VCenter Appliance in Nagios

[future ruins]

Greetings!

I researched this topic and haven't found any useful information so I figured a new thread would be appropriate. Our particular VCenter setup is the VCSA (server appliance) which runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. I initially tried to monitor it with the VMware wizard, but this caused issues so I removed it thinking that the VMware wizard may not be designed for VCenter server.

I then decided to try it with the Linux wizard. I followed the instructions for installing the Linux agent on the VCenter appliance and am receiving this error: ERROR: Could not determine OS. Please make sure lsb_release is installed or your OS info is in /etc/os-release. I couldn't find any information on how to get around this. I'm running it with the root account in an SSH session to the server.

Is this an appropriate way to monitor a VCenter appliance or more specifically, SUSE Linux 11 Enterprise?

Thanks for any feedback!

[Box293]

You may need to install nrpe from source to get it working (and nagios-plugins).

You could monitor via check_by_ssh as this doesn't require anything to be complied on the vCenter server.

https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ng_SSH.pdf

You will still need some plugins on the vCenter server that check_by_ssh will execute.

On a separate note, my plugin box293_check_vmware is an ESXi / vCenter plugin that could monitor your vCenter appliance as it's just another VM.

box293_check_vmware can be downloaded here:
http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Pl ... re/details

There is also a wizard for it:
http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Ad ... rd/details

There is a detailed manual for it which should clearly explain how to get it all setup.

Using box293_check_vmware is how I monitor my vCenter appliance.

[future ruins]

Thanks so much! I'll give this a try. Cheers!

[hsmith]

Thanks so much! I'll give this a try. Cheers!

Let us know if you need anymore assistance!

[[email protected]]

Almost two years since the last update on this post and I still can't find much to monitor the Vmware 6.5 VCSA like I could monitor the Windows-based version.

The VCSA no longer uses SUSE Linux (now Photon - a minimal linux container host) so I can't use the Nagios Linux agent.

It can send SNMP traps (if turned on), but Nagios XI doesn't seem to understand them. Does anyone have anything that would do this?

I could try to use check_by_ssh, but I don't have any scripts or plugins to check anything VCSA-specific.

I suppose I could use box293_check_vmware but it relies on a vSphere Management Assistance (vMA) appliance which was deprecated in May 2016 by Vmware and seems silly to introduce now.
Plus, how am I going to monitor the vMA in case it goes down?

Thoughts?

[dwhitfield]

It can send SNMP traps (if turned on), but Nagios XI doesn't seem to understand them. Does anyone have anything that would do this?

I assume you mean SNMP traps from VCenter. It's not 100% clear if this is related. On the assumption it is, did you set things up using https://assets.nagios.com/downloads/nag ... ios_XI.pdf ?

We do also offer custom development for a fee if you would like us to write a VCSA plugin. Alternatively, you can make a feature request at https://github.com/nagios-plugins/nagio ... issues/new

[Box293]

I am creating a vMA replacement, it is a work in progress however the existing vMA is still a valid solution. The vMA is a virtual machine and like any other VM you can monitor it.

[[email protected]]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the vCenter VCSA can be enabled to send SNMP traps. I've done a little wading through the mib to try to figure out what to add to Nagios, but there's a lot. Was hoping for a shortcut and hoped I didn't have to spend a ton of time experimenting. Hard to believe I'm the first to want to do this.

[scottwilkerson]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the vCenter VCSA can be enabled to send SNMP traps. I've done a little wading through the mib to try to figure out what to add to Nagios, but there's a lot. Was hoping for a shortcut and hoped I didn't have to spend a ton of time experimenting. Hard to believe I'm the first to want to do this.

Yes, wiht all the possibilities with the traps it is a daunting to determine what items to take action on and every org has a different need.

[zeoxygen]

HI,

I have developed a simple script for monitoring VCSA health via HTTP/Rest Api.
Tested with vcsa / vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 Update 1c in my home lab.

Please try it and give me feedback, i will improve it later.

https://exchange.nagios.org/directory/P ... sh/details