Monitoring Dell Chassis Health, Events and Alarms information using the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter How to configure and view Dell chassis health information, Events and Alarms from within the VMware vCenter Web Client using the OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter Vikram KV Vineeth Valambra May 2014 A Dell Technical White Paper
Table of Contents Executive summary............................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 3 Objective ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Prerequisites ..........................
Executive summary The OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter provides value to IT administrators by surfacing hardware inventory and health information in the single pane of glass that they use for the daily virtualization management tasks. Instead of logging in to the chassis management controller (CMC), important information is now easily got using the VMware vSphere Web Client. This integration also enables a new set of alerts that are registered with the VMware vCenter.
1 Chassis Health Starting with version 2.1, the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter presents information about the chassis to the VMware vSphere web client. After inventorying a chassis, additional information about the chassis is displayed in the Dell Chassis object list, and the chassis information pages are now populated with the valid information. This includes the overall and individual component health of the Chassis.
Figure 2 Chassis Individual Component Health Expanding an individual component object further shows more details about the individual component Figure 3 Expanded view for a particular component For M1000e having CMC firmware version 4.3 and previous versions, the health status shown are Normal (healthy) and Warning or Critical (Not OK). It is recommended to have CMC firmware version 4.4 and later to get more accurate information about the chassis health.
Figure 4 Health status for M1000e having CMC firmware version less than 4.4 You can find a legend for the chassis health statuses in the bottom right corner on the Summary page: Normal (Healthy) Warning or Critical (Not Ok) Not Present Figure 5 Legend for M1000e chassis with firmware version 4.3 and earlier Normal (Healthy) Warning Critical Not Present Figure 6 Legend for M1000e chassis with firmware version 4.4 and later and VRTX chassis 1.1.
Figure 7 Active errors 1.1.4 Host Health Summary Portlet Status information about the Dell chassis health is now displayed for the associated hosts. The host Summary page has a Dell Host Health portlet that displays the Chassis Global Status.
2. Chassis Events and Alarms Starting with version 2.1, the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter presents information about the chassis events. Alarms (if enabled) are triggered for all warning and critical events related to a chassis. For Chassis events to be displayed in vCenter console, the IP address of OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter appliance has to be set as Alert Destination at CMC Trap Settings. This will be configured automatically during chassis inventory.
Figure 9 Events and Alarms settings pane in Web client 2.2 Chassis Events View Chassis Events and corresponding Alarms are shown at vCenter Level, both in the vSphere web client and in the classic desktop vSphere client. To view the Events for Chassis in the web client, select vCenter in left pane and then select a specific vCenter and click on Monitor. From here, select Events tab. Alternatively, from the Home tab of the web client, click on Event Console under Monitoring section.
Figure 10 Chassis Events shown in the vSphere web client 2.3 Chassis Alarms View and Configuration Alarms are triggered when a warning or critical event is received from Chassis. There are no actions defined to any Chassis related alarms by default. However, actions for a specific alarm can be configured manually based on the requirement. To view the alarms, select the specific vCenter, navigate to Monitor, click on Issues tab and select Triggered Alarms.
Figure 11 Dell Chassis Alarms To view all the existing Dell Alarms for Chassis and to configure custom actions for them, In left pane select vCenter and then select a specific vCenter then navigate to Manage and select the Alarm Definition tab. Example of actions that can be associated to alarms: Send a notification mail, Run a command, etc.
To set a custom action to any chassis alarm, select the particular alarm and click on Edit button. Go to Actions page and set the custom action. Figure 12 Setting custom actions to Dell Chassis alarms Conclusion Starting with version 2.1, the Dell OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter presents information about the chassis to the VMware vSphere web client.
