Is there a way to get alarms from vCenter that arent host or VM related? There are lots of alarms in vCenter for example certificate status, licensing, services and so on. Some of them can be covered by observing the host. Others cant. How can we observe this values?
Monitor vCenter
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43 Replies
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At the moment we have no sensor that covers this. I will however send you an email shortly with another version of the VMware sensors that are capable to doing what you ask for to test it.
Kind regards.
Created on Jun 30, 2016 2:36:01 PM by
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@Iniano: You've got mail.
Kind regards.
Created on Aug 4, 2016 1:59:46 PM by
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Hi Frank,
You've got mail.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Dec 9, 2016 10:51:38 AM by
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Hi Yannick,
I've just sent you an email with instructions how to set it up. At this point I'm afraid there is no final ETA for "fully integrating" the sensor.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Feb 10, 2017 11:35:23 AM by
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Hi Anthony,
Sure, mail sent.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Mar 20, 2017 7:27:45 PM by
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Hi Chezenko,
Of course you can ;)
Mail's out, kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Jun 9, 2017 12:54:17 PM by
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Hi Roy,
Sure, you've got mail :)
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Jun 14, 2017 6:01:32 AM by
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Hello Tyson,
Nothing new so far I'm afraid, mail's out.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Aug 28, 2017 11:39:05 AM by
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Hi Ralph,
You've got mail.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Sep 4, 2017 2:32:24 PM by
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Hi André,
Sure, you've got mail.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Sep 12, 2017 2:09:40 PM by
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Hi smittycsi,
You've got mail.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Oct 12, 2017 7:30:55 AM by
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Hello Søren,
You've got mail.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Dec 18, 2017 4:55:31 PM by
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Hi Tamas,
You've got mail.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Feb 19, 2018 10:56:31 AM by
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Hi Marcel,
You've got mail.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Feb 21, 2018 12:15:26 PM by
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Here the instructions for everyone interested:
1. Download
2. Copy the file "VMWareSensorAlarms.exe" to the path <PRTG installation folder>\Custom Sensors\EXEXML\
2.1 In case a Remote Probe should run this sensor, perform step 1 on this very probe.
3. Now create an "EXE/Script Advanced" sensor. (It must be the "Advanced" version!) Please pick the VMWareSensorAlarms.exe file as sensor.
4. You also need to set the correct parameters in the sensor. Here is an example:
-s="%host" -m=group-d1 -u="%windowsdomain\%windowsuser" -p="%windowspassword" -alarms -sessionstore="C:\ProgramData\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor\Sensordata (NonPersistent)\VMware Sessionpool"
(In case you have configured a different data-path for your PRTG installation, adjust the path accordingly)
Most parameters should be self-explanatory. The -m parameter is used to set the view. "group-d1" should give you the view of the entire vCenter server. If you just want to check some sections, please use the Managed Object Browser (on the vCenter server, just add /mob to the URL) to get the according names.
Please note that the sensor is a "proof of concept" right now. Currently it's unlikely that it will make its way into PRTG as a standard "stock sensor".
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Mar 19, 2018 9:02:05 AM by
Last change on Mar 19, 2018 9:05:05 AM by
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Hello Chris,
I see what I can find out and post an update here.
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Nov 9, 2018 6:39:55 AM by
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Hello Chris and to everyone else interested,
First of all, sorry for the late reply.
So here's a quick recap of this sensor aka "What happened so far":
- The sensor was not developed by our sensor developer team, it was a "side-project" from one of our admins who initially also built the VMware Sensors.
- The executable was provided "as is" to anyone interested. Overall interest was not that huge, also feedback about it was quite scarce.
- Now the admin who initially created this file, is no longer able to maintain it any further and the sensor team does not know the code at all and would need to start from scratch and sensor team have their hands full with other tasks.
In the end the executable needs some overhauling and recompiling as well based on newer .NET versions in order to cope with stuff like working with hosts where certain TLS versions were disabled and alike, which the current build is not able to deal with properly.
Since it's no official sensor, we cannot treat this as a bug per se that needs to be fixed, I'm afraid, due to the aforementioned reasons/the sensor's "history".
Therefor we currently would suggest to post this as a feature request as mentioned here. That way there is at least a chance it could make it into a standard sensor in the future. Of course feel free to fill out the feature request outlining how the sensor ideally should work. I mean the sensor basically dumps lots of messages into the "Messages" area of the sensor, without any formatting like simple breaks and alike, this would be a good opportunity to address this as well, meaning how the data could be presented "prettier".
Kind regards,
Erhard
Created on Dec 3, 2018 2:55:01 PM by
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Thanks for providing the PowerShell Script Florian! I have modified it quite a bit, to fix some issues i have personally encountered. This is my Lookup file, adding Status 3 to show failed logins of Connect-VIServer
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ValueLookup id="vmware.alerts.search" desiredValue="0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="PaeValueLookup.xsd" undefinedState="Warning">
<Lookups>
<SingleInt state="Ok" value="0">Overall Status - Green - OK</SingleInt>
<SingleInt state="Warning" value="1">Overall Status - Yellow - Warning</SingleInt>
<SingleInt state="Error" value="2">Overall Status - Red - Error</SingleInt>
<SingleInt state="Error" value="3">Overall Status - Red - Sensor Error! Can't connect to vCenter Server</SingleInt>
</Lookups>
</ValueLookup>
This is the PowerShell script: My Changes: - Moving variable declarations up, so OverallStatus can be set on Connect-VIServer - Added a check for Connect-VIServer returning false, thus setting OverallStatus to 3(Sensor Error) - Changed =+ for += (I don't know if this worked before, but when i tested it didn't work with =+) - Fixed typo in Overwall (Overall) Status Channel - Fixed math in Channel Total Warnings and Alerts - NOT Acknowledged
#make sure the executing user and system has those two commands run
#Find-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
#Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
#useful command
#Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP:$false -confirm:$false
#Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction ignore -confirm:$false
#
#alternative look here: https://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2017/04/powercli-install-process-powershell-gallery.html
param(
[string] $VCenterServer = "",
[string] $DomainAndUser = "",
[string] $Password = ""
)
[int] $Warnings = 0
[int] $WarningsAck = 0
[int] $Alerts = 0
[int] $AlertsAck = 0
[int] $OverallStatus = 0 #default green
Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI
#avoid unecessary output
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP:$false -confirm:$false
#avoid certificate issues
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction ignore -confirm:$false
if(!(Connect-VIServer $VCenterServer -username "$DomainAndUser" -Password "$Password")) {
$OverallStatus = 3
}
$colAlarms = (Get-DataCenter).ExtensionData.TriggeredAlarmState
$XML = "<PRTG>"
if ($colAlarms.Count -gt 0) {
foreach ($entry in $colAlarms) {
if ($entry.OverallStatus -eq "yellow") {
$Warnings += 1
if ($entry.Acknowledged) {
$WarningsAck += 1
} else { #we only increase the overall status if this alert is not acknowledged
if ($OverallStatus -lt 1)
{
$OverallStatus = 1
}
}
} elseif ($entry.OverallStatus -eq "red") {
$Alerts += 1
if ($entry.Acknowledged) {
$AlertsAck += 1
} else { #we only increase the overall status if this alert is not acknowledged
if ($OverallStatus -lt 2)
{
$OverallStatus = 2
}
}
}
}
}
$XML += "<result><channel>Overall Status</channel><value>" + $OverallStatus + "</value><ValueLookup>vmware.alerts.search</ValueLookup></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings and Alerts</channel><value>" + $colAlarms.Count + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings and Alerts - NOT Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($colAlarms.Count - ($WarningsAck + $AlertsAck)) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings and Alerts - Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($WarningsAck + $AlertsAck) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings</channel><value>" + $Warnings + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings - NOT Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($Warnings - $WarningsAck) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings - Acknowledged</channel><value>" + $WarningsAck + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Alerts</channel><value>" + $Alerts + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Alerts - NOT Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($Alerts - $AlertsAck) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Alerts - Acknowledged</channel><value>" + $AlertsAck + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "</PRTG>"
Function WriteXmlToScreen ([xml]$xml) #just to make it clean XML code...
{
$StringWriter = New-Object System.IO.StringWriter;
$XmlWriter = New-Object System.Xml.XmlTextWriter $StringWriter;
$XmlWriter.Formatting = "indented";
$xml.WriteTo($XmlWriter);
$XmlWriter.Flush();
$StringWriter.Flush();
Write-Output $StringWriter.ToString();
}
#Clear
WriteXmlToScreen "$XML"
The following script also records the messages from the vCenter Appliance and not only from the DataCenter level:
#make sure the executing user and system has those two commands run
#Find-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
#Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
#useful command
#Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP:$false -confirm:$false
#Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction ignore -confirm:$false
#
#alternative look here: https://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2017/04/powercli-install-process-powershell-gallery.html
param(
[string] $VCenterServer = "",
[string] $DomainAndUser = "",
[string] $Password = ""
)
[int] $Warnings = 0
[int] $WarningsAck = 0
[int] $Alerts = 0
[int] $AlertsAck = 0
[int] $OverallStatus = 0 #default green
#Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI
#avoid unecessary output
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope User -ParticipateInCEIP:$false -confirm:$false
#avoid certificate issues
Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction ignore -confirm:$false
if(!(Connect-VIServer $VCenterServer -username "$DomainAndUser" -Password "$Password")) {
$OverallStatus = 3
}
#$colAlarms = (Get-DataCenter).ExtensionData.TriggeredAlarmState #Datacenter without vcenter messages
$colAlarms = (Get-Folder -Name Datacenters).ExtensionData.TriggeredAlarmState #Datacenter with vcenter messages e.g. vcenter root password expired
$XML = "<PRTG>"
if ($colAlarms.Count -gt 0) {
foreach ($entry in $colAlarms) {
if ($entry.OverallStatus -eq "yellow") {
$Warnings += 1
if ($entry.Acknowledged) {
$WarningsAck += 1
} else { #we only increase the overall status if this alert is not acknowledged
if ($OverallStatus -lt 1)
{
$OverallStatus = 1
}
}
} elseif ($entry.OverallStatus -eq "red") {
$Alerts += 1
if ($entry.Acknowledged) {
$AlertsAck += 1
} else { #we only increase the overall status if this alert is not acknowledged
if ($OverallStatus -lt 2)
{
$OverallStatus = 2
}
}
}
}
}
$XML += "<result><channel>Overall Status</channel><value>" + $OverallStatus + "</value><ValueLookup>vmware.alerts.search</ValueLookup></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings and Alerts</channel><value>" + $colAlarms.Count + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings and Alerts - NOT Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($colAlarms.Count - ($WarningsAck + $AlertsAck)) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings and Alerts - Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($WarningsAck + $AlertsAck) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings</channel><value>" + $Warnings + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings - NOT Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($Warnings - $WarningsAck) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Warnings - Acknowledged</channel><value>" + $WarningsAck + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Alerts</channel><value>" + $Alerts + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Alerts - NOT Acknowledged</channel><value>" + ($Alerts - $AlertsAck) + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "<result><channel>Total Alerts - Acknowledged</channel><value>" + $AlertsAck + "</value><CustomUnit>#</CustomUnit></result>"
$XML += "</PRTG>"
Function WriteXmlToScreen ([xml]$xml) #just to make it clean XML code...
{
$StringWriter = New-Object System.IO.StringWriter;
$XmlWriter = New-Object System.Xml.XmlTextWriter $StringWriter;
$XmlWriter.Formatting = "indented";
$xml.WriteTo($XmlWriter);
$XmlWriter.Flush();
$StringWriter.Flush();
Write-Output $StringWriter.ToString();
}
#Clear
WriteXmlToScreen "$XML"
Last change on Jan 29, 2024 7:40:31 AM by
Disclaimer: The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.
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