How To Use SAM to Monitor VMWare For Old/Rogue Snapshots

AlexSoul

After following the below step-by-step guide you will be able to:

1. Use SAM to receive an alert when you have any rogue/old snapshots in your VMWare environment older than N days

2. Ability to easily bypass check for certain snapshots

Component monitor variables:

MESSAGE = List of comma separated affected server names with old/rogue snapshots

STATISTIC = Number of servers with old/rogue snapshots

==========================================

(1)

In your SQL server for SolarWinds create a new Database, call it same as SolarWind's database and append "Aux" (stands for Auxilary. This can later be used for various other little projects to monitor different things. Example: "NetPerfMonAux")

(2)

Create table to store snapshots info:

(2.1)

Create first dummy record (this is because SQL script below will use "UPDATE" function)

(3)

On the Solarwinds server (or a polling engine), Install VMware vSphere PowerCLI (You can download it from https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?productId=285&downloadGroup=VSP510-PCLI-510)

(4)

Create a PowerShell script to get Snapshots Information from a vCenter (not from VM host) and save this info into SolarWinds Aux Database

if(-not (Get-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue))
{
Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core
}
##### Get VC connected ######################
$VCServer = "<vCenter_Server_Name>"
$VCUserName = "<Domain\User>"
$VCPassword = "<Password>"
$VCconnection = Connect-VIServer $VCServer -Protocol https -User $VCUserName -Password $VCPassword -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$a = (Get-VM | where-object {$_.Folder -notmatch "Replica Servers"} | Get-Snapshot | Where-object { $_.Created -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-2)} | Where-object { $_.Description -notlike "*skipMonitoring*"} | select VM, Name, Created, Description | Measure-Object)
$b = (Get-VM | where-object {$_.Folder -notmatch "Replica Servers"} | Get-Snapshot | Where-object { $_.Created -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-2)} | Where-object { $_.Description -notlike "*skipMonitoring*"} | select -expand VM) -join ', '
$c = [System.DateTime]::Now
#'Statistic: ' + $a.Count
#'Message: ' + $b
#'DateTimeStamp: ' + $c
Disconnect-VIServer $VCServer -Confirm:$False -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
##### Write to Database #########################
### open database connection
$SQLServer = "<SAM_SQL_Server_Name>" #use Server\Instance for named SQL instances!
$SQLDBName = "<Aux_DB_Name>"
$SQLDBUser = "<SQL_User_Name>"
$SQLDBPwd = "<Password>"
$SqlConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$SqlConnection.ConnectionString = "Server = $SQLServer; Database = $SQLDBName; user id=$SQLDBUser;password=$SQLDBPwd"
$SqlConnection.Open()
### Update [dbo.VIM_OldSnapShots] table
$Sqlcmd = $SqlConnection.CreateCommand()
$Update = "UPDATE dbo.VIM_OldSnapshots SET CountOldSnapshots = '" + $a.Count + "',"
$Update = $Update + "AffectedVMs = '" + $b + "',"
$Update = $Update + "DateTimeStamp = '" + $c + "'"
$Sqlcmd.CommandText = $Update
$Sqlcmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
$SqlConnection.Close()
###########################################

(5)

Run the PowerShell script as a schedule task as often as you wish. I have configured it to run every 5 minutes so that we always have up to date record in this table

(6)

Create new SQL User Experience app template in SolarWinds and attach it to SolarWinds SQL server:

SELECT
CASE
WHEN (DATEDIFF(MINUTE, [DateTimeStamp], GETDATE()) < 60 )
   THEN
    [CountOldSnapshots]
   ELSE
    999
END AS 'Statistic: ',
CASE
WHEN (DATEDIFF(MINUTE, [DateTimeStamp], GETDATE()) < 60 )
   THEN
    [AffectedVMs]
   ELSE
    'Monitoring is broken due to the data record in [dbo.VIM_OldSnapshots] table being older than 1 hour. Please check scheduled PS script, which updates this record'
END AS 'Message: '
FROM [Your_Aux_Database_Name].[dbo].[VIM_OldSnapshots]

(7)

Configure email alert:

Thank you,

Alex

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noobes

Great work appreciate it!

aLTeReGo

Virtualization Manager includes snapshot management in their latest 6.2 release.

VIRTUALIZATION MANAGER 6.2 BETA 1

xandurr

Awesome!

I altered it a bit to allow for using multiple vcentres rather than being limited to one. If interested this is the code after alteration.

if(-not (Get-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue))

{

Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core

}

##### Get VC connected ######################

$VCServer = "vcentreserver"

$VCUserName = "username"

$VCPassword = "password"

$VCconnection = Connect-VIServer $VCServer -Protocol https -User $VCUserName -Password $VCPassword -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

$a = (Get-VM | where-object {$_.Folder -notmatch "Replica Servers"} | Get-Snapshot | Where-object { $_.Created -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-2)} | Where-object { $_.Description -notlike "*skipMonitoring*"} | select VM, Name, Created, Description | Measure-Object)

$b = (Get-VM | where-object {$_.Folder -notmatch "Replica Servers"} | Get-Snapshot | Where-object { $_.Created -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-2)} | Where-object { $_.Description -notlike "*skipMonitoring*"} | select -expand VM) -join ', '

$c = [System.DateTime]::Now

#'Statistic: ' + $a.Count

#'Message: ' + $b

#'DateTimeStamp: ' + $c

Disconnect-VIServer $VCServer -Confirm:$False -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

##### Write to Database #########################

### open database connection

$SQLServer = "server\instance" #use Server\Instance for named SQL instances!

$SQLDBName = "databasename"

$SQLDBUser = "user"

$SQLDBPwd = "password"

$SqlConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection

$SqlConnection.ConnectionString = "Server = $SQLServer; Database = $SQLDBName; user id=$SQLDBUser;password=$SQLDBPwd"

$SqlConnection.Open()

### Update [dbo.VIM_OldSnapShots] table

$Sqlcmd = $SqlConnection.CreateCommand()

$Update = "UPDATE dbo.VIM_OldSnapshots SET CountOldSnapshots = '" + $a.Count + "',"

$Update = $Update + "AffectedVMs = '" + $b + "',"

$Update = $Update + "DateTimeStamp = '" + $c + "'"

$Update = $Update + "WHERE vCentreName = '" + $VCServer + "'"

$Sqlcmd.CommandText = $Update

$Sqlcmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

$SqlConnection.Close()

###########################################

I also changed the SQL output to suit these changes and to ignore age

SELECT CountOldSnapshots AS 'Statistic: ', AffectedVMs AS 'Message: '

FROM [VIM_OldSnapshots]

WHERE vCentreName = 'vcentreserver'

In this way each component monitor can be for a specific vcentre server