Users Guide

26 vFoglight Cartridge for VMware
Cartridge for VMware User Guide
ESX Server Hosts
An ESX Server Host is the single physical component required to begin building a
virtual infrastructure. An ESX Server provides a hypervisor based architecture for
controlling and managing resources for the virtual machines that run on it. The virtual
machines running on the host share the resources it provides. Should resources become
over-committed, the ESX Server hypervisor determines which virtual machines have
priority access to the shared resources (based on manual virtual machine configurations)
and distributes the available resources accordingly.
Each ESX Server is managed by a single VirtualCenter Server instance, and can be
configured to exist logically within either a Datacenter or Cluster virtual object within
the overall virtual infrastructure.
VirtualCenter Server
Although a VirtualCenter Server can technically exist as a virtual machine, it is
considered a physical component within the VMware virtual infrastructure.
VMware’s VirtualCenter is the software tool used to manage virtual environments that
are built on the VMware virtualization platform. VirtualCenter creates a hierarchical
structure of virtual objects that enables a system administrator to logically lay out his
virtual infrastructure configuration. VirtualCenter also introduces other advanced
VMware functionality such as Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS), VMotion, and
High Availability (HA) that can be used to enhance the benefits of a virtual
infrastructure.
VirtualCenter provides a robust WSDL that the vFoglight Cartridge for VMware
leverages to capture and manipulate key characteristics and performance metrics of the
various object types and objects found within the virtual infrastructure configuration.
Each VirtualCenter instance that is to be monitored using the vFoglight Cartridge for
VMware must have a Cartridge for VMware Collector configured for it that points to
the web service interface. As mentioned in the vFoglight Cartridge for VMware
Installation Guide, this agent can be installed on the VirtualCenter Server itself because
all of the required components for the proper operation of the agent come pre-
configured.
A single VirtualCenter Server can monitor approximately 100 VMware ESX Servers
and 1500 virtual machines before performance and scalability challenges demand the
introduction of a second VirtualCenter Server. Multiple VirtualCenter instances can be
disbursed geographically to localize the management of large, distributed VI3
implementations.