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 Using SNMP to Monitor the Computer Running ESX Server

Using SNMP to Monitor the Computer Running ESX Server

ESX Server ships with an SNMP agent that allows you to monitor the health of the physical machine where ESX Server is running and of virtual machines running on it. This agent is based on Net-SNMP with enhancements to support data specific to ESX Server. Background information on Net-SNMP is available at net-snmp.sourceforge.net.

The ESX Server SNMP agent can be used with any management software that can load and compile a management information base (MIB) in SMIv1 format and can understand SNMPv1 trap messages.

The location of the VMware subtree in the SNMP hierarchy is:

.iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.vmware (.1.3.6.1.4.1.6876).

You can choose to use SNMP with or without any specific ESX Server MIB items.

Information about the Physical Computer

Information about the Physical Computer

SNMP get variables allow you to monitor a wide variety of items about the physical computer and how virtual machines are using its resources. Some of the key types of information available are:

  • The number of CPUs on the physical computer
  • CPU resources on the physical computer being used by particular virtual machines
  • The amount of RAM installed on the physical computer
  • Physical memory used by the service console
  • Physical memory used by particular virtual machines
  • Physical memory that is not being used
  • Usage data for disks on the physical computer, including number of reads and writes and amount of data read and written
  • Usage data on the physical computer's network adapters, including packets sent and received and kilobytes sent and received
  • State of the VMkernel (loaded or not loaded)

    Note: If the variable showing whether the VMkernel is loaded says no, any values reported for any other variable should be regarded as invalid.

Information about the Virtual Machines

Information about the Virtual Machines

SNMP get variables allow you to monitor a number of items about particular virtual machines running on the computer. Some of the key types of information available are:

  • The path to the virtual machine's configuration file
  • The guest operating system running on the virtual machine
  • The amount of memory the virtual machine is configured to use
  • The state of the virtual machine's power switch — on or off
  • The state of the guest operating system — on or off (running or not running)
  • What disk adapters are seen by the virtual machine
  • What network adapters are seen by the virtual machine
  • What floppy disk drives are seen by the virtual machine
  • The state of the floppy drive — connected or disconnected
  • What CD-ROM drives are seen by the virtual machine
  • The state of the CD-ROM drive — connected or disconnected

Note: SNMP information is provided for virtual machines if their configuration files are stored locally on the ESX Server computer. If the configuration files are stored on an NFS-mounted drive, information for the virtual machines does not appear in the SNMP tables.

SNMP Traps

SNMP Traps

Four SNMP traps notify you of critical events in particular virtual machines. The affected virtual machine is identified by ID number and configuration file path. The traps notify you

  • When a virtual machine is powered on
  • When a virtual machine is powered off
  • When the virtual machine detects a loss of heartbeat in the guest operating system
  • When the virtual machine detects that the guest operating system's heartbeat has started or resumed

Note: VMware Tools must be installed in the guest operating system to support the traps that detect loss and resumption of the guest's heartbeat.

Note: Traps are not generated immediately when virtual machines are registered using the VMware Management Interface. To enable trap generation, you must restart vmware-serverd. You may restart vmware-serverd by rebooting the server or by logging in to the service console as root and issuing the command

killall -HUP vmware-serverd

Setting Up and Installing for ESX Server SNMP

Setting Up and Installing for ESX Server SNMP

Setting Up VMware ESX Server SNMP

Setting Up VMware ESX Server SNMP

ESX Server 2.1 includes two daemons, a master (snmpd) and a subagent (vmware-snmpd), as illustrated in the following diagram. The master snmpd daemon is either the default snmpd daemon shipped with ESX Server or a third party SNMP application daemon. The subagent vmware-snmpd exports ESX Server MIB information to the master, that communicates directly with the SNMP client application.

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