Monitoring Virtual Machines and Infrastructure
Virtual Monitoring provides the monitoring, thresholding, and reporting infrastructure to monitor VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines, hosts, and servers.
Discover
Discovery works differently for virtual servers and virtual machines than for physical devices. Create a discovery profile ( menu ) that enables you to discover management services (such as VMware vCenters) or else individual hypervisors (Hyper-V, ESX/ESXi) when these hypervisors run in an unmanaged environment. Discovering virtual machines by way of their management services or hypervisor provides continuity of monitoring and logging information and is particularly useful in high-availability environments where VMs 'spin up' according to fault tolerant schemes or workload managers.
: In your discovery scan you must elect to .
Apply the guidelines in this section to ensure WhatsUp Gold learns about the host/guest relationships between the hypervisors and their associated VMs running on your network.
Discovery Scan Prerequisites.
Prerequisites
Before you invoke a discovery scan on your virtual environment, check that you have these:
VMware. Valid VMware credentials are used. VMware Tools are also required.
- VMware Tools must be installed on each virtual machine you deploy. Otherwise, the virtual device will not be discovered during the VMware scan.
- For detailed statistics and system information (for example, VMware Datastore IOPS monitor), add VMware credentials to VMware VMs as well as for the vCenter server.
: If you delete a vCenter from WhatsUp Gold, applicable host/guest relationships will not be recognized. In order to retain these relationships, delete the host as well, then rediscover the host and add it back into WhatsUp Gold.
Hyper-V. Hyper-V devices are discovered when valid Windows credentials are used. Groups and users for passing WMI management objects must be in place. Host OS Application firewalls must align with default Hyper-V firewall rules.
Configure Account Access for Passing WMI
The appropriate Windows users or groups must be configured to allow access to the following WMI namespaces:
- root\cimv2. Allows for discovery of any windows device using WMI.
- root\virtualization\v2. Allows for discovery of Hyper-V host (2012 server, 2012 R2 server, and Windows 8).
- \root\default. Allows for discovery of any additional registry information available.
Align Host OS for Hyper-V/WMI Firewall Rules
The following firewall exceptions must be created:
- Port 135 must be opened for data collection using WMI.
- TCP/UDP traffic must be allowed on ports 1024-65535 or monitored objects using WMI will not be accessible.
WMI communications use a random port between 1024 and 65535 per Microsoft Windows specifications. The actual port used is determined by the remote machine. The port number range is based on the operating system being queried. The administrator can reduce or increase the range in most Windows operating systems.
Check Order of Credentials in the Discovery Scan
WhatsUp Gold attempts discovery using Windows credentials in priority order. The first credential used that is allowed any WMI access is selected. However, if that credential does not have access to each of the required namespaces discussed previously, Windows is successfully detected, but other device details which require additional namespace access fail. The result is the target device is discovered as a Windows device, but is not recognized as a Hyper-V Host.
: Procedures for configuring conditions for successful Hyper-V device discover may vary depending on core versus full installation as well as the operating system on which the configuration is being performed.
Discover Your Virtual Environments from the Top...Down.
When you discover virtual resources, include IP addresses of vCenters or hypervisors in your scan specification rather than individual VMs. WhatsUp Gold becomes aware of individual virtual machines through managing elements (such as vCenters, Hyper-V hosts, and standalone hypervisors) as part of the discovery process.
When including virtual environments in your discovery scan, follow these guidelines:
- Discover management services first (such as VMware vCenter).
- In unmanaged environments (no vCenter and one or more ‘stand-alone’ hypervisors), you can discover individual hypervisors.
- After the discovery scan completes, apply monitoring to all nodes belonging to the virtual environments (select each node and click the button) for each of the vCenter, hypervisors, and virtual machines.
: To ensure that VMware vCenter, cluster, datacenter, hypervisor, and virtual machine relationships are recognized by WhatsUp Gold and later reflected on the Network Map, you must apply/update monitoring (Start/Update Monitoring) to both the managing elements, the hypervisors, and the associated the virtual machines after discovery.
Run Discovery Scan and Apply Monitoring.
Discover VMware Environments
When you run a discovery scan, it is best to configure your scan to learn about VMware hypervisors and virtual machines through management services (such as VMware vCenter). In unmanaged virtual environments with stand-alone hypervisors (with just VMware ESXi, for example), you can discover hypervisors individually.
When hosts are managed by vCenter.
Discovering your virtual resources by way of vCenter is the preferred approach.
Guidelines:
- Provide the IP address of the vCenter at discovery scan time.
- Your Credentials Library ( menu ) must include the WhatsUp Gold VMware credentials for the vCenter.
- (Preferred) include VMware Credentials in WhatsUp Gold for each ESXi host (if they differ from the vCenter credentials). This is best practice, but some host/guest metrics are available through vCenter without them (that is, using only VMware credentials you provided for vCenter).
Discover and add monitoring to a vCenter and its managed elements
- From the IP Address Scan window ( menu ), input the IP address of one or more vCenters. (You can unselect the and checkboxes.)
- In the Settings tab of the IP Address Scan window, click the Checkbox in scan to any virtualization environments.
- In the Credentials tab of the IP Address Scan window, include the appropriate VMware credential, and click to begin the scan.
(Including the VMware credential for vCenter enables WhatsUp Gold to identify the device as a virtual host and learn about its managed hosts and their guest VMs)
Nodes (discovered devices) display on Discovery Map. - After the scan completes, select the VMware vCenter and discovered virtual machine nodes, and click the to add them to My Network Map with their associated default monitors.
Lines of association show relationship between hosts and virtual machines and hosts to their vCenter. - After a few minutes, check the virtual monitoring dashboard ( menu ) to see data gathered from monitors of newly discovered virtual devices.
Tip: If you delete a monitored vCenter from the WhatsUp Gold Network Map, the existing host/guest relationships between its managed virtual hosts and virtual machines will no longer be obvious to WhatsUp Gold. This can also impact the continuity of monitoring and logging. To retain continuity of information and host/guest relationships with WhatsUp Gold after a vCenter deletion, delete each virtual host, re-discover, and from the Discovered Devices Map, use Update Monitoring button to restore these relationships.
When hosts/hypervisors (ESX/ESXi) are run standalone (unmanaged).
For this scenario, your Credentials Library ( menu > ) must include the WhatsUp Gold VMware credential for the VMware host you want to discover.
Discover and add monitoring to stand-alone ESX/ESXi hosts
- From the IP Address Scan window menu ), input the IP address of one or more VMware ESX or ESXi hosts. (You can unselect the Gateway IP and Local Subnet checkboxes.)
- In the tab of the IP Address Scan window, click the checkbox in scan to any virtualization environments.
- In the tab of the IP Address Scan window, include the appropriate VMware credential(s) in your network scan. (Including the VMware credential to the hypervisor enables WhatsUp Gold to identify the device as a virtual host and query it for virtual machine information).
Network nodes (discovered devices) display on Discovery Map and the discovery scan completes. - Select each discovered hypervisor and virtual machine and click the button to add them to My Network Map with default monitors.
Lines of association show relationship between hosts and virtual machines. - After a few minutes, check the virtual monitoring dashboard ( menu ) to see data gathered from monitors of newly discovered virtual devices.
: Where VM endpoints on a network are different than physical devices, can be leveraged as a flexible resource, and typically provisioned on demand, WhatsUp Gold performs a periodic Virtualization Sync task to keep device information current. Device card VM counts are current as of the last periodic scan.
Map/organize/monitor (My Network Map)
Virtual servers and virtual machines can be viewed and monitored like physical devices, but they have distinct roles, additional monitoring capability, added logging, and a specific filter (Virtual Overlay 
) that enables you to bring focus only to virtual devices when viewing them from My Network Map.
Analyze (Dashboard, log, and report)
Analyze log, reporting, and dashboard data to assess performance, quality of service, and impact.
Capture/share/export
Generated Virtual Monitoring report data can be visualized, shared, and reused using Export Data (
) or Dashboard Options (
).
Select a device, click on Monitor Setup 
, then assign and enable individual monitors.
Save grid and chart views as PDF.
Share Monitoring Virtual Machines and Infrastructure reports with other users in a single or combined view.
Email reports, charts, and log data. (Create and then edit/manage from Scheduled Reports.)