ESX Servers Test

This test reports the number of ESX hosts that are currently managed by VC, and the status of the ESX-VC connections.

Target of the test : A VMware vCenter server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the vCenter server being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to.

VC User and VC Password

To connect to vCenter and extract metrics from it, this test should be configured with the name and password of a user with Administrator or Virtual Machine Administrator privileges to vCenter. However, if, owing to security constraints, you are not able to use the credentials of such users for test configuration, then you can configure this test with the credentials of a user with Read-only rights to vCenter. For this purpose, you can assign the ‘Read-only’ role to a local/domain user to vCenter, and then specify name and password of this user against the VC User and VC Password text boxes. The steps for assigning this role to a user on vCenter have been detailed in the Monitoring VMware Infrastructures chapter. 

vCenter servers terminate user sessions based on timeout periods. The default timeout period is 30 mins. When you stop an agent, sessions currently in use by the agent will remain open for this timeout period until vCenter times out the session. If the agent is restarted within the timeout period, it will open a new set of sessions. If you want the eG agent to close already existing sessions on vCenter before it opens new sessions, then, instead of the ‘Read-only’ user, you can optionally configure the VC User and VC Password parameters with the credentials of a user with permissions to View and Stop Sessions on vCenter. For this purpose, you can create a special role on vCenter, grant the View and Stop Sessions privilege (prior to vCenter 4.1, this was called the View and Terminate Sessions privilege) to this role, and then assign the new role to a local/domain user to vCenter. The steps for this have been discussed in the Monitoring VMware Infrastructures chapter.

Confirm Password

Confirm the password by retyping it in this text box.

SSL

By default, the vCenter server is SSL-enabled. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to Yes by default. This indicates that the eG agent will communicate with the vCenter server via HTTPS by default.

Webport

By default, in most virtualized environments, vCenter listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabeld) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled) only. This implies that while monitoring vCenter, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 80 or 443, depending upon the SSL-enabled status of vCenter – i.e., if vCenter is not SSL-enabled (i.e., if the SSL flag above is set to No), then the eG agent connects to vCenter using port 80 by default, and if vCenter is SSL-enabled (i.e., if the SSL flag is set to Yes), then the agent-vCenter communication occurs via port 443 by default.  Accordingly, the Webport parameter is set to default by default. 

In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the Webport parameter, you can specify the exact port at which vCenter in your environment listens, so that the eG agent communicates with that port for collecting metrics from vCenter.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

ESX servers managed by VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that are currently managed by VC.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers are being managed by VC.

ESX servers added to VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that were added to VC during this measurement period.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers were recently added to VC.

ESX servers removed from VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that were removed from VC during this measurement period.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers were removed from VC.

ESX servers connected to VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that are currently connected to VC.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers are connected to VC.

ESX servers recently connected to VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that connected to VC during this measurement period.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers recently connected to VC.

ESX servers disconnected from VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that are currently disconnected from VC.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers disconnected from VC.

ESX servers recently disconnected from VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that disconnected from VC during this measurement period.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers recently disconnected from VC.

ESX servers not responding to VCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that are currently not responding to VC.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be low. A high value could indicate a problem in the network connection between the ESX server and VC.

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers are not responding to VC. 

ESX servers recently not responding from vCenter

Indicates the number of ESX servers that have been marked as ‘unresponsive’ during this measurement period.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, to know which ESX servers were marked as ‘not responding’ during this measurement period.

Virtual machines managed by VCenter

Indicates the number of VMs that are currently executing on all ESX servers managed by this VC.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view the names of the VMs, the names of the ESX hosts on which the VMs have been configured, and the IP address of the hosts,.

VM templates managed by VCenter

Indicates the total number of template VMs that currently exist on all ESX servers managed by VC.

Number

A template is a “golden” copy of a virtual machine (VM) organized by folders and managed with permissions. They are useful because they act as a protected version of a model VM which can be used to create new VMs. As a template is the original and perfect image of a particular VM, it cannot be powered on or run.

You can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view the names and IP addresses of the template VMs.

Orphaned VMs managed by VCenter

Indicates the total number of orphaned vms that have been currently detected on all ESX servers managed by VC.

Number

An orphan virtual machine is one that exists in the vCenter database but is no longer present on the ESX Server host. A virtual machine also shows as orphaned if it exists on a different ESX Server host than the ESX Server host expected by vCenter.

A virtual machine can become orphaned, in any of the following situations:

  • After a VMotion or VMware DRS Migration;
  • After a VMware HA host failure occurs or after the ESX Server host comes out of maintenance mode;
  • If you delete a virtual machine outside of vCenter – say, through the VMware Management Interface while VC is down, or through the Virtual Infrastructure (VI) client directly connected to an ESX server host;
  • If vCenter is restarted while a migration is in progress; this is a temporary situation though;
  • If you schedule too many virtual machines to be relocated at the same time;

To know the names of the orphaned VMs, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled.

Disconnected VMs managed by vCenter

Indicates the number of VMs that are currently disconnected from the ESX server.

Number

 

Invalid VMs managed by vCenter

Indicates the number of VMs that are currently invalid.

 

Number

 

Inaccessible VMs managed by vCenter

Indicates the number of VMs that are currently inaccessible.

Number

When an ESX Server machine is rebooted or a host agent is restarted, it needs to reload the host agent configuration of each registered virtual machine. If the .vmx file is inaccessible, ESX Server is unable to read the configured name of the virtual machine, and it defaults to “Unknown VM.” This is a problem only during restarts. Temporarily losing access to storage does not cause a virtual machine’s name to be set to “Unknown VM”. The workaround is to rename the virtual machines that have gotten into this state, after they become available again.

The detailed diagnosis of the ESX servers managed by VC measure reports the IP and host name of the ESX servers that are currently managed by VC.

DDesxserverrsmanagedbyvc-final

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the ESX servers managed by VC measure

The detailed diagnosis of the ESX servers connected to VC measure reports the IP and host name of the ESX servers that are currently connected to VC.

DDesxserversconnectedtoVC

Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the ESX servers connected to VC measure