Managing VMware Alerts

OpManager's dynamic alerting and threshold capabilities are central to a proactive monitoring approach. OpManager seamlessly fetches events from each vCenter/ESX Host, similar to SNMP traps. Currently, a list of important events is supported, and this list is updated every release. Apart from these events, OpManager also monitors threshold for critical performance indicators and raises alerts. 

To tailor this system to your requirements, and change the pre-set threshold values for each performance monitor, go to the Monitors section under the snapshot page of the host / VM / Datastore.

VMware alerts management in OpManager: List of VM monitors under monitors tab in OpManager

To view the complete list of VMware monitors,

  • To view the complete list of VMware monitors, navigate to Settings → Performance Monitors and apply a filter using the ‘VIWebService’ protocol.
  • Under the Performance Monitors tab, click on 'Actions' and then on 'Add Performance Monitor'. This will display a list of all performance monitors available in OpManager.
  • To view the list of Performance monitors for VMware hosts@nbsp;alone, navigate to the VMware-Host Monitors section.
  • To view the list of Performance monitors for VMs, navigate to the VMware - VM snapshot page- Monitors tab - VM Monitors section.
  • To view the list of Performance monitors for Datastore, navigate to the VMware - Datastore snapshot page - Monitors tab - Datastore Monitors section.
  • You can also view and add the performance monitors for hosts/VMs by clicking on 'Add Monitors' under their corresponding Device Templates.

Table 1: List of few Threshold Monitors for critical performance indicators related to host, datastore & VM's supported by OpManager

S.No.Threshold MonitorsVirtual Device TypeResource
1.Host Network Received PacketsHostNetwork
2.Host Network Transmitted PacketsHostNetwork
3.Host Network Usage (avg)HostNetwork
4.Host CPU Utilization (avg)HostCPU
5.Host Memory Utilization (avg)HostMemory
6.Host Disk Read LatencyHostDisk
7.Host Disk Write LatencyHostDisk
8.Datastore FreespaceHostNetwork
9.VirtualMachine Network Packets ReceivedVMNetwork
10.VirtualMachine Network Packets TransmittedVMNetwork
11.VirtualMachine Network Usage (avg)VMNetwork
12.VirtualMachine CPU Utilization (avg)VMCPU
13.VirtualMachine Memory Usage (avg)VMMemory

Table 2:@nbsp;Few of the@nbsp;VCenter / ESX hosts' Events supported by OpManager

S.No.EventsVirtual Device TypeSeverity
1.VmFailedToPowerOffEventVMCritical
2.VmPoweredOffEventVMAttention
3.VmPowerOffOnIsolationEventVMClear
4.VmFailedToPowerOnEventVMCritical
5.VmPoweredOnEventVMAttention
6.VmFailedToSuspendEventVMCritical
7.VmSuspendedEventVMAttention
8.VmFailedToRebootGuestEventVMCritical
9.VmGuestRebootEventVMClear
10.VmFailoverFailedVMTrouble
11VmPrimaryFailoverEventVMCritical
12.VmUpgradeFailedEventVMCritical
13.VmUpgradeCompleteEventVMClear
14.VmDisconnectedEventVMAttention
15.VmConnectedEventVMAttention
16.VmDiskFailedEventVMCritical
17.VmRelocatedEventVMAttention
18.VmRelocateFailedEventVMCritical

You can view the complete list of ESX host/vCenter Events that are supported by OpManager, under Settings → Monitors → VMware Events.

Note:OpManager only triggers alarms based on VMware events, and they have to be manually cleared once the issue/notification has been taken care of.

In addition to this, you can also enable Physical NIC/Host Bus Adapter based alerts in OpManager for your VMware parent devices. These alerts can be enabled during discovery of that parent device or from the Update Inventory page, by enabling the "Raise alerts for Physical NIC & Host Bus Adapter" option. These are the available status messages in OpManager and their NIC/HBA equivalents:

Physical NIC status messages:

S.NoOpManager status messageCorresponding NIC status
1ClearConnected
2CriticalDisconnected

Host Bus Adapter status messages:

S.NoOpManager status messageCorresponding HBA status
1ClearOnline
2AttentionUnbound (or) Offline
3TroubleFault

To gain in-depth insights into OpManager's VMware monitoring practices, explore the following help documents.