vCenter Status Test

This test monitors the availability and response time of vCenter.

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.

Using

The Using parameter determines whether this test should be monitored using the web services API or CLI (command line interface).

If you are monitoring vCenter in an agentless manner, then you might want to execute this test using the web services API, as this approach supports both agent-based and agentless monitoring modes. In such a case therefore, select Web services API from the Using list box. If the Web services API option is chosen, then ensure that the Virtual Center Server Home parameter is set to none. Also, make sure that the VC User and VC Password parameters represent the user name and password to connect to the vCenter server. By default, Web Services API is selected from the Using list.

The command line interface is typically preferred, if vCenter is monitored in an agent-based manner. In such a case therefore, select Command Line Interface from the Using list. If this option is chosen, then ensure that the VirtualCenter License File, Virtual Center Server Home and ReReadLicense parameters are configured with valid values, and the VC User and VC Password parameters are set to None.

Note:

vCenter 4.0 does not support the command line interface; therefore, set the using parameter to Web services API while monitoring vCenter 4.0.

VC User and VC Password

If this test uses the Web Services API, then in the VC User and VC Password text boxes, specify the name and password (respectively) of a user with Administrator or Virtual Machine Administrator privileges to vCenter. However, if owing to security constraints you prefer not to expose the credentials of such a user, then, you can create a special role for this purpose on vCenter, assign the Licenses permission to this role, and assign this role to a local/domain user to vCenter. The procedure for creating this special role and assigning it to an existing local/domain user has been detailed in Section 1.1.3.1 of this document.

On other hand, if this test executes using the Command Line Interface, then the VC user and vc password parameters should be set to none.

Confirm Password

Confirm the password by retyping it in this text box.

Virtual Center Server Home

If the using parameter is set to Web services API, then specify none against Virtual Center Server Home. On the other hand, if Command Line Interface is chosen from the Using list, then provide the full path to the install directory of the VMware Licensing server. For example, c:\progra~1\VMware\Vmware License Server.

VirtualCenter License File

In the VirtualCenter License File text box, specify the name of the vCenter license file used by this test for reporting license-related statistics; this is vmware.lic by default. This parameter is of relevance only if the Using flag is set to Command Line Interface.

ReReadLicense

If the test executes using the Web services API, then you will have to set this flag to true or false to indicate whether the eG agent should or should not check for license changes everytime it runs this test. If this flag is set to true, then the eG agent will check for changes in license status everytime this test runs. If this flag is set to false, then the eG agent will not check for license changes.

The status of the ReReadLicense flag will be disregarded if the using parameter is set to Command Line Interface.

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.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Availability

Indicates whether the vCenter server is available or not.

Percent

The value 0 indicates that the vCenter is not available; whereas, the value 100 indicates that it is available.

Response time

Indicates the time taken by the vCenter to respond to requests.

Secs

If the value of this measure consistently increases, it indicates that the performance of the vCenter is gradually deteriorating. Ideally, the value of this measure should be low.