User goals and features

PATROL for VMware vSphere supports the VMware vSphere features described in this section. PATROL for VMware vSphere provides the following features for monitoring your environment:

Thin provisioning

Thin provisioning means allocating and committing space on demand, which saves storage space. When you have one or more thin provisioned disks assigned to virtual machines in a vCenter, PATROL for VMware vSphere enables you to monitor the following metrics by using various parameters:

• The percentage usage of the committed space in these disks with respect to the total provisioned space
• Whether a disk space is oversubscribed on a datastore, above its capacity

For information about the thin provisioning parameters, see the PATROL for VMware vSphere online Help.

Distributed Resource Scheduler power management

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) power management saves power consumed by the hosts (ESX servers) when the hosts are not operating at maximum capacity. In PATROL for VMware vSphere, the DRS Powered Off state indicates that DRS has powered off the host. The DRS Powered On Failed state indicates that DRS failed to power on the host.

Hot plug support for virtual devices

Hot plug supports virtual devices, memory, and virtual CPUs. An information event is generated whenever you change the device configuration in vCenter. PATROL for VMware vSphere enables you to monitor your VMware vSphere environment and resources. It also enables you to determine how to effectively use these resources. 

Discover your virtual machines (VMs)

After you create a vCenter connection, PATROL for VMware vSphere automatically discovers the following:

• Datacenters
• Clusters
• Hosts
• Virtual machines (VMs)
• Resource pools
• VMware vApps
• Datastores

Assess how your virtual and physical resources are being used in your virtual environment

PATROL for VMware vSphere application classes and parameters enable you to determine the impact that resources assigned to your virtual machines have on your physical resources.

Viewing inventory and performance reports

In PATROL for VMware vSphere, you can access several reports that enable you to inventory and assess the performance of the hosts (ESX servers) and virtual machines contained in your virtual environment. The following reports are available in PATROL for VMware vSphere:

1. Top 10 ESX Hosts report - The Top 10 ESX Hosts report lists the following information:
   

   1. The hosts (ESX server) that are consuming the largest amount of CPU resources

   2.  The top ten virtual machines that are connected to these hosts

   In the report, data is organized first by each host connection, with that host’s top ten virtual machines listed underneath. The virtual machines listed for a host are the ones that are using the most CPU resources. The figure shows a sample Top 10 ESX Hosts report:
   

2. Enterprise Inventory - The Enterprise Inventory report summarizes all physical hosts (ESX servers) and their associated virtual machines for each vCenter connection. In the summary  section, each individual host and its virtual machines are listed. The figure shows a sample enterprise inventory report:
   
   
3. List All Virtual Machines - The List All Virtual Machines report lists all the virtual machines associated to a host (ESX server) and provides the following information:

   1. Host name

   2. Name of the virtual machine

   3. Type of operating system

   4. IP address

   5. Status

   6. Amount of memory allocated

   7. Amount of disk space allocated

   8. CPU resources used

   9. Memory resources used

The figure shows a sample List All Virtual Machines report for a host connection:

Collect performance data for configured ESX servers

PATROL for VMware vSphere collects performance and inventory data of the configured ESX servers.

Create filters for monitoring

You can create filters to include or exclude clusters, hosts, and virtual machines from monitoring.

Configure event monitoring

You can filter events by managed object type, event severity, event type, and by the user who triggered the events.

Monitor the migration of virtual machines from one host to another

The VMware environment supports live migration of a virtual machine from one host (ESX server) to another. PATROL for VMware vSphere enables you to monitor these migrations for analysis by using various parameters that display information about the number of incoming and outgoing dynamic migrations for the past one hour, one day, and one week.

Configure your VMware vSphere environment by using the BMC ProactiveNet Central Monitoring Administration console

Version 4.0.00 of BMC PATROL for VMware vSphere and version 9.5.00 of BMC PATROL Agent, allows you to configure your VMware environment by using the BMC ProactiveNet Central Monitoring Administration console. This configuration controls the transfer of monitoring data from BMC PATROL for VMware vSphere to BMC ProactiveNet. For more information, see Configuring in a BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management environment.

Performance monitoring in CLM mode

You can collect and monitor performance data by using one of the following data collection modes. You can specify the mode by setting the CollectorType agent configuration variable.

• Enterprise mode (default)
• Cloud Lifecycle Management (CLM) mode

If you choose to monitor data by using the Enterprise mode, you will be able to discover the entire set of application classes and parameters available with the PATROL KM for VMware vSphere. If you choose to monitor data by using the CLM mode, you will be able to discover a limited set of application classes and parameters that collect only aggregate data. Choosing this mode aids you in improving your scalability. The following application classes and their associated parameters are available when you use the CLM mode:

Application classes and parameters for the CLM collection mode

For more information about setting the CollectorType agent configuration variable, see Agent Configuration Variables.

Accessing memory and CPU resource utilization data

Using PATROL for VMware vSphere, you can access performance data for hosts and virtual machines, measuring how virtual resources affect your physical resources. The types of performance data that you can measure include the following:

• The allocation of resources - what CPU or memory resources have been assigned to a host (ESX server) or virtual machine
• The amount of resources used - how the assigned resources have been used by the host or virtual machine
• The rate of resource utilization - percentage of resources used versus the amount of resources allotted