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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

Question Regarding SNMP configuration on ESX 3.5i host server

I recently set up a new ESX 3.5i host and ran into a stumbling block configuring SNMP.

Like most other IT shops we utilize SNMP to monitor performance and send alerts regarding different aspects of how our servers are performing. I want to be able to monitor this server as I do my ESX 3.0.2 host server.

The problem:

When I attempt to configure the communities and such via the remote command line interface the following error is returned:

failed.faultRestrictedVersion.summary

The command(s) I am running:

vicfg-snmp.pl --server server ip goes here --username root --password insert password here -c insert community name here

The command attempts to run as I see a brief message that says "Configuring community name." But then it faults out with the failed.faultRestrictedVersion.summary error.

Specfics:

This error is returned when I attempt to reset or modify the SNMP configuration. If I do a show command it runs with no problem.

I'm hoping the answer isn't you have to use Virtual Center to monitor and alter something like SNMP. Can anyone help? Thanks!

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24 Replies
Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

Just to add quickly I realize that the SNMP on ESX3i does not support gets. However I'm just looking to monitor not generate alerts via the ESX3i server. We use a software package to monitor the SNMP on the servers and generate alerts based on what we see.

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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

poke poke I'm hoping some of the vm engineers pass thru here and see this one. Bring on the brain power!

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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

Has anyone actually configured SNMP via the command line interface? Let's start there then!

If you have configured this via the RCLI please shed some light on this if you can. If you work for VMware I would seriously value your opinion!

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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

If anyone can think of a better place to post this let me know. Is anyone else having this issue?

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

What kind of hardware are you using? I believe there are custom esx i versions that will include a hardware vendor snmp agent that will make this much easier to configure.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

The hardware is a Dell 2950. What's bugging me is I cannot set the community name to what I want to set it to and start the SNMP service. If I look at the configuration via the infrastructure client I can see all the devices are being read by the server (All the disks, fans, motherboard sensors etc.). What I don't understand is why I cannot configure and start the SNMP agent via the RCLI. The configuration method outlined in the RCLI documentation simply isn't working. Thanks for the reply and any help you can offer!

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Any special characters in your strings?

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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jparnell
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Sorry, I cant offer much help to fix your problem, but I just wanted to let you know that I ran that same command on a DL585G2 embedded ESXi server and it worked fine. I was then able to run the RCLI command and I also got the server to send a test SNMP trap. So the syntax of your command is correct, but I have no idea why its not working for you.

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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry for the dealy in my response. I am traveling and actually attending a VMware course this week.

I do have a special character in the string I am trying to use.

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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

"Sorry, I cant offer much help to fix your problem, but I just wanted to let you know that I ran that same command on a DL5'85G2 embedded ESXi server and it worked fine. I was then able to run the RCLI command and I also got the server to send a test SNMP trap. So the syntax of your command is correct, but I have no idea why its not working for you."

I really appreciate you testing that and letting me know it worked. Were you by chance using the latest 3.5i release and the latest rcli tools? Thanks!

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Did you make sure to properly escape your special character or enclose your string within quotes?

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

My community string does have special characters in it. I did escape the special characters in my password but didn't do it for my community string. However when I simply tried to enable the agent I still get this error. Is it possible that you cannot enable the agent until you have a community string in it? I will try this again when I return to my datacenter. Thanks for the advice!

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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the suggestions guys but I'm still getting:

fault.RestrictedVersion.summary

even when I use the / before each special character in the community string and my password. The account I am using has administrative privelages on the ESX server. I'm really at a loss here. Anyone else have any ideas?

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

That is the wrong "slash" to escape special characters, put your string inside quotes instead.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

I just tried it and I'm still getting the same error. I'm running the RCLI on my Windows workstation. I downloaded and installed the file on the VMware website for the Windows binary. Is there anything else I need to do? I do have the root account on the ESX server disabled but I'm using an account that has full adminsitrative privelages.

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

I'm all out of ideas here. Others have used special characters as you have with the RCLI, which are using. At this point, if you have not already done so, open an SR, and if you have one open, I would try to push a little. I can't imagine you would be the only one having the issue at this point.

just my 2 cents.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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sammyc53
Contributor
Contributor

I'm having the same issue on my new 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?

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Elwappo
Contributor
Contributor

Just an update on this. I still cannot get this to work. I must be missing something really easy like a checkbox that says make this work. Anyway I'll keep plugging away at it.

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sammyc53
Contributor
Contributor

I still can't get it to work either... I have a support ticket open, and they are stumped. Yikes.

This sucks, I won't take this server live until I have some SNMP monitoring. That 'S' stands for 'Simple', right? thought so.....

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