VMware vSphere PowerPack Release Notes version 303

Version 303 of the VMware: vSphere Base Pack PowerPack adds a new Dynamic Application and updates various and dynamic applications.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 10.2.0

  • Minimum Required VMware vSphere PowerPack Version: 215

CAUTION: Upgrading from versions of this PowerPack prior to 215 may cause some VMware collections to stop working or cause outages. It is recommended to first upgrade to version 215 of the PowerPack before upgrading to this release.

CAUTION: The Dynamic Applications that collect vSAN configuration information and statistics are not supported on CentOS 5 Data Collectors. These Dynamic Applications require Python version 2.7 or later, which is not supported on CentOS 5. See the latest ScienceLogic Release Notes for information about CentOS 5 compatibility and migration.

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 10.2.0 or later of SL1 before installing VMware: vSphere Base Pack version 303.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the appropriate Release Notes.

Installation Process

To install this PowerPack:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 10.2.0 or later release.
  3. Download the VMware: vSphere Base Pack version 303PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  4. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. When prompted, import VMware: vSphere Base Pack version 303.
  5. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.

Upgrade Process

NOTE: The user must haveVMware: vSpherePowerPack version 215 or higher installed to do this upgrade.

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

If you are currently using the Dynamic Applications in this PowerPack to monitor devices, collection errors might occur for one or two polling cycles during the installation of a new version. To prevent collection errors during an upgrade, you can optionally disable collection for monitored devices before performing the following steps and re-enable collection after the upgrade.

To upgrade the PowerPack, perform the following steps:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 10.2.0 or latest release.
  3. Go to the Support Site and download version 302 of the PowerPack to a local computer.
  4. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. Import the PowerPack version 302. For details on importing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
  5. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
  6. See the manual Monitoring VMware for instructions on using the new PowerPack.

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included in version 303 of the VMware: vSphere Base Pack PowerPack:

  • A new execution environment is available in this version of the PowerPack. Users should remove the old execution environment after upgrading from VMware vSpherePowerPack version 215, as the old environments are not automatically deleted. For more information and warning notes, see the "Version Requirements and Limitations" section in Monitoring VMware Systems manual.
  • Removed the following Dynamic Applications from this PowerPack:

    • VMware: RetrieveServiceContent Metadata Performance

    • VMware: InventoryCountPerformanceo

    • VMware: InventoryCacheMetaPerformance

    • VMware: PerfMetadataPerformance

    • VMware: QuickStatsCache

    • VMware: QuickStatsCacheMetaPerformance

    • VMware: Remove Session Cookies

    • VMware: Performance Counter Lookup Configuration

  • Addressed an issue that was causing the "VMware: ClusterComputeResource VSANHost Back End Stats" Dynamic Application to fail due to an unexpected element tag error. (Case: 00226221)
  • Addressed an issue that was causing the VMware root device to continually generate a bad username session event after upgrading to version 301 of the VMware AutomationPowerPack. This event no longer occurs after upgrading to v302 or v303. (Case: 00220677)
  • Updated the presentation formulas for CPU Ready Summation and CPU Ready Percent to rely on a five -minute polling interval to return correct metrics for the "VMware: VirtualMachine CPU Performance" Dynamic Application.
  • Addressed an issue that was causing Dynamic Applications to return a "NoneType Attribute" error message.
  • Updated the Preserve Hostname checkbox to be unchecked by default so when VirtualMachine names are updated, changes will also be updated in SL1.
  • Added a "CPU Limit" collection object to the "VMware: ResourcePool Performance" Dynamic Application.
  • Updated the Root Device Class and Device Category to reflect VMware/vCenter during the Discovery Session.
  • Added the new "VMware: Reset Sessions" Dynamic Application as an option to reset your VMware vSphere sessions. For more information, see the "Resetting the VMware vSphere Session" section in Monitoring VMware Systems manual.
  • Removed the "VMware: Remove Cookies" Dynamic Application.
  • The "VMware: Device Classification" Run Book Action was updated to support ESXi devices. When you discover a ESXi root device, the device is automatically classified as an ESXi device class.
  • Discovery of a standalone ESXi host is now supported.
  • Updated the default settings for Event collection to set "Other" type events to 'False', which stops collection for all event types that are not explicitly listed and set to True.
  • Support was added for standalone ESXi component devices with Managed Object IDs that begin with "ha-".
  • In "VMware: Inventory Cache", the vSphere Instance UUID will not be collected on ESXi root devices.
  • Updated the poll frequency from five minutes to 60 minutes for the following Dynamic Applications:
    • VMware: VirtualMachine Configuration
    • VMware: DataStore Configuration
    • VMware: HostSystem Configuration

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 303 of the VMware: vSphere Base Pack PowerPack:

  • Unmerging VMware VirtualMachines in all versions of VMware vSpherePowerPacks will not remove aligned "VMware: VirtualMachine IC UpTime" Dynamic Applications. This task must be performed manually.

    For more information on removing aligned dynamic applications, see the section on Manually Aligning a Dynamic Application to a Device.

  • Standalone ESXi hosts discovered and monitored as a root device behave differently than a vCenter. Some Dynamic Applications do not collect all of the data and some do not collect any data. The following Dynamic Applications do not collect any data:

    • VMware: VirtualMachine Storage Performance

    • VMware: Datastore Space Performance

    • VMware: Datastore Storage IO Performance

    • VMware: Hardware Monitoring Configuration

    • VMware: LicenseManager HostSystem Configuration

  • Observed an issue in which inventory cache expirations did not update correctly. This error occurs during initial discovery when the Inventory Cache is being built. This exception does not affect collection.

  • Observed an issue in which VMware v6.7's and VMware v7.2's hardware doesn't report a serial number for the "VMware: HostSystem Configuration" application.

  • Addressed an issue in which several devices may report as “Unavailable” while the sessions reset and inventory is rebuilt. The length of this period will depend on the size of the vCenter, but is not expected to exceed 2 hours.