eG Administration

Virtual Platforms - Manager Discovery eG Enterprise is capable of automatically discovering the ESX servers in the environment using the eG manager or the eG agent that is monitoring the ESX server. Since both these approaches employ a port-scanning technique to discover ESX servers, they might not be suitable for high-security environments where the firewall has been configured to block traffic to and from specific ports. Likewise, in environments that are spread across multiple sub-nets, discovery performed using the eG manager or the agents could increase the bandwidth consumption. To address these concerns, eG Enterprise provides you with the option to directly connect to one/more VMware vCenter installations in your environment to perform ESX discovery. The additional benefit that accrues in this process is that, when one/more ESX servers discovered using vCenter are managed, then eG Enterprise automatically uses the same vCenter server to collect performance metrics related to the ESX servers. In other words, eG Enterprise auto-configures the tests pertaining to the managed ESX servers with the details of the vCenter server used for their discovery; this way, the solution minimizes the time and effort involved in manual test configuration, and quickly starts collecting metrics from vCenter. Similarly, if the vCenter details need to be modified for any reason, then, you will not be required to manually reconfigure each test for this purpose; changing the configuration of the vCenter server in the DISCOVERY page will automatically update all the tests that have been configured to collect metrics from that vCenter server. To discover the vSphere/ESX Hosts, select the Virtual Platforms option under the Settings sub-node of the Manager Discovery node in the Discovery tree. Then, choose the vSphere/ESX Hosts option from the Choose a virtual platform to discover drop-down list. The first step towards using vCenter for ESX discovery and performance monitoring is to configure the eG manager with the details of the vCenter server(s), and mark the server(s) that will be used for discovery. Prior to vCenter creation, you might have to increase the memory settings of the eG manager. This is because, VI APIs are memory intensive, and therefore, the default memory setting of 128 MB for the eG manager might not be sufficient for performing ESX discovery via vCenter. To override this default setting, select the Configure memory settings for discovery option from the What would you like to perform? drop-down list. This will invoke the Virtual Center Memory Settings section. You can specify any value between 256 MB and 1024 MB in the Memory Range (MB) text box provided in the Virtual Center Memory Settings section, and click the Update button therein. Next, you can proceed to add a new vCenter. To add a new vCenter server, do the following: Select the Add new vCenter option from the What action would you like to perform? dropdown. To add a new vCenter, specify the following in right panel: Specify the IP or host name of the vCenter in the vCenter Identity text box. Note: When providing the IP address of the vCenter server against vCenter identity, you can specify either the IPv4 or the IPv6 address of the vCenter server. 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, this flag is set to Yes. 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 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. Typical virtualized environments may consist of multiple vCenter installations, each managing a different set of ESX servers. To enable the eG manager to automatically discover those ESX servers that are managed by the vCenter being added, then set the Discover ESX hosts using this vCenter flag to Yes. If not, then set it 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 ‘Read-only’ privileges to vCenter. If such a user pre-exists, then, provide the name and password of that user in the text boxes mentioned above. Otherwise, assign the ‘Read-only’ role 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. Confirm the password of the user by retyping it in the Confirm password for the user text box. To clear all the configured details, click on the Clear button. To start discovery instead, click on the Update button. Clicking on Update, which requests you to confirm whether you want to start discovery based on the specifications provided. Click the Yes button to begin discovery. Regardless of the discovery approach used (discovery using an IP range or using vCenter), triggering ESX discovery will lead you straight to the COMPONENTS - MANAGE / UNMANAGE page. To view the vCenter servers so added, select the View Configured vCenters. Then the list of vCenter servers that have been configured for discovering ESX servers will appear. To modify a vCenter configuration, select the Modify Configured vCenter option from the What action would you like to perform? dropdown. To modify the vCenter configuration, select the IP/host name of the vCenter to be modified from the vCenter identity (IP or Host name) list. The details of the chosen vCenter will then be displayed against the appropriate fields. You can modify any of the displayed details and update the changes by clicking the Update button. To delete a particular vCenter, select the Delete Configured vCenter option from the What action would you like to perform? dropdown. Then the list of available vCenter servers appears. Select the vCenter servers to be deleted by selecting the check boxes corresponding to the vCenter configuration. To mark all the listed vCenter servers for deletion simultaneously, simply select the top-most check box in the column of check boxes. To delete the marked vCenter servers, click on the Delete button. Often administrators may want to view the remote agents that are currently monitoring the discovered vSphere/ESX hosts with ease! To identify the remote agents that are assigned to the vCenters while discovering the vSphere/ESX hosts, do the following: Select the View remote agent mapping option from the What would you like to perform? drop-down list. This will list all the vCenters along with the count of the remote agents and the name of the remote agents.