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ok so as stated in the subject line i have an HP DL380 G7 running esxi 5.0 free and an ILO3. Is there any way for me to get some decent monitoring of the hardware without paying any extra money for a vmware license which allows me to set the SNMP community string, or without needing to purchase HP SIM? I don't seem to be able to get to the https://[hostname]:2381 management page and from what i've read, that's linux/windows only. Also the firewall of esxi free doesn't seem to be able unblock that port for me. I seem to be receiving test traps from the device to my target server but nothing else.

What iv'e tried so far: -logging into the ilo and setting trap destinations. That allows me to get test traps but i don't get any alerts when the drive status changes. This makes sense since I didn't see any place to setup an alert based on an event -using VMA (vmware management assistant) to set the SNMP community string -setting the esxi free firewall to accept connections on port 2381, though that seems like a dead end.

Any words of wisdom from someone else who has torn out their hair would be welcome!

ewwhite
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StackShin
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4 Answers4

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This limitation is created to "help" you decide to purchase the paid version.

However if you enable SNMP during the evaluation period the service will remain active.

It is also possible to monitor the ESXi server via CIM/WBEM. See: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2010/04/hardware-health-monitoring-via-cim.html

Mircea Vutcovici
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  • enabling SNMP should have been the first thing I did then, unfortunately my eval period has LONG since expired. – StackShin Apr 12 '13 at 00:47
  • There is a workaround... http://cyborgworkshop.org/2010/08/01/enabling-snmp-on-an-esxi-4-free-edition/ – Mircea Vutcovici Apr 12 '13 at 00:53
  • Use CIM monitoring instead. In the long run it's worth getting used to – Jim B Apr 12 '13 at 04:10
  • Mircea, thanks for that! I'll have to try it on an esxi 5.0 system that's not running some of our critical infrastructure. – StackShin Apr 12 '13 at 08:13
  • @Mircea, your comment about the workaround inspired me to Google about a similar method for ESXi 5.0 and I found one here http://vm-blog.info/hunt-and-enable-snmp-on-esxi-5-o/ I'll report back here on it's success/failure after i get a chance to test it out. – StackShin Apr 12 '13 at 08:24
  • So I've verified that SNMP is now enabled. Now it's just finding the right MIBs to monitor – StackShin Apr 16 '13 at 22:33
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I'm a little curious about what you were expecting...

There's no HP System Management Page at port 2381 for ESXi installations. However, HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) is free and available for download. It's overkill for one host, though.

  • Add the HP management agents to the ESXi host. You will find them here, along with installation instructions. These will give you some hardware insight through the vSphere client. In particular, this adds storage, ILO and some other platform-specific sensors.

  • Using the hp-tools bundle, you get ESXi console-based storage and ILO utilities.

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Also see: How do you monitor your HP hardware while running virtual servers?

and: How to find out more hardware details using only ESXi4.1 and (possibly) shell

Community
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ewwhite
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  • I do have access to the vsphere client so I do get to see the hardware status as you've shown above. I'm really just after alerts that tell me when something goes bad so getting SNMP and SNMP traps working is critical for me. – StackShin Apr 12 '13 at 08:18
  • The intention is for you to use vCenter for that. I manage dozens of vSphere clusters. I don't query individual hosts. – ewwhite Apr 12 '13 at 09:42
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Another option is not to use SNMP, but to use the iLO XML interface. You can query health status through it by crafting some XML and making an HTTP request. I use this all the time (though for keeping inventory, not for monitoring).

If you don't want to hand-craft XML (and who in his right mind would), maybe look at the python library and CLI tool I wrote as I didn't want to do that either.

Dennis Kaarsemaker
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You do not need to purchase HP SIM. The basic functionality of HP SIM that you need to monitor your ESXi hosts' hardware via WBEM is available for free!

VFrontDe
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