How to monitor application in VMware HA

[ZahidHaseeb1978]

We have configured VMware HA in lab with two ESXi machine and a Vcenter. We also attached a a SAN with both ESXi machines and created a datastore and connect it with both ESXi machines. A VM is created on SAN. We checked failover of VM thru rebooting ESXi host and the failover is successful. Now we want to install a KONG software on this VM. KONG comprise on application and a database. We now want to monitor both application and database so in case anything crashes, we want to trigger a failover to other ESXi host. Please advise and also share any quick document

[D_G_Tal]

hi zahid, 

I cant understand your request clearly , but as I know you want have HA on VM with KONG app, so if you have HA on ESXi you dont need anything else and VM failover on other hosts.

what you need Exactly ??

[ZahidHaseeb1978]

Let me describe again. Suppose we have a VMware HA and top of it a VM is hosted and working fine. In case Active base machine (where a VM is hosted) collapse. The VM will failover to standby VMware base machine.

Now the query:   in case we have an application installed (suppose we have KONG api gateway is the application) on top of VM and we want to monitor that application and in case of application failed then the application reboot to x amount of time OR VM should reboot and started on standby VMware base machine  

[D_G_Tal]

hello , 

for monitoring APP you cant used Vmware tools , you must used another application monitoring like Solarwinds and .... and make trigger action for that. 

you also can make sample monitoring with scripting , for example make batch job file to telnet your application port if it does not answer you restart app or VM from your monitoring station

[ZahidHaseeb1978]

Means there is no way to monitor application under VM which(VM) is hosted on VMware HA ?

[IRIX201110141]

• Failure of an ESXi host / Storage Connectivity
  If an ESXi host fails, VMs running on that host are automatically restarted on other ESXi hosts.
• Guest operating system failure
  If the VM Monitoring option is enabled and the VM stops sending heartbeats, the guest OS is reset. The VM remains on the same ESXi host.
• Application failure and monitoring agent
  The agent on an ESXi host can monitor the heartbeats of applications running inside a VM. If an application fails, the VM is restarted but remains on the same host. This type of monitoring requires a third-party application monitoring agent and VMware tools.

I cant remember when this was announced but i think it was to 6.5/6.7? I have never seen a product there (i have Symantec in mind). So again.. the 1 and 2 are part of the normal vSphere HA but only 1 is what everyone have enabled and in use.

[ZahidHaseeb1978]

I have no issue with point 1 & 2 and yes I am interested in point-3.... So what I understand that VMware does not have any built-in solution which can check application level monitoring and restart VM in case does not find application heartbeat ?

[IRIX201110141]

Correct.

My understanding was that VMware only offer a API and leverage to the already existing HA but other Vendors  are needed to get it working.

Similar to the KMS where for a long time you only can connect to an external 3rd. Party one and now with 7.0.3 VMware provides an internal one.

Regards,
Joerg

[ZahidHaseeb1978]

Spoiler

If VMware HA does not help in Application Monitor so that VMware HA can take decision of app restart then what is the mean of below snap 

[depping]

You can find all the details here:

https://vdc-download.vmware.com/vmwb-repository/dcr-public/85c3d4fa-0d0d-4c88-97b1-dc1391c39427/9197...

[ZahidHaseeb1978]

Seems I am near to my query.

You have shared SDK guide in above link so that we can built application monitoring support for a custom application. This will help to monitor application thru VMware HA and restart it in case of application failure. Does VMware have any pre built-in application monitoring support for famous applications like (IIS/apache or MS SQL/Oracle/PostgreSQL) ? OR VMware does not have any pre built-in support for any application monitoring and have to use SDK guide for application monitoring support. Correct ?   

[depping]

VMware doesn't have anything prebuild, we have the SDK and that's it. We used to have a product which did something similar, but that was abandoned probably 4-5 years ago. So if you need this functionality you will need to build it yourself.