This section makes frequent use of data contained in the Technical Requirements.

All relevant sections of the Technical Requirements Data collection should be completed or known before commencing with the steps in this section.

Create vCenter User

VSM requires a user account to be created on vCenter, in order to run API commands which collect the status of the virtual machines running on vCenter.

vCenter users can be created via one of two options:

  1. Local User Option
  2. Active Directory Option

Local User Option

Login to the vSphere web client. You will need administrative privileges to complete these operations.

From the home menu, click on Administration.


In "Administration", click on "Users and Groups".


Choose the correct domain from the domain list.

You can not use 'localos' Domain to Add user.


Click the "ADD USER" link.


Fill in the required user details as per the table below.

FieldDescriptionMandatory / Optional
UsernameEnter Username to be used with VSMMandatory
PasswordEnter PasswordMandatory
Confirm PasswordEnter Password againMandatory
First NameEnter User First NameOptional
Last NameEnter User Last NameOptional
EmailEnter User Email AddressOptional
DescriptionEnter Description for the userOptional

Role Assignment

Navigate to Administration >> Global Permissions


Click on the (plus) icon.


Enter the username created earlier in User/Group field and select 'Read-Only' from the Role dropdown list, then click ok.


Check that what you have entered is correct, if it is then click 'OK'.


Make sure the user appears under User/Group with Role the "Read-only".

Active Directory Option

There are two scenarios for Active Directory:

  1. The client uses Active Directory to create a user and assign permissions via group policy to vCenter Users.
    • If so, ask the Client to create a vCenter account with Read-Only access.
  2. The client uses Active Directory for vCenter user creation only, and not assigning permissions.
    • If so, ask the Client to create a vCenter account via Active Directory, then follow the steps detailed in the Role Assignment section to assign Read-Only permission to the User.

SNMP Configuration

Configure SNMP V1/V2

This consist of the following tasks

Configure SNMP Community String

This step can be skipped if you have Community String Configured

Access the appliance shell and log in as a user who has the administrator or super administrator role

The default user with super administrator role is root.


Run the
 snmp.set --communities command to configure an SNMP community

For example, to configure public, VSM communities, run the following command:


snmp.set --communities public,VSM

Each time you specify a community with this command, the settings you specify overwrite the previous configuration.
To specify multiple communities, separate the community names with a comma.

Additional details can be found here

Configure the SNMP Agent to Send v1 or v2c Notifications

Access the appliance shell and log in as a user who has the administrator or super administrator role

The default user with super administrator role is root.

Make sure SNMP agent is enabled, if not enable it by running snmp.enable command

 Run the snmp.set --targets  target_address@port/community command to send SNMP Notifications to VSM.

Use the following for SNMP target Parameters

FieldDescription
target_addressEnter VSM Probe IP Address
PortEnter the SNMP Port, if no value is specified then the default port 161 will be used
communityEnter the Community String to be used 

For example, run the following command for configuring the targets 192.0.2.1 with community VSM

snmp.set --targets 192.0.2.1/VSM

Each time you specify a target with this command, the settings you specify overwrite all previously specified settings. To specify multiple targets, separate them with a comma.

Run snmp.test command to send a test trap to VSM.

The agent sends a warmStart trap to the configured Agent

Configure SNMP V3

Follow the following Procedure to configure SNMP V3

Configure the SNMP Engine ID

Every SNMP v3 agent has an engine ID, which serves as a unique identifier for the agent. The engine ID is used with a hashing function to generate localized keys for authentication and encryption of SNMP v3 messages.

If you do not specify an engine ID before you enable the SNMP agent, when you enable the standalone SNMP agent, an engine ID is generated.

Access the appliance shell and log in as a user who has the administrator or super administrator role.

The default user with super administrator role is root.

Run the snmp.set  --engineid command to configure the target

The following example shows the required command to configure ID, where ID is a hexadecimal string between 4 and 32 characters.

snmp.set --engineid 80001adc802417e202b8613f5400000000

Additional Details can be found here

Configure SNMP Authentication and Privacy Protocols

Access the appliance shell and log in as a user who has the administrator or super administrator role.

The default user with super administrator role is root.

To Configure authentication protocol run snmp.set  --authentication (Protocol) command

The protocol can be either none, SHA1 or MD5

The following example shows the required configuration to configure authentication protocol as SHA1

snmp.set --authentication  SHA1


To configure privacy protocol run snmp.set  --privacy  (Protocol) command

The protocol can be either none or AES128

The following Example showing the required configuration to configure privacy  protocol as AES128

snmp.set --privacy AES128

Additional Details can be found here

If you are using authentication or privacy, get the authentication and privacy hash values for the user by running snmp.hash --auth_hash --priv_hash

Configure SNMP V3 Users

Access the appliance shell and log in as a user who has the administrator or super administrator role.

The default user with super administrator role is root.

If you are using authentication or privacy, get the authentication and privacy hash values for the user by running snmp.hash --auth_hash 

The following example shows the required configuration to set up secret1 as the path to the file containing the user's authentication password and secret2 as the path to the file containing the user's privacy password

snmp.hash --auth_hash secret1--priv_hash secret2

Configure the user by running snmp.set --user (userid)/(authhash)/(privhash)/(security) command

Snmp.set  --user command parameters Table

ParameterDescription
useridEnter Username
authhashEnter authentication hash value if any
privhashEnter the privacy hash value if any
Security
  • Enter auth for authentication  only
  • Enter priv for authentication and privacy
  • Enter none for no authentication and privacy

Additional Details can be found here

Configure SNMP V3 Targets

Access the appliance shell and log in as a user who has the administrator or super administrator role.

The default user with super administrator role is root.

Run snmp.set --v3targets (hostname@port)/(userid)/(seclevel)/(trap)


snmp.set --v3targets command parameters Table

ParameterDescription
hostnameEnter VSM Probe IP Address
portEnter the port you want to use, if not specified the default 161 will be used
useridEnter SNMP v3 user name
secLevel
  • Enter none if you have not configured authentication and privacy protocol
  • Enter auth if you have configured authentication only
  • Enter priv if you have configured both authentication and privacy

Additional Details can be found here


Web Portal Configuration

Add vCenter

Log in to the VSM web portal using your credentials and password.

For the particular customer, select Service Desk > Equipment Locations. Right-click on the Equipment Location that will serve this vCenter and select 'Manage Equipment':

At the bottom of the 'Manage Equipment' page, click on the 'Add Equipment' button.

Select the Vendor 'VMWare' and the Product 'vCenter '.

If you are adding more than one piece of the same equipment type, check the 'Add another' box at the bottom of the form and the bulk of the configuration will be carried over for the next item.


Web Portal - Add vCenter Field Description

FieldSetting
VendorVMware
ProductvCenter
Equipment Name

Friendly name

UsernameAPI Username@domainname
PasswordAPI Password
IP Address / Host NameIP Address or Hostname of the vCenter server
SiteFriendly name for the site (where this server is located)


SNMP

Complete the Equipment tab and then click on the ‘SNMP Query’ tab.

Click on the down arrow, and select the SNMP version you wish VSM to use for querying the equipment:

SNMP V1 or V2

FieldSetting

Version

V1, V2

SNMP Community String

Community String as administered on this equipment

SNMP V3


FieldsSetting

Version

V3

Username

SNMP V3 Username (refer to technical requirements forms)

Authentication Protocol

SHA (Recommended)

Authentication Password

Password (refer to technical requirements)

Privacy Protocol

DES (Recommended)

Privacy Password

Password (refer to technical requirements forms)


Tagging

From the add equipment pop up you can create new tags, apply existing ones, or disassociate existing tags for a specific piece of equipment.

Essentially, this tab implements the functionality on the Manage Tags page but localizes any configuration to the equipment being configured.

See here for more information.


Network Connectivity


Network connectivity settings are configured at the location level and apply to all equipment by default. See here for more information.

The default location-level network connectivity settings (which are detailed in the link above) may be overridden for specific equipment using this tab.

SettingDescription
Disable Network Connectivity Ping for EquipmentSelect 'No' (this is the default) to send out ping tests. Select 'Yes' to disable ping tests from being sent out.
Ping Frequency (minutes)Defines the amount of time (in minutes) between each ping test.
Raise an alarm when maximum ping exceeds (x) msCheck this box and define a time (in milliseconds) to raise an alarm when the ping response time exceeds your set maximum time limit.
Raise an alarm when the average ping exceeds (x) msCheck this box and define a time (in milliseconds) to raise an alarm when the ping response time exceeds your set average time limit.
Raise an alarm when packet loss exceeds (x) %Check this box and define a percentage to raise an alarm when the packet loss of pings sent exceeds your set limit.

You can define alarm raising conditions using all, none or a mixture of the above “Raise an alarm when” settings


Test Access

Once all fields populated Click on the Test Access button. This will test that VSM can connect to the vCenter using the settings you have entered:

HTTPS and SNMP should return success, If not troubleshoot the configuration.

Once testing is successful click Add.

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