Auditing Virtual Machines

You can discover and audit virtual machines using the Discovery virtual machine host auditor (VMHA). Discovery Managers can manage the virtual machine host auditor, gateway settings, and configurations.

The virtual machine host auditor is an advanced function for administrators that is only available in the Gateway Datacenter Edition workspace.

A virtual machine contains virtual hardware and typically an operating system and software, in the same way that a physical machine consists of physical hardware, an operating system, and software. Discovery uses the guest/host model, which displays a host machine with a number of guests. For example, one physical computer can host a number of guest virtual machines.

For Discovery to obtain guest/host relationship information, you need to deploy the client agent to the physical host and virtual machine guests.

Neurons for ITSM supports auditing VMware ESX Server 3.5 or later.

Using Discovery virtual machine host auditor you can do the following:

•Audit a virtual machine and its host.

•Link the virtual machine to its host machine.

•View data related to the virtual machine.

Virtual machines with a network adapter configured as host only are not discovered or audited.

Discovering Virtual Machines

The virtual machine host auditor on the VMHA Configurations tab, is only available in the Gateway Datacenter Edition workspace. You must first install and configure a gateway data center before you can access this functionality. See Installer Downloads.

1.Log in to Neurons for ITSM.

2.Open the Gateway workspace.

3.Double-click a gateway from the list to view the record.

4.Click the VMHA Configurations tab and select New VMHA Configuration.

5.Enter the server URL (or IP address) of the ESX or vCenter server that contains the virtual machines.

For ESX servers, /sdk specifies the location of the interface that the client agent uses to audit the server. Change this only if the ESX server is configured to have a different location for the SDK.

If you enter a vCenter URL, then all ESX servers managed by that vCenter and all virtual machines in each ESX server are discovered.

ESX servers that run as appliances cannot have a client agent deployed to the appliance. For these, you must specify the host and administration credentials so that the client agent can remotely audit the ESX server to determine its guests.

6.Enter the user name and password for accessing the server. In most cases you need the root or administrator name and password to gain access.

7.Click Save.

8.Repeat the process to add a configuration for each ESX or vCenter server.

Deploying the Configurations

After you configure the virtual machine host auditor, do the following:

1.Click Deploy Settings to send the configurations to the gateway.

When the client agent receives the new gateway settings, it saves the relevant virtual machine host auditor (VMHA) settings to a file called C:\Program Files (x86)\HEAT Software\SaaSIMClient\ClientAgent\Vmha\Vmha.xml and restarts the client agent services, to trigger the VMHA component.

The scan results are saved in VMHost.xml and sent to the server.

The application creates an ESX configuration item record for the server details and creates Virtual Workstation or Virtual Server configuration item records of for each of the virtual machines on that server.

2.To locate the servers, from the CI workspace, group the configuration items by Discovery method.

3.Locate the Discovery Method: VMHA group. The newly discovered servers are listed with an agent status of not installed.

4.Click on a server to view the details. The Guest tab displays the number of virtual machines hosted by the server.

5.Click the tab to display a list of virtual machines.