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ccullingford
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Agents running in VIMA

What agents have people running in VIMA?

I have been pushing back on loading agents into the console. These include CA UniCenter and CA DSM agents.

I am also interested in how people are really using VIMA.

Thanks,

Chris

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harvey1
Contributor
Contributor

Agents designed to run in the ESX COS will very likely need to be modified by their authors before they can be run in VIMA.

Agents that can run from an Linux machine should be able to run in VIMA.

Of course, agents specifically designed to run in VIMA should also run in VIMA.

--Harvey Alcabes

VIMA Product Manger

VMware, Inc.

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tlyczko
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

What about HP SMH Systems Management Homepage and APC PCNS PowerChute Network Shutdown??

Thank you, Tom

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JNoone
Contributor
Contributor

Good Afternoon,

PowerChute Network Shutdown for VMware ESXi is currently under development and will be available in 2009.

This is a fully compatible version with VIMA and ESXi.

John Noone

Product Manager

American Power Conversion

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Project951
Contributor
Contributor

Hi John,

Any idea if this has been released yet. I've just contacted APC techincial support and they said the following product works with VIMA on ESXi.

But if I look here, ESXi is not listed.

I'd like to be sure this is going to work before I shell out $99 for it.....

Thanks John for any information you can provide!

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tlyczko
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The APC backup solution for PCNS with ESX IS a paid product if you buy 2.2.3.

There is a good document on the communities site about how to get apcupsd (or PCNS 2.2.1, I can't remember which) working well within VIMA...but check these links

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1117002

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9531 -- by lamw, excellent script writer for VMware

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9308 -- more explanation of the above

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1192117 -- more info and links

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1169737 -- an update

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

You can also take a look at the VIOPS page for further details of the implementation and all relevant links: http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1341

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

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JNoone
Contributor
Contributor

Good Morning,

We will be releasing the PCNS version which supports ESXi by the end of March.

I will update this forum when it is available.

regards

John

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tlyczko
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

And how do we get it, please??

I bought PCNS 2.2.3 a couple months ago, how do I get an upgrade??

Thank you, Tom

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Project951
Contributor
Contributor

Hi John!

Any update on when this will be available? Thanks for any info you can provide!

Have a Happy Easter!

-Matt

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JNoone
Contributor
Contributor

HI Matt,

you can download this version from our website.

http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=127 or through our Two -Tier distribution channels.]

regards

John

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

Is this the agent that is supported on running on VMware VIMA or just for support ESX/ESXi?

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

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tlyczko
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

APC's PCNS 2.2.3 software is a paid version -- it used to be free and

PCNS 2.2.1 can still be had for the asking...ask around, and I think I

have seen people say it works on 3.5.

lamw's version is not a paid version -- it is free -- and it uses

apcupsd, a good software -- though it probably will not work on ESXi U4,

but it will work on any regular ESX and ESXi U3 -- please correct me if

I'm wrong.

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

I can't answer the APC question, but I can answer about my own script.

Yes you're correct, due to the fix in U4, the VI API is read-only for free version of ESXi, hence the operations such as issuing shutdown of the VM(s) and host(s) will no longer function in ESXi 3.5u4, it will only work in U2,U3. To get the full r/w access, you'll need at least the Foundation license and if you want to do a cost comparison, I would see how much APC's solution is compare that with what you get with Foundation which is much much more than just r/w access to the API, you'll get vCenter as well.

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

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Project951
Contributor
Contributor

Hi John,

When I pull up that page it lists about 15 different part numbers.... Which part number do I want? Does this version install in the VIMA console?

Thanks again for all your help John!

-Matt

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Project951
Contributor
Contributor

Hi William,

I'm working on getting your scripts configured to work with my APC 3000XL UPS and I'm a little confused with the following section of your instructions:

Now we are going to tweak the apccontrol file to change what is done when the UPS issues a shutdown command.

+

nano /etc/apcupsd/apccontrol

+

edit the doshutdown section like so, change the IP address to the ESXi host:

doshutdown)

echo "UPS $ initiated Shutdown Sequence" | $+ /home/vi-admin/upsVIShutdown.pl +$ -h now "apcupsd UPS $ initiated shutdown"

It says to change the IP address to the ESXi host, but I don't see an IP address anywhere in the doshutdown section.....

Thanks for any help you can offer!

-Matt

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

Are you following the latest instructions at http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1341 by Joseph Holland?

It lays out both the APCUPSD configurations including my script and specifically you'll want to edit the upsVIShutdown.pl which will have an array that will contain the list of ESX(i) host(s) and the order in which you want the host(s) to shutdown.

e.g.

my @hosts = ("esxi.host1","esxi.host2”);

If you have further questions, you can leave a comment on the VIOPS document and Joseph can help in terms of the APCUPSD configurations and I can answer any questions regarding my script.

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

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Project951
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the response William. I only have one ESXi host named vmwmgmt.mydomain.local and have the following entry in the uspVIShutdown.pl script:

my @hosts = ("vmwmgmt.mydomain.local");

My question was specifically about the last step before testing. Where it states:

"Edit the doshutdown section like so, change the IP address to the ESXi host:"

Let's say the IP of my ESXi host is 192.168.10.5. Where in the doshutdown statement below do I specify this IP address?

doshutdown)

echo "UPS $ initiated Shutdown Sequence" | $ /home/vi-admin/upsVIShutdown.pl $ -h now "apcupsd UPS $ initiated shutdown"

;;

Thanks for all your help!

-Matt

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

I think Joseph might have made a typo and that line is kind of confusing. I will assume you know how to configure the APCUPSD/etc. and you're just working on configuring the shutdown scripts residing on VMware VIMA.

If you take a look at the original document that I wrote when the script was released: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9531

You're basically configuring the VM that is initiating the shutdown and in my example, I'm using VMware VIMA and you're configuring the order of which the hosts are shutting down.

So instead of providing an IP Address of a specific host, you'll just point the APCUPSD script to my script:

doshutdown)
	echo "UPS ${2} initiated Shutdown Sequence" | ${WALL}
	/home/vi-admin/upsVIShutdown.pl 
	${SHUTDOWN} -h now "apcupsd UPS ${2} initiated shutdown"
;;

So when the UPS is low on power and starts the shutdown process, it'll execute the upsVIShutdown.pl script which will then initiate the shutdown of all guest VM(s) and then the host. If you're just working with 1 host and the VM that is kicking off the shutdown resides on the same box, everything will be shutdown properly except for that VM.

Hopefully this clears everything up.

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

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Project951
Contributor
Contributor

Hi John,

I contacted APC Tech Support to attempt to obtain this release, here is the response I received back from them:

Thank you for contacting APC's email support on 04/25/2009 12:48 PM. I would be happy to assist you.

The press release you located was in Zimbabwe. I am assuming based on the information you provided that you are located in the united States. Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have VMWare for ESXi in the United States. The software is ready to be released in the United States shortly, but it has not been released yet. We are expecting to have it SKUd up for sale shortly in the United States. As soon as we do offer support for ESXi, it will be listed on our website. Currently, the latest version supported is via PCNS version 2.2.3 is VMWare ESX 3.5 service pack 3.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by responding to this incident. It would be my pleasure to ensure that your issue is quickly resolved!

Any ideas?

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