VMware vCenter Topology by VIM Job

This job connects to vCenter or VirtualCenter Servers and discovers the full VMware Infrastructure topology.

This section includes:

Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

Adapter

This job uses the VMware_VirtualCenter_Topology_by_VIM adapter.

Triggered CI Data

Name	Description
credentialsId	The credentials ID of the VMware Infrastructure Management (VIM) protocol saved in the vCenter or VirtualCenter Server's attribute.
connection_url	The URL for connecting to VMware Infrastructure, taken from the vCenter or VirtualCenter Server's connection_url attribute.

Used Scripts
- vendors.py
- host_win.py
- networking_win_shell.py
- host_win_shell.py
- _vmware_vim_base.py
- _vmware_vim_20.py
- host_discoverer.py
- _vmware_vim_25.py
- _vmware_vim_40.py
- _vmware_vim_41.py
- vmware_vim.py
- vmware_virtualcenter_topology_by_vim.py

Adapter Parameters

Parameter	Description
discoverUnknownIPs	Determines whether to discover IP addresses that are out of the probe range. Default: true. Note If this parameter is set to false, the job also ignores virtual machines that have the corresponding IP address outside the configured probe IP ranges because they have a Virtual-Join relationship.
remoteJVMArgs	The JVM parameters that should be passed to the remote process.
remoteJVMClasspath	The class path used by the external Java process.
reportBasicTopology	Determines whether to report the basic topology (true) or full topology (false). Default: false.
reportLayer2connection	Determines whether to report Layer2 connections. Default: false. Note When true, the job will take more time to do the discovery.
reportDiscoveredOsName	When true, the job fills in the DiscoveredOsName attribute of the Node CIT. Default: false. Note: HPE highly recommends not to enable this parameter, as duplicated OS names of VM instances will be reported.
reportPoweredOffVMs	Determines whether to report powered off virtual machines (true) or not (false). Default: false.
runInSeparateProcess	When true, this enables the execution of the job in the external Java virtual machine. Default: true. Note Do not change this parameter from the default.

Discovered CITs

Composition
Containment
Cpu
Dependency
ExecutionEnvironment
FileSystemExport
Interface
IpAddress
iSCSI Initiator
iSCSI Target
Licence Feature
License Reservation
License Server
LUN
Manage
Membership
Node
Usage
VMware Cluster
VMware DAS Config
VMware DPM Config
VMware DRS Config
VMware Datacenter
VMware Datastore
VMware Distributed Virtual Switch
VMware ESX Server
VMware Host Resource
VMware Networking Policy
VMware Port Group
VMware Resource Pool
VMware Uplink
VMware Virtual Switch
VMware VirtualCenter
Virtualization Layer Software

Troubleshooting

Problem: The following error message is displayed when an operation cannot be performed due to lack of permissions:

User does not have required '<permission>' permission

Solution: Check that permissions are set as System.Read.

Problem: The following error message is displayed when credentials are not correct:

Invalid user name or password

Problem: The following warning message is displayed in the Communication log during discovery:

VM '<name>': powered off, VM is skipped

Solution: This message indicates that the discovery found a powered-off VM. By default, powered-off VMs are not reported, mainly because the configuration of such powered-off VMs may be outdated. This outdated information can impact the identification of the VMs, so the topology reported might be incorrect.

For example:

The MAC address of one of the interfaces might now be assigned to different VMs, yet still be listed for the powered-off VM.
The IP address might still be listed for the powered-off VM, but was reassigned to different machine by the DHCP server before discovery began.

If you still want powered-off VMs to be reported, set the topology job's reportPoweredOffVMs parameter to true.

Problem: The following warning message is displayed in the Communication log during discovery:

Host '<name>': cannot find UUID, Host is skipped

Solution: The UUID of the ESX server is a key attribute for the ESX server CI. It is not possible to report ESX server without a valid UUID. A UUID of the ESX server that consists of all zeros is also considered invalid. The message in the Communication log indicates that the specified ESX server was discovered but was skipped due to a missing or invalid UUID.

Problem: The following warning message is displayed in the Communication log during discovery:

VM '<name>': duplicate host key '<key>' found in another VM '<name>' which was preferred, VM is skipped

Solution: After all VMs are discovered, VMs containing duplicated host keys are filtered out. host_key is a key attribute of the VM, so it is not possible to report two VMs with the same host keys. The message in the Communication log indicates that there were duplicates found and one of the duplicated VMs was skipped.

If the reportPoweredOffVMs parameter is set to true, if the two VMs have different power statuses, the powered-on VM is preferred over the powered-off VM.