Configuration of VCEventsTest

The VCEventsTest enables administrators to promptly capture and report the count and details of critical information, error, warning, and user events that are generated on the vCenter server.

The default parameters associated with this test are as follows:

By default, this test monitors a pre-defined set of events belonging to pre-configured event categories. You can override this default setting by including/excluding specific events from an event category. For this purpose, the eG administrative interface provides a VCENTER EVENTS page. To configure the events to be monitored using the VCENTER EVENTS page, click on the Click here hyperlink above the list of parameters in this page.

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• In the HOST text box, the host name of the server for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

• In the PORT text box, specify the port to which the vCenter listens. By default, this is NULL.

• In the VC USER and VC PASSWORD text boxes, you need to specify the name and password of a user with Administrator or Virtual Machine Administrator privileges to vCenter. However, if, owing to security constraints, you are not able to use the credentials of such a user for test configuration, then you can configure this test with the credentials of a user with Read-only rights to vCenter. For this purpose, you can assign the ‘Read-only’ role to a local/domain user to vCenter, and then specify name and password of this user against the VC USER and VC PASSWORD text boxes.

  vCenter servers terminate user sessions based on timeout periods. The default timeout period is 30 mins. When you stop an agent, sessions currently in use by the agent will remain open for this timeout period until vCenter times out the session. If the agent is restarted within the timeout period, it will open a new set of sessions. If you want the eG agent to close already existing sessions on vCenter before it opens new sessions, then, instead of the ‘Read-only’ user, you can optionally configure the VC USER and VC PASSWORD parameters with the credentials of a user with permissions to View and Terminate Sessions on vCenter. For this purpose, you can create a special role on vCenter, grant the View and Terminate Sessions privilege to this role, and then assign the new role to a local/domain user to vCenter.

• Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box

• By default, the vCenter server is SSL-enabled. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to Yes by default. This indicates that the eG agent will communicate with the vCenter server via HTTPS by default.

• Set the SHOWALLONLY flag to Yes, if you wish to view only the consolidated metrics of all the events of this test. This indicates that the All descriptor will alone be listed for this test. By default, this flag is set to No.

• By default, SHOWALLEVENTS flag is set to Yes. This implies that the test, in addition to reporting metrics for configured event categories, will also report metrics for an All descriptor. Typically, the measures reported by the All descriptor will be the aggregate of the measures reported by all the other descriptors of this test - i.e., every measure reported by the All descriptor will actually return the sum of the values that all configured events have registered for that measure. This enables administrators to easily assess the overall performance of events configured for monitoring on a vCenter server.

• By default, in most virtualized environments, vCenter listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabeld) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled) only. This implies that while monitoring vCenter, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 80 or 443, depending upon the SSL-enabled status of vCenter - i.e., if vCenter is not SSL-enabled (i.e., if the SSL flag above is set to No), then the eG agent connects to vCenter using port 80 by default, and if vCenter is SSL-enabled ((i.e., if the SSL flag is set to Yes), then the agent-vCenter communication occurs via port 443 by default. Accordingly, the WEBPORT parameter is set to default by default.

  In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the WEBPORT parameter, you can specify the exact port at which vCenter in your environment listens, so that the eG agent communicates with that port for collecting metrics from vCenter.

• Typically, if the DETAILED DIAGNOSIS flag is set to On for this test, then periodically, eG Enterprise collects the complete details of all the information, error, warning, and user events generated on vCenter, and stores them in the database. This way, whenever a user clicks on the DIAGNOSIS icon (magnifying glass icon) corresponding to any of the measures reported by this test in the monitoring console, eG Enterprise retrieves the relevant detailed diagnosis information from the database and provides it to the user. In large virtualized environments however, the number of information events generated on the vCenter server will be quite huge. Naturally, the detailed diagnosis of such events will also occupy a considerable amount of database space, which will only grow with time. In order to minimize the strain on the eG database, by default, the detailed diagnosis capability for the information events alone is turned off in the eG Enterprise system. Accordingly, the SHOW INFORMATION DD flag is set to No by default. However, this flag can be set to Yes, so that detailed diagnosis is available for information events as well.

• DD FREQUENCY refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY.

• To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise suite embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

  The option to selectively enabled/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of "none" in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.