.quickStats.overallCpuUsage
      - summary.quickStats.guestMemoryUsage
      - summary.quickStats.hostMemoryUsage
      - summary.quickStats.overallCpuDemand
      - config.hardware.numCPU
      - config.hardware.memoryMB
      - config.hardware.numCoresPerSocket
      - config.datastoreUrl
    clusterServices: .*
    cpu: Worst case allocation|Total|Usage|Usage in MHz
    disk: Capacity|Highest latency|Space potentially used|Space not shared|Usage|Space actually used
    mem: Consumed|Worst case allocation|Overhead consumed|Swap in rate|Swap out rate|Swap used|Total|Host consumed %|Balloon|Memory Type Total Bandwidth
    network: Usage
    sys: Heartbeat|Uptime
    vmop: .*non-powered-on VMs.*
  HostSystem:
    info:
      - config.product.apiType
      - config.product.apiVersion
      - config.product.build
      - config.product.fullName
      - config.product.instanceUuid
      - config.product.licenseProductName
      - config.product.licenseProductVersion
      - config.product.localeBuild
      - config.product.localeVersion
      - config.product.osType
      - config.product.productLineId
      - config.product.vendor
      - config.product.version
      - summary.quickStats.uptime
      - summary.hardware.memorySize
    clusterServices: .*
    cpu: Worst case allocation|Total|Usage|Usage in MHz
    disk: Capacity|Highest latency|Space potentially used|Space not shared|Usage|Space actually used
    mem: Consumed|Worst case allocation|Overhead consumed|Swap in rate|Swap out rate|Swap used|Total|Host consumed %|Balloon|Memory Type Total Bandwidth
    network: Usage
    sys: Heartbeat|Uptime
    vmop: .*non-powered-on VMs.*
  VmwareDistributedVirtualSwitch:
    info:
      - summary.productInfo.vendor
      - summary.productInfo.build
      - summary.productInfo.version
      - overallStatus
  ClusterComputeResource:
    info:
      - summary.effectiveMemory
      - summary.effectiveCpu
      - summary.overallStatus
      - summary.usageSummary.cpuDemandMhz
      - summary.usageSummary.totalCpuCapacityMhz
      - summary.usageSummary.memDemandMB
      - summary.usageSummary.totalMemCapacityMB
Variable Description
username and password

Authentication to connect to the vSphere through a url. Only one connection per collector is allowed.

Mandatory: Yes
collectionInterval

Adjust the monitoring frequency.

Mandatory: No

Default: 5 minutes
collectionLevel

Determine which performance counters are available for monitoring in VMware vCenter connections.

For ESXi connections, collectionLevel is unavailable.

For more information, see Data Collection Levels.

Mandatory: No
entityGroups Consist of:
  1. List of managed entities - determine which entities to monitor (Mandatory: Yes)
  2. Key-value pair rules - filter out which metrics and attributes to display (Mandatory: Conditional, depending on the connection used and if collectionLevel is set or not):
  • Yes, if connection is ESXi
  • Yes, if connection is vCenter and collectionLevel is not set
  • No, if connection is vCenter and collectionLevel is set

Individual configuration formats for key-value pair rules Copied

Performance counter groups Copied

Managed entity filtering Copied

Configure your mappings Copied

To show metrics and events in Geneos, dynamic mappings must be configured and attached to the Netprobe receiving the data from the Collection Agent. Select one of the options listed below to configure your dynamic mappings.

For more information, see the Mapping and mapping group in Dynamic Entities documentation.

Sample mappings are included in the Gateway package in templates/vmware_mapping.xml. This can be added as an include file in your Gateway.

Server connection Copied

The collector currently trusts all servers and does not verify hostnames. Only basic authentication is used by means of username and password that has a minimum role of read-only. When the connection drops and reconnects, the collector can continue operation given that the initial connection was successful.

VMware services metric metadata Copied

A reference list of VMware service metric metadata can be downloaded here. This file includes all metric metadata, categorized as either counter or property. Each category has a masterlist (in CSV format) of all their respective metadata. For further details on each metric, please refer to the official VMware documentation here.

The categories are further divided into subcategories:

["Geneos"] ["User Guide"]

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