Monitor server's hardware

Rosetta_itgroup · Joined: 09 Aug 2014 Posts: 13

Hello everyone,

i have two offices on different locations, on each location i have two servers running VMware environment.
My question is.. How can I monitor hardware problems with the servers? For instance: failure disk drive on the raid array and more.

i know that I need to download my server MIB file and install it into the VMware, but that it's all I know (if it's true at all).

Can someone please explain me step by step how can i do this with the host monitor? What kind of settings or test I need to change or create? What should I do on the server side? I need to create a snap trap? How can I make the server "talk" with the host monitor?

Many thanks!

KS-Soft · Joined: 03 Apr 2002 Posts: 12793 Location: USA

What exactly VMWare?
VMWare ESXi hosts version 4.1 - 5.5 can be checked by VM Host Status test method
http://ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mframe.htm#tests.htm#vmhoststatus

Regarding SNMP protocol:
VMWare ESX 4 supports SNMP
VMWare ESXi 4 supports SNMP as well, except vSphere Hypervisor edition.
VMWare ESXi 5 has SNMP agent disabled by default. There are some other limitations, e.g. SNMP agent included with vCenter Server does not answer to SNMP Get requests, it may send SNMP Traps.

Some useful links
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=1008065
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp#com.vmware.vsphere.monitoring.doc/GUID-2A8FC3DC-53C3-4245-A4CF-CC5C7935D04B.html

Regards
Alex

Rosetta_itgroup · Joined: 09 Aug 2014 Posts: 13

Thank you for the links.
And what about the Host Monitor side? what to i need to do or create to make it work?

KS-Soft Europe · Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 2832

You need to add test item, set parameters (host, login/password, or setup filters for SNMP Trap tests, etc), depending on ESXi system you have.
HostMonitor supports the following test methods that can be used to monitor ESXi hardware:
VM host status test: http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mframe.htm#tests.htm#vmhoststatus
SNMP Get test: http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mframe.htm#tests.htm#chkSNMP
SNMP Trap test: http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mframe.htm#tests.htm#snmptrap

mrw · Joined: 08 Oct 2012 Posts: 179

Just thought I´d add my experience to this thread with monitoring ESXi servers since this is a real pain..

The only really reliable tests that works for all my ESXi server are:
- Ping
- Overall HealthState using SOAP.
- Disc Space Usage for the LUNs using SNMP.

I have gotten CPU Usage and Memory Usage to work using SNMP on some servers. It seems to depend on the hardware. The new VMware tests included in Hostmon has never worked for me and I have no idea why.

It can be tricky to enable SOAP and SNMP on the hosts, and also to configure the tests is a pain. SOAP because there´s LOTS of text and parameters. SNMP since it´s tricky to get the correct OID for each LUN and this can change if you change something on the LUNs or if you install some updates in the ESXi.

KS-Soft · Joined: 03 Apr 2002 Posts: 12793 Location: USA

>The new VMware tests included in Hostmon has never worked for me and I have no idea why.

Tests status Unknown? No answer? Reply value?
ESXi version?
Windows? IE version?

Regards
Alex

mrw · Joined: 08 Oct 2012 Posts: 179

Test status = No answer
ESXi version = 5.5.0

Not sure what you mean with Windows and IE version. On what server?

Regards,
//Andreas..

KS-Soft · Joined: 03 Apr 2002 Posts: 12793 Location: USA

Windows on system where HostMonitor is running

Regards
Alex

mrw · Joined: 08 Oct 2012 Posts: 179

Hostmon server is a Win2008R2, hostmon version is v9.90.
The tests are all performed by Active RMAs and they either run Win2008R2 or Win2012R2.

KS-Soft · Joined: 03 Apr 2002 Posts: 12793 Location: USA

and IE version 10 on Windows 2008?
then it should work...
as I see we already have topic regarding this problem
http://www.ks-soft.net/cgi-bin/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7346

Unfortunately we did not find reason, everything works fine on our systems and VMWare team did not provide any help.

Regards
Alex

mrw · Joined: 08 Oct 2012 Posts: 179

Yep.
Conclusion = VMware suck when it comes to monitoring.

They really should implement SNMP much better which would solve all my issues regarding this.

At least KS-Soft´s support is the best there is

Thanks!
//Andreas..

KS-Soft · Joined: 03 Apr 2002 Posts: 12793 Location: USA

We are trying

Regards
Alex

Kris · Joined: 12 May 2010 Posts: 375

Just my 2 cents:

We recently rolled out a brand new vSphere 5.5 infrastructure (on our local network).
I've set all available VMware host tests to the new hosts, and I actually find them very reliable.
They have been running for months on end, and no 'unknown' or 'timeout' thus far.

Very happy with it

mrw · Joined: 08 Oct 2012 Posts: 179

Can you tell us how you have configured the tests and the ESXi hosts?
If we take "VM host status" for instance. Which port did you use and why? Do you connect with the hosts local root account or something else? And on the host, what have you enabled/disabled? Or did it just work out of the box?

Thanks,
//Andreas..

Kris · Joined: 12 May 2010 Posts: 375

Hi Andreas,

I've just used the hostname, didn't specify a port.
And I used the local root username and password of the host.
Didn't configure anything on the hosts.

And indeed, it just worked out of the box

Lucky me eh? hehehehe