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Monitoring VMWare ESX

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  • NOB
    Senior Member
    Zabbix Certified Specialist
    • Mar 2007
    • 469

    #1

    Monitoring VMWare ESX

    Hi

    is there a way to monitor the VMWare ESX Layer below the guest OSes
    with ZABBIX or an integration of some on-board mechanisms ?

    Thanks in advance.

    Regards

    Norbert.
  • alixen
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2006
    • 474

    #2
    Hi,

    I have not tested it myself but it seems that there is an SNMP agent for VMWARE ESX:


    Regards
    http://www.alixen.fr/zabbix.html

    Comment

    • qix
      Senior Member
      Zabbix Certified SpecialistZabbix Certified Professional
      • Oct 2006
      • 423

      #3
      I still need to look into this as well.
      I was figuring to deploy an agent to the ESX OS (It's basically Linux anyway). But i'm not sure if this is allowed/supported by VMWare.

      Because of the weird way ESX mounts it's VMWARE volumes, you'd probably need some scripts to report disk usage etc.

      Let us know how you are doing regarding this. When I get around to it, I'll definitely post my results as well.
      With kind regards,

      Raymond

      Comment

      • xs-
        Senior Member
        Zabbix Certified Specialist
        • Dec 2007
        • 393

        #4
        If you mean the ESX instance itself (the host OS), we just deploy a zabbix agent on it.
        ESX is basically RHEL so hey, why not. We even have Dell OpenManage running on it to monitor the dell hardware via the OS.

        You can basically use a linux template minus the disk and network interfaces since they are named differently or not used.

        Comment

        • NOB
          Senior Member
          Zabbix Certified Specialist
          • Mar 2007
          • 469

          #5
          Hi

          thank you all for the hints and comments.

          Seems not to be so bad as I thought.
          Although I doubt, that installing (any) agent on the system
          is supported by VMWare.

          Any experience with version 3.x, yet ?

          Regards

          Norbert.

          Comment

          • xs-
            Senior Member
            Zabbix Certified Specialist
            • Dec 2007
            • 393

            #6
            yeah, just deploy the rhel rpm package on it
            it works like a charm

            Comment

            • abhi238
              Junior Member
              • Aug 2007
              • 15

              #7
              Hi,

              I am monitoring few ESX hosts using Zabbix Agents. To install agents on the ESX hosts, you need to allow port 10050 on firewall settings.

              I am also monitoring count of Guest OS on the ESX.

              Comment

              • RohrbaGe
                Senior Member
                • Aug 2005
                • 167

                #8
                Hi,

                as we have Dell PowerEdge servers for Vmware, I have installed
                the Dell Open Manager stuff on those machines and on top the
                zabbix agent,

                With the Template of the Dell-Poweredge in zabbix I'm able to monitor
                the Vmware Hardware quite well.

                Gerald

                Comment

                • caarts
                  Member
                  Zabbix Certified Specialist
                  • Aug 2008
                  • 37

                  #9
                  Since I'm about to test this on our own vmware server I was wondering if anyone else can share their experience with using a RHEL rpm.

                  Comment

                  • swaterhouse
                    Senior Member
                    • Apr 2006
                    • 268

                    #10
                    Everything is on the ESX service console that you need to compile the ZABBIX agent, or you can use a RHEL 3 or 4 version of the compiled agent. Agents compiled for RHEL 5 will not run on the ESX service console.

                    Comment

                    • xs-
                      Senior Member
                      Zabbix Certified Specialist
                      • Dec 2007
                      • 393

                      #11
                      The VMWare service console for ESX 3.0-3.5 is based on RHEL3 (afaik).

                      - Install a RHEL3-4 32bit RPM package.
                      - Open firewall ports for zabbix
                      esxcfg-firewall -openPort 10050,tcp,in,zabbixClient
                      esxcfg-firewall -openPort 10051,tcp,out,zabbixServer
                      esxcfg-firewall -enableService snmpd (convenient for hardware monitoring agents if you have any)
                      - Configure the zabbix_agentd.conf file
                      - go go gadget /etc/init.d/zabbix_agentd start
                      Last edited by xs-; 22-06-2009, 11:04.

                      Comment

                      • krimson
                        Member
                        • Sep 2008
                        • 49

                        #12
                        For monitoring ESX specifics, ESX's SNMP is pretty limited unfortunately. You may however find some interesting stuff to add in /proc/vmware

                        Comment

                        • Tristan
                          Senior Member
                          • Feb 2008
                          • 110

                          #13
                          In my environment i monitor a lot of esx hosts and esx guests. I use the vmware perl scripts witch i modified a little, and user the zabbix sender(perl version) to send information to my zabbix server.
                          These scripts run on my zabbix server
                          It works like a charm!

                          i monitor the following item form my datastores:
                          Associated Hosts
                          Available space
                          Datastore Location
                          Datastore name
                          Filesystem
                          Maximum capacity


                          from my esx host:
                          Boot time
                          Cpu model
                          Cpu speed
                          Cpu usage
                          Filesystem
                          Hostname
                          Network adapters
                          Maintenance mode
                          Memory Usage
                          VMotion
                          Physical memory
                          Software on host
                          Port number
                          Reboot required

                          and a lot of esx guest items.

                          I someone need more info i can provide this.

                          Comment

                          • eger
                            Member
                            • Nov 2006
                            • 95

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Tristan
                            In my environment i monitor a lot of esx hosts and esx guests. I use the vmware perl scripts witch i modified a little, and user the zabbix sender(perl version) to send information to my zabbix server.
                            These scripts run on my zabbix server
                            It works like a charm!

                            i monitor the following item form my datastores:
                            Associated Hosts
                            Available space
                            Datastore Location
                            Datastore name
                            Filesystem
                            Maximum capacity


                            from my esx host:
                            Boot time
                            Cpu model
                            Cpu speed
                            Cpu usage
                            Filesystem
                            Hostname
                            Network adapters
                            Maintenance mode
                            Memory Usage
                            VMotion
                            Physical memory
                            Software on host
                            Port number
                            Reboot required

                            and a lot of esx guest items.

                            I someone need more info i can provide this.
                            Hi, do you mean you are using the remote CLI and some scripts running on the Zabbix host to monitor remote ESX?

                            I would love to get more information and some examples if it is possible to share.

                            This would be especially more useful for those using ESXi where you cannot install applications like the agent on the console (as there is no console). SNMP or the vSphere remote CLI is the only way to go.

                            Comment

                            • swaterhouse
                              Senior Member
                              • Apr 2006
                              • 268

                              #15
                              Tristan,

                              Can you post your templates and the scripts you use?

                              Comment

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