ESX Host Interfaces are now showing

Question

Hi

I want to monitor the network utilisation of our ESX hosts but there are no interfaces listed in the node details. I can see volumes but no interfaces. I am using SNMPv3 for the nodes.

In the Virtualisation section, I see the vCenter listed but the polling method for this is ICMP. Is that correct? Either way, the vCenter node shows the ESX hosts and I can see all the VMs and volumes for the hosts but now interfaces.

Is this a bug or is there some other way of configuring Solarwinds to show the interfaces of the ESX hosts?

We are running ESX 8.0.3 and Solarwinds Observability 2026.2.2.

Thanks in advance

Roy

cnorborg · Answer

So, it will consume more licenses, but you can probably get this info by monitoring the host directly, rather than through the VMWare monitoring.   ie: install an Agent on the server and monitor it, then the interfaces should show up just fine.

PJC · Answer

Hi Roy,

Yes, seeing ICMP for the ESXi/vCenter node can be expected for availability. The virtualization data is collected through the VMware API/VMAN poller, not SNMP.

One important detail is that SWO exposes physical ESXi NICs (vmnic*) as monitorable interfaces, but not VMkernel adapters (vmk*). So if you’re looking for the vmk interfaces, this is expected behavior. If the physical vmnic interfaces are also missing, check that the VMware polling method is active for the virtual environment and refresh or list the node resources. You shouldn’t need SNMPv3 on vCenter for the VMware data.

More info: Learn more about VMAN polling and pollers