Integration with enterprise event management.

[aenagy]

I have read the "Alert Notification" chapter in the "Installation and Administration Guide" documentation for "VMware vCenter Operations Enterprise 1.0.1". It seems that that vCO Enterprise is lacking much in the way of enterprise event management integration options, i.e. outbound alerting. I don't really consider SNMP and/or SMTP to be reliable enough (and they are so 1980s) and we don't have the EMC product. We currently use IBM TEC (Tivoli Enterprise Console), soon to be upgraded to IBM OmniBus, for our EEM. The Wintel/vSphere group uses Microsoft SCOM for Windows monitoring which is integrated with TEC using capabilities from Microsoft. Integration with either of these two would be great for outbound alerting. Lack of EEM capabilities would prevent us from seriously considering vCO. Which is a shame because it seems like a good fit otherwise.

When will VMware add more/better EEM integration?

Thanks.

[admin]

I'm not sure exactly what you are expecting, but the outbound event management has other options that can be utilized, but may require some customization or additional work.   One of the most commonly used forms is the file based outbound adapter.  This adapter writes a file, in a specified folder, for every alert generated/updated/canceled by vcops.  This file contains all of the fields of the alert.  You can then use perl, python, or whatever to extract the specific information you want about the alert and publish it to your event management system.

If this is still not solid enough for you, the outbound system is built as a java plugin.  With some professional services we can pretty much hook this in to any system you might have (including TEC) via their API.  The reason TEC is not a standard outbound option is that TEC is normally highly customized.  So, having a TEC plugin that worked on a default install, generally will not work.

[aenagy]

DWilson:

Thanks for your reply.

To answer your question about expectations I would say that perhaps I/we might have been spoiled by the current SCOM <--> TEC event integration we are using from Microsoft (acquired in the Engyro purchase and incorporated into SCOM 2007 R2). The setup process is a matter of installing components on both sides (SCOM and TEC) and using a GUI to do the configuration. I could write some sort of custom scripted solution, but the problem is that I would be the only one able to support it as the rest of the Wintel team lack the necessary scripting expertise. The preference is to use off the shelf solutions as our CIO has mandated that we concentrate on helping the business bring new capabilities to market, not fiddle with the infrastructure. We simply don't have the resources to build and maintain our own solution. The expectation with off the shelf solutions is that we get the support we need for deploying and sustaining.

[admin]

Hi aenagy,

I understand your point around SNMP/UDP. What I would typically recommend for enterprise integration is to install a management agent from your existing monitoring solution on the vCenter Operations Server and have that agent monitor the Alert File mentioned by DWilson. As DWilson mentioned, this file contains the information needed to forward actionable alert information to the existing MOM or "single plane of glass". The existing agent technology that is currently reporting up to the MOM, be it SCOM, Tivoli or HP OVO, has the ability to monitor log entries and it's this facility that would be used to monitor the vCOps Alert File. These agents typically communicate with the MOM or central console via TCP, so they would provide the reliable messaging that is not provide by UDP based SNMP. This integration of basically leveraging the existing infrastructure is relatively simple and is consistent with one of the key value propositions of the product.

Most customers have in place integration of between there chosen MOM (Manager of Managers) and their Service Management or Help Desk system for auto-ticket creation. Using the existing agent infrastructure to integrate vCOps with the central console always us to maintain a single/central rule base for auto-ticket creation. Also as you mention, configuring the existing toolset is typically straight forward, so this integration would not require custom scripting - log file monitoring is a common functionality for monitoring tools.

Vic