vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring - Official · PDF filevSphere Client Hardware Health...
10
Technical Note VMware, Inc. 1 vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring VMware vSphere 4.1 Purpose of This Document VMware vSphere™ provides health monitoring data for ESX hardware to support datacenter virtualization. Health monitoring data is available from the VMware vSphere Client as well as from several programmatic interfaces. This document describes: The basic architecture that supports hardware health monitoring in ESX The health information that is available by default How partners and independent hardware vendors can extend the architecture to provide health information about their own systems How systems management vendors can extract hardware health information Hardware Health Monitoring Options VMware supports health monitoring through several interfaces, including APIs, CLIs, and GUIs. Users can create their own health monitoring software using the APIs, or they can take advantage of existing GUI or CLI clients to access hardware health information. Health monitoring clients can connect directly to an ESX server, or to the vCenter™ Server that manages an ESX server. Clients that connect to vCenter Server can view hardware health information for any managed ESX server through a single connection. Programmatic Interfaces for Health Monitoring For those who want the power and flexibility to design their own health monitoring solutions, VMware supports the following protocols. Two of them are industry‐standard protocols, and one is a proprietary API designed specifically for managing vSphere datacenters: CIM (Common Information Model) SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) vSphere Web Services API (WS API)
Transcript of vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring - Official · PDF filevSphere Client Hardware Health...
Technical Note
VMware, Inc. 1
vSphere Client Hardware Health MonitoringVMware vSphere 4.1
Purpose of This DocumentVMwarevSphereprovideshealthmonitoringdataforESXhardwaretosupportdatacentervirtualization.HealthmonitoringdataisavailablefromtheVMwarevSphereClientaswellasfromseveralprogrammaticinterfaces.
Thisdocumentdescribes:
ThebasicarchitecturethatsupportshardwarehealthmonitoringinESX
Thehealthinformationthatisavailablebydefault
Howpartnersandindependenthardwarevendorscanextendthearchitecturetoprovidehealthinformationabouttheirownsystems
Howsystemsmanagementvendorscanextracthardwarehealthinformation
Hardware Health Monitoring OptionsVMwaresupportshealthmonitoringthroughseveralinterfaces,includingAPIs,CLIs,andGUIs.UserscancreatetheirownhealthmonitoringsoftwareusingtheAPIs,ortheycantakeadvantageofexistingGUIorCLIclientstoaccesshardwarehealthinformation.
HealthmonitoringclientscanconnectdirectlytoanESXserver,ortothevCenterServerthatmanagesanESXserver.ClientsthatconnecttovCenterServercanviewhardwarehealthinformationforanymanagedESXserverthroughasingleconnection.
Programmatic Interfaces for Health MonitoringForthosewhowantthepowerandflexibilitytodesigntheirownhealthmonitoringsolutions,VMwaresupportsthefollowingprotocols.Twoofthemareindustrystandardprotocols,andoneisaproprietaryAPIdesignedspecificallyformanagingvSpheredatacenters:
CIM(CommonInformationModel)
SNMP(SimpleNetworkManagementProtocol)
vSphereWebServicesAPI(WSAPI)
VMware, Inc. 2
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Figure 1. Health Monitoring APIs
Thisdocumentusesthetermnotificationinagenericsense,includingbothSNMPtrapsandCIMindications.
ThearrowsinFigure 1andFigure 2representinitialmessages,whetherrequestsornotifications.Noarrowsareshownforreplies.
Polling and Notification
Allthreeoftheseinterfacesofferbothpollingandasynchronousnotificationcapabilities.
NotificationsforSNMPandCIMconformtoasubscribepushmodel,whereasWSAPIeventsuseadelayedreplymodeltoapproximateasynchronousnotifications.TheWaitForUpdatesfunctionkeepsarequestopenuntiltheserverhaschangestoreport.
VMware API Language Bindings
TheWSAPIislanguageagnostic.TheAPIisdefinedinaWebServicesDescriptionLanguage(WSDL)file.YoucanbindtheWSDLtoyourchoiceofclientsidestubs.
VMwareprovidesclientbindingsforPerlintheVMwarevSphereSDKforPerl.TheSDKincludesanadditionalAPIlayerthatyoucanusetosimplifycommonoperations.
ThevSphereSDKforPerlalsocontainsanAPIforCIMoperations.APerlclientcanaccesseithertheCIMOM(CIMObjectManager)ortheHostAgenttogatherhardwareinformation.
WS-Management
VMwaresupportstheWSManagementprotocol,inadditiontotheCIMXMLprotocol,forcommunicationswiththeCIMOM.Clientscanuseeitherprotocol,buttheVMwarevSphereSDKforPerlcontainsclientlibrariestosupportWSManagementfunctions.
Table 1. Polling and Notification Capabilities
Polling Notification
SNMP get,getnext SNMPtraps
CIM getinstance,enumerateinstances CIMindications
WS API RetrieveProperties Events(WaitForUpdates)
SNMPclient
SNMP trapreceiver
SNMP agent CIMOM
CIMclient
Indicationconsumer
Host Agent
data notification data notification
GetInstanceetc.
Trap Indication
RetrievePropertiesWaitForUpdates
GetRequestetc.
ESX
vCenterServer
WS API client
data notification
VMware, Inc. 3
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Figure 2. VMware Perl APIs in Health Monitoring Clients
Command-Line Interfaces for Health MonitoringCLIsareavailableforallthreeprotocolssupportedbyVMware.
ThevSpherePowerCLIinterfacesupportsmanystandardPowerShelloptions.Thecapabilitytopipe.NETobjectsfromonecommandtoanothergivesyouconsiderablepowerinmanagingvSphereobjectsfromthecommandline.
Graphical Interfaces for Health MonitoringAnumberofcommercialGUIclientsthatuseSNMPareavailableforhealthmonitoring,suchasHP Openview,IBMTivoliNetcool,andDellOpenManage.
VMwareprovidesthevSphereClientformanagingESXdatacenters.ThevSphere ClienttakesadvantageofboththeCIMAPIandtheWebServicesAPItogatherinformationaboutthehardware.ItusestheWSAPIformostmanagementtasks,andtheCIMAPIforhardwarehealthmonitoring.
vSphere Client Health Status DisplayWhenyouconnectthevSphereClienttoasingleESXhost,itdisplaysdatarelatedonlytothathost.HealthmonitoringdataisavailableontheConfigurationtabintheHealthStatuspaneoftheHardwaredisplay.Figure 3,PowerSupplySensor,onpage 4showsanexampleofthevSphereClientdisplaywhenconnectedtoasinglehost.
WhenyouconnectthevSphereClienttovCenterServer,itdisplaysdataforallESXhostsmanagedbyvCenter Server.Afteryouselectahostintheinventorypane,thehealthstatusdisplayforthathostisavailableontheHardwareStatustab.YoumighthavetoscrollthroughthetabsiftheHardwareStatustabisnotvisible.Figure 4,TemperatureSensor,onpage 5showsanexampleofthevSphereClientdisplaywhenconnectedtovCenterServer.
ThevSphereClientdisplayshealthinformationashealthstatussensors.Asensorcanrepresenteitherhardwareorsoftwaredata.
SNMPclient
SNMP trapreceiver
SNMP agent CIMOM
CIM clientIndicationconsumer WS API client
Host Agent
GetInstanceetc.
Trap Indication
RetrievePropertiesWaitForUpdates
GetRequestetc.
ESX
vCenterServer
Perl Perl
Table 2. CLIs for Monitoring Hardware Health
SNMP snmpget,snmpgetnext,snmpwalk
CIM wbemcli,owexecwql,wbemop,cimcli
WS API VMwarevSpherePowerCLI
VMware, Inc. 4
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Hardware HealthAhardwaresensorrepresentsalogicalinterpretationofoneormorephysicalmeasurementsinthehostmachine,suchasavoltagemonitoronapowersupplyoutput.
AhardwaresensordisplayedbythevSphereClientmightnotcorrespondtoasinglephysicalmeasurement.Forexample,whenyouconnecttovCenterServer,youmightseeonesensorthatisanaggregaterepresentationofthehealthofanentirehost.Theaggregatesystemhealthsensorisawaytorollupsimilarsensordataacrossalldevicesinthesystem.
Figure 3showsanexampleofahardwaresensorthatreportsapowersupplyvoltagewithinnormallimitsforpowersupply#1.ThesensorvalueisNormal.
Inthesamefigure,powersupply#2isnotreportedwithinnormallimits.ItsstatusisUnknown.Thismightbetheresultofthepowersupplybeingturnedoff.
Figure 3. Power Supply Sensor
Figure 4onpage 5showsatemperaturesensorwithanabsolutereadingthatiswithinitsnormalrange.Thetemperaturesensorisconfiguredwithnoncriticalandcriticaltemperaturelimits.Ifthetemperatureeverexceedsitsconfiguredlimits,thegreeniconintheStatuscolumnwillchangetoaredoryellowcolor,indicatingeitheracriticalproblemoradegradedstatus.
VMware, Inc. 5
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Figure 4. Temperature Sensor
Software HealthThevSphereClientdisplayssoftwareinformationasasensor.Asoftwaresensorreportsadescriptionofaninstalledsoftwareorfirmwaremodule.SoftwaresensorsaredisplayedforsystemBIOS,devicedrivers,andvirtualmachinehypervisors.Figure 5showssomesoftwaresensors,includingthenameandversionoftheESXhypervisor.
Figure 5. Software Sensor
VMware, Inc. 6
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Sensors Displayed in the vSphere ClientThesetofsensorsdisplayedforanESXhostdependsonthespecifichardware.Thisdocumentcannotgiveacompletelistofallthesensorsyousee.
SensorsdisplayedinthevSphereClientaregroupedbytype.Forinstance,allsensorsrelatedtopowersuppliesareshowntogether,andallsensorsrelatedtofansareshowntogether.ThesensorgroupsyouseeinthevSphereClientmightincludesomeorallofthesegroups:
Processors
Memory
Power
Voltage
Temperature
Fan
Network
SoftwareComponents
Yourhardwaremightshowfewergroupsormoregroupsthanthislist,dependingonwhatsensorsareactuallypresent.TheversionoftheESXhypervisoralsoaffectswhichsensorgroupsareshown.
How the vSphere Client Collects Sensor DataThevSphereClientcollectssensordataindifferentways,dependingonthesensortypeandtheservertowhichyouconnect.Regardlessofthedatasource,itishandledbytheCIMObjectManager(CIMOM)andconformstotheCIMstandard.
Figure 6onpage 7showsthebasicCIMarchitectureonanESXhost.
Hardware SensorsManyofthesensorsdisplayedforanESXhostarederivedfrominformationreportedbytheIntelligentPlatformManagementInterface(IPMI)builtintothehardware.TheIPMIstandarddefinesacrossplatformarchitectureforcollectingandcommunicatinginformationaboutthehardware.
AdditionalinformationaboutthehostisgatheredfromtheSMBIOSsubsystemonthehost.
Software SensorsSoftwaresensorsinthevSphereClientderivefromdatareportedbyadifferentprovider.Thisdatareportstheinstalledsoftwareandcurrentversioninformation.AnysoftwarethatispackagedandinstalledasavSphereInstallationBundle(VIB)isrepresentedasasoftwaresensor,includingESXdriversandthehypervisoritself.
Collecting and Reporting Health DataIfyouconnectthevSphereClienttoanESXhostratherthantovCenterServer,thesensordatayouseeinthevSphereClientiscollecteddirectlyfromthathost.IfyouconnectthevSphereClienttovCenterServer,youhaveaccesstosensorsforalltheESXhoststhatvCenterServermanages.
Collecting Health Data on an ESX Host
TheCIMsubsystemthatrunsonanESXhostincludesaCIMOMandanumberofCIMdataproviders.TheCIMOMgathersdatafromtheprovidersandreturnsthedatatoarequestingsoftwaremoduleusingastandardCIMcommunicationprotocol.
NOTETheSoftwareComponentsgroupisintroducedinvSphere4.1.EarlierversionsofVMwaresoftwaredonotreportinstalledsoftware.
VMware, Inc. 7
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Figure 6representsatypicalsetofprovidersthatsupplydataforhardwarehealthstatusreporting,includingaprovidersuppliedbyathirdpartystoragehardwarevendor.Thirdpartyprovidersmightnotbepresentonyourhardware.
Figure 6. Hardware Health Status Providers on an ESX
