VMware vSphere PowerPack Release Notes version 309

Version 309 of the "VMware: vSphere Base Pack" PowerPack adds certificate verification for monitored vCenters, addresses multiple issues, adds support for discovery of Template and VirtualMachine folders, and adds DCM+R support for Virtual Machine to Windows Server devices.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 11.3.0

  • Minimum Required VMware vSphere PowerPack Version: 304

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 11.3.0 or later of SL1 before installing "VMware: vSphere Base Pack" PowerPack version 309.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

Additionally, if you are upgrading from a previous version, you might need to take the following actions depending on which version of the PowerPack you currently have installed:

  • Delete the "VMware: Performance Cache" Dynamic Application.

  • Delete the following items from the "VMware: Datastore Cluster Storage Performance" Dynamic Application:

    • Collection Objects:

      • Virtual Disk Average Read Latency

      • Virtual Disk Average Write Latency

      • Virtual Disk Index

      • Virtual Machine Observed Read Latency

      • Virtual Machine Observed Write Latency

      • VM Index

    • Presentation Objects:

      • Virtual Disk Average Read Latency

      • Virtual Disk Average Write Latency

      • Virtual Machine Observed Latency

    • Snippets:

      • DatastoreClusterPerf

  • Remove or disable the "DatastoreStorage" snippet from the "Vmware: Datastore Storage Performance" Dynamic Application.

For instructions on deleting Collection Objects, see the section on "Performing Bulk Actions on Collection Objects" in the Dynamic Application Development manual.

For instructions on deleting Dynamic Applications, see the section on "Performing Other Tasks in the Dynamic Application Manager Page " in the Dynamic Application Developmentmanual.

Installation Process

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 install this PowerPack:

  1. Search for and download the PowerPack from the PowerPacks page (Product Downloads > PowerPacks & SyncPacks) at the ScienceLogic Support Site.
  2. In SL1, go to the PowerPacks page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
  3. Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
  4. Click Browse and navigate to the PowerPack file from step 1.
  5. Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
  6. Click Install. The PowerPack is added to the PowerPack Manager page.

Upgrade Process

NOTE: You must have VMware: vSpherePowerPack version 304 or higher installed to perform 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 11.3.0 or later release.
  3. Disable collection for all VMware vCenter devices.

For instructions on disabling collection for devices, see the section on "Bulk Actions in the Device Management Page " in the Device Managementmanual.

  1. Review the Monitoring VMware manual and decide how to proceed regarding certificate verification.
  1. Go to the Support Site and download version 309 of the PowerPack to a local computer.
  2. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. Import the PowerPack. For details on importing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
  3. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
  4. A new execution environment is available in this version of the PowerPack. However, the old environment will not be deleted. Users should remove the old execution environment after upgrading to VMware v308+. To do this, go to System > Customize > ScienceLogic Libraries > Actions > Execution Environments and filter on 'VMware'. There will be multiple environments shown. Delete the environment that has an Env GUID of "5939B0BF090CC434433F200309C56294".
  1. Manually align the "VMware: Bulk Purge Config" Dynamic Application with the VMware vCenter root device.

For instructions on manually aligning a Dynamic Applications, see the section on "Manually Aligning a Dynamic Application to a Device" in the Device Management manual.

  1. Re-enable collection for all VMware vCenter devices.
  2. See the manual Monitoring VMware for instructions on using the new PowerPack.

If you upgrade to version 309 of the PowerPack, and devices are present that should not be, see the section on "Purging Inventory Cache for a VMware vCenter Device" in the Monitoring VMware manual. Do not follow these steps unless devices are present that should not be, or you may create problems in your SL1 system.

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included this release of the "VMware: vSphere Base Pack" PowerPack:

  • As of version 309 of the PowerPack, you can now define whether to require SSL verification. The VMware credential now includes a CURL option called "SSLVERIFYPEER" which allows you to configure whether to skip or require verification.

If you do not configure the "SSLVERIFYPEER" CURL option, SSL verification will be skipped.

  • As of version 309, the PowerPack no longer supports VMware versions below 7.0.

  • Added support for discovery of Template and VirtualMachine folders to the PowerPack.

  • Added DCM+R support for Virtual Machine to Windows Server devices.

You must install version 117 of the "Microsoft: Windows Server" PowerPack to complete the relationship. The "Microsoft: Windows Server" PowerPack requires SL1 12.1.0+. Additionally, Virtual Machines must be running VMware Tools in order for the required data to be reported to the VMware PowerPack. A VMware inventory purge or session reset may be required in order to populate the required VM data.

  • Added Component Availability Identifier to the "Unique Id" collection object in the "VMware: NetworkFolder Network Discovery" Dynamic Application in order to correctly reflect the availability status of the network. When networks are removed, their status will now correctly update to "Unavailable" and they will vanish according to vanishing settings. (Support Case: 00433671)

  • Addressed an issue that caused a "-1" value to be returned for a performance metric. The fix correctly handles "-1" as NO DATA in performance Dynamic Applications. (Support Case: 00434633)

  • Addressed an issue with the "Vmware: Datastore Storage Performance" Dynamic Application that caused "NoneType" errors when processing lists. (Support Case: 00416987)

  • Addressed an issue that prevented device information from updating properly after upgrading to version 308 of the PowerPack. (Support Case: 00402298)

  • VM Snapshots created by third-party tools would sometimes be missing data such as age (creation time) or size. Those configurations are now supported. (Support Case: 00363112)

  • Addressed an issue with the "Vmware: VirtualMachine Configuration" Dynamic Application that prevented VM Snapshots from updating correctly. (Support Case: 00397489)

  • The collector affinity of "VMware: HostSystem Memory Performance" Dynamic Application has been changed to root affinity, as it requires cache data only available on the root collector. (Support Case: 00431040)

  • Removed the "other" option from the "Vmware: Events" snippet. (Support Case: 00370913)

  • Addressed an issue that caused the VMware credential tester to fail when it should not. Note: This issue is addressed for version 12.2.0+ of SL1. VMware PowerPacks running on version 11.3-12.1.x will still be unable to run the credential test.

  • Addressed an issue that prevented the "Virtual Disk Average Read Latency" and "Virtual Disk Average Write Latency" metrics in the "VMware: Datastore Cluster Storage Performance" Dynamic Application from collecting data.

The "Virtual Disk Average Read Latency" and "Virtual Disk Average Write Latency"collection objects were removed in version 308 of the PowerPack. They have been added back in version 309.

  • Addressed an issue that caused the "VMware: Component Count Config" Dynamic Application to fail. Additionally, this Dynamic Application is now enabled by default.

  • Addressed an issue that caused the "Vmware: VirtualMachine IC UpTime" Dynamic Application to trigger notice events in the system logs.

  • Addressed an issue that caused the "Vmware: VirtualMachine Configuration" Dynamic Application to discover a false snapshot that shared a name with the virtual machine and contained no other information.

  • Addressed an issue that prevented a Virtual Machine configuration from updating to reflect the additional available data if VMware Tools is activated or deactivated on a Virtual Machine.

Known Issues

Please see the requirements and limitations that apply to specific functionality in the "VMware: vSphere Base Pack" PowerPack in Monitoring VMware Systems.

The following known issue affects version 309 of the of the "VMware: vSphere Base Pack" PowerPack:

  • VMware Universal Credentials and Guided Discoveries do not support certificate verification in version 309 of the PowerPack. As a result, the default behavior will be to NOT verify the certificate (Universal Credentials are treated the same as using the "NOVERIFY" option in the classic credential). This feature will be added in a future release of the PowerPack.

If you are currently using Universal Credentials for VMware, you do not need to take any action at this time. However, if you want a secure, SSL verified connection for monitoring, you must use a classic credential.

  • The "VMware: VirtualMachine IC Uptime" Dynamic Application may not report correctly if your SL1 system is version 11.3.0-12.2.0.

  • After upgrading, component devices may report as "Unavailable" while a session reset takes place. These devices should return as the inventory is rebuilt.

The length of time that devices are unavailable depends on the size of the vCenter you are running. For example: For a vCenter of 12,000 devices or less, this length of time should not exceed 2 hours. ScienceLogic recommends you file a Support case if devices remain unavailable for longer than 2 hours.