XenServer

The XenServer Discovery plugin connects to a XenServer host and reads host, storage and virtual machine data through the XenAPI to create Pandora FMS agents and modules. It creates one agent per host, one per storage repository and one per virtual machine, so a XenServer environment becomes visible from the same console as the rest of the infrastructure.

A Discovery task connects to the configured XenServer with the supplied credentials. The plugin queries the XenAPI and the server RRD data, enumerates the hosts, storage repositories and virtual machines in scope, and returns one agent per element with its modules for the Discovery task to create them. Virtual machine agents are linked under the host that runs them, and their address and operating system are taken from the guest when the guest tools are installed.

Host agents report capacity and load, storage agents report size and usage, and virtual machine agents report state, resources and per-disk activity. Discovery tasks decide what is scanned, adjust the timestamp of the collected data, create the generated agents in autodisable mode, and exclude or rename hosts, storage repositories and virtual machines by name.

What it allows you to do

- Create Pandora FMS agents for the hosts, storage repositories and virtual machines of a XenServer through a Discovery task.
- Monitor host capacity: running and installed virtual machines, memory usage and average CPU load.
- Monitor storage repositories: physical size, used and free space and used percentage.
- Monitor virtual machines: power state, memory usage, per-CPU load, guest tools status and per-disk size and throughput.
- Limit the scope of the scan and exclude or rename hosts, storage repositories and virtual machines.

What it monitors

- Host running and installed virtual machines
- Host memory usage and average CPU load
- Storage repository size, used and free space
- Storage repository used percentage
- Virtual machine power state
- Virtual machine memory usage and per-CPU load
- Guest tools installation status
- Virtual machine disk size and read and write throughput

How it works
A Discovery task connects to the configured XenServer and queries the XenAPI and the server RRD data. The plugin enumerates the hosts, storage repositories and virtual machines in scope and returns one agent per element with its modules, which the Discovery task creates in Pandora FMS. Virtual machine agents are linked under the host that runs them, and their address and operating system are taken from the guest when the guest tools are installed. Scan options decide whether all hosts, storage repositories and virtual machines are covered, and the exclusion and rename lists refine the result.

Benefits

- Host, storage 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 host, storage repository and virtual machine.
- Newly added hosts, storage repositories and virtual machines are covered on the next task run without reconfiguring the task.
- Host, storage and guest metrics are consolidated into one view per XenServer environment.

Use cases

- Virtualisation and systems teams that monitor the health and capacity of XenServer hosts and their guests.
- Environments where XenServer is watched alongside other virtualisation and physical infrastructure.
- Teams that need to detect stopped virtual machines, missing guest tools or exhausted storage repositories.

Requirements

- A Pandora FMS server with Discovery enabled and a console to define the task.
- A XenServer 6.2 or later host reachable with TCP port 443 open for the XenAPI queries and TCP port 80 open, or the port used for HTTP connections, for the RRD data.
- XenServer credentials able to query the XenAPI.
- Guest tools installed on the monitored virtual machines for complete guest information.
- A target agent group and a monitoring interval for the generated agents.

Compatibility
Tested on XenServer 6.2 or later and on Rocky Linux and Fedora 34, and known to work on any Linux system according to the official compatibility matrix. Compatible with Pandora FMS NG 784 and later, according to the Marketplace compatibility statement.

Limitations

- Guest tools must be installed on a virtual machine for the plugin to report its IP address and operating system; without them the guest information is limited.
- Virtual machine per-CPU and disk throughput modules are created only when the machine is running.
- The monitoring interval configured for the plugin must match the task execution interval, otherwise generated modules can be reported as unknown between runs.
- Storage repositories with a physical size of 0 are skipped and produce no agent.
- The plugin only reads host, storage and virtual machine data and does not change the XenServer configuration.