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D1059
Contributor
Contributor

Monitoring ESXi 4 servers with Dell IT Assistant

Hi

I'm new to VMWare and ESXi. We have some new Dell R710's delivered with ESXi 4 pre-installed on SD card so I assume they have Dell OpenManage agents installed as well. We are using the free licensed version of ESXi. We have enabled access via SSH.

Can anyone give us definitive instructions on how to monitor free ESXi 4 servers using Dell IT Assistant. At the moment they are appearing as unknown status.

After much searching I have found various articles on enabling SNMP, but none seem to have a full explanation on how to get IT Assistant to recognise free ESXi servers. I also found reference to a Dell Manual - Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Installation Guide for VMware ESXi but this appears to be unavailable via the Dell website (page not found).

Thanks

STEVE

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

afaik, the free version of ESXi does not support SNMP, you need be licensed with one of the following editions: http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html (non-free)

Here is two VMware KBs describing the features/differences between ESX and ESXi

ESX 3.5 vs ESXi 3.5 - http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006543

ESX 4.0 vs ESXi 4.0 - http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015000

I believe this is true for the embedded versions for either HP/Dell, having said that, if you want to monitor the basic hardware health / services on your system, you can take a look at this free script that works on both licensed and free version of ESX(i) 3.5 or 4.0: . The report can also be scheduled and emailed on daily basis.

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

Twitter: @lamw

VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators

VMware Developer Comuunity

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D1059
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks - this is what I'm finding confusing. There are documents that say that free ESXi doesn't support SNMP, but some people say that it can be made to work (after all SSH isn't supported by free ESXi, but its easy enough to get it working) while I've found other references that indicate that IT Assistant can access the OM agents on free ESXi without SNMP - hence this thread.

Cheers

STEVE

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

The console you speak of is unsupported, by enabling it you could potentially void any type of support you have with either vendor. This unsupported console is also known as Tech Support mode and is generally use for troubleshooting issues with VMware support Though it has some of the same tools that classic ESX Service Console has, it's not the Service Console and users should generally stay out of there and not make any modifications.

Having said all this, nothing is stopping anyone from using it and you might be able to mess around with snmp conf .. if one exists to get monitoring working but again you'll have to see what's there, its a very limited console in terms of functionality and know that without proper backup hack, any changes will not persist through a reboot.

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

Twitter: @lamw

VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators

VMware Developer Comuunity

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

It looks like the OpenManage components may not be a standard part of an install.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19278780/19543208.aspx

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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D1059
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks - why Dell can't include OMSA agents as part of the customised build I don't know, as that makes no sense.

Anyway I downloaded the agents and installed them with the RCLI - enabled the CIM providers as described and....................the server still shows as unknown and Dell IT Assistant can't connect via CIM.

Any ideas please ?

STEVE

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Try with OpenManage.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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D1059
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks

Some progress - After downloading and installing the latest version of IT Assistant (now rebadged as OpenManage Management Station with a different version number - thanks Dell for making this as difficult as possible), it now recognises my servers as VMWare ESX boxes............but still show the status as unknown..

So, so far we have

1) A Dell customised, pre-installed version of free ESXi 4 that doesn't include management agents - now downloaded and installed

2) A version of IT Assistant that doesn't recognise VMware - now upgraded so the correct MIB's are included

but still can't get status or inventory.

Has anyone got this environment working please ?

STEVE

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

ESXi uses CIM modules to communicate hardware status. CIM is similar to SMTP. ESXi free does not support SNMP so you will need to look for CIM configuration. I don't know whether IT Assistant is the same as full OpenMange but OM does support CIM (WBEM sometimes).

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

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karavinds1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello,

This appears to be an issue with the SNMP setting. Go to troubleshooting menu and run the test to see if this works fine. Also it is not a bad idea to configure these server to use IPMI. The advantage of using IPMI is that Dell ships all servers with a embedded chip called BMU that is used to trigger alerts when it is configured to use IPMI.

But above all you will first need to get the issue fixed with SNMP. May be you can check the firewall settings (esxcfg-firewall) to ensure the ports are open. Also refer the document attached for further reference.

Regards,

Aravind K

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Regards, Aravind K If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful
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karavinds1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It is not a bad idea even to edit the snmp file. You can mey be this a try

1. Edit /etc/vmware/snmp.xml

<config><snmpSettings><enable>true</enable><communities>public</communities><targets>targethost@port

community</targets></snmpSettings></config>

2. /sbin/services.sh restart

3. Verify & test your settings with vicfg-snmp

Remember to run the troubleshooting diagnostics from the IT Assistant once you finish this.

Regards,

Aravind K

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Regards, Aravind K If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful
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maboe
Contributor
Contributor

hi,

did you solve this problem?

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J1mbo
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Failing all of that a health monitoring Perl script could be devised using the vmware CLI, scheduled to run periodically and email if there are health issues.

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