5 Replies Latest reply on May 19, 2015 10:18 AM by egonzales

    Exclude a VM from discovery

    mg1978 Enthusiast
    mg1978 May 8, 2014 4:23 AM

      Hi All,

       

      can I exclude a VM from the discovery?

      If yes. How?

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        • 1. Re: Exclude a VM from discovery
          Bayu Wibowo Master
          Community WarriorsUser Moderators
          Bayu Wibowo May 8, 2014 4:49 AM (in response to mg1978)

          Create a new user for VIN, for VMs that you would like to exclude and change/override the permission on the VM (or on the folder if you have moved the VMs into a folder) to 'No Access' - so if you are logging in using the new user, the excluded VMs does not appear in the inventory.

          A bit similar with this KB: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1036195

           

          Before turning on the VIN Discovery, make sure you are using the new user for VIN Discovery.

           

          I haven't try this but I think this should work.

          I will try to test it when I have a chance.

          Bayu Wibowo | vExpert NSX, VCIX6-DCV/NV, Cisco Champion, AWS-SAA
          Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
          https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw
          • 2. Re: Exclude a VM from discovery
            qualityTesting Hot Shot
            qualityTesting May 8, 2014 4:54 AM (in response to mg1978)

            There is no way to "exclude" a vm from the discovery .

            You can stop the vmware tools service on the vm - this will cause the discovery to be triggered but to fail immediately with the description "access failed - vm tools is not running".

             

            Thanks,

            Galit

            • 3. Re: Exclude a VM from discovery
              Bayu Wibowo Master
              Community WarriorsUser Moderators
              Bayu Wibowo May 8, 2014 4:57 AM (in response to qualityTesting)

              Thanks for the information Galit

              Bayu Wibowo | vExpert NSX, VCIX6-DCV/NV, Cisco Champion, AWS-SAA
              Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
              https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw
              • 4. Re: Exclude a VM from discovery
                WilliamN201110141 Lurker
                WilliamN201110141 Apr 8, 2015 6:16 AM (in response to mg1978)

                I know this was almost a year ago, but I am having this same problem with vRealize Operations manager and Virtual Infrastructure Manager.

                 

                I think the way to exclude VMs by way of permissions is completely backwards. There should be some sort of area in the administration of the system where you can just remove what you do not want to report on. Not to mention that if you do accidentally get just ONE VM that you didn't mean to get in the fold, you have to completely reinstall vROPs!!! What kind of software works like that?!

                 

                As far as doing it the two ways mentioned, I don't think they are even valid workarounds. VIN won't let you use a user that is not an administrator on vCenter, so that first option is out. Secondly, disabling VMWare tools would work, but why would I want to cripple myself that much? VMWare tools are used for more things than just VIN.

                 

                Any one else have any suggestions to fix this???

                • 5. Re: Exclude a VM from discovery
                  Hot Shot
                  egonzales May 19, 2015 10:18 AM (in response to WilliamN201110141)

                  It's true one will need to configure VIN to use an administrator account.

                  However in vSphere it is possible to explicitly give that user "No Access" to invididual VMs you wish to exclude from discovery.

                  Go to the individual VM, Manage > Permissions, select the account used by VIN > Edit and set the role to "No access"

                  It should create a second permission object which will take precedence over the inherited administrator permissions.

                  VIN scanning will fail and results from previous scans will eventually age out.

                   

                  Just make sure to create another administrator specifically for vIN.  You wouldn't want one of your other administrators to lose the ability to edit and interact with these VMs.