Monitoring ESX 4.1 Servers

[daveclaussen]

I have been through the whole interwebs and cannot get a difinitive answer to the following question: How do I enable SNMP on an ESX 4.1 server?

We are in the process of purchasing Solarwinds Orion. This monitoring system uses SNMP to monitor pretty much everything. I have numerous ESX 4.1 servers that I will want to add to Orion eventually. On the net, I have seen many commands to enable SNMP that don't work, all the way to ESX 4.1 no longer supports SNMP.

If there is help to be had, I know that it will come from the VMware Communities. Is anyone using Orion that can help me configure the right settings on the ESX side? Or, can some tell me how to enable SNMP on an ESX 4.1 server?

PS - the only thing I can find on the Solarwinds site that tells how to enable SNMP is on an ESX4.0 server and that did not work for me on ESX 4.1.

Thanks all!

[golddiggie]

IF you also have a vCenter Server, you would use the Administration/vCenter Server Settings/Advanced Settings items to make the settings changes you want/need for the product... There's also a "SNMP" listing under the vCenter Server Settings where you can configure (and enable) receivers... That's probably where you'll want to go first... I'd suggest confirming with solarwinds that their product will work (fully/properly) with a vCenter Server (provided you actually have one to manage your hosts)...

VMware VCP4

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[jcwuerfl]

A couple things first

1) Enable SNMP so it can get through the ESX Firewall. This is under the Configuration Tab, andSecurity Profile, Properties

2) SSH to the ESX Host and login to the console and then SU - so that you can get to the root user account

3) You can then do:

service snmpd status

cd /etc/snmpd

mv snmpd.conf snmpd.conf.orig

vi snmpd.conf

syscontact yourEmailAddress@domain.com

syslocation YourLocationOfTheServer

rocommunity public

ESC, wq!

service snmpd start

service snmpd status

chkconfig snmpd on

Hope that helps some. You'll probably also want to grap the MIB's also here: http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/forums/managementapi