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MattG
Expert
Expert

Can Hyperic Windows agent be installed on VM Template for deployment?

Instead of manually installing the Hyperic Agent,  I am wondering if it is an acceptable practice to install the Hyperic Agent on the Windows template?   Any issues with the Hyperic Agent and sysprepped VMs?

Thanks,

-MattG

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MattG
Expert
Expert

I've tried it and it doesn't seem to work.

It would be nice if there was integration between Hyperic and the vSphere Client so that the Hyperic Agent could be installed by right clicking on VM in vSphere Client.

-MattG

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Regarding installing in a template, you could as long as the agent has not yet run for the first time or if it has run, make sure to shut down the agent and delete its "data" directory before finalizing your image.  You can also prepopulate the agent.properties file so that when it does start the first time, it will not need user interaction.

Regarding deploying using vSphere, there is a way to do that using the vSphere Web Client.  You would need to install vSphere Infrastructure Navigator.  vIN 5.7 and above allows one to deploy Hyperic Agents to VMs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Linux and Windows.  Make sure the OS to which you're deploying is supported.  vIN 5.8 and above supports multiple Hyperic Profiles that can be used to register agents to different Hyperic servers if you have more than one in your environment.

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MattG
Expert
Expert

I started up the template VM, shutdown the Hyperic agent,  and deleted the data directory.  I didn't modify the agent.properties file as it has the correct Hyper server info in it.  I searched to make sure that the template VM name wasn't in it (to ensure that there is no VM specific info in it).   I converted the template to a VM and deployed a VM from the template.   The Hyperic agent is set to start automatically but doesn't.  I can start it without issue.  However when I start it,  Hyperic does not auto discover the new VM?

Also,  I looked through the vSphere Web Client and do not see any references to installing the Hyperic Agent on a VM?  Its not in the VM associated actions or VIN (which is working and sending data to vROPs).

Thanks,

-MattG

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Re-Install an agent, don't start it, and take a template.

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MattG
Expert
Expert

How do you install the agent without starting it? I am assuming from CLI?

-MattG

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Boris_Erblat <

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

yes:

\bin\hq-agent.bat install

and then:

\bin\hq-agent.bat start

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Can you explain what kind of scenario do you want to do ?

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MattG
Expert
Expert

Deploying vCloud Ent Suite. Want all vRA deployed blueprints to be

automatically monitored by Hyperic. Would ultimately like to associate

vSphere tags when blueprint is deployed and have vROPs automatically group

VMs based on vSphere tags.

So it would useful to have Hyperic agent fully configured on VM template

used by blueprint, so that when the VM is deployed and the service started

for the first time, it is being monitored. On that note, can Hyperic

server be configured to auto accept newly discovered agents?

Thanks,

-MattG

On Jan 4, 2015, at 3:58 AM, Boris_Erblat <communities-emailer@vmware.com>

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Matt,

Try the following thread:

Auto approve a resource using auto-approve.properties configuration file

Good luck,

Tal

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MattG
Expert
Expert

I am confused. I only see the bin directory on my VM after I install the

agent. How can I configure the agent if it is already installed?

-MattG

On Thu, Jan 1, 2015 at 7:26 AM, yaronbor <communities-emailer@vmware.com>

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ecarmel
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Matt,

Sorry about the confusion.

Don't install the agent using the exe, just extract the zip file into a directory and they run the batch to create the service. You should then create an agent properties file with the relevant information so when the VM is created the agent will have all the information it needs.

Eran

Product Line Manager | vCloud Operations | VMware
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MattG
Expert
Expert

I tried this and copied an existing agent.properties file to the VM.   Hyperic agent complains about encryption errors.  I am assuming that Hyperic server login info in the agent.properties files is encrypted and causing this issue?  If so,  how do I resolve this?

Thanks,

-MattG

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

It could be the password used for registering the agent is encrypted in agent.properties.  This occurs when a clear text password is in the agent.properties file.  The agent upon detecting a clear text password will encrypt it.

Look for this value in the agent.properties file.

agent.setup.camPword=

You can either assign a text password to this value or start one of the agents once successfully connecting to your HQ Server, it will then encrypt the password which you can then set in the ../conf/agent.properties file.

It might look something like this:

agent.setup.camPword=ENC(YzI18ayle1BeRMUllXSCDQ==)

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Sha_man
Contributor
Contributor

Hi All,

I ran in to this same problem with needing to have the agent installed upon deployment of the windows template. I was able to accomplish using the below method.

1. Copy the hperic-hqee-agent-xxx folder to a directory on the c drive

2. Go to the hyperic-hqee-agent-xxx\conf\agent.properties and open with notepad

3. Uncomment and fill in the following properties

     agent.setup.camIP=EnterHypericHostIPAddress

     agent.setup.camSSLPort=7443

     agent.setup.camSecure=yes

     agent.setup.camLogin=camUsername

     agent.setup.camPword=YourcamPW   ---This will be in plain text but once the vm deploys and registers in hyperic correctly, the PW                                                                           will encrypt

     agent.setup.agentIP=*default*         ---Leave this as default so it picks up the vm ip once the server is deployed

     agent.setup.agentPort=*default*

     agent.setup.resetupTokens=no

     agent.setup.acceptUnverifiedCertificate=yes

     agent.setup.unidirectional=no

4. Create a .bat file on the template with the below

     set vara=install

     set varb=start

     call C:\Hyperic_Agent\hyperic-hqee-agent-5.8.4\bin\hq-agent.bat %vara%

     call C:\Hyperic_Agent\hyperic-hqee-agent-5.8.4\bin\hq-agent.bat %varb%

5. Convert VM to template

6. After vm is deployed from template and has run through customizations, run the .bat file wither through scripting or customization      method

7. If the installed and started correctly, there will be a agent.su file under hyperic-hqee-agent-xxx\conf and the campw in hyperic-     hqee-agent-xxx\conf\agent.properties will be encrypted

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JimKnopf99
Commander
Commander

We did it similar. But we added the thumbprint section in the agent.properties as well.

agent.setup.serverCertificateThumbprint= THUMBPRINT from your vRealize Server

You will find the thumbprint under your admin login on the right hand side on top where the certificate information in stored.

Left of "Admin".

Frank

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