VMware

The VMware Discovery plugin connects to a VMware vCenter Server through the vSphere API and discovers the resources of one datacenter, turning them into Pandora FMS agents and modules. It creates one agent per resource: the datacenter, every ESXi host, every datastore and every virtual machine, plus resource pools and per-host virtual switches when those options are enabled. Run it as a Discovery task to cover a vCenter datacenter automatically.

A Discovery task connects to the configured VMware vCenter Server with the supplied credentials and resolves the target datacenter by its exact name. The plugin enumerates the datacenter, its ESXi hosts, datastores, virtual machines, resource pools and virtual switches, and returns one agent per entity with its modules for the Discovery task to create. Every generated agent inherits the task group and interval, and agents are linked to their parent: datastores and hosts under the datacenter, virtual machines under the host that runs them and virtual switches under their host.

The datacenter, ESXi host, datastore and virtual machine categories are scanned by default, while resource pools and virtual network monitoring are optional. A selection tree can restrict the task to individual entities instead of the automatic scan, and a re-scan interval refreshes the discovered list so entities added to the datacenter are covered later without reconfiguring the task.

When event mode is enabled, the plugin reads the VMware vCenter Server events that occurred since the previous run and forwards them to the Pandora FMS event console. Credentials can be stored encrypted in the task configuration. The plugin only reads vCenter data and never changes the VMware vCenter Server configuration.

What it allows you to do

- Create Pandora FMS agents for the datacenter, ESXi hosts, datastores, virtual machines and resource pools through a Discovery task.
- Monitor host capacity and load, datastore capacity and path status, and virtual machine power and resource usage.
- Limit the task to selected hosts, datastores, virtual machines or resource pools instead of the automatic scan.
- Generate an agent per virtual switch with per port group network modules.
- Forward VMware vCenter Server events to the Pandora FMS event console.

What it monitors

- Datacenter reachability through ping and a 443 port check
- Datastore capacity, free space, overallocation and path status
- ESXi host state, configuration and hardware
- ESXi host CPU, memory, disk and network performance
- Virtual machine power and tools state, configuration and resource allocation
- Virtual machine disks, snapshots and performance
- Resource pool CPU and memory consumption, granted, shared, swapped, balloon and overhead memory
- Virtual switch per port group received and transmitted octets, operational status, overall status and connected virtual machine count

How it works
A Discovery task connects to the configured VMware vCenter Server with the supplied credentials, resolves the datacenter by its exact name and queries the vSphere API for the entities in scope. The plugin reads availability, capacity, configuration and performance data from vCenter and returns one agent per entity with its modules for the Discovery task to create. Agents are linked under their parent, so datastores and hosts hang under the datacenter, virtual machines under the host that runs them and virtual switches under their host. The task group and interval are inherited by every generated agent. When event mode is enabled, the plugin reads the vCenter events since the previous run and creates them in the Pandora FMS event console.

Benefits

- Datacenter, host, datastore and virtual machine state become visible in the same platform as the rest of the monitored infrastructure.
- Removes the manual creation and maintenance of agents and modules for each ESXi host, datastore and virtual machine.
- Newly added entities are covered after a re-scan without reconfiguring the task.
- Host, datastore and guest metrics are consolidated into one view per datacenter.

Use cases

- Virtualisation and systems teams that monitor the health and capacity of VMware datacenters, hosts and guests.
- Environments where VMware is watched alongside other virtualisation and physical infrastructure.
- Teams that need to detect stopped virtual machines, exhausted datastores or failed host paths.

Requirements

- A Pandora FMS server with Discovery enabled and a console to define the task.
- A VMware vCenter Server that exposes the vSphere API and is reachable from the system that runs the plugin.
- A vCenter user account with read access to the datacenter, its entities and its performance counters.
- A target agent group and a monitoring interval for the generated agents.
- For event mode, a reachable Pandora FMS console API and valid API credentials.

Limitations

- The plugin monitors one datacenter per task, and the datacenter name must match exactly the name shown in the VMware vCenter Server.
- Resource pools are not scanned unless the corresponding option is enabled.
- Entities removed from the VMware vCenter Server are not deleted automatically from Pandora FMS.
- Event forwarding requires the datacenter agent to exist, and events cannot be read from a connection that does not expose the vCenter event manager.
- The plugin only reads vCenter data and does not change the VMware vCenter Server configuration.