vCommunity Management Pack for VCF Operations Part 3

We introduced the vCommunity Management Pack here. We discussed the second batch of use cases it addresses here. In Part 3 of this series, we will introduce more Content: Dashboards, Views, and Alerts. You can get the latest version of the vCommunity Management Pack here.

The first Dashboard we built was for ESXi Hosts, highlighting Advanced System Settings and Packages being captured by the vCommunity Adapter Instance/s. It looks like this.

Across the top you have bar charts showing distributions of ESXi Host Versions, Models, Power State, and Maintenance State. This gives the user quick visbility into important metadata. These properties have been in the product for quite some time, I'm just using them in this dashboard for summary purposes.

The ESXi Host Details Widget is the list of ESXi Hosts in your environment. It includes a new Property introduced by the vCommunity Management Pack, namely the Install Date.

Once an ESXi Host is selected, it drives the four remaining Widgets. From left to right, we start with License Information. This is the ESXi Host License being used, including the License Name, Key, Expiration Date, and Days to Expiration. All of these are newly introduced by the vCommunity Management Pack and gives the user visibility into License expiry along with the ability to Alert on ESXi Host License expiration. To that end we've included an Alert Definition that will trigger Alerts at various thresholds, feel free to adjust these as you wish.

The last three Widgets in the ESXi Host Details Dashboard include Properties, Advanced System Settings, and Packages. You can control what Advanced System Settings and Packages you capture by adjusting the associated configurations files: esxi_advanced_system_settings and esxi_packages respectively.

The second Dashboard we've included is called VM Details and looks like this.

The top left Widget is your list of VMs, once selected it'll drive all other Widgets. Top right you are given visibility into CPU, Memory, and Disk Usage. Below that you can see the Advanced Parameters and Options being captured by the vCommunity Adapter Instance/s. You can adjust what's being captured by editing the vm_advanced_parameters and/or vm_options configuration files.

Along the bottom you'll see Services for selected Windows VMs. Remember, the Services you are capturing depends on what's configured in the windows_services configuration file. Bottom right you'll notice Active Alerts for the selected VM, including any Windows Services that are down. We've included an Alert Definition and Symptom Definition for Windows Services that aren't running.

You can get the latest version of the vCommunity Management Pack here, enjoy!