VMware ESX/ESXi Monitoring

Gain in-depth insights on critical performance metrics of CPU, memory, disk, datastore, and network of your ESX/ESXi servers. Add your VMware ESX/ESXi hosts for monitoring by configuring the following. You can also add your VMware datastores and resource pools for monitoring while adding ESX/ESXi hosts.

Prerequisites:

• Site24x7 On-Premise Poller.
• Access to Managed Object Browser.
• VMware Read-only or Administrator roles to monitor vCenter. Learn more about the privileges required to monitor other VMware resources. 

Add a VMware ESX/ESXi Monitor

1. Log into your Site24x7 account. 
2. Go to the Admin tab and select VMware ESX/ESXi Server (under Virtualization) in Add Monitor page.
3. Specify the following information to add the VMware ESX/ESXi Server monitor:
   • Display Name: Provide a display name to identify the VMware ESX/ESXi Server monitor.
   • ESX/ESXi Host Name or IP Address: Specify the IP address or domain Name for the ESX/ESXi host.
   • Port: Specify the designated port number of the managed host.
   • Check Frequency: Choose the required polling frequency from the options available in the drop down list.
   • Monitoring locations: Select the location profile from the drop-down list from where the ESX/ESXi can be monitored. Once installed the On-Premise Poller will be added as a location under the location profile. To configure location profile, See Location Profile. 
   • Monitor Groups: Associate the ESX/ESXi monitor with a monitor group. Choose an existing monitor group or create a new one. To create a new monitor group, read our product documentation.
   • Dependent on monitor: From the drop-down, select the dependent monitor you want. Site24x7 will suppress alerts for the configured ESX/ESXi monitor if the dependent monitor is already down.
     You can configure a dependent monitor on a monitor level and a monitor group level. To know more about alert suppression and monitor group level dependency configuration read our documentation. You can add up to 5 monitors as dependents.
4. VMware User Credentials:
   • Poll using: Choose how would you prefer your monitors to be polled—via VMware vCenter or the individual VMware ESX/ESXi host credential. Learn more about VMware polling.
   1. VMware vCenter
      • Associated vCenter Monitor: Choose an associated vCenter monitor from the drop-down menu or add a new one by clicking +.
      • vCenter Name or IP Address: Specify the IP address or domain name of the vCenter.
      • Port: Specify the port number where the server is running.
      • VMware vCenter Credentials: Choose the appropriate credentials stored in the Site24x7 Credential Profile or add new ones by specifying the Credential Name, Credential Type, Username, and Password.
        
         This will add a vCenter monitor using the same Monitoring Location, Notification Profile, Poll Frequency, and User Alert Group as that of the VMware ESX/ESXi monitor.
   2. VMware ESX/ESXi
      • VMware ESX/ESXi Credentials: Choose the appropriate credentials stored in the Site24x7 Credential Profile or add new ones by specifying the Credential Name, Credential Type, Username, and Password.
5. Discover and Auto Add Resources: Toggle Yes to discover and auto-add the resources running on this ESX/ESXi host, automatically. The discovered resources will be added as individual monitors for monitoring.
   
   • Virtual machines: Toggle Yes to enable monitoring virtual machines. 
     It is important to note that you can only add a Virtual Machine by discovering it via an ESX/ESXi host. The discovered VMs will be listed under VMware > Virtual Machine.
   • Datastores: Toggle Yes to enable monitoring datastores. By enabling yes, you'll be able to bulk-add all the resources in one go. You can also monitor the performance of datastores and save the time from manually adding them separately for monitoring. View the added datastores under VMware > Datastores.
   • Resource pool:Toggle Yes to enable monitoring for resource pools. By enabling yes, you'll be able to bulk-add all the resources in one go. You can also monitor the performance of resource pools and save the time from manually adding them separately for monitoring. View the added resource pools under VMware > Resource pools.
6. Discovery Options
   • Exclude Virtual machine if its name contains: Specify the name of the VMs that need not be auto discovered and added for monitoring.
   • Exclude Datastore if its name contains: Specify the name of the datastores that need not be auto discovered and added for monitoring.
7. Specify the following details for Configuration Profiles:
   • Threshold and Availability: Select a threshold profile from the drop-down list or choose the default threshold set available and get notified when the resources cross the configured threshold and availability.
     To create a customized threshold and availability profile, refer Threshold and Availability.
   • Notification Profile: Choose a notification profile from the drop-down list or select the default profile available. Notification profile helps to configure when and who gets notified in case of downtime.
     Refer Notification Profile to create a customized notification profile.
   • User Alert Group: Select the user group that needs to be alerted during an outage.
     To add multiple users to a group, see User Groups.
   • Tags: Associate your monitor with predefined Tag(s) to help organize and manage your monitors creatively. Learn how to add Tags.
   • IT Automation: Select an automation to be executed when the VMware ESX/ESXi server is down / trouble / up / any status change / any attribute change. The defined action gets executed when there is a state change and selected user groups are alerted. To automate corrective actions on failure, refer IT Automation.
   • Third Party Integration: Associate your monitor with a pre-configured third-party service. It lets you push your monitor alarms to selected services and facilitate improved incident management.
     If you haven't setup any integrations yet, navigate across to ”Admin > Third Party Integration” to create one. Tell me more.
8. Click Save.

Related articles

• Adding a vCenter monitor
• Adding a VMware VM monitor
• Adding a VMware snapshot monitor