VMware vCenter Extractor Service
You can use the VMware vCenter Extractor Service ETL to continuously collect the configuration and performance metrics of vCenter servers from your VMware environment.
When your VMware environment is large, you can configure multiple ETLs and use the import filter option in the Advanced configuration to split the vCenter entities between them. To determine the number of ETLs that are required to collect data from your VMware environment, see the following sizing guideline:
The VMware - vCenter Extractor uses TLS version 1.1 and 1.2 to connect to the vCenter Server.
The following video (2:35) illustrates the process of setting up a VMware - vCenter Extractor Service ETL.
Information
This video describes the functionality of TrueSight Capacity Optimization, but it is valid for BMC Helix Continuous Optimization too.
Collecting data by using the VMware vCenter Extractor Service ETL
To collect data by using the VMware vCenter Extractor Service ETL, do the following tasks:
I. Complete the preconfiguration tasks.
II. Configure the ETL.
III. Run the ETL.
Before you configure and run the ETL to collect data from your VMware environment, ensure that the following preconfiguration tasks are completed:
- A user account with the read-only role is created to access the vCenter Servers.
- For environments with a firewall, the firewall access is configured to enable communication between the VMware vCenter and the ETL Engine server.
- The ETL Engine server has access to the URLs of the web services that are exposed by the vCenter servers.
You must configure the ETL to connect to VMware for data collection. ETL configuration includes specifying the basic and optional advanced properties. While configuring the basic properties is sufficient, you can optionally configure the advanced properties for additional customization.
A. Configuring the basic properties
Some of the basic properties display default values. You can modify these values if required.
To configure the basic properties:
- Navigate to Administration > ETL & System Tasks, and select ETL tasks.
On the ETL tasks page, click Add > Add ETL. The Add ETL page displays the configuration properties. You must configure properties in the following tabs: Run configuration, Entity catalog, and VMware ETL configuration.
On the Run configuration tab, configure the following properties:
From the ETL module list, select VMware vCenter Extractor Service. The name of the ETL is displayed in the ETL Task name field. You can edit this field to customize the name.
- From the Data type list, select one of the following metric levels:
- Metrics at Cluster, Resource Pool, Host, Datastore and Virtual Machine level: This is the default selection. Use this metric level to collect data of your entire VMware infrastructure.
- Metrics at Cluster, Resource Pool, Host, Datastore level: Select this metric level when you do not want to collect data of virtual machines. For example, you want to support only the Capacity-Aware Placement Advice service. This option saves disk space and I/O load and lets you manage large VMware environments with modestly-sized BMC Helix Continuous Optimization implementation.
- Click the Entity catalog tab, and select one of the following options:
Shared Entity Catalog:
Select if other ETLs access the same entities that are used by this ETL.- From the Sharing with Entity Catalog list, select an entity catalog name that is shared between ETLs.
- Private Entity Catalog: Select if you want to use this ETL independently.
Click the VMware ETL configuration tab, and specify the following details:
- The web service URL of the vCenter Server in the following format:
https://<host_address>/sdk
Where <host_address> is the IP address of the server that hosts the vCenter Server. - The name of the user and password (if required) to connect to the vCenter Server
- Specify whether you want to use the AS time zone
- Specify whether you want to import the cluster failover threshold metrics
- The web service URL of the vCenter Server in the following format:
(Optional) Override the default values of properties in the following tabs:
- Click Save.
The ETL tasks page shows the details of the newly configured VMware ETL.
(Optional) B. Configuring the advanced properties
You can configure the advanced properties to change the way the ETL works or to collect additional metrics.
To configure the advanced properties:
On the Add ETL page, click Advanced.
Configure the following properties:
Click Save.
The ETL tasks page shows the details of the newly configured VMware ETL.
After you configure the ETL, you can run it to collect data. You can run the ETL in the following modes:
A. Simulation mode: Only validates connection to the data source, does not collect data. Use this mode when you want to run the ETL for the first time or after you make any changes to the ETL configuration.
B. Production mode: Collects data from the data source.
A. To run the ETL in the simulation mode
To run the ETL in the simulation mode:
- Navigate to Administration > ETL & System Tasks, and select ETL tasks.
- On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.
- In the Run configurations table, click Edit to modify the ETL configuration settings.
- On the Run configuration tab, ensure that the Execute in simulation mode option is set to Yes, and click Save.
- Click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
- On the ETL tasks page, check the ETL run status in the Last exit column.
OK Indicates that the ETL ran without any error. You are ready to run the ETL in the production mode. - If the ETL run status is Warning, Error, or Failed:
- On the ETL tasks page, clickin the last column of the ETL name row.
- Check the log and reconfigure the ETL if required.
- Run the ETL again.
- Repeat these steps until the ETL run status changes to OK.
B. To run the ETL in the production mode
You can run the ETL manually when required or schedule it to run at a specified time.
To run the ETL manually
- On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL. The ETL details are displayed.
- In the Run configurations table, click Edit to modify the ETL configuration settings. The Edit run configuration page is displayed.
- On the Run configuration tab, select No for the Execute in simulation mode option, and click Save.
- To run the ETL immediately, click Run active configuration. A confirmation message about the ETL run job submission is displayed.
When the ETL runs, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the BMC Helix Continuous Optimization database.
To schedule the ETL run in the production mode
By default, the ETL is scheduled to run daily. You can customize this schedule by changing the frequency and period of running the ETL.
To configure the ETL run schedule:
- On the ETL tasks page, click the ETL, and click Edit task. The ETL details are displayed.
On the Edit task page, do the following, and click Save:
- Specify a unique name and description for the ETL task.
- In the Maximum execution time before warning field, specify the duration for which the ETL must run before generating warnings or alerts, if any.
- Select a predefined or custom frequency for starting the ETL run. The default selection is Predefined.
- Select the task group and the scheduler to which you want to assign the ETL task.
Click Schedule. A message confirming the scheduling job submission is displayed.
When the ETL runs as scheduled, it collects data from the source and transfers it to the BMC Helix Continuous Optimization database.
Verify that the ETL ran successfully and the VMware data is refreshed in the Workspace.
To verify whether the ETL ran successfully
- Click Administration > ETL and System Tasks > ETL tasks.
- In the Last exec time column corresponding to the ETL name, verify that the current date and time are displayed.
- In the Last exit column corresponding to the ETL name, verify that the status is OK.
In case of WARNING or ERROR, click in the last column of the ETL name row to review the log files.
To verify that the VMware data is refreshed:
- In the Workspace tab, expand (Domain_name_for VMware) > Systems.
In the left pane, verify that the hierarchy displays the new and updated VMware instances in your environment.
- Click a VMware virtual machine instance, and click the Metrics tab in the right pane.
- Check if the Last Activity column in the Configuration data and Performance metrics tables displays the current date.
The following image shows sample metrics data. To learn more about these metrics, see Metrics collected by VMware ETLs.
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