vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring - Technical Note ...
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 - Technical Note ...
-
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 Host
Collecting Health Data in vCenter Server
WhenyouconnectthevSphereClienttovCenterServer,youcanaccessdatafromanyhostmanagedbyvCenterServer.ThedataiscollectedbyavCenterServerpluginthatactsasaCIMclienttoeachhostandstorestheresponsesinitslocaldatabase.Thepluginrefreshesthedataatregularintervals.
AconnectiontovCenterServerprovidestheadditionaladvantagethatsystemhealthforeachhostissummarizedinasinglesensor.ThisisnotavailablewithadirectconnectiontoanESXhost.
Figure 7. vCenter Server Plug-In as a CIM Client
Third-Party Health Monitoring Features in the vSphere ClientESXhostmachinesthatyougetfromthirdpartiesmightreportanexpandedsetofsensordata.Theadditionalsensorscancomefromdifferentsources.However,thirdpartiesmustuseCIMproviderstocollectsensordataandreportitthroughtheCIMOM.Thirdpartiescan,iftheychoose,implementpluginsforthevSphere Clientthatdisplaythedataindifferentways.
IPMI &SMBIOSproviders
softwarestatus
provider(s)
system healthsummaryprovider
storagesubsystemprovider(s)
CIM client
CIM Object Manager
Hardware
Hypervisor and Device Drivers
CIMOM CIMOM CIMOM CIMOM
vSphere Client
vCenterServer
-
VMware, Inc. 8
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Figure 8. Third-Party Health Monitoring Extensions
Figure 8showswherethirdpartyvendorscanaddsoftwaretoextendtheoutofboxhardwarehealthmonitoringfeatures.
PluginstothevSphereClient:SeeCustomTabsinvSphereClientonpage 9
CIMproviders:SeeThirdPartyHardwareSensorsonpage 8
CIMIPMIExtensionproviders:SeeThirdPartyHardwareSensorsonpage 8
Devicedriversandkernelmoduledrivers:SeeThirdPartyHardwareSensorsonpage 8
ThirdpartyvendorscanfinddocumentationandinformationabouttheVMwarepartnerprogramathttp://www.vmware.com/partners.
Third-Party Hardware SensorsTheVMwareCIMsoftwarecollectssensordatafromtheIPMIsubsystemandreportsitasdescribedinSensorsDisplayedinthevSphereClientonpage 6.AllhardwaresensorsthatconformtotheIPMIstandardarecollected.Thirdpartiesdonotneedtoaddsoftwareproviderstotakeadvantageofthisfunctionality.
ThirdpartiesmaychoosetoimplementdataprovidersthatuseproprietaryprotocolstocollectdataontheESXhost,whileusingtheCIMOMtopassdatatothevSphereClientbywayofvCenterServer.ThirdpartyprovidersneedonlytranslatetheproprietarydataintostandardCIMsensordata,whichisreportedinthesamewayasIPMIstandardsensors.
Informationaboutdiskstorageresourcesmightbeavailablefromathirdpartyhardwarevendor.Avendorcanchoosetoimplementaproviderthatsuppliesaseparatesetofsensordatathatisspecifictothestoragetype.StoragesensorsaredisplayedinaseparategroupthataugmentsthelistofsensorgroupsdescribedinSensorsDisplayedinthevSphereClientonpage 6.
ThirdpartiescreateCIMprovidersusingtheVMwareCIMProviderDevelopmentKit.CustomdriversorkernelmodulescanbecreatedusingtheVMwareDeviceDriverDevelopmentKitortheVMware Kernel Module Development Kit.
Third-Party Software SensorsTheVMwareCIMsoftwarecollectsinformationaboutsoftwaresuppliedbythirdpartyvendorsaswellasbyVMwareitself.IfathirdpartypackagesitssoftwareintoVIBfiles,userswillseethesoftwarereportedinthelistofsoftwaresensors,andthevendordoesnotneedtowriteCIMprovidersforit.
VMwareproviders
3rd partyprovider(s)
IPMIExtensionprovider(s)
Hardware
VMware Hypervisorand Drivers
3rd Party Device andKernel Module Drivers
vCenterServer
vSphereclient
3rdParty
Plug-In
CIM Object Manager
http:www.vmware.com/partners
-
VMware, Inc. 9
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
Custom Tabs in vSphere ClientThirdpartyvendorsalsohavetheoptiontodisplayhoststatusinadifferentforminthevSphereClient.WiththevSphereClientarchitecture,thirdpartiescancustomizethevSphereClient.CustomizationincludesthecapabilitytoaddnewtabstothevSphereClient.
ThirdpartyextensionsinthevSphereClientcansortthedataandrouteittoavendorspecifichealthmonitoringtabfordisplay.CustomtabscandisplaythedatainmorespecificandmeaningfulwaysthantheVMwaretab,orincludethirdpartybranding.
SeeCustomizingthevSphereClientforinformationaboutaddingtabstothevSphereClient.
Purchasing AdviceIfyouarepurchasinghardwaretouseasanESXhost,considerthesefactors:
1 VMwarerecommendsthatyouconsulttheVMwareCompatibilityGuideathttp://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.ThisisaninteractiveWebpagethathelpsyoudeterminewhetherVMwaresupportsthehardwarethatyouareconsidering.SupportedhardwareiscompatiblewiththeIPMIstandard,whichallowstheCIMsubsystemtocollecthardwaresensordata.
2 ServerhardwaresupportedbyVMwarecanbemonitoredintheHealthStatusdisplay.ThevSphere ClientreportsasetofsensorgroupssimilartothesetshowninSensorsDisplayedinthevSphereClientonpage 6.
3 Forsomehardwaremodelswithadditionalthirdpartyvendorsoftwaresupport,otherhealthmonitoringdatamightbeavailable.Contactthevendorforspecificsabouthealthmonitoringsupportforanyspecificmodelyouhaveinmind.
4 AnyCIMclientcanaccessthesamedataasthevSphereClient,includingdatafromthirdpartyproviders.YoucandevelopyourownCIMclientorpurchaseaCIMmanagementclientfromathirdpartysoftwarevendor.CustomCIMclientscanalsoaccessadditionalvendorspecificCIMdataandpresentthedatainotherways.
-
10
vSphere Client Hardware Health Monitoring
If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: [email protected]
VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.comCopyright 2010 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Item: EN-000466-00
http://www.vmware.com/go/patentsmailto:[email protected]
vSphere Client Hardware Health MonitoringPurpose of This DocumentHardware Health Monitoring OptionsProgrammatic Interfaces for Health MonitoringPolling and NotificationVMware API Language Bindings
Command-Line Interfaces for Health MonitoringGraphical Interfaces for Health Monitoring
vSphere Client Health Status DisplayHardware HealthSoftware Health
Sensors Displayed in the vSphere ClientHow the vSphere Client Collects Sensor DataHardware SensorsSoftware SensorsCollecting and Reporting Health DataCollecting Health Data on an ESX HostCollecting Health Data in vCenter Server
Third-Party Health Monitoring Features in the vSphere ClientThird-Party Hardware SensorsThird-Party Software SensorsCustom Tabs in vSphere Client
Purchasing Advice
