Configuring VMware vCenter Observer jobs

You configure VMware vCenter Observer jobs to dynamically load data from the VMware vCenter REST interface.

Before you begin

Important: The VMware vCenter Observer supports the on-premise VMware vCenter versions 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0.3.

Ensure you have the VMware vCenter service details to hand, such as username, password, SSL truststore and URL.

Important: If you have any restrictive EgressNetworkPolicies in place, ensure that they are updated to allow for this inbound connection. For more information, see Postinstallation tasks.

Enabling access to the URL routes

To access the URL routes for the topology Swagger documentation, see the Enabling access to URL routes topic.

About this task

The VMware vCenter Observer job extracts VMware vCenter resource information through REST, and the observer loads and updates the resources and their relationships within the topology service.

You define and start the following job.

VMware vCenter Observer job (full topology load)

Run this job whenever you need VMware vCenter topology data refreshed.

By default, Load jobs are one-off, transient jobs that do a full upload of all requested topology data as soon as they are triggered.

You can also run these jobs (again) from the Observer UI, or schedule them to run at set times when configuring them.

The VMware vCenter Observer loads the following resources and their relationship into the topology service:

  • ESXi / ESX Hosts
  • Virtual machines
  • VNICs
  • Storage

Procedure

Define or edit the following parameters, then click Run job to save and run the job.

Encryption requirement: See the Configuring observer jobs security topic for more information.

Parameter Action Details
Unique ID Enter a unique name for the job Required
Data center name Specify the data center in which the VMware vCenter instance runs Required. If more than one, list them (comma-separated).
vCenter API URL Specify the API URL of the VMware vCenter endpoint (including port and version) Required. Usually in the following format: https://[hostname or IP address]/rest
vCenter username Specify the username to connect as, or listen to Required
vCenter password Enter the password to authenticate with Required
vCenter certificate Specify a certificate by name to load into the truststore Required. For more information, see the Configuring observer jobs security topic.
Certificate validation Choose whether SSL validation is on or off. Turning SSL validation off will use HTTPS without host verification. Optional
HTTPS truststore file name Specify the truststore file name. The observer generates the trust store file based on the file name provided. Tip: You can use the observer name as file name (<observer>.jks), for example VMVCenter.jks. Required. The supported format is JKS and the file is relative to $ASM_HOME/security.
truststore file password Specify the truststore password the observer will use to decrypt the HTTPS truststore file. Use a password that conforms to your internal security requirements. Required
Connection and read timeout Enter the time at which the connection and read actions time out Optional. Must be a value greater than 0 (zero), and the default is 5000 (5 seconds).
vCenter host's name regex to discover Specify an exact match or a regular expression match for a host's name in order to discover all its virtual machines Optional
Connection retry times Set the connection retry times Optional. The default value is 5.
Retry after delay (milliseconds) Set the time delay before trying to reconnect (in milliseconds) Optional. The default value is 1000.
Connection timeout Specify the connection timeout in ms (default is 5000) Optional
Read timeout Specify the read timeout in ms (default is 5000) Optional
Proxy Host Specify the proxy host to connect to Optional
Proxy Port Specify the proxy port, defaults to 8080 Optional
Proxy Username Specify the proxy user name to connect to. Set for basic auth proxy. Optional
Trust all certificates Select true to connect to target environment without verification, or 'false' to validate the certificate before connecting. Optional. Default is true.
Proxy Password Specify the password for the proxy user (if Proxy Username has been specified) Optional. Use plain text.
Proxy Secure Specify whether to connect to the proxy in secure mode. Set to True for HTTPS proxy. Optional. The default is 'false'.
Access scope Enter text to provide a scope for the resources. Access scope can help map alerts to resources when resources in different scopes share the same parameters, such as matchTokens. Optional. Tip: You can define access scope for locations, project names, namespaces, etc.
Generate debug support file Set this parameter to 'True' in order to capture the output of the next scheduled job run as a file. This file will be stored with an observer's log files and can be used to debug observer issues, for example at the request of your designated support team, or while using a test environment. For one-off jobs (that is, Load jobs), this parameter reverts to 'False' after the next completed run. To examine the output produced, you can load the generated debug file using the File Observer. Optional
Observer job description Enter additional information to describe the job Optional
Job schedule Specify when the job runs Optional. Load jobs only.