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VMware vSphere 4 (ESX 4), can we monitor them like VI3's ESX 3.x?

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netlogix replied on Wed, May 27 2009 2:50 PM
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I am trying to monitor a new ESX 4 server, but it isn't being seen as a vmware server.  It says it's a net snmp server.  Any ideas?  Do we just have to wait to monitor these servers?  I am going to install 9.5 and hope...

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Answered (Verified) bshopp replied on Wed, May 27 2009 2:57 PM
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With ESX4, VMWare changed the SNMP implementation that was used in ESX 3.5.  As such, ESX4 monitoring will not work with NPM 9.1 or 9.5.  We are working with VMWare and looking to add support in a future release for ESX4

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Answered (Verified) bshopp replied on Thu, Jan 14 2010 12:31 PM
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Dave,

Fair question.  By the time we learned from our internal testing of the ESX4 beta and from talking with VMWare that they were partially dropping their SNMP implementation which we used, it was too late to do anything about for 9.5.  I think the fact that we are able to switch around our roadmap based on priorities from the community is a strength we offer that you would not get from an HP.  We typically do 2 releases a year plus Service Packs, so we are able to turn things out in a decent time frame.  As I have mentioned to other customers I have spoken with, unfortunantly this is not as simple as polling a new OID.  Going through the API requires a bit more work than that.

If you encountered the same situation with HP, typically their release schedule is a release every 12-18 months.

I am not being vague on time scales to be difficult.  We plan to go into beta and RC soon.  As you can see in some of the above posts, I have been getting some feedback based on the current code we have from customers so we can make sure we are on the right track and incorporate feedback into the process.  We prefer not to share GA dates cause they can change.  Example, if in Beta or RC we were to find a critical issue that needs to be fixed, we will fix that issue.  If I were to give you a date and then I have to miss that date to address this issue, you will be mad at me.  We don't want to put a release out to you till we are comfortable and confident in the release.  All SolarWinds customers on active maintenance have the ability to install the RC as well.

I would be more than happy to speak with you offline further if desired, you can PM me through thwack or let me know if you are interested in chatting and I can reach out to you.

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Answered (Verified) denny.lecompte replied on Tue, Jan 26 2010 2:55 PM
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We expect to have a Release Candidate for NPM 10 in weeks, not months.  RCs can be run in production.  Once we are confident of the RC (which is about quality, not time), we'll GA.  So it's reallly soon, but we can't be more precise than that.

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Answered (Verified) bshopp replied on Wed, May 27 2009 2:57 PM
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With ESX4, VMWare changed the SNMP implementation that was used in ESX 3.5.  As such, ESX4 monitoring will not work with NPM 9.1 or 9.5.  We are working with VMWare and looking to add support in a future release for ESX4

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hoeflchr replied on Wed, Jun 10 2009 8:31 AM
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I must say this is a very big disappointment! I would have thought that with the vSphere release date and the NPM 9.5 release date being so close together, that we would have had this functionality in 9.5. It seems to me that being a VMware partner, this would have been something planned out better.

We are moving all our ESX servers to ESX 4 within the next month to take advantage of some of the improvements it offers over ESX 3.5. With that being said, how soon do we see this functionality again in NPM? I don’t want to have me ESX host unmonitored for long.

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bshopp replied on Wed, Jun 10 2009 9:12 AM
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Unfortunantly as I mentioned in my previous post VMWare completely changed their SNMP implementation in version 4 and a lot of the data we used with 3.5 is no longer accessible with VMWare via SNMP.  I  would suggest opening a case with VMWare as well.  We are working on resolving, but no timeline I can commit to yet.

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HBrandNSB replied on Wed, Jul 1 2009 9:31 AM
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Is there any update to a timeline for ESX4 support?

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bshopp replied on Wed, Jul 1 2009 9:49 AM
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Nothing I can communicate or commit to at this time

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tknutson replied on Wed, Jul 1 2009 10:01 AM
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I am not sure if anyone has read this, but VMware changed the way they use SNMP in ESX 4.  You can still use net-snmp in esx4, but have to set up a proxy in order to obtain all of the data that you want to get.  I am working on getting this set up in a test environment where I am, but have alot of time contraints.  You can read the PDF from VMware that relates to this here http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_snmp_config.pdf

 

This might or might not work in conjunction with Orion.

 

 

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hoeflchr replied on Thu, Jul 23 2009 2:54 PM
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Brandon,

I just wanted to check and see if you have any new information in regards to ESX4?

Thanks,

Christian

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duckstardeluxe replied on Fri, Jul 24 2009 2:23 AM
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I'm also very interested in news regarding the vSpere ESX monitoring. Created a support ticket with SW, that told me to read this thread, and that was it.

 

Regards

 

Anders

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bshopp replied on Fri, Jul 24 2009 8:25 AM
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As VMWare dropped/broke their SNMP support in ESX/vSpehere 4.0 that we used for ESX 3.5, we must now gather this data via other methods.  We are actively working on solving this issue and hope to resolve it in the next release.

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netlogix replied on Fri, Jul 24 2009 11:50 AM
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about how long till the next release.  (what Month or Quarter or Year)   I ask because it feels like last week we got 9.5 (I know it wasn't).

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hoeflchr replied on Fri, Jul 24 2009 11:58 AM
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Next Release? I must say again, how disappointed I am. Back when SolarWinds first released VMware support in NPM, SolarWinds made a big deal about being VMware partners. We can't wait for the next release to resolve this issue. This should have been on the road map when you were in the design stages for NPM 9.5. The release of vSphere was very well publicized.

Just about any VMware oriented site you go to has the SolarWinds Free VMware Monitor listed. Your website talks about NPM being able to monitor ESX. You need to put a disclaimer on the site stating it does not support vSphere or ESX4. We are seriously starting to have to look at other tools to monitor our VMware environment. I can’t have a production system such as VMware not monitored.

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HBrandNSB replied on Fri, Jul 24 2009 12:04 PM
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I agree. This is a major issue and needs to be at the top of the priorities list....

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bshopp replied on Fri, Jul 24 2009 12:16 PM
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We were very dissapointed as well when we got the vSphere 4 Beta in our lab and identified the issues and lack of SNMP support (which as I inidcated they removed) and we reported this to VMWare.  However, by that point in our process of the release, it was to late to address.  It is a high priority for us going forward as I stated in my above post.

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tknutson replied on Fri, Jul 24 2009 12:36 PM
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SNMP was not removed from vShpere, it was just removed by default. 

"In past releases, VMware ESX used Net‐SNMP as its SNMP agent. Although VMware no longer supports

Net‐SNMP, you can still use Net‐SNMP with ESX 4.0 if your management agent requires it. ESX 4.0 allows

Net‐SNMP to proxy through the VMware SNMP agent, which enables access to VMware MIBs."

The above quote directly refences the support/use of net-snmp in vSphere4, and there is a link to the PDF on a post above. 

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