User`s guide

Table Of Contents
Figure 1. Virtual Environments Configuration Diagram
ESX/ESXi Server Collections
When collecting from ESX and ESXi servers, you must configure at least one VCM Agent Proxy machine.
You can configure the Collector as the Agent Proxy or configure standalone Agent Proxy machines. The
Collector communicates with the Agent Proxy and the Agent Proxy then directly communicates with the
ESX and ESXi servers using SSH and/or Web Services for necessary data collection actions. The data is
processed by the Agent Proxy and relayed to the Collector.
The Agent Proxy machine must be a Windows server that meets the minimum hardware and software
requirements specified in the VCM Hardware and Software Requirements Guide. A single Agent Proxy
machine supports up to 50 ESX or ESXi servers.
VCM Support of ESXi
VCM supports collecting VMî ąguest operating system and VM host data from ESXi machines. ESXi does
not support SSH communication. Therefore, you cannot run UNIX remote commands or collect UNIX and
Linux data types data on ESXi machines. Only Web service settings are required for ESXi machines. The
License VM Host wizard for the ESXi machines includes SSH settings, but you should not configure them.
IMPORTANT When you collect data from ESXi servers, attempting to collect data other than VM hosts or
VM guest operating data from the ESXi servers results in a collection failure. This restriction includes
collection filters for ESX3.x and vSphere4 that are supplied with VCM. Running such collections on all the
All VM Hosts Machine fails on the ESXi machines.
vCenter Configuration Manager Installation and Getting Started Guide
134 VMware, Inc.