Chapter 3. Virtual Machines

The heterogeneous virtual machine container and guest support combined with the ability to analyze information inside the virtual machine - such as disk space, patch level or installed applications - provides in-depth information across the virtual environment. This rich set of information enables CloudForms Management Engine users to improve problem resolution times and effectively manage virtual machines.

The Virtual Machines pages display all virtual machines that were discovered by your Server. Note that if you have applied a filter to a user, it will be in effect here. The Virtual Machines taskbar is a menu driven set of buttons that provide access to functions related to virtual machines.

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  1. History button
  2. Refresh screen button
  3. Taskbar
  4. Name search bar/Advanced Search button
  5. View buttons
  6. Download buttons
  7. Navigation bar
  8. Sort dropdown
  9. Main area in Grid View
  10. Provider/Filter Navigation

The console uses Virtual Thumbnails to describe virtual machines and templates. Each thumbnail contains four quadrants by default. This allows you to glance at a virtual machine for a quick view of its contents.

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  1. Top left quadrant: Operating system of the Virtual Machine
  2. Bottom left quadrant: Virtual Machine Hosts software
  3. Top right quadrant: Power state of Virtual Machine or Status icon
  4. Bottom right quadrant: Number of Snapshots for this Virtual Machine
IconDescription

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Template: Virtual Template

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Retired: When a virtual machine or instance is no longer required, it can be retired. Once a virtual machine or instance reaches its retirement date, it is immediately shut down and not allowed to restart. If an attempt to restart is made, CloudForms Management Engine will shut down the virtual machine or instance.

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Archived: An archived virtual machine has no host or datastore associated with it. Archiving is done to move virtual machines to a low cost storage, either on demand or during retirement, if requested, to avoid incurring extra cost on a virtualized infrastructure due to virtual machine sprawl.

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Orphaned: An orphaned virtual machine has no host but has a datastore associated with it. Orphaned virtual machines are those that have been removed from their providers but still exist on the storage. An orphaned virtual machine is unable to identify the associated host. A virtual machine also shows as orphaned if it exists on a different host than the host expected by the provider’s server.

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Disconnected: A disconnected virtual machine is one that has lost connection to either the provider’s storage, host, or both. A disconnect is usually a result of network issues on the provider side. For instance, if during virtual machine provisioning the storage is not set up or deleted, the virtual machine will still exist on the provider, but will not run on the host as it has lost connection to its provider’s storage.

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On: Virtual Machine is powered on.

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Off: Virtual Machine is powered off.

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Suspended: Virtual Machine has been suspended.

The Virtual Machines page has three accordions organizing your virtual machines and templates in different ways. All of these accordions share a set of common controls:

  • Use VMs and Templates to view your virtual machines and templates organized by Provider. In addition, you can see archived and orphaned items here.
  • Use the VMs to view, apply filters, and collect information about all of your virtual machines.
  • Use Templates to view, apply filters, and collect information about all of your templates.

Through the console, you are able to view your virtual machines in multiple ways. For your virtual machines, you can:

  • Filter virtual machines
  • Change views
  • Sort
  • Create a report
  • Search by MyTags
  • Search by collected data

3.1. Filtering Virtual Machines and Templates

The Virtual Machine Filter accordion is provided so that you can easily navigate through groups of virtual machines. You can use the ones provided or create your own through Advanced Filtering capabilities.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Go to the VMs or Templates accordion.
  3. Click on the desired filter from the left pane.

3.1.1. Creating a Virtual Machine or Template Filter

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Go to the VMs or Templates accordion.
  3. Click All VMs or All Templates, then click 2125 (Advanced Search) to open the expression editor.

  4. Use the expression editor to choose the appropriate options for your criteria. Based on what you choose, different options will show.

    • For all of the types of searches, you have the options of creating an alias and requested user input. Select Use Alias to create a user friendly name for the search. If you are requested user input for the search, this text will show in the dialog box where the input is requested.

    • Click Field to create criteria based on field values.

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    • Click Count of to create criteria based on the count of something, such as the number of snapshots for a virtual machine, or the number of virtual machines on a host.

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    • Click Tag to create criteria based on tags assigned to your virtual infrastructure, such as for power states or production tagging.

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    • Click Registry to create criteria based on registry values, such as the DCOM status of a Windows system. Note this criteria applies only to Windows operating systems.

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    • Click Find to seek a particular value, and then check a property.

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  5. Click 1863 (Commit Expression Element Changes) to add the expression.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Type in a name for the search expression in Save this VM search as. (Note that this title depends on the type of resource you are searching.) To set the filter to show globally, check Global Filter.
  8. Click Save.

The filter is saved and will show in the My Filters area of the Filter accordion. If you checked Global Filter, the filter will show there.

3.1.2. Loading a Report Filter or Search Expression

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to search either VMs or Templates.
  3. Click 2125 (Advanced Search) to open the expression editor.
  4. Click Load.

  5. Select either a saved virtual machine search or a virtual machine report filter.

    Note

    The set of items to select will depend on the type of resource you are searching.

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  6. Click Load to load the search expression.

  7. If you want to edit the expression, click on it and make any edits for the current expression.

    • Click 1863 (Commit expression element changes) to add the changes.
    • Click 1899 (Undo the previous change) to remove the change you just made.
    • Click 1900 (Redo the previous change) to put the change that you just made back.
    • Click 1901 (AND with a new expression element) to create a logical AND with a new expression element.
    • Click 1902 (OR with a new expression element) to create a logical OR with a new expression element.
    • Click 1903 (Wrap this expression element with a NOT) to create a logical NOT on an expression element or to exclude all the items that match the expression.
    • Click 1904 (Remove this expression element) to take out the current expression element.
  8. Click Load.
  9. Click Apply.

3.2. Changing Views for Virtual Machines and Templates

While you can set the default view for different pages in Configure → My Settings → Default Views, the current view can also be controlled from the Virtual Machines pages.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to view.

  3. Click the appropriate button for the desired view.

    • Click 2020 for Grid View.
    • Click 2021 for Tile View.
    • Click 2022 for List View.

3.3. Sorting Virtual Machines and Templates

Virtual machines and templates can be sorted by Name, Cluster, Host, Datastore, Compliance, Last Analysis Time, Total Snapshots, or Region.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to sort.

  3. To sort virtual machines or templates when in grid or tile view:

    • From the Sort by dropdown, click the attribute to sort.

  4. To sort virtual machines or templates when in list view:

    • Select the List View.
    • Click on the Column Name to sort. For example, click on Cluster to sort by the name of the cluster.

3.4. Creating a Virtual Machine or Template Report

For a listing of virtual machines and templates, you can create a quick report in CSV, TXT, or PDF formats.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items for report creation.

  3. Click 2107 (Download).

    • Click 2132 for a TXT file.
    • Click 2133 for a CSV file.
    • Click 2134 for a PDF file.

3.5. Searching for Virtual Machines or Templates

To the right of the taskbar on the Virtual Machines page, you can enter names or parts of names for searching. You can search in the following ways:

  • Type characters that are included in the name. For example, if you type sp1, all Virtual Machines whose names include sp1 appear, such as Windows2003sp1 and Sp1clone.
  • Use * at the end of a term to search for names that *begin* with specific characters. For example, type v* to find all virtual machines whose names begin with the letter v.
  • Use * at the beginning of a term to search for names that *end* with specific characters. For example, type *sp2 to find all virtual machines whose names end with sp2.

  • Erase all characters from the search box to go back to viewing all virtual machines.

    1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.

    2. Click the accordion for the items to search.

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    3. In the Name Filter bar in the upper right corner of the window, type your criteria.
    4. Click 2135 (Search by Name within results) or press Enter.
    5. Type in other criteria to filter on what is currently displayed.
    6. Click 2135 (Search by Name within results) or press Enter.

3.6. Analyzing Virtual Machines and Templates

Analyze a virtual machine to collect metadata such as user accounts, applications, software patches, and other internal information. If CloudForms Management Engine is not set up for automatic analysis, perform a manual analysis of a virtual machine. To perform a SmartState analysis, CloudForms Management Engine requires a running SmartProxy with visibility to the virtual machine’s storage location. If the virtual machine is associated with a host or provider, ensure the virtual machine is registered with that system to be properly analyzed; the server requires this information since a snapshot might be created.

Note

SmartState Analysis of a virtual machine requires access to its host. To perform a successful analysis, edit the virtual machine’s host and enter the host’s authentication credentials.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to analyze.
  3. Check the Virtual Machines and Templates to analyze.
  4. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2147 (Perform SmartState Analysis) on the taskbar.
  5. Click OK.

3.6.1. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Prerequisites

3.6.1.1. SmartState Analysis on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 3.1 and Above - Storage Support Notes

Note the following requirements when performing SmartState Analysis on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 3.1 and above.

  • NFS

    • The CloudForms Management Engine appliance requires a mount to the NFS datastore.

  • iSCSI / FCP

    • For Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 and 3.2, clusters must use full Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts and not Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor hosts. You can use either type of host in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.3 and above.
    • Each CloudForms Management Engine Appliance performing SmartState Analysis requires sharable, non-bootable DirectLUN access to each attached iSCSI/FCP storage domain. In order to perform smart analysis, the appliance must mount the data storage as a DirectLUN disk.
    • A CloudForms Management Engine Appliance must reside in each datacenter with the iSCSI / FCP storage type.

  • Other Notes

    • The Set Server Relationship option enables the VM SmartState Analysis job to determine the datacenter where a CloudForms Management Engine Appliance is running and thus to identify what storage it has access to in a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization environment.

      • After setting up a CloudForms Management Engine Appliance and performing a refresh of the provider, find the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance in the Virtual Machine accordion list and view its summary screen.
      • Click Configuration → Edit Server Relationship.
      • Select the server that relates to this instance of the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance.
Important

If you attach a DirectLUN disk after configuring the CloudForms Management Engine database, access the Appliance in a terminal and run pvscan to detect the DirectLUN disk. Alternatively, in CloudForms Management Engine 5.2.1 and above, you can restart the Appliance to detect the disk automatically.

3.6.1.2. SmartState Analysis on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 3.0 - Storage Support Notes

There are two additional steps required to perform a SmartState Analysis on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager 3.0 using iSCSI or FCP storage. NFS storage does not have these requirements.

  1. Enable DirectLUN support for the host and CloudForms Management Engine Appliance that performs the analysis.

    • Enable DirectLUN on host.

    • Enable DirectLUN on the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance. To do this, edit the desired Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization storage and get the LUNID value. Then, on the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance virtual machine in the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization user interface, right-click and select Edit → Custom Properties and enter the following in the Custom Properties edit box: 

      directlun=<LUN ID>:readonly

      If you have multiple storage domains, separate them by a comma, similar to: 

      directlun=<LUN ID 1>:readonly,<LUN ID 2>:readonly,<LUN ID N>:readonly
      Note

      The CloudForms Management Engine Appliance must reside in the same data center as the storage you are trying to connect. If you have multiple data centers with iSCSI or FCP storage, you need a CloudForms Management Engine Appliance in each data center to support virtual machine scanning.

  2. Set Server Relationship - This is required to allow the virtual machine SmartState analysis job to determine which data center a CloudForms Management Engine Appliance is running and therefore identify what storage it has access to in a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization environment.

    1. After setting up a CloudForms Management Engine Appliance and performing a refresh of the Provider, find the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance in the Virtual Machine accordion list and view its summary screen.
    2. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2146 (Edit Server Relationship).
    3. Select the server that relates to this instance of the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance.

3.6.2. VMware vSphere Prerequisites

3.6.2.1. Installing VMware VDDK on CloudForms Management Engine

Execution of SmartState Analysis on virtual machines within a VMware environment requires the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK). CloudForms Management Engine supports VDDK 5.5.

  1. Download VDDK 5.5 (VMware-vix-disklib-5.5.0-1284542.x86_64.tar.gz at the time of this writing) from the VMware website.

    Note

    If you do not already have a login ID to VMware, then you will need to create one. At the time of this writing, the file can be found by navigating to Downloads → All Downloads, Drivers & Tools → VMware vSphere → Drivers & Tools. Expand Automation Tools and SDKs, and select vSphere Virtual Disk Development Kit 5.5. Alternatively, find the file by searching for it using the Search on the VMware site.

  2. Download and copy the VMware-vix-disklib-5.5.0-1284542.x86_64.tar.gz file to the /root directory of the appliance.
  3. Start an SSH session into the appliance.

  4. Extract and install VDDK 5.5. using the following commands: 

    # cd /root
# tar -xvf VMware-vix-disklib-5.5.0-1284542.x86_64.tar.gz
# cd vmware-vix-disklib-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl

  5. Accept the defaults during the installation. 

    Installing VMware VIX DiskLib API.
You must read and accept the VMware VIX DiskLib API End User License Agreement to continue.
Press enter to display it.
Do you accept? (yes/no) yes

Thank you.
What prefix do you want to use to install VMware VIX DiskLib API?
The prefix is the root directory where the other folders such as man, bin, doc, lib, etc. will be placed.
[/usr]

[userinput]#(Press Enter)#

The installation of VMware VIX DiskLib API 5.5.0 build-1284542 for Linux completed successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-vix-disklib.pl".
Enjoy,
--the VMware team

  6. Run ldconfig in order for CloudForms Management Engine to find the newly installed VDDK library.

    Note

    Use the following command to verify the VDDK files are listed and accessible to the appliance: 

    # ldconfig -p | grep vix
  7. Restart the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance.

The VDDK is now installed on the CloudForms Management Engine Appliance. This enables use of the SmartState Analysis Server Role on the appliance.

3.7. Comparing Virtual Machines and Templates

The CloudForms Management Engine Server allows you to compare multiple virtual machines. This allows you to see how different virtual machines are from their original template. This helps detect missing patches, unmanaged user accounts, or unauthorized services.

Use the comparison feature to:

  • Compare multiple virtual machines from different hosts.
  • Compare multiple virtual machines side-by-side.
  • Quickly see similarities and differences among multiple virtual machines and a base.
  • Narrow the comparison display to categories of properties.

  • Print or export in the comparison results to a PDF or CSV file.

    1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
    2. Click the accordion for the items to analyze.
    3. Check the items to compare.

    4. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2148 (Compare Selected). The comparison displays in a compressed view with a limited set of properties listed.

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    5. To delete an item from the comparison, click 1861 (Remove this from the comparison) at the bottom of the items column. This option is only available when comparing more than two virtual machines.
    6. To view many items on one screen, go to a compressed view by clicking 2024 (Compressed View). To return to an expanded view, click 2023 (Expanded View).
    7. To limit the mode of the view, there are two buttons in the task bar.
  • Click 2022 (Details Mode) to see all details for an attribute.

  • Click 2025 (Exists Mode) to limit the view to if an attribute exists compared to the base or not. This only applies to attributes that can have a boolean property. For example, a user account exists or does not exist, or a piece of hardware that does or does not exist.

    1. To change the base virtual machine that all the others are compared to, click its label at the top of its column.
    2. To go to the summary screen for a virtual machine, click its Virtual Thumbnail or icon.

3.7.1. Virtual Machine and Templates Comparison Sections

The following table describes the different sections for comparison information.

SectionDescription

Properties

Use this section to see basic information on the file location of the virtual machine, its name, and the virtual machine monitor vendor. Hardware, disk, CD/DVD drives, floppy drive, network adapter, and volume information is also included.

Security

Use this to see users and groups for the virtual machine, including those which may be unauthorized compared to a template.

Configuration

Use this to see Guest Applications, Win32 services, Linux Init Processes, Kernel Drivers, File System Drivers, and Patches.

My Company Tags

Use this to see all tags.

3.7.2. Using the Virtual Machine Comparison Sections

Use the comparison sections to view various comparison data and display the data in different ways.

  1. On the left of a comparison screen, select what categories of properties to display.
  2. Click Apply.
  3. Click the plus sign next to the sections name to expand it.

  4. The following descriptions pertain to the Expanded View 2023 . Whether you see the value of a property or an icon representing the property depends on the properties type.

    • A property displayed in the same color as the base means that the compared virtual machine matches the base for that property.
    • A property displayed in a different color from the base means that the compared virtual machine does not match the base for that property.

  5. If you are in the Compressed View 2024 , the values of the properties will not be displayed. The icons shown below will describe all items.

    • A 2150 (checkmark) means that the compared virtual machine matches the base for that property. If you hover over it, the value of the property will display.
    • A 2151 (x) means that the compared virtual machine does not match the base for that property. If you hover over it, the value of the property will display.
  6. Click the minus sign next to the sections name to collapse it.

Your comparison can be viewed in multiple ways. Export the data or create a report from your comparison for analysis using external tools.

3.7.3. Creating a Virtual Machine Comparison Report

Output the data from a comparison report in TXT, CSV or PDF formats.

  1. Create the comparison for the report.

  2. Click the output button for the chosen report type.

    • Click 2132 (Download comparison report in TXT format) for a text file.
    • Click 2133 (Download comparison report in CSV format) for a CSV file.
    • Click 2134 (Download comparison report in PDF format) for a PDF file.

3.8. Refreshing Virtual Machines and Templates

Refresh your virtual machines to get the latest data the provider or host can access. This includes information such as the power state, container, and hardware devices attached to the virtual machine.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to analyze.
  3. Check the items to refresh.
  4. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2003 (Refresh Relationships and Power States) on the Virtual Machine Taskbar.

The console returns a refreshed list of the data associated with the selected virtual machines.

3.9. Extracting Running Processes from Virtual Machines and Templates

CloudForms Management Engine can collect processes running on Windows virtual machines. To do this, enter domain credentials for the zone where the virtual machine is located. For more information, see the CloudForms General Configuration guide. The virtual machine must be running and must have an IP address in the VMDB, usually obtained from a SmartState Analysis.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Check the Virtual Machines to collect the processes.
  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2152 (Extract Running Processes) on the Taskbar.
  4. Click OK.

The server returns the running processes. View the summary of the virtual machine to see the details.

3.10. Setting Ownership for Virtual Machines and Templates

You can set the owner of a group of virtual machines and templates by either individual user or group. This allows you an additional way to filter and can be used to enforce quotas.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to change.
  3. Check the items to set ownership.
  4. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2155 (Set Ownership) on the Virtual Machine Taskbar.

  5. From the Select an Owner dropdown, select a user, and from the Select a Group dropdown, select a group.

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  6. Click Save.

3.11. Removing Virtual Machines and Templates from the VMDB

If a virtual machine has been decommissioned or you need to perform some troubleshooting, you might need to remove a specific virtual machine from the VMDB. This does not however remove the virtual machine or template from its Datastore or Provider.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to remove.
  3. Check the items to remove.
  4. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2157 (Remove from the VMDB) button.
  5. Click OK.

3.12. Tagging Virtual Machines and Templates

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to tag.
  3. Check the items to tag.
  4. Click 1941 (Policy), and then 2158 (Edit Tags).

  5. Select a customer tag from the first dropdown, and then a value for the tag.

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3.13. Viewing Running Processes after Collection

  1. Click a virtual machine with collected processes.
  2. From the Diagnostics area, click Running Processes.
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The most recent collection of running processes is displayed. Sort this list by clicking on the column headers.

3.14. Editing Virtual Machine or Template Properties

Edit the properties of a virtual machine or template to set parent and child virtual machines. SmartState Analysis also can detect this.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to edit.
  3. Click the item to edit properties.
  4. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 1851 (Edit this VM or Edit this Template) on the Taskbar.
  5. From the Parent VM dropdown, select the parent virtual machine.
  6. From Child VM selection, select virtual machines that are based on the current virtual machine from the list of Available VMs.
  7. Click Save.

3.15. Setting Ownership of a Virtual Machine or Template

Set the owner of a virtual machine or template by either individual user or group. This allows you an additional way to filter configuration items.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the items to analyze.
  3. Click the item to set ownership.
  4. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2155 (Set Ownership) on the taskbar.

  5. From the Select an Owner dropdown, select a user.

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  6. From the Select a Group dropdown, select a group.
  7. Click Save.

3.16. Right Sizing a Virtual Machine

CloudForms Management Engine uses collected statistics to recommend the best size for a virtual machine. CloudForms Management Engine uses the information from the Normal Operating Range to calculate the recommendations.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click a virtual machine for right-sizing.
  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), and then 2163 (Right-Size Recommendations) button.

A new page appears with three levels of Memory and CPU recommendations, Conservative, Moderate, and Aggressive, next to the Normal Operating Range statistics.

3.17. Viewing Capacity and Utilization Charts for a Virtual Machine

You can view capacity and utilization data for virtual machines that are part of a cluster. Note that daily charts only include full days of data. If all 24 data points for a day are not available, daily charts are not displayed. For some capacity and utilization data, CloudForms Management Engine calculates and shows trend lines in the charts which are created using linear regression. The calculation uses the capacity and utilization data collected by CloudForms Management Engine during the interval you specify.

Note

You must have a server with network visibility to your provider assigned the server role of Capacity & Utilization Collector to use this feature.

The virtual machine must be powered on to collect the data.

  1. From Infrastructure → Virtual Machines, click the accordion that you want to view capacity data for.
  2. Click the item you want to view.
  3. Click 1994 (Monitoring), and then 1994 (Utilization).

  4. From Interval, select to view Daily, Hourly, or Most Recent Hour data points. When choosing Daily, you can also select the Date, and how far back you want to go from that date. When selecting Hourly, you can select the date for which you want to view hourly data. If you are using Time Profiles, you will be able to select that as an option, also.

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  5. From Compare to, select Parent Host or Parent Cluster. The capacity and utilization charts for both items will show simultaneously.

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Note

Daily charts only include full days of data. This means CloudForms Management Engine does not show daily data for a day without a complete 24 data point range for a day.

3.18. Viewing the Virtual Machine or Template Timeline

View the timeline of events for a virtual machine or template if registered to a Host.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the virtual machine to view the timeline.
  3. Click 1994 (Monitoring), and then 1995 (Timelines) on the taskbar.

  4. From Options, customize the period of time to display, and the types of events to view.

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    • Use the Interval dropdown to select hourly or daily data points.
    • Use Date to type the date of the timeline to display.
    • If viewing a daily timeline, use Show to set how many days back to go. The maximum history is 31 days.
    • The three Event Group dropdowns allow selection of different event groups to display. Each has its own color.
    • From the Level dropdown, select either a Summary event or a Detail list of events. For example, the detail level of a Power On event might include the power on request, the starting event, and the actual Power On event. If you select Summary, you only see the Power On event in the timeline.
  5. To see more detail on an item in the timeline, click on it. A balloon appears with a clickable link to the resource.

3.19. Virtual Machine or Template Summary

When you click on a specific virtual machine or template, you will see the Virtual Thumbnail, and an operating system-specific screen of the item, called the Summary. Where applicable, click on a subcategory of the Summary to see more detail on that section.

Note

When you perform a SmartState Analysis on a virtual machine or template, you get more detailed information in these categories.

  • Properties include information such as the base operating system, hostname, IP addresses, Virtual Machine vendor, CPU Affinity, devices attached to the system, and snapshots. This includes the ability to analyze multiple partitions, multiple disks, Linux logical volumes, extended partitions, and Windows drives. Some categories can be clicked on for additional detail. For example, click Container to view notes associated with a virtual machine.

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  • Lifecycle shows the date of discovery and the last analysis. If a retirement date or owner has been set, these display as well.

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  • Relationships include information on the parent host, genealogy such as parent and child virtual machines, and drift.

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  • Storage Relationships shows relationships to Filers, LUNs, Volumes and File Shares.

  • VMsafe shows properties of the VMsafe agent if it is enabled.

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  • Normal Operating Ranges shows the values the normal operating range for this virtual machine. These statistics are used in calculating right sizing recommendations.

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  • Power Management displays the current power state, last boot time, and last power state change. State Changed On is the date that the virtual machine last changed its power state. This is a container view of the power state, therefore a restart of the operating system does not cause the container power state to change and will not update this value.

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  • Security includes information on users, groups, and security patches. Recall that the items shown on the Summary screen change based on the guest operating system.

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  • Configuration includes information on applications, services, packages, and init processes. This section changes depending on the base operating system.

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  • Datastore Allocation Summary shows how many and how much disk space has been allocated to this virtual machine as well as disk alignment and thin provisioning information.

  • Datastore Actual Usage Summary shows how much disk and memory the virtual machine is actually using.

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  • Diagnostics provides a link to viewing running processes and the information from the latest collected event logs.
  • Smart Management shows all tags assigned to this virtual machine.

3.20. Viewing the Operating System Properties

View details of the operating system from the Virtual Machine Summary or the accordion. For Windows systems, see Account Policies for the virtual machine.

  1. From Infrastructure → Virtual Machines, click on the item to view its Summary.
  2. From the Properties section, click Operating System.

An expanded view of the operating systems properties and Account Policies displays. This varies based on the operating system.

3.21. Viewing Virtual Machine or Template Snapshot Information

View the list of snapshots to see a history of their creation and size. CloudForms Management Engine provides the description, size, and creation time of the snapshot as well as a view of the genealogy of the snapshots.

Note

Snapshot size is only available after the successful completion of a SmartState Analysis.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the appropriate accordion containing the item you wish to view the snapshots of.
  3. Click on the item to view its Summary.
  4. From the Summary, click Snapshots in the Properties area.
  5. The list of snapshots show in a tree format and captures their genealogy.

3.22. Viewing User Information for a Virtual Machine or Template

CloudForms Management Engine’s SmartState Analysis feature returns user information. Drill into the user to get details on the user’s account, including group memberships.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the item to view user information.
  3. Click on the item to view its Summary.
  4. From the Security section of the Virtual Machine Summary, click Users.
  5. Click the user to view details.

3.23. Viewing Group Information for a Virtual Machine or Template

CloudForms Management Engine’s SmartState Analysis feature returns group information. Explore a group to get a list of its users.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the item to view user information.
  3. Click on the item to view its Summary.
  4. From the Security section of the Virtual Machine Summary, click Groups.
  5. Click the group to view users.

3.24. Viewing Genealogy of a Virtual Machine or Template

CloudForms Management Engine detects the lineage of a virtual machine. View a virtual machine’s lineage and compare the virtual machines that are part of its tree. This also allows tagging of virtual machines that share genealogy.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the item to view genealogy.
  3. Click on the item to view its Summary.
  4. From the Relationships area in the Summary, click Genealogy.

3.25. Comparing Genealogy of a Virtual Machine or Template

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the item to view genealogy.
  3. Click on the item to view its Summary.
  4. From the Relationships area in the Summary, click Genealogy.
  5. Check the items to compare.
  6. Click 2148 (Compare Selected VMs).
  7. For more information on the Compare feature, see Comparing virtual machines and templates.

3.26. Tagging Virtual Machines or Templates with a Common Genealogy

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the item to view genealogy.
  3. Check the items to tag.
  4. Click 1941 (Policy), and then 2158 (Edit Tags).

  5. Select a customer tag from the first dropdown, and then a value for the tag.

    2176

3.27. Detecting Drift on Virtual Machines or Templates

The configuration of a virtual machine might change over time. Drift is the comparison of a virtual machine to itself at different points in time. The virtual machine needs analysis at least twice to collect this information. Detecting drift provides you the following benefits:

  • See the difference between the last known state of a machine and its current state.
  • Review the configuration changes that happen to a particular virtual machine between multiple points in time.
  • Review the host and datastore association changes that happen to a particular virtual machine between multiple points in time.
  • Review the classification changes that happen to a virtual machine between two time checks.

  • Capture the configuration drifts for a single virtual machine across a time period.

    1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
    2. Click on the item to view its Summary.
    3. From the Relationships area in the Summary, click Drift History.
    4. Check the analyses to compare.
    5. Click 1946 (Select up to 10 timestamps for Drift Analysis) at the top of the screen. The results display.
    6. Check the Drift sections on the left to view in your comparison.
    7. Click Apply.
    8. The following descriptions pertain to the Expanded View 2023 . Whether you see the value of a property or an icon representing the property depends on the properties type.
  • A property displayed in the same color as the base means the compared analysis matches the base for that property.

  • A property displayed in a different color from the base means the compared analysis does not match the base for that property.

    1. If you are in the Compressed View 2024 , the values of the properties are not displayed. All items are described by the icons shown below.
  • A 2150 (checkmark) means that the compared analysis matches the base for that property. If you hover over it, the value of the property will display.

  • A 2177 (triangle) means the compared analysis does not match the base for that property. If you hover over it, the value of the property displays. Click the minus sign next to the sections name to collapse it.

    1. To limit the scope of the view, you have three buttons in the Resource button area.
  • Click 2178 (All attributes) to see all attributes of the sections you selected.
  • Click 2204 (Attributes with different values) to see only the attributes that are different across the drifts.

  • Click 2148 (Attributes with the same values) to see only the attributes that are the same across drifts.

    1. To limit the mode of the view, there are two buttons in the Resource button area.
  • Click 2022 (Details Mode) to see all details for an attribute.
  • Click 2025 (Exists Mode) to only see if an attribute exists compared to the base or not. This only applies to attributes that can have a Boolean property. For example, a user account exists or does not exist, or a piece of hardware that does or does not exist.

This creates a drift analysis. Download the data or create a report from your drift for analysis using external tools.

3.28. Creating a Drift Report for a Virtual Machine or Template

  1. Create the comparison to analyze.
  2. Click 2107 (Download).

  3. Click the output button for the type of report you want.

    • Click 2132 (Download drift report in text format) for a text file.
    • Click 2133 (Download drift report in CSV format) for a csv file.
    • Click 2134 (Download drift report in PDF format) for a PDF file.

3.29. Viewing Analysis History for a Virtual Machine or Template

Each time a SmartState Analysis is performed on a virtual machine, a record is created of the task. This information is accessed either from the Virtual Machine Accordion or the Virtual Machine Summary. Use this detail to find when the last analysis was completed and if it completed successfully. If the analysis resulted in an error, the error is shown here.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the item to view genealogy.
  3. Click on the item to view its Summary.

  4. From the Relationships area in the Summary, click Analysis History. A history of up to the last 10 analyses is displayed.

    2179
  5. Click on a specific analysis to see its details.

3.30. Viewing Disk Information for a Virtual Machine or Template

Each time a SmartState Analysis is performed on a virtual machine or template, information on the disks associated with the item is collected. This includes free and used space information as well as the type of disk and file system.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click on the item to view its Summary.
  3. From Datastore Allocation Summary, click Disks.

A list of the disks for the item with type, file system, size, and usage information is displayed.

3.31. Viewing Event Logs for a Virtual Machine or Template

Using an Analysis Profile, collect event log information from your virtual machines. See section Setting a Default Analysis Profile in the CloudForms General Configuration guide.

Note

This feature is only available for Windows.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click the accordion for the item to view event logs.
  3. Click on the item to view its Summary.
  4. From Diagnostics click Event Logs.

The collected event log entries are displayed. Sort this list by clicking on the column headers.

3.32. VNC and SPICE Consoles

A console is a graphical window that allows you to view the start up screen, shut down screen, and desktop of a virtual machine, and to interact with that virtual machine in a similar way to a physical machine.

Before opening a console for a virtual machine, you must first configure console access at a network layer, and then configure the browser plug-in and certificate for the virtual machine console.

CloudForms Management Engine offers the following support for HTML5-based VNC and SPICE consoles:

  • VNC and SPICE consoles for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager with websocket proxy
  • VNC consoles for VMWare with websocket proxy
  • VNC consoles for OpenStack using OpenStack-supplied websocket proxy

All of the above make use of the websocket protocol supported by all recent versions of browsers, and can use SSL to encrypt the websocket connection.

OpenStack
CloudForms Management Engine only makes an API call to get the URL for the console and open that console in a web browser; see Directly Connect to a VNC Console in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 7 Instances and Images Guide for more details.
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager and VMWare

By default, the websocket connection runs over HTTPS or HTTP based on how the application was accessed. Under an appliance, you will most likely use HTTPS, and, therefore, the websocket connection will be wss:// (websocket with SSL).

When configuring Red Hat Virtualization Manager for virtual machine console access, set the display type for each virtual machine to noVNC or SPICE HTML5. Support for the SPICE HTML5 console client is offered as a technology preview. For more information on configuring console options, see the Configuring Console Options section in the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Virtual Machine Management Guide.

3.32.1. Configuring Console Access to VMware ESXi Hosts At A Network Layer

When configuring access to the VNC or HTML5 console, make sure that at a network layer:

  • All VNC ports (5900-6000) are opened from the machine on which you access the CloudForms Management Engine Console to the CloudForms Management Engine.
  • All VNC ports (5900-6000) are opened from the CloudForms Management Engine to each VMware ESXi host running virtual machines that you want to access.
  • The firewall on VMware ESXi hosts is enabled and that the VMware ESXi host firewall ports are opened.

  • The VNC service (gdbserver) is running and that the gdbserver service has an association with ports 5900-6000 usually defined with a /etc/vmware/firewall/service.xml firewall rules configuration.

    The gdbserver ruleset must be enabled on each ESXi host running virtual machines that will be accessed through the HTML5 console or VNC console on the CloudForms Management Engine. The ruleset can be configured on the host itself, or using the VMware vCenter web user interface.

The following procedures apply to VMware vCenter 5.0 and later.

3.32.1.1. Using SSH to Configure VMware ESXi Hosts to Enable Console Access

Configure the gdbserver ruleset on the host using SSH.

  1. Access the host: 

    # ssh host@example.com

  2. Set the gdbserver parameter: 

    # esxcli network firewall ruleset set --ruleset-id gdbserver --enabled true

  3. Confirm that the ruleset is active: 

    # esxcli network firewall ruleset list

3.32.1.2. Using the VMware vCenter Web Interface to Configure ESXi Hosts to Enable Console Access

Configure the gdbserver ruleset on the host using the VMware vCenter web user interface.

  1. Select the ESXi host in the VMware vCenter web interface.
  2. Click the Manage tab.
  3. Click the Settings sub tab.
  4. Click System → Security Profile from the list on the left.
  5. Click Edit.
  6. Select the gdbserver ruleset, and then click OK.

3.32.1.3. Configuring the VMware ESXi Host Firewall Ports for Console Access

Follow these steps to configure the VMware ESXi host firewall ports for HTML5 or VNC console access to guest virtual machine consoles. The firewall ports must be enabled on each VMware ESXi host running virtual machines that will be accessed through the HTML5 or VNC console on the CloudForms Management Engine.

  1. Log in to your vSphere Client and select Home → Inventory → Hosts and Clusters.
  2. In the Hosts/Clusters tree view, select the VMware ESXi host you want to configure for HTML5 or VNC console access.
  3. Select the Configuration tab and open the Software box.
  4. Select Security Profile.
  5. Navigate to the Firewall Properties dialog window by selecting the Properties link from the Firewall section.
  6. In the Firewall Properties, scroll down to GDB Server and select it.
  7. Click OK.

3.32.2. Configuring the Certificate for a Virtual Machine Console

Use SSL to control the encryption of data between your browser and proxy processes running on the virtual machine. This procedure assumes that you have generated or purchased a certificate that is accepted by your browser, and that the certificate has been signed. For more information about generating and replacing SSL certificates in CloudForms Management Engine, see Replacing SSL Certificates in CloudForms Management Engine and Generating SSL Certificates for Your Appliance and Database.

Important

Red Hat recommends not to use the default self-signed certificate supplied with the Appliance, as the CloudForms Management Engine may not perform reliably.

  1. Navigate to Configure → Configuration.
  2. Click on the Settings accordion, then click Zones.
  3. Click the zone where the CloudForms Management Engine server is located.
  4. Click on the server.
  5. Click the Advanced tab.

  6. Under the server configuration parameter, add the following lines: 

    websocket:
:encrypt: true
:cert: certs/certificate.cer
:key : certs/key.cer.key

    Replace certificate.cer with the name of the certificate file and key.cer.key with the name of the key file.

    All paths are relative to the /var/www/miq/vmdb/ directory. In other words, the /cert directory referenced above is found in the /vmdb directory.

    The value for encrypt defaults to true for SSL connections and to false for non-SSL encryption, however it can be overridden here. For example, you can access the application using HTTP and yet use wss:// for the websocket proxy.

  7. Click Save.

3.32.3. Configuring the Browser Plug-in for a Virtual Machine Console

This section only applies to using the VMware MKS or VMware VMRC browser plug-ins for accessing a virtual machine console. It does not apply to access through the HTML5 console.

To use a browser plug-in for accessing a virtual machine console, you must have installed VNC on the machine on which you access the CloudForms Management Engine Console and installed either the VMware MKS plug-in or the VMware VMRC plug-in in your browser.

  1. Navigate to Configure → Configuration.
  2. Click on the Settings accordion, then click Zones.
  3. Click the zone where the CloudForms Management Engine server is located.
  4. Click on the server.
  5. Click the Advanced tab.

  6. Under the server configuration parameter, add the following line: 

    remote_console_type: console

    Replace console with the browser plug-in that you have set up. Valid values are mks and vmrc.

  7. Click Save.

3.32.4. Opening a Console for a Virtual Machine

Open a web-based VNC or SPICE console for a virtual machine.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Virtual Machines.
  2. Click on the virtual machine that you want to access.
  3. Click 6664 (Open a web-based VNC or SPICE console for this VM).

The virtual machine console opens in a new tab in your browser.