ESXi Servers behind Firewalls

[NaZ]

Hello

I got a problem. I have to monitor ESXi Servers behind firewalls. Now i cant do it with CIM. right? (because my root server cant "find" the ESXi servers).

now some/most of these servers run Microsofts SBS. i could easily install the agent on these virtual machines, and use active checks, but would the result make any sense?

How would you monitor a ESXi machine behind a firewall?
i would appreciate any kind of help.

thx

David

[NaZ]

Has nobody got an idea how i could solve my problem ?!

[badener]

Hi,

can't you put a proxy behind the firewall ? I am just starting to put proxies in networks with servers I couldn't monitor because the main zabbix server wasn't allowed to connect to them. Until now this looks like a good thing and my security guys are much happier with it as well.
Yet - I don't know whether proxies can monitor using CIM ? Is that possible with zabbix at all ? I haven't tried monitoring esx servers as we use vcenter which has alerting.
Monitoring from within a VM only makes sense if the VM has access to the mangement network of the esxi.

[NaZ]

how can i reach a proxy behind a firewall ? i would have to open up a port, which i am not allowed to do...

sry, i am not that familiar with proxys.

[badener]

yes, you would need a firewall rule allowing the zabbix server to communicate with the proxy - if that is not possible I am not sure you'll be able to monitor at all.
My best idea is to discuss this with the firewall guys (at least that's what I would do in our company) - they know what's allowed and what's not

[NaZ]

well, then i can only do active check within the VMs. Thanks so far.

[NaZ]

ESXi 5.0

but, by now i have worked around this problem by monitoring the vms. works for me. monitoring the esxi servers would of course be the best solution

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I am having the similar problem. Has anyone figured out a solution? I am looking forward to your response, thanks!