Re: SNMP in ESX 3.5 / VC 2.5

milson · ‎01-03-2008

I've found some issues/changes with SNMP in the new versions, and haven't seen much posted on it yet so here goes some info and a question.

Running Dell IT Assistant to receive the traps, FYI. Previously was running ESX 3.0.2 / VC 2.0.2 with everything working.

-Traps sent by VirtualCenter still work fine, but there is a seemingly undocumented OID prefix change.

Old: .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.50 (etc)

New: .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3 (etc)

This change is also not reflected in the MIBs that ship with VirtualCenter (they appear the same and reference the .50 prefix above). I manually entered the new definitions in my SNMP receiver to resolve.

-SNMP on ESX hosts has changed a bit, and at the moment isn't working in my scenario.

As per the documentation, there is now an add'l SNMP engine that can be enabled via the RemoteCLI, designed for 3i use (although also configurable on 3.5 hosts).

For 3.5 hosts, the documentation indicates you can choose to use the Net-SNMP agent that ships with the service console as per usual. Since I use the supported Dell OMI agent (Linux/ESX version) on my 3.5 hosts, I opted to stick with that agent - and have verified all steps were followed, and configurations did not change during the upgrade.

Current behavior is that no traps whatsoever are sent for 'VMWare' events. Note that traps sent by the Dell agent are delivered normally, which helps indicate correct Linux-level SNMP configuration is in place. Again I have verified the VMWare specific traps are not disabled and configs match both the documentation, and my other (working) 3.0.2 host.

So, I'm not sure if this is an issue with the interaction between Dell's agent and ESX, or just a bug in ESX 3.5 when not using the 'new' SNMP agent, or something I haven't thought of. At this point, I have not tested the Remote CLI configured option, since it wants to use the same default port as the Net-SNMP agent and cannot bind. I could change the default port, but prefer to only run one SNMP agent and avoid further firewall configuration.

Anyone noticed the same thing? Ideas? Am I the only one using the ESX specific VMWare traps?

Cheers,

Mike

balacs · ‎01-09-2008

This document might help: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/installing_dell_openmanage_on_esx.pdf

-SNMP on ESX hosts has changed a bit, and at the moment isn't working in my scenario.
As per the documentation, there is now an add'l SNMP engine that can be enabled via the RemoteCLI, designed for 3i use (although also configurable on 3.5 hosts).

Yes, you have to use the remote CLI. Copy and paste from the document:

1. Download VMware remote command line interface tool (RCLI) from VMware website at http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/drivers_tools.html. There are options to download either a Virtual Appliance, RCLI tools for Linux or RCLI tools for Windows.

2. Run the following command to configure the SNMP from RCLI: vicfg-snmp --server -T NOTE: Make sure that the SNMP ports kept open before sending traps to the management station.

6. For ESX Server 3.5 traps to be properly categorized in Dell IT Assistant 8.1, perform the following:

a. Open IT Assistant 8.1 Console

b. Select AlertsCategories/SourcesVirtual Machine

c. Right click Virtual Machine and select New SNMP Alert Source

d. Duplicate all existing SNMP Alert Source entries with the same values as the existing entries but modify the Enterprise OID to .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.1

Bala,

Dell Inc.

Bala Dell Inc

milson · ‎01-09-2008

Worked great - I hadn't noticed the Dell doc was updated. Note for others, as of 3.5 you must perform the add'l commands to enable the extra snmp agent through remote CLI to get the traps...

Thanks much balacs!

Mike

bflynn0 · ‎01-16-2008

Just an FYI, based on testing I've done so far and looking at the MIBS from VMware for 3.5 (located in /usr/lib/vmware/snmp/mibs on an ESX 3.5 host) It looks like traps from VirtualCenter 2.5 have an OID of 1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3 while Traps from ESX directly have an OID of 1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.1 and Embedded ESX 3i will most likely have an OID of 1.3.6.1.2.1.6786.4.2 if the MIBs are accurate.

Note, while running some tests on a Dell 2950 with ESX 3i Installable running a hardware trap (Power Supply redundancy lost) was received with an OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.1 6 301 so 3i Installable falls under the "ESX" OID.

From VMWARE-PRODUCTS-MIB:

-- 1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.1

vmwESX OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { vmwProductSpecific 1 }

-- 1.3.6.1.2.1.6786.4.2

vmwEmbeddedESX OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { vmwProductSpecific 2 }

-- 1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3

vmwVC OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { vmwProductSpecific 3 }

milson · ‎01-16-2008

bflynn0 - how are you handling hardware health with 3i installable - does ESX now contain/send traps for Dell on its own (based on your power supply tests, it appears yes?)

I thought something like CIM/agentless would need to be used in cases like this with 3i.

Thanks

bflynn0 · ‎01-16-2008

3i actually includes CIM, so it can monitor the hardware since there's no COS to install agents into. It's enabled by default so when you connect to the 3i server via VC or directly in VIC under the Configuration tab you can see the hardware health (see the attached JPG). Configuring and enabling SNMP via the vicfg-snmp remote command (e.g. vicfg-snmp --server <host> --username root -c <CommunityString> -E -t <TrapDestination>/<String>) will allow 3i to automatically start sending SNMP traps for changes in hardware health status - there's nothing more to configure on the ESX side.

RichZ · ‎04-28-2008

I have a HP DL380 G5 and it shows Processors, Memory, Temperature and Power but no Disk or Fans. Any idea why that would be? Also the system does not seem to generate a trap messsgae when I pull the plug on on one of the power supplies. I even tried Update 1 but it did not make any difference.

sammyc53 · ‎06-11-2008

When trying to set the string as per these instructions, I get: "Failed : fault.RestrictedVersion.summary"

I have a Dell / ESXi. Using the RCLI Virt. Appl.

I tried a bunch of different strings. Same result.

Any word on why this is? Is there another way to enable SNMP?

mbenedicto · ‎01-27-2009

ESXi dont have SNMP, just for ESX.

Att

Marcos de Benedicto

Internet Group do Brasil

jgonzaleshou · ‎02-03-2009

That is incorrect Marcos.

ESXi does support SNMP but it is disabled by default.

See page 9 of the following document link for more information:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vmware_esxi_management_wp.pdf

RudyPerez · ‎02-10-2009

hi,

I'm new in the VMworld of SNMP, and i'm trying to installed or enabled... this is the error that i have while sending the test trap.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VI Remote CLI\bin>perl vicfg-snmp.pl --server 140.1.27.6 --username root --password ******* -T

Sending test nofication(trap) to all configured targets...

Failed : A general system error occurred: Operation not permitted

can someone help me?

All

SNMP in ESX 3.5 / VC 2.5