DEAR VMAN: How do I have better visibility into VMs that are rebooting?

DEAR VMAN:

alert! I would like a little assistance in configuring an alert for vm guests that reboot. I have one that works well on a shutdown but when I followed that same pattern for reboots I get no results.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-- NEEDS VM GUEST REBOOT VISIBILITY

Re: Alert for VM guests that reboot

Alert for reboot of Windows/Linux device

Creation date & boot time for VM through VMAN

DEAR NEEDS VM GUEST REBOOT VISIBILITY:  Virtualization Manager (VMAN) provides 20 out of the box Virtual Machine targeted alert definitions that give you the blueprint to creating your own custom alerts for your environment.

The original answer to NEEDS VM GUEST REBOOT VISIBILITY's question involved using one of these alert definitions to be targeted against one of our collected attributes: vm.osuptime or vm.bootime or any other attribute of your choosing.

As automation becomes the norm, vMotions and as a result, reboots of VMs occur faster than ever. Folks like NEEDS VM GUEST REBOOT VISIBILITY are going to need faster notifications that VM state changes like being rebooted are occurring and possibly failing. With VMAN 8.4, gaining visibility into this is easier than ever with our VMware Event Monitoring Overview support.

In this example, I've chosen to trigger a reboot of VM : "James Shouldice NCentral" using our Virtualization Manager management actions available right from the Virtual Machine Details page.

As the reboot is occurring, I can see these tasks and events being logged on the VMware vSphere Web Client with the VM being reset and also powered on.

What do we see on the VMAN side? Let's take a look.

Step 1: Click My Dashboards and click into the VMware Events Log Viewer

Step 2: Check to see if any events have been detected over the last hour by typing 'james' into the search box.

Step 3: Look at the event details by clicking on the arrow in the event row.

Take a closer look at the details here, because you can create an alert on any of those fields.

Step 4: Start configuring your rules by clicking 'Configure Rules' in the upper right hand corner of the page. If you're utilizing Log Analyzer you will have access to more advanced options in this area. In a standalone VMAN installation, you can simply Configure Rules.

I am going to expand out VMware Events section to handle this VMware event with a specific log processing rule. Click 'Create New Rule' to walk through the wizard.

Step 5: Set whether you want this to apply only to one particular vCenter or all the VMware data sources that you are currently monitoring, and narrow down the event you're tracking.

I've chosen to do so based on the Vendor of data source: VMware Inc and EventType: VmPoweredOnEvent

Step 6: After clicking 'Next,' we'll set up an alert to be fired.

Step 7: Review your rule and save.

You are now set up with a real-time alert for your system. As soon as a VM is powered on, you're going to know about it immediately because of the alert that's triggered, as well as the VMware event appearing your VMAN VMware Events widget.

After triggering another reboot I've noticed this in my All Alerts widget which verifies that my alert is working according to my expectations.

In addition, when I click into the alert details, VMAN is displaying the event that triggered the alert, as well as giving me quick access to the event details for fast troubleshooting.

NEEDS VM GUEST REBOOT VISIBILITY, with VMAN 8.4, you have an enhanced ability to track events of this kind. Take a look to see what other use cases you'd like to track and let me know. I'd be happy to promote the most common alert definitions to be out-of-the-box content for even easier usability.

Release notes can be found: Virtualization Manager 8.4 Release Notes - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

Looking to upgrade? VMAN 8.4 is available today in your customer portal. Virtualization Manager 8.4 is Now Generally Available