VMware ESX server / hosts questions

[Jason Hindson]

I have a VMware ESX server installed on Windows 2000 server, which hosts three virtual servers. I have installed the latest PSP for windows on this server (7.30). The three virtual machines are also Windows 2000 servers. I attempted to install the PSP on these virtual servers and everything worked fine, except for the Insight Management agents. The error stated the package was not supported for on the machine. Are there seperate Insight Management agents for VMware virtual machines? I have found a link to the 720 agents, but they appear to be for Linux machines only. Do the agents need to be installed only on virtual machines or also the VMware host server as well?

Thanks.

[Aravindh Rajaram]

For managing VM's you need HP VMM pack. This is available in the HP Management CD. After installing VMM you need to license the VM host server and then install VMM agent on the host. Only then you can manage your VM's. Five 30 day trial licences (if i remember correctly) come free with VMM.

[Jason Hindson]

Ahh...a marketing ploy. I guess that is another feature of HP SIM we won't be using.

Thanks for the help.

[Lee Johns]

There are SIM agents for ESX that you can use without the Virtual Machine Management Pack.

You can get the agents here :-
http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/cache/71082-0-0-225-121.html

They run on the ESX host and provide the basic SIM functionality. If you want to associate the Guests with the hosts, performance manage both and move, copy, backup etc and do so for VMWARE and Microsoft Virtual Server then you purchase the Virtual Machine Management Pack for each server. It is $499 and lasts for as long as you keep the server. HP also provides a V2P and V2V migration capability that simplifies the movement of a physical machine to a virtual machine or from one Virtual machine technology (Microsoft or VMWARe) to another.

Details are here:-
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantessentials/valuepack/vmm/index.html

and here

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantessentials/valuepack/smp/index.html

[Jason Hindson]

Lee,

I already found these agents. These agents appear to only be for Linux Red Hat systems. The files are in the RPM format. Can they be used on Windows systems?

[Lee Johns]

The VMWARE Host "OS" is Linux based. The Agents only install on the HOST OS and therefore will not install on Windows but since you are using Linux will act as agents for your ESX-based ProLiant. If want to manage the Windows guests and you do not wish to purchase the Virtual Machine Manager you can do rudimentary management of the Windows Guests on VMWARE using WMI (WBEM) information.

HP SIM can gather information from the virtual machines using WMI. See http://www.hp.com/servers/activeanswers --> Infrastructure --> Virtualization --> VMware ESX --> "Best practices for ProLiant Servers and VMware ESX" and starting on page 8 are the instructions to set the virtual machines up for management in HP SIM.

The Virtual Machine Management pack which is a for fee product goes beyond this capability with functions that do the following:

- automatically associate the VM with the physical host
- propagate physical host status to the VMs
- monitor aggregate VM performance
- provide control for VM start/stop/suspend
- copy or move VMs
- link to the administration console.

[Rob Buxton]

The first statement seems incorrect.

VMWare GSX would be installed on a Windows 2000 Server, VMWare ESX as another poster has stated is a Linux based OS.
I run ESX, but woulkd guess the standard PSP would install okay on the Windows 2000 Base Server. The PSP should not be installed on the Virtual Servers.

The VMWare console has much of the functionality of VMM, but I believe the VMM functionality may increase. With the 30 day key you can at least test it out and see the benefits.

[Jason Hindson]

I'm sorry for the confusion. I have VMware GSX installed on a Windows 2000 Server. I double-checked and sure enough we are using GSX and not ESX as I originally stated. With this in mind, I should be able to install the PSP 7.30 for Windows 2000, on the host server, right? Based upon your responses, the virtual machines cannot be monitored via the insight agents included in PSP 7.30, even though the VM's are Windows 2000 Server?

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.
Jason

[Lee Johns]

Since you are using a Windows Host with GSX the SIM agents should work fine for the host.

For the VM's you can use WMI to get information on them in SIM as I mentioned in a previous post, and HP has a whitepaper dealing with that. The information available is limited.

Alternatively HP has the Virtual Machine Manager Plug-in to SIM 4.2 which will give you full management and control of the VM's from within SIM. This is an optional product sold for $499 per server.

[Jason Hindson]

I configured the SNMP service on the virtual machines and the CMS detected the machines and populated the information about the server. I have the information I desired about the VMs now. I have no need to install the agents on these machines. Thanks all for you help and suggestions.

Rock On!
Go get em Tiger...