ESX Agents Resource Pool

[barnette08]

Does anyone know where this resource pool comes from?  I was able to add a PvDC today and noticed this resource pool pop up prior to creation.  I attempt to delete it and it just keeps coming back.  The user performing the action is com.vmware.vim.eam, but nothing shows as happening in the solutions manager.

Any thoughts?

[IamTHEvilONE]

com.vmware.vim.eam = VMware VIM (Virtual Infrastructure Management) EAM (Enterprise Agent Manager)

EAM is a vCenter feature for managing agents installed or activated on the host.  VXLAN from vCNS was an agent based installation (prepare), just like vCloud Director usually needs an agent installed (for vCNI purposes).

[barnette08]

but where did this random resource pool come from? I've never seen it before in any environment...

[IamTHEvilONE]

The pool has existed for some time, but I thought it was suppose to be hidden (afaik).  Might be something to ask support about, as I have never seen the Agents pool exposed in the GUI.

[IamTHEvilONE]

Do you mind posting a screen capture of what it looks like?

[barnette08]

Attached

[IamTHEvilONE]

was Endpoint/DataSecurity enabled on this cluster from vCNS?

[barnette08]

Nope, when I view the cluster in vCNS none of the hosts have App, Endpoint, or Data Security enabled.  The only thing I can think is that GSS recently did some db clean up on the manager for this cluster because it had some stale domain ID entries.  I have a capture of the queries and what not from that session but I'm not sure if it's ok to share it since the backend db stuff is supposed to be GSS only?

[elerium]

I'm seeing this "ESX Agents" resource pool too, deleting it causes it to be recreated instantly in vcenter. Didn't appear until i enabled HA on my VSAN cluster.

[Filin_K]

Hi!

Looks like you play with VSAN futures.

If you enable heath service for vsan (vsan cluster can be turned off) this pool will be automatically created, if DRS is turned on.

So, turn off VSAN heath service in the cluster configuration (esxi's will be rebooted to delete EAM agents).

Reboot VC and delete this pool.

Kirill

[Filin_K]

1.1.3 ESX Agents Resource Pool

When the health check has been deployed, customer will see a new resource pool created called ESX Agents. The Virtual SAN health uses a vSphere component called

EAM, ESX Agent Manager. This component requires this resource pool. While this resource pool is harmless to the cluster, customers should note workloads should

not be placed in this resource pool.

Proof: https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware-Virtual-SAN-Health-Check-Guide-6.1.pdf page 13

Kirill

[Mparayil]

This Resource pool is created automatically the moment you install the NSX VIBS "host preparation on NSX installation TAB" on a DRS enabled cluster.VC EAM provisions the agent VMs in resource pool names "ESX Agents"  such as Guest introspection & Network introspection Virtual machine {USVM,SVM). we should not place any workloads on this pool because this pool gets deleted when all the Agent is deleted from the EAM-Agency. There is nothing to be concerned about the behavior.

After Reading this you will have a question What is this EAM   

What is EAM

Deploy extra ESX functionality through

• Agent VM – a special VM type
• VIB – bundle of metadata and binary installable on ESX

Monitor their state

Remediate hosts bringing them to the desired state

vCenter Integration - DRS, HA, DPM, addition of host to cluster, host maintenance mode

• Agent VMs are started first
• Agent VMs are not moved around hosts
• Part of host readiness algorithm
• Regular VMs are not moved to nor powered-on on a non-ready host
• Agent VMs are not considered in power saving algorithms
• Agent VMs are powered on/off on host exit/enter maintenance mode
• An agent is deployed on newly added host to cluster