Profiler can't connect to VMware clusters

Technically yes, in general you need to have the read-only account + datastore.browse permissions.  But this doesn't solve your issue, you'll just have different issues later on.  Anyway, did you assign the ESX hosts by Cluster or by individual ESX host?  If you do it by individual, then you may not see cluster information.

We have also seen issues recently where incomplete (possibly corrupted) information gets passed to the xml and results in an error like "device123 does not define a class or type mapping".

In that case, the workaround that has proven to be successful in most cases is a "rediscovery" of the VMware devices.  To do this, follow the instructions below:

#Unassign Clusters and ESX Hosts

Settings->Virtualization (Assign ESX Hosts)

Put a check mark in the box at the left side of the cluster

Click 'Assign to Poller'

#A window called 'Assign to Poller' will popup.

Select Poller: Unassign

Click Save

Click the 'ESX' tab

select the 'ESX Host' box (all ESX hosts should automatically be selected)

Click 'Assign to Poller'

#A window called 'Assign to Poller' will popup.

Select Poller: Unassign

Click Save

#Unassign the Virtual Center

Settings->All Resources

#Find the Virtual Center

Filter: VMware VC   Click 'Go'

Click 'Edit' (pad and pencil)

#In the 'Edit Virtual Center' screen

Poller: 'select a poller for this device'

Click 'Save'

#Go to poller agent(s) and verify all VMware devices are removed from xml

 - To check this edit the xml file in \systemic\mod.sys.virtual.Virtual_1.0\mod.sys.virtual.Virtual.XML

 - Make sure everything within the Devices tags is gone.

ex: <Devices>

       </Devices>

Stop poller agent service (ProfilerAgent)

Delete the "data" directory for each poller agent

\Program Files\SolarWinds\Profiler Agent\systemic\mos.sys.virtual.Virtual_1.0\data

Note: Only the 'data' directory, nothing else.

Start poller agent service (ProfilerAgent)

#Reassign Virtual Center(s) and verify discovery completes. 

Settings->All Resources

#Find the Virtual Center

Filter: VMware VC   Click 'Go'

Click 'Edit' (pad and pencil)

#In the 'Edit Virtual Center' screen

Poller: 'select the Poller server'

Click 'Save'

#Check the VC resource and ensure it is online and collecting before assigning ESX and Clusters.

Virtualization->Virtual Center

#Once discovery completes reassign ESX / Clusters appropriately

Note: You can monitor the Virtualization log file for Discovery status

Settings->Virtualization (Assign ESX Hosts)

Put a check mark in the box at the left side of the cluster

Click 'Assign to Poller'

A window called 'Assign to Poller' will popup.

Select Poller: Poller name

Click Save

Click the 'ESX' tab

select the 'ESX Host' box (all ESX hosts should automatically be selected)

Click 'Assign to Poller'

A window called 'Assign to Poller' will popup.

Select Poller: Poller name

Click Save

**If the above process does not work, feel free to submit a support ticket at solarwinds.com/support/ticket and one of our support reps will look into it.**

Garret, thanks for this, I'll certainly give it a try.

To be honest, I'm looking to move the Profiler server to dedicated hardware (it's currently a VM) so may document the installation when I rebuild. Looking at previous posts I understand that it's not a straightforward uninstall and reinstall on a new server due to licensing, I'll get round this as I think it would be best away from the VMware environment.

Cheers, Lee.

Garret, thanks for the suggestion, I've followed your instructions and things are looking promising so far.

Lee.

My Pleasure.  If you need any further assistance, please submit a support ticket at solarwinds.com/support/ticket/ and one of our reps will be able to assist.

Thanks