Default Parameters for VCAlarmTest

This test when executed periodically enables the eG agent to read the alarms triggered and logged in the vCenter alarm console. This test reports the count of alarms that are currently triggered and also the reports the count of informational alarms, critical alarms etc. Administrators can use the detailed diagnostics to identify the exact alarms that were triggered and initiate troubleshooting to resolve the alarms at the earliest.

This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the VCAlarmTest test.

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

• In the HOST text box, specify the host for which the test is to be configured.

• To connect to vCenter and extract metrics from it, this test should be configured with 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 users 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 and confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box. The steps for assigning this role to a user on vCenter have been detailed in the Monitoring VMware Infrastructures chapter document.

  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 Stop Sessions on vCenter. For this purpose, you can create a special role on vCenter, grant the View and Stop Sessions privilege (prior to vCenter 4.1, this was called the View and Terminate Sessions privilege) to this role, and then assign the new role to a local/domain user to vCenter. The steps for this have been discussed in the Monitoring VMware Infrastructures chapterdocument.

• 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.

• By default, in most virtualized environments, vCenter listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) 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.

• By default, the SHOW DD INFO ALARMS flag is set to No indicating that detailed metrics will not be collected by default for the Info alarms measure reported by this test. If you wish this test to report detailed diagnostics for the Info alarms measure, set this flag to Yes.

• By default, the SHOW DD UNKNOWN ALARMS flag is set to No indicating that detailed metrics will not be collected by default for the Unknown alarms measure reported by this test. If you wish this test to report detailed diagnostics for the Unknown alarms measure, set this flag to Yes.

• By default, the SHOW DD WARN ALARMS flag is set to Yes indicating that detailed metrics will be collected and reported as part of detailed diagnosis for the Warning alarms measure reported by this test. If you do not wish to report detailed diagnostics for the Warning alarms measure, set this flag to No.

• By default, the SHOW DD CRITICAL ALARMS flag is set to Yes indicating that detailed metrics will be collected and reported as part of detailed diagnosis for the Critical alarms measure reported by this test. If you do not wish to report detailed diagnostics for the Critical alarms measure, set this flag to No.

• Once the above values are provided, click on the UPDATE button to register the changes made.

When changing default configurations of tests, the values with “$” indicate variables that will be replaced by the eG system according to the specific server being managed - for instance, $hostName is the host/nickname of the target host, $port is the port number of the server being monitored. E.g., for a server xyz:80, $hostName will be changed automatically by the eG manager to “xyz*” and $port will be changed to “80” when configuring a test.