Create Monitoring Domain for VMware ESXi

This chapter describes how to create a monitoring domain for deploying GigaVUE V Series Nodes in VMware vCenter environment through GigaVUE-FM. You must establish a connection between GigaVUE-FM and VMware vCenter. Creating a monitoring domain in GigaVUE-FM allows you to establish a connection between vCenter and GigaVUE-FM.

To create a monitoring domain in GigaVUE-FM for VMware vCenter,

  1. Go to Inventory > VIRTUAL > VMware vCenter (V Series), and select Monitoring Domain. The Monitoring Domain page appears.
  2. On the Monitoring Domain page, select New. The VMware Configuration page appears.

  3. In the VMware Configuration page, enter or select the following details:

    Field

    Description
    Monitoring Domain Name of the monitoring domain
    Connection Alias Name of the connection
    Virtual Center

    IP address or FQDN of the vCenter

    Note:  To ensure the validity of VMware virtual central certificates issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), you must enable the Trust Store. For details, refer to Cloud solution in Trust Store.
    Username

    Username of the vCenter user with minimum privileges as described in the Prerequisites for Integrating V Series Nodes with VMware vCenter section.

    Note:  Whenever you change the vCenter credentials in VMware vCenter, edit the Monitoring Domain to update that in GigaVUE-FM. Otherwise, the connection status reaches an authentication failure state.
    Password

    vCenter password to connect to the vCenter
    Traffic Acquisition Method

    Select a Traffic Acquisition Method.

    Platform Tapping: Platform tapping is performed in two ways.

    • VSS: Used when a workload Virtual Machine is connected to a Virtual Standard Switch network. GigaVUE‑FM creates a promiscuous network on the VSS switch for tapping traffic.

    • VDS: Used when a workload Virtual Machine is connected to a Virtual Distributed Switch portgroup. Port Mirroring is created on the VDS switch by GigaVUE‑FM for tapping the traffic

    Customer Orchestrated Source: If you select Customer Orchestrated Source as the tapping method, you can use a tunnel or raw endpoint where traffic is directly tunneled to GigaVUE V Series Nodes.

    Note:  Select the Traffic Acquisition Method as Customer Orchestrated Source if you want to deploy an AMX application in the Monitoring Session for this Monitoring Domain.

    Resource Allocation

    Note:  This field is applicable only when using Platform Tapping as the Traffic Acquisition Method.

    When deploying multiple GigaVUE V Series Node in a single host, select any one of the following options:

    Target VM Based: Choose this option if your deployment workload VMs attached to less than or equal to 8 vSwtiches on the same ESXi host. This resource allocation type distributes the workload VMs across multiple GigaVUE V Series Nodes on the same ESXi host.

    Switch Based: A single GigaVUE V Series Node can tap a maximum of 8 vSwitches. Choose this option if you have traffic monitoring VMs running on ESXi hosts connected to more than 8 vSwitches in a single host. The vSwitches are mapped to the GigaVUE V Series Node in a round-robin manner. In this model, vSwitches are evenly distributed across the available GigaVUE V Series Nodes on the same host.

    Note:  Ensure to undeploy all the Monitoring Session associated with the connection before changing the Resource Allocation type.
    Maximum Number of V Series Nodes per Host Enter the maximum number of GigaVUE V Series Nodes possible to deploy in a single host. The default value is 10.
  4. Select Save. The VMware Fabric Launch Configuration page appears. For details on how to deploy GigaVUE V Series Nodes in the VMware Fabric Launch Configuration page, refer to Configure GigaVUE V Series Nodes for VMware ESXi

Notes:

  • Ensure that all V Series Nodes within a Monitoring Domain run the same version. Mixing different versions in the same Monitoring Domain may lead to inconsistencies when configuring Monitoring Session traffic elements.

  • Similarly, when upgrading a V Series Node, ensure that the GigaVUE‑FM version is the same or higher than the V Series Node version.

The Monitoring Domain created in this section is listed on the Monitoring Domain page.

 

Points to Note:

  • Whenever you change the vCenter credentials in VMware vCenter, edit the Monitoring Domain to update that in GigaVUE-FM. Otherwise, the connection status reaches an authentication failure state.

  • When the Monitoring Domain is in a "Not Connected" state, updating the vCenter credentials will only refresh the information stored in the GigaVUE-FM database.

    To establish the connection:

    1. Navigate to the Monitoring Domain page.
    2. Select Actions and select Connect.

    By following these steps, you can ensure that your vCenter credentials are updated and the connection is established correctly.

You can perform the following actions in the Monitoring domain page:

Actions

Description
Edit Use to edit a monitoring domain.
Deploy Fabric Use to deploy GigaVUE V Series Nodes.
Upgrade Fabric Use to upgrade GigaVUE V Series Nodes. For details, refer to Upgrade GigaVUE V Series Node in GigaVUE-FM for ESXi
Delete Monitoring Domain Use to delete a Monitoring Domain.
Delete Fabric Nodes Use to delete a GigaVUE V Series Node.
Connect / Disconnect

Disconnect: This option appears when the Monitoring Domain is Connected. Use it to stop communication between GigaVUE‑FMand the VMware vCenter.

Connect: This option appears when the Monitoring Domain is disconnected. Use it to start communication between GigaVUE‑FM and the VMware vCenter.
Rediscover

The changes made in vCenter for the GigaVUE V Series is reflected in GigaVUE‑FM. Refer to Rediscover topic for more detailed information.
Power On You can select an individual GigaVUE V Series Node and power it on. The status of the GigaVUE V Series Node is changed to Ok.
Power Off You can select an individual GigaVUE V Series Node and power it off. If the GigaVUE V Series Node is turned off from GigaVUE‑FM, then it is not considered as part of Cloud Health Monitoring and GigaVUE‑FM does not try to turn it on. The status of the GigaVUE V Series Node is changed to Down.
Reboot You can select an individual GigaVUE V Series Node and reboot it.
Edit SSL Configuration You can use this option to add Certificate Authority and the SSL Keys when using the Secure Tunnels.
Generate Sysdump

You can select one or multiple GigaVUE V Series Nodes (Maximum 10) to generate the system files. The generation of sysdump takes a few minutes in a GigaVUE V Series Node. You can proceed with other tasks, and upon completion, the status appears in the GUI. These system files are helpful for troubleshooting.

For more information, refer to Debuggability and Troubleshooting.
Manage Certificates

You can use this button to perform the following actions:

● Re-issue: Required to address security compromises, key changes, or configuration updates, like validity period adjustments.
● Renew: Extends the expiration date and usually happens automatically unless you decide to do it during scheduled downtime. Auto-renewal is performed based on the duration specified in the Certificate Settings page. For details. refer to Configure Certificate Settings

 

More information

  • To view and manage the generated sysdump files, select the GigaVUE V SeriesNode and select the Sysdump tab in the lower pane.

  • To view the certificates associated with the fabric, select the fabric nodes and select the Certificates tab in the lower pane.