IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Environment - VMware VI Agent

VMware VI Agent v7.3 FP7 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP11) (Released 20 December 2024)

VMware VI Agent v7.3 FP6 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP10) (Released 26 January 2024)

• APAR: DT236720
• Added Support for RHEL 9 Operating Systems.
• Upgraded ITM SDK to version 6.3 FP7 SP14.
• Upgraded Agent JRE to version 1.8.0_351.
• Updated attribute groups:
  • Virtual Machines
    • FQDN: The fully qualified domain name of the virtual machine.
    • Additional information: Enhanced FQDN attribute in ESX Virtual Machines attribute group by adding the following features:
      • The agent log throws a message when there is a time lag in the FQDN resolution.
      • Updated the agent XML for KVM_VIRTUAL_MACHINE_IP_TIMEOUT with a default value to fetch FQDN within the time.
      • Updated the help text to indicate that KVM_VIRTUAL_MACHINE_IP_TIMEOUT takes the value in milliseconds.

Download Link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7110406
Part Number: M0H0CEN

VMware VI Agent v7.3 FP5 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP9) (Released 15 November 2022)

The following enhancements were made:

• Added support for requesting hostnames of ESX servers instead of IP addresses in situations and event fields. For this, the ESX server needs to be added with the hostname in vCenter Server. Set the value of KVM_ESX_HOSTNAME_IN_EVENTS = Y in the environment file for activating this feature.
  https://automation-management.ideas.ibm.com/ideas/ITMAPM-I-58
• You can request events and messages in a specific locale from the vCenter Server. To enable such a request, in the environment variable, set the following value: KVM_EVENTS_LOCALE = <supported_locale> where <supported_locale> is the language code.
  • To check for supported locales in vCenter Server, complete the following steps:
    1. Open https://<vcenter_ip>/mob/?moid=SessionManager in browser.
    2. Check messageLocaleList property.
• Added Support for Windows Server 2022 SE and DE Operating Systems
• Upgraded ITM SDK to version 6.3 FP7 SP13
• Upgraded Agent JRE to version 1.8.0_331

Download Link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6837589
Part Number: M08C0EN

VMware VI Agent v7.3 FP4 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP8) (Released 30 July 2021)

The following enhancements were made:

1. APAR: IJ33203
   Abstract: Wrong version for ESX Subnodes.
   Additional information: Listing the VMWare VI agent subnodes, it shows incorrect version, ideally it should be matched with the agent version but the reported one is 07.30.01.xx.

Download Link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6474485
Part Number: G0231EN

VMware VI Agent v7.3 FP3 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP7) (Released 23 April 2021)

The following enhancements were made:

1. Updated attribute groups:
   1. Triggered alarms:
      1. Triggered Entity Type: The type of the entity for which this alarm was triggered.
   2. Datastores
      1. Percent Overcommitted: The percentage of the total capacity of the datastore that is overcommitted.
   3. Servers
      1. HBA Count: The number of Host Bus Adapters (HBAs).
      2. Fault Tolerance Supported: Fault Tolerance Supported, indicates whether the host supports fault tolerance.
      3. CloneFrom Snapshot Supported: Indicates whether cloning a virtual machine from a snapshot point is allowed.
      4. Capacity: The total capacity of the vFlash resource in MB(Megabytes) connected to this server.
      5. Capacity For Vm Cache: The total capacity of vFlash resource in MB(Megabytes) that can be allocated for VM caches.
      6. Usage: The total usage of vFlash resource in MB(Megabytes).
   4. VMDiskPerformance
      1. VMNodeID: Interval node ID of the virtual machine.
      2. Backing Datastore: The name of the datastore that backs this VM disk if there is one.
   5. VMSnapshots
      1. Snapshot State: Indicates whether a snapshot of a virtual machine has been taken by including its memory component. PoweredOff represents a snapshot that has been taken in an offline state with no memory inclusion, PoweredOn indicates the snapshot has included a memory component, and unavailable indicates the state is unknown. 
      2. Snapshot Age: The age of the snapshot, in days.
   6. Virtual Machines
      1. FQDN: The fully qualified domain name of the virtual machine.
2. APAR: IJ28887
   Abstract: The VMware agent is missing some events that occurred on the vCenter.
   Additional information: Events captured by the agent do not match the total count of events available on the vCenter. This problem is because of the time lag that the API call takes to make the specific event available to fetch.
3. If the connection fails, the agent would continuously attempt connection to the data source without limit every 30 seconds. Such agent behavior remains even though a user has removed the environment variable KVM_DATA_PROVIDER_CONNECTION_RETRY_COUNT or set it to 0. To have a limited number of connection attempts, the environment variable KVM_DATA_PROVIDER_CONNECTION_RETRY_COUNT must be set to a valid nonzero value.
4. Agent JRE is upgraded to version: 1.8.0_241.
5. The defect is fixed in the orphaned disk attribute group, and the attribute group shows the valid data for the orphaned disk.

Note: Data for the orphaned disk might not be valid if the data store is shared across or managed by more than one vCenters. Data might not be valid if the virtual machine is renamed and a name mismatch occurs to the vmdk files created on the data store. The administrator is expected to ensure the data validity before you take any actions against the disks shown in this attribute group. IBM is not responsible for any data loss.

Download Link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6442093
Part Number: CC9VJEN

VMware VI Agent v7.3 FP2 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP6) (Released 11 May  2020)

The following enhancements were made:

1. Topology data collection is restricted at the data source level. If multiple data sources are configured to a single agent instance (vCenter/ESX), then the agent would ignore collecting data for the Topology attribute group only for those data sources that have exceeded the threshold of total inventory objects to 1500. Data provider would continue to serve topology data for other data sources.
2. Agent JRE is upgraded to Java 8.
3. Handled a few failures in the VM Data-Store Utilization attribute group.
4. Retry count to limit connection attempts with data source:
   Add a limit for the number of times the agent attempts to connect with the data source (vCenter/ESX) when repeated connection failures occur. The default value for an agent to retry the unsuccessful connection attempt is 6. This value can be changed as per user requirement by setting the following variable in the agent instance-specific environment file:
   KVM_DATA_PROVIDER_CONNECTION_RETRY_COUNT.
   After exhausting the limit of configured connection attempts, if the agent fails to connect to the data source, it will stop attempting connection tries to log the following message in the data provider log:

   NO MORE ATTEMPTS OF CONNECTION;STOPPING THE DATA COLLECTION, TO RESUME MONITORING PLEASE RESTART THE AGENT. TO HAVE MORE ATTEMPT OF CONNECTIONS, RESET THE VALUE OF THE VARIABLE KVM_DATA_PROVIDER_CONNECTION_RETRY_COUNT

Download Link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6155505

Part Number: CC8RPEN

Build refresh Date: 20 November 2020
APAR included: IJ28978
Abstract: SDA support for NetApp agent.
Description:
NetApp agent is not defined as a self-describing agent, so the user needs to install the application support manually.

VMware VI Agent v7.3 FP1 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP5) (Released 05 November 2019)

The following problems are fixed in this release.

• APAR: IJ05609
  Abstract: Task collection API logs fault messages in log files and the task section of the ESX server's client interface.
  Additional information: Task collection API is failing to get the tasks from ESX Servers saying it is not supported. The API call can be executed only for the agent that connects to the vCenter.
• APAR: IJ09146
  Abstract: The VMware agent does not show the guest OS name for the virtual machine.
  Additional Information: vCenter shows the name of the operating system for the specific virtual machine, but the Virtual Machines attribute group does not show the name of the running OS unless the VM tools are installed on the virtual machine. This needs to be fixed by changing the API call used to fetch the name of the Operating System installed on the virtual machine.
• APAR: IJ11017
  Abstract: No data for distributed virtual port groups/uplinks under the network navigator item.
  Additional Information: If a user clicks the Networks navigator item, they might now see data for the views Distributed virtual port groups and uplinks.
• APAR: IJ15325
  Abstract: The VMware agent does not show all the session events that occurred at the ESX server.
  Additional Information: Not all Session/Login events that occurred at the ESX Server get captured by the agent. A few of them are not listed on TEP in the ESX server’s events section even if they are available on the vCenter.
• APAR: IJ15672
  Abstract: The VMware agent shows the wrong value for the snapshot consumption at the data store level.
  Additional Information: The data store shows value for a snapshot consumption even if there are no snapshots available on the particular data store.
• APAR: IJ20394
  Abstract: The server San attribute group does not show a valid disk and data store name.
  Additional information: Disk Name in Server SAN attribute group shows Disk ID instead of the readable name of Disk. In the same attribute group Datastore attribute shows value as "Not Applicable" even if the backing data store was present.

The following enhancements are supported in this release.

1. New attributes in the following attribute groups:
   • Server
     • Subnode Resource Name Enhanced
2. A new feature is added to get an IP/Hostname of vCenter from the vSphere API call. This feature enables an agent to fetch the IP address or hostname of vCenter from the vSphere API call instead of displaying the Configured Address on the configuration panel. To enable this feature, set the KVM_RETRIEVE_HOSTNAME_FROM_API flag in the agent environment to Y.
   For example:
   KVM_RETRIEVE_HOSTNAME_FROM_API=Y
3. The agent configuration panel is updated to accept the KeyStore password for Java. A new configuration field KEY_STORE_PASSWORD allows you to configure the agent with the new key-store password that is set for the agent Java Runtime Environment. This Java key-store is not related to the vCenter key-store. It is not mandatory to enter the password each time you configure the agent.
   If you leave the KEY_STORE_PASSWORD field blank, then the agent assumes that the default Java key-store password must be used while using the agent Java Runtime Environment.
4. The Server_SAN attribute group now displays the disk name identical to the Server_Disk attribute group along with the valid value for the data store.
5. Installer changes now allow agents to use updated executables if an agent is upgraded from the previous version.
6. Task collection now does not show any faults in the tasks section of the vCenter if an agent is configured with ESX Server as a data source.
7. The subnode events attribute group is enhanced to address the issue of agents missing session/login events even if they are available on the vCenter.
8. The datastore attribute group is enhanced to show the accurate Snapshot consumption.
9. The virtual machine attribute group now shows the name of a virtual machine even if VM tools are not installed on the VM.
10. The topology attribute group is restricted to collect data only if the total inventory size is 1500 objects, to avoid unresponsiveness of UI due to time-out errors in the data collection.
    With this enhancement, the attribute group would restrict the data collection to a max 1500 objects. If inventory size goes beyond this threshold, there will be no data collection for the topology attribute group with the following message in the log.

    Total count of monitored objects in the environment is 1600. Data collection of Topology attribute group is disabled as it is supported to collect data for the maximum of 1500 vCenter entities.

    Visit Topology attribute shows no data on the Tivoli Enterprise Portal(TEP) for more information.

Download Link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1159420

Part Number: CC3ZLEN 

VMware VI Agent v7.3 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP4) (Released 30 December 2017)

• Addition of Sensor Name as a Display Item for KVM SERVER HEALTH situation.
• Support to allow installation of agent on Windows Server 2016 Standard.
• Configuring Instance-specific heap size to use allocated memory on the system efficiently.

Download Link: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24044429
Part number: CNN28EN

VMware VI Agent v7.2 FP4 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP3) (Released 15 June 2015)

For version 7.2 Fix Pack 4 of the VMware VI agent, the following enhancements were made since version 7.2 Fix Pack 2:

• Changes related to system requirements. See the information about system requirements in Software Product Compatibility Reports (http://www-969.ibm.com/software/reports/compatibility/clarity/index.html).
• New attributes in the following attribute groups:
  • Server
  • VM Memory
  • Virtual Machines
  • VM Snapshots

Download Link: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibmr-tivolir-monitoring-virtual-environments-vmware-vi-720-tiv-itmvmwvi-fp0003

Part number: CN8C9EN

VMware VI Agent v7.2 FP2 (ITMfVE Downloadable version 7.2 FP2) (Released 13 September 2013)

For version 7.2 Fix Pack 2 of the VMware VI agent, the following enhancements were made since version 7.2 Fix Pack 1.

• Monitoring Distributed Virtual Switch (new features in vSphere 5.1).
• DVS health check helps to detect any misconfigurations at VLAN, Teaming, and MTU parameters.
• VLAN Health – It contains a Health Check Summary related to VLAN (general checks like if VLAN is supported).
• MTU Health – It shows the ‘Maximum transmission unit’ mismatch between physical and virtual switches, and the same is displayed in the MTU mismatch attribute.
• DVS Teaming Health – It reports anomalies in DVS Teaming via the DVS Teaming status attribute.
• Enhancement to monitoring
  • Monitoring of EVC mode of cluster and server
    It provides enhanced v-motion compatibility mode for cluster and current and max supported EVC mode for a server. This helps to determine if the addition of a host to the cluster is possible; because of differences between EVC modes enabled for both entities.
  • Capacity monitoring for Datastore Cluster
    The Datastore cluster attribute group is enhanced to provide monitoring for total capacity, used capacity, and percent capacity free across the datastore cluster.
  • Monitoring of fault-tolerant VM
    FT VM is a high-availability configuration of a VM where a redundant VM is created. The FT Instance UUID shows the instance UUID of the primary VM in the secondary and vice-versa.
• Enhancement to warehousing of attributes
  Attribute groups have been added to enablement of warehouse scaling by adding a few attributes. This leads to appropriate summarization by ignoring metrics having data as -1 (unavailable).
• New situations at Cluster, Server, and Virtual Machine level to monitor overall status.
  The situation for the overall bad state of Datastore was already available in an agent.
  • Cluster - KVM_Cluster_Bad_Status
  • Host – KVM_Host_Server_Bad_Status
  • Virtual Machine – KVM_VM_Bad_Status
• Reports Enhancement
  1. New report to show top or bottom N servers weekly comparison based on key metrics.
  2. Enhancement in Cluster-level reports to show Network I/O and Disk I/O metrics. Previously, these reports only included CPU and memory metrics.
     1. VMware VI Cluster Performance Trends
     2. VMware VI Top or Bottom Workload Consumer Clusters
     3. VMware VI Cluster Weekly Comparison
     4. VMware VI Cluster Workload Trend and Forecast
     5. VMware VI Balanced and Unbalanced Cluster
  3. Enhancement in top/bottom reports to provide threshold and customization of threshold
     1. VMware VI Bottom N VMs by Resource Pool
     2. VMware VI Top N VMs by Resource Pool
     3. VMware VI Top or Bottom Physical NICs
     4. VMware VI Top or Bottom Workload Consumers Clusters
     5. VMware VI Top or Bottom Workload Consumers Host Servers
  4. Enhancement in Heat chart reports to provide for custom color selection.

Download link: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/tmfve/7.2.0.2
Part number: CIQ4HEN

VMware VI Agent v7.1.0 (Released 25 November 2011)

• For version 7.1.0, significant performance enhancements to the Java data provider have been implemented.
  1. As much as a 10x improvement in data collection speeds
  2. The data provider uses as little as 25% of the previously needed memory resulting in a less frequent need to tune the Java runtime parameters for heap size.

VMware VI Agent v6.2.3 (Released 25 February 2011)

• Note: The VMware VI Agent v6.2.3 is currently available in the following products:
  • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers 6.2.3 (CRDW1ML)
  • IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Applications 6.2.4 (CRED5ML)
  • IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Microsoft Applications 6.2.3 (CREE7ML)
• As of April 20, 2011, the following product has the VMware VI agent at the 6.2.2 level, until the product is upgraded. Administrators should find the latest versions of products on Passport Advantage.
  • IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA Platform 6.2.2
  • The prerequisite for VMware VI agent v6.2.3 is IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.2 Fix Pack 2 or later.
  • The packages on Passport Advantage and Extreme Leverage are (new license agreement April 12, 2011):
    • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers 6.2.3 Multiplatform Multilingual eAssembly (CRDW1ML)
      • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers VMware, VI, KVM, and NetApp Storage Agents V6.2.3 Windows Linux English (CZWM3EN)
      • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers VMware, VI, KVM, and NetApp Storage Agent Support Files V6.2.3 Multiplatform English (CZWM5EN)
      • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers 6.2.3 Quick Start Guide Multilingual (CZV5NML)
      • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Agent Language Pack V6.2.3 Multiplatform Multilingual (CZV5RML)
      • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers V6.2.2: Citrix Agent V6.1 (TMVS), Windows, English (CZWM4EN)
  • For version 6.2.3 of the VMware VI agent, the following enhancements have been made since version 6.2.2:
    1. Network monitoring. You can now see the configuration of key virtualized network components and traffic usage by virtual machines and hosts.
    2. vCenter alarm monitoring. You can now see the vCenter alarms that have triggered the networks, data stores, hosts, virtual machines, and clusters in the environment.
    3. Improvements to many workspaces. The Virtual Enterprise workspace is now the default workspace and includes a summary of the clusters, data stores, and networks. New views of new monitoring data have been added.
    4. Improved event monitoring with the addition of an EventType metric to support more efficient use of IBM Tivoli Management situations for key VMware events.
  • Additional metrics:
    • Reporting of data store commitment or overcommitment
    • Host maintenance mode status
    • Host network adapter details
    • Collection of more data attributes for improved historical reporting
    • New situations to alert you about HBA failures and host NIC adapter states
    • Additional Cognos reports
  • APARs fixed in v6.2.3: Refer to Technote #1469744

VMware VI Agent v6.2.2 (Released 25 June 2010, Refresh of 2 images 27 August 2010)

• The prerequisite is IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.2 Fix Pack 1 or later.
• The packages on Passport Advantage and Extreme Leverage are:
  • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Version 6.2.2 (TMVS) eAssembly Multiplatform, Multilingual (CR9J3ML)
    • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Quick Start Guide V6.2.2 (TMVS), Multilingual (CZH1TML)
    • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Quickstart and Documentations V6.2.2 (TMVS), Multilingual (CZJ31ML)
    • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers VMware VI and NetApp Storage Agents V6.2.2 (TMVS), Windows and Linux, English (CZN2CEN)
      • Note: This contains the install image for both the VMware VI agent and the NetApp Storage agent.
      • This refresh of the image on Aug. 27, 2010, resolves the following problems:
        • Feature 134586 Add support for zLinux
        • Defect 135528 Used space for the virtual disk is zero inthe  VM partition
        • Defect 135939 itm_vs_622_tcr - Reports fail on certain environments
    • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers 6.2.1 Citrix Agent V6.1 (TMVS), Windows, English (CZ5QXEN)
    • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers VMware VI and NetApp Storage Agent Support Files V6.2.2 (TMVS), Multiplatform, English (CZN2DEN)
      • This refresh of the image on Aug. 27, 2010, resolves the following problems:
        • APAR IZ83150 APPLICATION SUPPORT PRISTINE INSTALL FAILS
    • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers VMWare VI and NetApp Storage Agent Language Pack V6.2.2 (TMVS), Multiplatform, Multilingual (CZIA8ML)
  • New in v6.2.2:
    • Enhanced data store monitoring:
      • Key indicators are monitored for each data store. Metrics indicate availability and capacity or usage and show how busy the data store is for each virtual machine.
      • New workspaces highlight detailed information for each data store.
      • The new topology workspace shows instantly which clusters, hosts, and virtual machines are configured to a data store. You can see the status of each at a glance.
      • New situations alert unavailable data stores and data stores that are low on capacity.
    • Integration with the new IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Agent for Netapp Storage. This integration provides views of overall volume capacity as seen from the NetApp Controller with direct links to the NetApp Storage agent to view volume and aggregate performance data.
    • Additional ESX server disk metrics:
      • New latency performance metrics for the device, kernel, and queue
      • A new workspace that provides a visualization of each ESX server disk and its performance metrics
    • Topology workspaces provide an easy way to see dependencies between clusters, ESX servers, and virtual machines as well as their current status.
    • Agent Management Services support for automatic monitoring of the VMware VI agent by the IBM Tivoli Monitoring operating system agents.
    • Tivoli Common Reporting Cognos reports that provide easy-to-use drag, drop, and pivot capabilities to significantly reduce the time for building custom reports.
    • Native Windows 64-bit support
    • Situations to notify users of Virtual Machine adds, deletes, and VMotions.
    • Discovery Library Adapter support to bring attributes collected from the VMware VI agent into the Tivoli Application Dependency and Discovery Manager (TADDM) tool.
    • Additional new workspaces:
      • High-level workspace that illustrates the status of clusters and data stores with at-a-glance status and performance indicators.
      • Cluster-level workspace that shows graphically the VMotion history and cluster CPU and memory utilization history.
  • The latest Interim Fix is 6.2.2-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0002 (see Interim Fixes).

VMware VI Agent v6.2.1

1. Users with TEMS/TEPS at v6.2.1 should use VMware VI Agent v6.2.1 and Interim Fix 6.2.1-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0008 (see below for Interim Fix download link).
   • The prerequisite is IBM Tivoli Monitoring v6.2.1 IF0003 or later.
   • The cinfo output for the VMware VI agent will show the VRMF as 06.21.00.03 (this is due to a packaging requirement).
   • The data provider in v6.2.1 is completely rewritten in Java (previous versions were C++).
   • A refresh of the install images was provided on December 4, 2009, to resolve APAR IZ66137 and fixed these install problems:
     • Java does not get installed or does not get upgraded to v1.5.
     • The configuration panel pops up on the target machine if the TEMS is running ITM 6.2.1 IF4.
     • On Windows targets, the copy command might hang and not complete.
   • The packages on Passport Advantage and Extreme Leverage are (these include the new images and part numbers that were released on December 4, 2009):
     • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers VMWare VI Agent V6.2.1 (TMVS), Windows and Linux, English (CZ9N8EN)
     • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Agent Support Files V6.2.1 (TMVS), Multiplatform, English (CZ9N7EN)
     • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers 6.2.1 Citrix Agent V6.1 (TMVS), Windows, English (CZ5QXEN)
     • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Agent Language Pack V6.2.1 (TMVS), Multiplatform, Multilingual (CZ9YEML)
     • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers QuickStart Guide V6.2.1 (TMVS), Multilingual (CZ5QTML)
     • IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Virtual Servers Quickstart and Documentations V6.2.1 (TMVS), Multilingual (CZ5QVML)
   • New in v6.2.1:
     1. Full Support for vCenter 4.0 and ESX/ESXi 4.0 (v6.1.2 supported v4.0 only in non-SSL mode)
     2. Completely redesigned data provider, implemented in Java
     3. Faster and scales better
        • Smarter data collection techniques
        • Aggressive, fine-grained caching
        • Highly multithreaded
     4. Better SSL handling
     5. Agent Events and Server Health attribute groups
     6. The topology attribute group is now filled out
        • No view shipped in this release, but users can create their own
     7. Additional customer-requested metrics
        • Additional server disk metrics including bus resets, number of disk commands, and number of disk commands aborted
        • New Server Health workspace with metrics for temperatures, voltages, and other information for key hardware components
        • Virtual machine percent ready
        • Average VM percent ready per ESX server
        • Fault tolerance level
        • Server balloon memory usage
     8. IBM Systems Director integration (optional)
     9. Includes TCR reports
   • The latest Interim Fix is 6.2.1-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0008 (see Interim Fixes).

Interim Fixes/Fix Pack (on Fix Central)

VMware VI agent v7.2.0.4 - Interim Fix 7.2.0.4-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0001

• Available here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24043024
• Includes these APARS
  1. APAR  IJ05490 - The "Storage Used" attribute on the VMware cluster workspace shows a negative value in the dashboard for VMware.
  2. APAR IV86496 - Addition of attributes to the virtual machines attribute.
  3. APAR IV86497 - Inappropriate value for the agent MSN attribute.

VMware VI agent v7.2.0.3 - Interim Fix 7.2.0.3-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0001

• Available here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24040974
• Includes these APARS
  1. APAR IV75775- Inappropriate grouping of metrics for a Server attribute group to ignore summarization.

VMware VI agent v7.2.0 - Fix Pack 7.2.0-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-FP0003

• Available here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24040186
• Includes these APARS
  1. APAR IV73046- VMware VI Agent is not showing any data for the Distributed Virtual Switch.
  2. APAR IV74057-  The attribute Host free displays the value Unavailable for the VM Memory attribute group.
• Include these Enhancements
  1. Enhancement E72031- The new attribute "Version" has been added to the Virtual machines attribute group.

VMware VI agent v7.2.0.2 - Interim Fix 7.2.0.2-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0003

• Available here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24039291
• Includes these APARS
  • APAR IV65302- Inconsistency in the snapshot count.
  • APAR IV68477- Snapshot size incorrectly captured.
  • APAR IV68498- The summarized tables for the KVM Datastores attribute group display the value of zero for the Percent Overcommitted metric.
• Include these Enhancements
  1. Virtual Machine: A new metric has been added in the Virtual Machines attribute group to obtain the overall datastore utilization in percentage for the particular virtual machine.
  2. Clusters: The Percent Datastore Usage attribute has been added to obtain the overall datastore usage in percentage for a specific cluster.
  3. Clustered Datastores: Enhancements have been made to provide the overall status of the datastore, instead of cluster.

VMware VI agent v7.2.0.2 - Interim Fix 7.2.0.2-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0002

• Available here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24037388
• Includes these APARS
  • APAR IV53276 - The agent instance is not responding to the request.
  • APAR IV55838 - VMWARE VI agent workspace hangs and stops showing data.
  • APAR IV58575 - Unable to get data for Datastores attribute group.
• Include these Defects
  1. Defect 210166 - Inappropriate value for HBA speed

VMware VI agent v7.1.0 - Interim Fix 7.1.0-TIV-ITM_VMWARE-IF0003

• Available here: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24033982

VMware VI agent v6.2.1 - Interim Fix 6.2.1-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0008

• Available here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24028098
• Includes these APARS
  1. APAR IZ64926 - No data collected for VCENTER 2.5.0 BASE or UPDATE 1
  2. APAR IZ65466 - The virtual machine CPU percent ready metric always reports a value of Zero.
  3. APAR IZ65773 - VM_CPU data collection is slow.
  4. APAR IZ66178 - VIRTUALAPP object causes VMWARE discovery to fail.
  5. APAR IZ67821 - TEP not displaying data in large VMWARE environments while running situations and historical data collection.
  6. APAR IZ68602 - Stopping agents does not stop data providers.
  7. APAR IZ68626 - ITM 6.2.1 VI VMWARE AGENT fails to collect VM memory data.
  8. APAR IZ68736- Error collecting cluster server attribute group.
  9. APAR IZ68737 - ConcurrentModificationException during data collection.
  10. APAR IZ70912- No Data Due To VirtualMachineMetaInventoryItem NullPointerException
  11. APAR IZ72762 - Cluster attribute group timing out.
  12. APAR IZ72765- Crash around multi-thread use of the HASH map.
  13. APAR IZ72768- OutOfMemoryError java core.
  14. APAR IZ72770- Double free causes the agent to crash.
  15. APAR IZ72801 - CPU AND MEMORY utilization overflow.
  16. APAR IZ74137- Issues restarting custom data providers.
  17. APAR IZ74621- The log file on Linux growing very large.
  18. APAR IZ83997- VM partition used space always has zero values. 
  19. APAR IZ85323- Resource pool parent name incorrect.

Common questions

• How do you configure VMware vCenter and the VMware VI agent to communicate without SSL?
  When turning off SSL it is important to remember to turn it off on both ends of the communication.
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/configuration-non-ssl-communication
• What service must be running on the ESX Server for the agent to collect data?
  The mgmt-vmware service must be running. To check the status, log in to the ESX Server and run the command:

  service mgmt-vmware status

  If the service is running, it will return:

  vmware-hostd (pid ) is running...

  You may also start, stop, or restart the service with the following service command. 

  service mgmt-vmware <start|stop|restart|status> </start|stop|restart|status>

• How can I monitor log files generated by VMware ESX or ESXi hosts that use IBM Tivoli Monitoring?
  Please see this document: VMWare ESX Agent User Guide - https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/atom/download/attachment_14055351_ITM6A1A_1_VMWare_ESX_Agent_User_Guide.pdf?nodeId=4ea0fa4d-86b1-434b-abff-5629e8bad4cc

Common problems

• (v7.3 FP5) TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 protocols are disabled by default
  vCenter Server 6.0 and its earlier versions use TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 protocols for communications. However, the TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 protocols are disabled by default, by JRE for security reasons. Hence, the communication between the vCenter Server and the agent is hindered. To work around this issue, you must complete the following steps:
  1. Navigate to the below directory:
     Linux
     <CANDLE_HOME>/JRE/lx8266/lib/security
     Windows
     <CANDLE_HOME>\java\java80_x64\jre\lib\security
  2. Edit the java.security file.
     1. Search for "jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms".
     2. Remove TLSv1 and TLSv1.1 from the list.
• Subnodes go offline due to (503) Service Unavailable errors.
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/esx-sub-nodes-are-reporting-offline-tep
• SSL Certification
  1. The default SSL certificates that VMware supplies are no longer valid. Also, some certificates might be expired. For these reasons, many users configure the agent to use SSL but choose not to validate SSL certification. This can be done by selecting "No (Potentially Insecure)" to the "Validate SSL Certificates" prompt. Then, selecting "Yes" to the Data Source prompt "Use SSL Connection to DataSource" will cause the agent to communicate with the data source (usually the vCenter) via SSL but will ignore the SSL Certificate.
  2. If the configuration sets SSL to Yes and "Validate SSL Certificates" to Yes, then a valid SSL certificate must be installed on the agent machines by using the steps defined in the User's Guide. (Enabling SSL communication with VMware VI data sources)
  3. If the configuration sets SSL to No, then Virtual Center must be configured to allow non-SSL connections. See Common Questions above.
• (v6.2.2) Ignore these messages in the kvm_data_provider*log files.
  • WARNING: VMDatastoreUtilizationAttributeGroup.collectData: Could not find datastore name for disk.
    The messages are informational only and do not indicate a problem. They occur when a disk is not associated with a data store. The message is designated to a FINER level in Interim Fix 6.2.2-TIV-ITM_VMWVI-IF0003 and in the base installation of V6.2.3.
• (v6.1.2) No Data in Workspace and GSK_ERROR_BAD_CERT error in log.
  Refer to Technote #1381221
• VMWare VI agent connectivity debugging.
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/itm-agent-insights-vmware-vi-agent-connectivity-debugging-0
• VMware agent fails to connect to configured vCenter with an error "Connection.open: SSL handshake failed".
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/875270
• The topology attribute group shows no data on the Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP).
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/996718
• The VMware agent does not use the latest JRE if it is upgraded to ITMfVE 7.2.0.4.
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/743007
• Utilization attribute from VM_CPU attribute group shows the value as UNAVAILABLE.
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/569779
• Upgrading Java Runtime for VMware VI agent
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/upgrading-java-runtime-vmware-vi-agent
• Server Health view showing wrong data for ESX Sensors
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/server-health-view-showing-wrong-data-esx-sensors
• Some events that are listed on the vCenter with severity as Error are represented by the agent as unknown.
  https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/81864
• Large numbers of subnodes can cause an agent to crash.
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/apar/IJ16462
• Environment variables for the VMware VI agent
  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/environment-variables-vmware-vi-agent

Common tracing

• How the agent collects data:
  • The VMware VI agent is comprised of two basic pieces: The factory agent (kvmagent) and the java data provider (kvm_data_provider.jar). The data provider uses the VMware API to collect data from vCenter and passes it on to the factory agent. The factory agent passes the data on to the TEMS (to be seen in the TEP) and to historical data collection to be seen in the data warehouse. Both pieces have different tracing logs and ways to increase the trace level.
• Where to look for logging information:
  • Start with the data provider log, as most problems can be found here. If you are having some type of connectivity problem or seeing no data, the default log level of information is usually all you need. The log file name is kvm_data_provider_<instance>_<number>.log and can be found in CANDLEHOME\tmaitm6\logs on Windows systems or CANDLEHOME/logs on Linux systems.
  • To see more detail in the data provider logs, reconfigure the agent and set the log level to FINE.
  • To see more detail in the factory agent log (same directory as above, but the file name is <hostname>vm<instance>_<timestamp>-<number>.log, set KBB_RAS1=ERROR DETAIL.