VMware Application

If you have VMware ESX, VMware ESXi and/or VMware vCenter, you can use Monitoring's VMware application to collect rich data about the virtual machines (VMs) on your network. The VMware application uses the Crawler to provide complete monitoring and visualization of the data, and this data is submitted to your GoToAssist search index so you can search against it. Use the VMware application to discover, track, search, and visualize VMs and their resource capacity and consumption in CPU, memory, storage, and network.

Note: You must first install the VMware application before you can access and use it.

Topics in this article:

Set Up the VMware Application

Schedule Scans of your VMware

Use Community VMware Dashboards

Run VMware Searches

Integrate GoToAssist with VMware Infrastructure Client

Set Up the VMware Application

The VMware application uses a VMware plugin in the Crawler to gather data from your VMware hosts. To set up the application, you must first provide the plugin with the correct credentials using the following process.

To configure the Crawler VMware plugin

1. Set up the GoToAssist Crawler (if you haven't already done so).

2. Click the Crawler icon in your computer's system tray and select Configure Crawler from the pop-up menu.

3. In the GoToAssist Configuration window, select the Credentials tab and click Add.

4. In the Configure Credentials window, select VMware ESXi or Virtual Center from the Protocol drop-down menu.

5. Follow the instructions listed below each text field, and then click OK (in the Limit Credential Use section, you can choose to select which devices this credential applies to by selecting the section option and clicking Add).

6. Back on the GoToAssist Configuration window, click Apply or OK.

Note: By providing the VMware plugin the credentials to scan your VMware hosts, Monitoring will be able to gather and index the data. By default, however, the Crawler scans these machines only once a day. See Schedule Scans of your VMWare to reset the default so the plugin scans the network more often (recommended).

Schedule Scans of Your VMware

By default, the Crawler scans your network machines only once a day. However, for optimal operational and historical data analysis you should scan them more often. By gathering more data, GoToAssist can better display trend charts showing disk, CPU, and memory use in a more granular way over time. Set up the GoToAssist Crawler to communicate with your key machines more frequently using the following process.

To schedule VMware scans:

1. Set up the GoToAssist Crawler and configure the VMware plugin (if you haven't already done so).

2. Open the Data Collection application and click the name of the Crawler that is configured to scan the network that your VMware is on.

3. On the Schedules tab, click Add Schedule

4. On the Create Schedule window, provide the following information:

• Name – Provide a unique name to help you identify this schedule later.

• Frequency – Use the drop-down menu to select how often you want the Crawler to scan the network for VMware specifically.

5. On the Plugins tab, click Add Plugin.

6. On the Add Plugin to Schedule window, select VMware Plugin (and any additional plugins you may wish to include on this schedule) and click Save.

7. Back on the Create Schedule window, provide the following additional information (optional):

• General tab
  • Enabled – This schedule will only run if this checkbox is selected.
  • Applies to – Use this drop-down menu to apply the schedule to a specific Company or all Companies on the account.

• Devices & Groups tab – Click Add Group or Address to specify specific groups, IP Addresses (or range of addresses) or networks that you want the VMware plugin to scan the network for.
  • Add Items – In the Add Group or Address window, use the Address Type drop-down menu to change how your inventory is displayed. Select an item so that it highlights blue, and click Save (only one item at a time may be selected).

  

  • Remove Items- On the Devices & Groups tab, click the item that you want to remove so that it highlights blue, and click Remove.

Note:If the Devices & Groups llist is left blank, the VMware plugin will scan the entire network.

Use Community VMware Dashboards

Two dashboards have been shared in the GoToAssist Community to give you an overview of some key configuration and operational characteristics of your installed VMware Hosts and Guests (VMware guest operating systems). The GoToAssist VMware Configuration and VMware Operations dashboards contain pre-configured searches. After the Crawler scans your VMware Hosts and Guests, you can select which Host to view the statistics and data on (such as the Host that you are running VMware vCenter on).

These GoToAssist Dashboards are GoToAssist Share-its, which you can install using the Dashboard Configurator.

VMware Configuration Dashboard

The VMware Configuration Dashboard shows you information about your VMware Host and Guests, such as status, datastores, CPU resources, and memory resources. The Dashboard displays which Hosts and Guests are running, their state, as well as which Host each Guest is running on.

VMware Operations Dashboard

The VMware Operations Dashboard displays a variety of data, including run time CPU, and memory usage of VMware Hosts and their VMware Guests. You can also view the VMware client heartbeat status as a GoToAssist Uptime chart.

Run VMware Searches

Because GoToAssist Monitoring is also a search index, you can run simple text searches against your VMware configuration. In the following example, a search using the term "vcenter" finds not only the actual device named "vcenter," but the VMware Guests as well:

Note the search results keys for VMware Guest and VMware Host. These are key reference terms that VMware uses to define these entities. In this example, if you click host-27, it augments your search to find instances of both "vcenter" and "host-27."

To search for references to "host-27" only, hold the Ctrl key down as you click the search term "host-27." This results in a search for just "host-27":

In this example, the search finds all references to "host-27" which VMware uniquely defines as a VMware Host. Consequently, the search results return the VMware Host and the Guests on this Host.

Integrate GoToAssist with VMware Infrastructure Client

Users of VMware ESX and ESXi typically administer their VMware installations using the VMware Infrastructure Client, which supports plugins that allow seamless integration with GoToAssist Monitoring. The VMware plugin for the Crawler takes advantage of this capability and allows you to search and browse your VMWare data directly in the VMware Infrastructure Client. When the Crawler scans a host that supports VMware APIs, it automatically registers the plugin with VMware vCenter. After the plugin is registered, you can install it for active use.

To enable GoToAssist Monitoring integration into VMware Infrastructure Client, you must first install the GoToAssist-to-VMware Integration plugin.

To install the GoToAssist-to-VMware Integration plugin

1. In the VMware Infrastructure Client, click Plugins menu and select Manage Plugins.

2. In the Plugin Manager window under the Available tab, you should see the GoToAssist-to-VMware Integration plugin.

After the plugin is installed, the following features are added to your VMware Infrastructure Client:

1. GoToAssist Search Option

A GoToAssist Search option is added to the VMware Infrastructure Client's toolbar. The GoToAssist Search toolbar item loads your Monitoring web account into the main frame of your VMware Infrastructure client as an embedded web browser, making it easier to reach GoToAssist from inside of the VMware Infrastructure Client (rather than launching a separate web browser).

2. GoToAssist Inventory Menu Items

A GoToAssist Inventory menu item is added to both the VMware Host and VMware Guest elements in the Inventory tree. When you select GoToAssist Inventory from the VMware Host or VMware Guest menus, a separate browser window launches and opens to the device's entry in the Inventory application on your Monitoring web account.

3. GoToAssist Tab

A GoToAssist tab is added to the view for VMware Hosts and VMware Guests. The GoToAssist tab is similar in function to the GoToAssist Inventory menu items; however, instead of launching a separate browser window, the tab displays the device in Inventory application directly inside the VMware Infrastructure Client (similar to the GoToAssist Search option).

| Views: 3063 | Last Updated: Thu, May 09 2013 2:28 PM

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