vCenter Licenses Test

How often should the test be executed.

The host for which this test is to be configured.

Refers to the port at which the specified host listens to.

The Using parameter determines whether this test should be monitored using the web services API or CLI (command line interface).

If you are monitoring vCenter in an agentless manner, then you might want to execute this test using the web services API, as this approach supports both agent-based and agentless monitoring modes. In such a case therefore, select Web services API from the Using list box. If the Web services API option is chosen, then ensure that the Virtual Center Server Home parameter is set to none. Also, make sure that the VC User and VC Password parameters represent the user name and password to connect to the vCenter server. By default, Web Services API is selected from the Using list.

The command line interface is typically preferred, if vCenter is monitored in an agent-based manner. In such a case therefore, select Command Line Interface from the Using list. If this option is chosen, then ensure that the VirtualCenter License File, Virtual Center Server Home and ReReadLicense parameters are configured with valid values, and the VC User and VC Password parameters are set to None.

Note:

vCenter 4.0 does not support the command line interface; therefore, set the Using parameter to Web services API while monitoring vCenter 4.0.

To connect to vCenter and extract metrics from it, this test should be configured with the name and password of a user with Administrator or Virtual Machine Administrator privileges to vCenter. However, if, owing to security constraints, you are not able to use the credentials of such users for test configuration, then you can configure this test with the credentials of a user with Read-only rights to vCenter. For this purpose, you can assign the ‘Read-only’ role to a local/domain user to vCenter, and then specify name and password of this user against the VC User and VC Password text boxes. The steps for assigning this role to a user on vCenter have been detailed in the Creating a Special Role on vCenter and Assigning the Role to a New User topic under the eG Monitoring Capabilities -> Virtualization and Containers -> Virtualization Technologies -> VMware vSphere ESX node sequence in the eG Enterprise documentation portal. 

vCenter servers terminate user sessions based on timeout periods. The default timeout period is 30 mins. When you stop an agent, sessions currently in use by the agent will remain open for this timeout period until vCenter times out the session. If the agent is restarted within the timeout period, it will open a new set of sessions. If you want the eG agent to close already existing sessions on vCenter before it opens new sessions, then, instead of the ‘Read-only’ user, you can optionally configure the VC User and VC Password parameters with the credentials of a user with permissions to View and Stop Sessions on vCenter. For this purpose, you can create a special role on vCenter, grant the View and Stop Sessions privilege (prior to vCenter 4.1, this was called the View and Terminate Sessions privilege) to this role, and then assign the new role to a local/domain user to vCenter. The steps for assigning this role to a user on vCenter have been detailed in the Creating a Special Role on vCenter and Assigning the Role to a New User topic under the eG Monitoring Capabilities -> Virtualization and Containers -> Virtualization Technologies -> VMware vSphere ESX node sequence in the eG Enterprise documentation portal. 

Confirm the password by retyping it in this text box.

If the using parameter is set to Web services API, then specify none against Virtual Center Server Home. On the other hand, if Command Line Interface is chosen from the Using list, then provide the full path to the install directory of the VMware Licensing server. For example, c:\progra~1\VMware\Vmware License Server.

In the VirtualCenter License File text box, specify the name of the vCenter license file used by this test for reporting license-related statistics; this is vmware.lic by default. This parameter is of relevance only if the Using flag is set to Command Line Interface.

If the test executes using the Web services API, then you will have to set this flag to true or false to indicate whether the eG agent should or should not check for license changes everytime it runs this test. If this flag is set to true, then the eG agent will check for changes in license status everytime this test runs. If this flag is set to false, then the eG agent will not check for license changes.

The status of the ReReadLicense flag will be disregarded if the using parameter is set to Command Line Interface.

By default, in most virtualized environments, vCenter listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabeld) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled) only. This implies that while monitoring vCenter, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 80 or 443, depending upon the SSL-enabled status of vCenter – i.e., if vCenter is not SSL-enabled (i.e., if the SSL flag above is set to No), then the eG agent connects to vCenter using port 80 by default, and if vCenter is SSL-enabled (i.e., if the SSL flag is set to Yes), then the agent-vCenter communication occurs via port 443 by default.  Accordingly, the Webport parameter is set to default by default. 

In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the Webport parameter, you can specify the exact port at which vCenter in your environment listens, so that the eG agent communicates with that port for collecting metrics from vCenter.