Adding and editing VM managers in distributed and disconnected mode

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Configure connections to VM managers in your infrastructure to ensure that the VM Manager Tool can gather data that is needed to calculate consumption of license metrics in your virtual environment. To configure the connection to a VM manager that is managed by a distributed or disconnected VM Manager Tool, create a configuration file, and specify the web address of the VM manager, its type, and credentials that are required to access it. To edit the connection, edit the relevant configuration file.

Before you begin

  • The following procedure applies to VM managers that are managed by the distributed or disconnected VM Manager Tool. For VM managers that are managed by local or central VM Manager Tool, see: Adding VM managers in local and central mode.
  • VM managers to which you configure connections through configuration files are displayed in the License Metric Tool user interface. However, they can be managed only through the VM Manager Tool command-line interface.
  • 9.2.7 VM Manager Tool, starting from update 1.5.0.0, is enhanced to attempt to automatically fix the most common problems with the VM manager connection parameters. This feature is disabled by default. To enable it, go to the VM_Manager_Tool_install_dir/config directory, open the vmmmainconf.properties file, and change the value of the vmm_fix_parameters_enabled parameter to true.

    While fixing connection problems, the VM Manager Tool can connect by using the HTTP protocol when the defined HTTPS connection is not available. This setting is enabled by default. To disable switching protocol from HTTPS to HTTP, go to the VM_Manager_Tool_install_dir/config directory, open the vmmmainconf.properties file, and change the value of the vmm_http_connection_allowed parameter to false. For more information, see: VM Manager Tool configuration parameters.

Procedure

  1. Go to the config directory that is located in the installation directory of the VM Manager Tool.
    • For distributed VM Manager Tool
      • Linux /var/opt/BESClient/LMT/VMMAN/config or /opt/BESClient/bin/LMT/VMMAN/config depending on your version of VM Manager Tool
      • Windows C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client\LMT\VMMAN\config
    • For disconnected VM Manager Tool
      • Linux VM Manager Tool install dir/config
      • Windows VM Manager Tool install dir\config
    Tip: If you do not remember where the VM Manager Tool is installed, search the computer for the following file.
    • Linux vmman.sh
    • Windows vmman.bat
  2. To add a new connection, copy the vmmconf_template.properties file, and rename it to vmmconf_name.properties. The file now represents a new VM manager. To edit an existing connection, select the appropriate configuration file.
    Attention: Each time that you create a VM manager configuration file, use the vmmconf_template.properties file as a template. Do not copy and edit configuration files that you previously created for a different VM manager. After you load the configuration file for the first time, an ID is generated for the VM manager. Each ID must be unique. When you copy and edit an existing configuration file, the ID is duplicated.
  3. Edit the file, and specify the following parameters.
    vmm_url
    Specify the web address of the VM manager. You can specify either a full URL or only the host name or IP address. For example, vmm_url=http://192.0.2.0/wsman.
    Important: The default URL differs depending on the virtualization type.
    • 9.2.37 Red Hat OpenShift: https://{manager-address}:6443
    • 9.2.12 XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor): https://{manager-address}
    • Hyper-V or Azure Stack HCI: https://{manager-address}:5986/wsman

      In case of Azure Stack HCI, provide a connection to a host in the cluster. Then, share credentials to connect to other hosts. If it is not possible, configure a connection to each host in the cluster separately.

    • 9.2.17 Nutanix:
      • https://{manager-address}:9440/PrismGateway/services/rest/v2.0
      • 9.2.41 https://{manager-address}:9040/api/nutanix/v3

        If you provide only the host and port, /api/nutanix/v3 is automatically added.

    • 9.2.25 Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager: https://{manager-address}/ovirt-engine/api
    • RHV-M: https://{manager-address}/ovirt-engine/api
    • vCenter: https://{manager-address}/sdk/vimService.wsdl
    vmm_type
    Specify the type of the VM manager. Use one of the following values.
    • 9.2.37 OPENSHIFT_VIRT
    • KVM_RHV_M
      Note: Choose KVM_RHV_M for Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
    • MICROSOFT_HYPER_V
      Note: 9.2.31 Choose MICROSOFT_HYPER_V for both Microsoft Hyper-v and Azure Stack HCI.
    • NUTANIX
    • VMWARE_V_SPHERE
      Note: Choose VMWARE_V_SPHERE if you are adding the connection for VMware Cloud on AWS. Additionally, ensure that the prerequisites are fulfilled. For more information, see: Virtualization types that require VM manager connections.
    • XEN_MANAGER

    For example, vmm_type=MICROSOFT_HYPER_V.

    vmm_login
    Specify the user name that is used to access the VM manager. For example, vmm_login=administrator\cluster.com.
    Important:

    Avoid using non-ASCII characters in user names that are used to log in to VM managers, because the VM Manager Tool that connects to those VM managers does not support encoding into UTF-8 format.

    VM managers use different definitions of users.
    • 9.2.37 For Red Had OpenShift, leave the vmm_login blank.
    • 9.2.12 For XenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor), the user is defined as user_name, for example root.
    • For Microsoft Hyper-V or Azure Stack HCI, you must use the Administrator account. The user is defined as user_name\domain or user_name@domain. For example, test\cluster.com or test@cluster.com.
    • 9.2.17 For Nutanix, the user is defined as user_name, for example: test.
    • 9.2.25 For Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager the user is defined as user_name@domain, for example: test@cluster.com.
    • For RHV-M, the user is defined as user_name@domain, for example: test@cluster.com.
    • For VMware, the user is defined as domain\user_name, for example: cluster.com\test.
    vmm_password
    Specify the password that is used to access the VM manager. The password is encrypted and saved when you load the configuration files.
    Note:
    • VM Manager Tool uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for encrypting passwords associated with user accounts. By leveraging AES encryption, the users passwords remain secure and protected against unauthorized access or malicious interception.
    • 9.2.37 For Red Hat OpenShift, use the ServiceAccount token as a password.

    For more information about optional parameters, see: Configuration parameters.

  4. Save the configuration file.

What to do next

To establish the connection to the VM manager, run the VM Manager Tool and load the configuration file.