Fans - ESX Test

This test reports the current status of the fan and its overall health in terms of the speed with which it operates.

Target of the test : An ESX server host

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each fan supported by the ESX server host that is monitored

Configurable parameters for the test:
Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured
Port	The port at which the specified HOST listens. By default, this is NULL.
ESX User and ESX Password	In order to enable the test to extract the desired metrics from a target ESX server, you need to configure the test with an ESX USER and ESX PASSWORD. The user credentials to be passed here depend upon the mechanism used by the eG agent for auto-discovering the VMs on the target vSphere server and monitoring the server and its VMs. These discovery/monitoring methodologies and their corresponding configuration requirements have been discussed hereunder: Discovering and monitoring by directly connecting to the target vSphere server: Starting with ESX server 3.0, a VMware ESX server offers a web service interface using which the eG agent discovers the guest operating systems on a physical ESX host. The VMware VI SDK is used by the agent to implement the web services interface. To use this interface for discovering the VMs and for monitoring, the eG agent should directly connect to the monitored vSphere/ESX server as an ESX USER with root privileges. However, if, owing to security constraints, you cannot use root user permissions, you can alternatively configure the tests with the credentials of a user who has been assigned the following permissions: Diagnostics TerminateSession To see how you can create such a user on the ESX server, refer to theCreating a Special Role on an ESX Server and Assigning the Role to a New User topic Discovering and monitoring using vCenter: By default, the eG agent connects to each ESX server and discovers the VMs executing on it. While this approach scales well, it requires additional configuration for each server being monitored. For example, separate user accounts may need to be created on each server for accessing VM details. While monitoring large virtualized installations however, the agents can be optionally configured to perform guest discovery using the VM information already available in vCenter. The same vCenter can also be used to monitor the vSphere server and its VMs. In this case therefore, the ESX USER and ESX PASSWORD that you specify should be that of an Administrator or Virtual Machine Administrator in vCenter. However, if, owing to security constraints, you prefer not to use the credentials of such users, then, you can create a special role on vCenter with the following privileges: Diagnostics Change settings View and stop sessions To know how to grant the above-mentioned permissions to a vCenter user, refer to Creating a Special Role on vCenter and Assigning the Role to a New User . If the ESX server for which this test is being configured had been discovered via vCenter, then the eG manager automatically populates the ESX USERand ESX PASSWORD text boxes with the vCenter user credentials using which the ESX discovery was performed.
Confirm Password	Confirm the specified ESX PASSWORD by retyping it here.
SSL	By default, the ESX server is SSL-enabled. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to Yes by default. This indicates that the eG agent will communicate with the ESX server via HTTPS by default. On the other hand, if the eG agent has been configured to use the VMPerl API or CLI for monitoring (i.e., if the ESX USER parameter is set to none), then the status of the SSL flag is irrelevant. Like the ESX sever, the vCenter is also SSL-enabled by default. If you have chosen to use the vCenter for monitoring all the ESX servers in your environment, then you have to set the SSL flag to Yes.
Webport	By default, in most virtualized environments, the ESX server and vCenter listen on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled). This implies that while monitoring an SSL-enabled ESX server directly, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 443 of the ESX server to pull out metrics, and while monitoring a non-SSL-enabled ESX server, the eG agent connects to port 80. Similarly, while monitoring an ESX server via an SSL-enabled vCenter, the eG agent connects to port 443 of vCenter to pull out the metrics, and while monitoring via a non-SSL-enabled vCenter, the eG agent connects to port 80 of vCenter. Accordingly, the WEBPORTparameter is set to 80 or 443 depending upon the status of the SSL flag. In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the WEBPORTparameter, you can specify the exact port at which the ESX server or vCenter in your environment listens so that the eG agent communicates with that port.
Virtual Center	If the eG manager had discovered the target ESX server by connecting to vCenter, then the IP address of the vCenter server used for discovering this ESX server would be automatically displayed against the VIRTUAL CENTER parameter; similarly, the ESX USER and ESX PASSWORD text boxes will be automatically populated with the vCenter user credentials, using which ESX discovery was performed. If this ESX server has not been discovered using vCenter, but you still want to discover the guests on the ESX server via vCenter, then select the IP address of the vCenter host that you wish to use for guest discovery from the VIRTUAL CENTER list. By default, this list is populated with the IP address of all vCenter hosts that were added to the eG Enterprise system at the time of discovery. Upon selection, the ESX USERand ESX PASSWORD that were pre-configured for that vCenter server will be automatically displayed against the respective text boxes. On the other hand, if the IP address of the vCenter server of interest to you is not available in the list, then, you can add the details of the vCenter server on-the-fly, by selecting the Other option from the VIRTUAL CENTER list. This will invoke the ADD VCENTER SERVER DETAILS page. Refer to Adding the Details of a vCenter Server for VM Discoverysection to know how to add a vCenter server using this page. Once the vCenter server is added, its IP address, ESX USER, and ESX PASSWORD will be displayed against the corresponding text boxes. On the other hand, if you want the eG agent to behave in the default manner -i.e., communicate with each ESX server for monitoring and VM information - then set the VIRTUAL CENTER parameter to ‘none’.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Fan status:

Indicates the current status of this fan.

If the status cannot be determined, the Unknown will be displayed here. If the fan is functioning normally, then Normal will be displayed as the value of this measure. If a probable error condition is reported, then the status will be displayed as Warning. If a critical error condition is reported, then the status will be Error.

The numeric values that correspond to each of the states discussed above are listed in the table below:

State	Numeric Value
Unknown	0
Normal	1
Warning	2
Error	3

Note:

By default, this measure reports one of the States listed in the table above. The graph of this measure however, represents the status of a fan using the numeric equivalents - ‘0’ to ‘3’.

Fan speed:

Indicates the speed of this fan in revolutions per minute.

Rpm

Adding the Details of a vCenter Server for VM Discovery

To discover the VMs on an ESX server and to obtain “outside view” metrics using vCenter, all “outside view” tests need to be configured with the IP address of the vCenter server to be used for guest discovery. This IP address needs to be chosen from the VIRTUAL CENTER list available for all “outside view” tests. By default, the VIRTUAL CENTER list contains the IP address of all the vCenter hosts that have been explicitly added to the eG Enterprise system using the menu sequence: Infrastructure -> Discovery -> Manager Discovery -> Virtual Platforms. If the IP address of interest to you does not pre-exist in the VIRTUAL CENTER list, then you can add the details of the vCenter server, on-the-fly, by selecting the Other option from the list. This will invoke the add vcenter details page (see Figure 1), using which a new vCenter can be added to eG Enterprise system.

Adding Details of vCenter server

Figure 1 : Adding the details of a vCenter server

To know how to use this page, follow the instructions provided below.

Provide the IP or hostname of the vCenter server being added in the vCenter Identity (IP or Host name) text box.
Then, indicate whether the eG manager is to connect to vCenter using SSL or not by selecting the Yes or No option from the Use SSL to connect to vCenter list.
By default, in most virtualized environments, vCenter listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled) only. This implies that while discovering ESX servers using vCenter, eG Enterprise communicates with vCenter via the default ports 80 or 443, depending upon the SSL-enabled status of vCenter. Accordingly, the Web Port parameter is set to 443 by default, if the ssl flag is set to Yes, and displays the default value 80 if the ssl flag is set to No.

In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, in the Web Port text box, specify the exact port at which vCenter in your environment listens.
If the vCenter being added is to be used for ESX discovery as well, set the Discover ESX hosts using this vCenter flag to Yes. Otherwise, set this flag to No.
In order to be able to discover ESX servers using a vCenter server, the eG manager needs to connect to vCenter using the credentials of a valid user to vCenter. Provide the user name and password of such a user in the Username to connect to vCenter and Password for the user text boxes. This user typically requires Administrator or Virtual Machine Administrator privileges. However, if you cannot expose the credentials of such a user owing to security constraints, then, you can use the credentials of a user with the following privileges on vCenter:
- Diagnostics
- Change settings
- View and stop sessions
If such a user pre-exists, then, provide the name and password of that user in the text boxes mentioned above. Otherwise, assign the aforesaid roles to a local/domain user to vCenter, and provide the name and password of this user in the Username to connect to vCenter and Password for the user text boxes. The steps for achieving this are detailed in Assigning the ‘Read-Only’ Role to a Local/Domain User to vCenter.
Confirm the password of the user by retyping it in the Confirm password for the user text box.
You can then click the Update button to save the vCenter configuration.