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vSphere ESXi Guest Monitoring
This Host Template is part of the Vsphere Monitoring Opspack
Host Template: OS - VMware vSphere ESXi Guest
Monitor your ESXi Guests (Virtual Machines) with a variety of checks including Memory, CPU, Disk, Virtual Disk, Replication, Power, Uptime and Network statistics. Also includes information on Shutdown status, Consolidation and Configuration statuses, Guest OS Status, VMware Tools status and connected Datastore information. This Host Template includes support for VMware vMotion, so you can keep monitoring Guests even if they are moved between Hosts with no change to your Opsview configuration.
See all of the Opsview's virtualization monitoring solutions at VMware Monitoring.
This Host Template includes the following Service Checks:
| Service Check Name | Description | Default Thresholds (Warning, Critical) | UOM |
|---|---|---|---|
| vSphere - Guest - CPU Usage | Amount of actively used CPU as a percentage of total available CPU - the average CPU utilization over all vCPUs on the VM. This is the host's view of VM CPU usage - for example, if a VM with one vCPU is running on a host that has four physical CPUs and the CPU usage is 100%, the VM is using one physical CPU completely. Additionally, the latency time the CPU is unable to run due to contending for physical CPU access. | cpu_usage=70,90cpu_latency=70,90 | % |
| vSphere - Guest - CPU Used | CPU Used in MHz. | N/A | MHz |
| vSphere - Guest - CPU Time | CPU time spent waiting, spent on system processes, spent scheduled to run, and idle time, as well as the time the CPU was ready but unable to run due to reaching maximum CPU limit setting. | N/A | ms |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Usage | Total usage of available memory, and latency time VM is waiting to access swapped or compressed memory. | memory_usage=70,90memory_latency=70,90 | % |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Used | The memory allocated to the VM, and the amount of used and free memory. | N/A | B |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Swap | The amount of memory swapped out to the VM swap file by the VMKernel. | N/A | B |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Swap Rate | Rate at which memory is being swapped between disk and active memory. | N/A | KB/s |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Active | Amount of guest physical memory that is actively used, based on recently touched memory pages, and the memory actively being written to by the vm. | N/A | B |
| vSphere - Guest - Disk Usage | The aggregated Disk I/O Rate. | N/A | KB/s |
| vSphere - Guest - Disk Latency | Highest latency value across all disks used by the VM. | N/A | ms |
| vSphere - Guest - Disk Read/Write | The average amount of data read from and written to the disk each second. | N/A | KB/s |
| vSphere - Guest - Virtual Disk Summary | The number of Virtual Disks used by the VM and their names. | N/A | N/A |
| vSphere - Guest - Virtual Disk Read/Write | The average amount of data read from and written to the Virtual Disk each second. | N/A | KB/s |
| vSphere - Guest - Power Usage | The current power usage of the VM. | N/A | W |
| vSphere - Guest - Shutdown Status | Whether the last shutdown of the VM was an orderly poweroff or not. | N/A | N/A |
| vSphere - Guest - Uptime | Total time elapsed since last system startup. | N/A | s |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Usage | The Datastore utilization as a percentage. Support for multiple Datastore Name variables. If run across all datastores, and not run with verbose mode, results will be truncated and summarised for an OK result. | datastore_usage=70,90 | % |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Used | The amount of datastore disk space used by the guest. Support for multiple Datastore Name variables. If run across all datastores, and not run with verbose mode, results will be truncated and summarised for an OK result. | N/A | B |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Latency | The average amount of time for read and write operations on the datastore. Support for multiple Datastore Name variables. If run across all datastores, and not run with verbose mode, results will be truncated and summarised for an OK result. | N/A | ms |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Read/Write | The rate of reading and writing data from the datastore. Support for multiple Datastore Name variables. If run across all datastores, and not run with verbose mode, results will be truncated and summarised for an OK result. | N/A | KB/s |
| vSphere - Guest - Heartbeat | The number of heartbeats issued. | N/A | N/A |
| vSphere - Guest - Network Usage | The rate at which data is transmitted and received, and the overall network utilization. | N/A | KB/s |
| vSphere - Guest - Network Adapters | Number of Virtual Network Adapters used by the VM, and their names. | N/A | N/A |
| vSphere - Guest - Consolidation Status | Whether any disk of the VM requires consolidation. | N/A | N/A |
| vSphere - Guest - Configuration Status | Whether or not the system has detected any configuration issues, and the issues detected. | N/A | N/A |
| vSphere - Guest - VMware Tools | The status of VMware tools on the VM. | N/A | N/A |
| vSphere - Guest - VM Status | The current status of the Virtual Machine (requires VMware tools). | N/A | N/A |
Usage Instructions
vMotion Support
To allow for vMotion support (moving Guests between ESXi Hosts without having to update your Host details), you must use the vCenter Credentials Variable listed in Step 2. Additionally, all Hosts utilized in vMotion must share login credentials to allow Opsview to maintain monitoring. The ESXi Host Name is optional when vCenter Credentials are supplied.
When using vMotion, the ESXi Host containing the requested resource can be found automatically without needing to specify the Host the resource is on. However, this automatic retrieval of the Host will extend the runtime of the service checks and if performance is a concern, the Opsview Host configuration should be updated with the correct ESXi Host details.
Providing the vCenter Credentials variable will also allow for enhanced error handling when carrying out Service Checks.
Step 1: Add this Host Template
Add the OS - VMware vSphere ESXi Guest Host Template to your Opsview Monitor host. If the resource you're monitoring has no hostname or public IP, then open the Advanced settings pane and change Host Check Command to Always assumed to be UP.
For more information, refer to Opsview Knowledge Center - Adding Host Templates to Hosts.
Step 2: Add and configure variables required for this Host Template
The Service Checks in this Host Template use the following variables, and they will be added to your Opsview Monitor instance when you import the Opspack:
VSPHERE_ESXI_GUEST_NAME
| Parameter | Position in Variable | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opsview UI Only | Value | ESXi Guest Display Name | Display Name for ESXi Guest Service Checks |
| --esxi-vm-name | Arg1 | ESXi Guest Name | Name of the ESXi Guest |
VSPHERE_ESXI_CREDENTIALS
This variable is optional but either 'VSPHERE_ESXI_CREDENTIALS' or 'VSPHERE_VC_CREDENTIALS' needs to be set.
| Parameter | Position in Variable | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| --esxi-username | Arg1 | ESXi Username | Username for the ESXi Host |
| --esxi-password | Arg2 | ESXi Password | Password for the ESXi Host |
VSPHERE_ESXI_HOST_NAME
| Parameter | Position in Variable | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opsview UI Only | Value | ESXi Host Display Name | Display Name for ESXi Host Service Checks |
| --esxi-hostname | Arg1 | ESXi Host Name | Name of the ESXi Host |
VSPHERE_VC_CREDENTIALS
This variable is optional but either 'VSPHERE_ESXI_CREDENTIALS' or 'VSPHERE_VC_CREDENTIALS' needs to be set. Setting this variable allows for enhanced error handling when carrying out ESXi Service Checks.
| Parameter | Position in Variable | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| --vcenter-username | Arg1 | vCenter Username | Username for vCenter instance |
| --vcenter-password | Arg2 | vCenter Password | Password for vCenter instance |
| --vcenter-server | Arg3 | vCenter Instance Name | Name of the vCenter instance |
VSPHERE_ESXI_LINKED_DATASTORE_NAME
This variable can be added multiple times to monitor each datastore linked to your resource individually. Additionally, giving this argument a value of '.' (period character, no quotes) will run the check across all Datastores on the appropriate entity.
| Parameter | Position in Variable | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opsview UI Only | Value | ESXi Linked Datastore Display Name | Display Name for Service Checks using this ESXi Datastore when linked to a resource |
| --esxi-linked-datastore-name | Arg1 | ESXi Linked Datastore Name | Name of the ESXi Datastore linked to a resource |
For more information, refer to Opsview Knowledge Center - Adding Variables to Hosts.
For mode-specific help, run the plugin with the -h -m <mode> flags. This will list the required and optional Variable Arguments for that mode. The appropriate mode for each Service Check is listed here:
| Service Check Name | Mode |
|---|---|
| vSphere - Guest - CPU Usage | ESXiGuest.CPU.Usage |
| vSphere - Guest - CPU Used | ESXiGuest.CPU.Used |
| vSphere - Guest - CPU Time | ESXiGuest.CPU.Time |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Usage | ESXiGuest.Mem.Usage |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Used | ESXiGuest.Mem.Used |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Swap | ESXiGuest.Mem.Swap |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Swap Rate | ESXiGuest.Mem.Swap.Rate |
| vSphere - Guest - Memory Active | ESXiGuest.Mem.Active |
| vSphere - Guest - Disk Usage | ESXiGuest.Disk.Usage |
| vSphere - Guest - Disk Latency | ESXiGuest.Disk.Latency |
| vSphere - Guest - Disk Read/Write | ESXiGuest.Disk.RW |
| vSphere - Guest - Virtual Disk Summary | ESXiGuest.VDisk.Summary |
| vSphere - Guest - Virtual Disk Read/Write | ESXiGuest.VDisk.RW |
| vSphere - Guest - Power Usage | ESXiGuest.Power.Usage |
| vSphere - Guest - Shutdown Status | ESXiGuest.Shutdown.Status |
| vSphere - Guest - Uptime | ESXiGuest.Uptime |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Usage | ESXiGuest.Datastore.Usage |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Used | ESXiGuest.Datastore.Used |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Latency | ESXiGuest.Datastore.Latency |
| vSphere - Guest - Datastore Read/Write | ESXiGuest.Datastore.RW |
| vSphere - Guest - Heartbeat | ESXiGuest.Heartbeat |
| vSphere - Guest - Network Usage | ESXiGuest.Net.Usage |
| vSphere - Guest - Network Adapters | ESXiGuest.Net.Adapters |
| vSphere - Guest - Consolidation Status | ESXiGuest.Consol.Status |
| vSphere - Guest - Configuration Status | ESXiGuest.Config.Status |
| vSphere - Guest - VMware Tools | ESXiGuest.VMware.Tools |
| vSphere - Guest - VM Status | ESXiGuest.VM.Status |
SSL Certificates
Additionally, you can use the following variable to pass in your SSL certificates for use when connecting to the service provider to gather metrics:
VSPHERE_CERTIFICATES
| Parameter | Position in Variable | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| --ca-path | Arg1 | CA Certificate Path | Path to the CA Certificate |
| --client-cert | Arg2 | Client Certificate Path | Path to the Client Certificate |
| --client-key | Arg3 | Client Key Path | Path to the Client Key |
Step 3: Apply changes and the system will now be monitored
