OME currently classifies VMs under unkown devices as it doesn't support monitoring/managing the VMs. The physical hosts are classified appropriately and the hardware inventory information is displayed for those.
Having said this, I understand the confusion it creates by grouping unkonwn devices and VMs together. We are surely planning to look at this for the future release and perhaps make it a configurable option to classify VMs separately under device tree (separating those from unknown devices) or leave those as unknowns.
Ok. I have VMs listed in unknown devices. One of the columns indicates that it's a vm, I can send a screen shot in a little bit. Some of the VMs correctly indicate that they are VMs. Others do not.
We mainly use SNMP discovery since its what gets the most information out of a machine. Having SNMP enabled or disabled does not affect whether the vmware indicator appears in the column, it seems to be something else.
Can you clarify the question a bit more? I'm not sure about the concern.
All the VMs in the device tree will be classified as unknown. The entry for a VM will appear under unknown group if the IP address/host name of a VM is part of your discovery range.
The list of VMs running on a physical host is gathered during inventory of host and is shown as part of host inventory. This list is different from the device entries shown for these VMs in the device tree. This list is not refreshed real time. The inventory operation runs once a day by deafult and the data is gathered during that time.
It is possible that you don't have any VMs in your discovery range and in that case you will not have any entry in for a VM the device tree under unknown groups. At the same time your physical host machine may be part of your discovery range and in that case you will see the list of VMs on that physical host as part of host inventory.
Hi, yes I'm aware of that. My concern is that I have VMs which appear in the inventory of the hosts, but also appear not classified as a vm in the unknown devices list. I also have done that are classified as a vm I'm there as well, but not all of the VMs are listed that way.
Since OME does not monitor or manage VMs, those are generically classified under unknown devices. As a result OME will not gather detailed information over various combinations of protocols to classify all instances of VMs.
The information you get for VM is approximation of physical machines. The classification of physical servers depends on multiple factors. If you are using SNMP, OME relies on OMSA to get information from the server to classify that correctly and gather detailed hardware inventory/health. Hardware inventory or overall hardware health is not really applicable to the VM. As I mentioned above, we are planning to look at adding the option of classifying the VMs separately. When that support is officially added, we will analyze further to see what scenarios cause VMs to not get classified correctly.
For now, VMs are part of unclassified devices and all instances of VMs may not get classified in OME.
Basically, the 3 of the darker blue lines are the problem. All three are VMs which appear in their respective hosts' inventory.
The top and bottom ones are VMWare, the middle one is HyperV. The lighter blue was just where my mouse happened to be when I took the screenshot, so that one can be ignored.
The bottom one shows N/A for the model even though it appears in its host's inventory, while the top two both show the model as being either VMWare or Virtual Machine and also appear in their host's inventory.
The question is why does the bottom one not indicate that it is a VMWare VM, when it does appear in the ESX servers' inventory?
Thanks for the updates. The image clarifies the question but doesn't change the answer. As I mentioned above, OME currently does not support managing/classifying the VMs and does not gather additional information to do the same when VMs are discovered as part of discovery range.
The list of VMs shown as part of host server's inventory comes from the respective providers(VMWare and Microsoft) which are running on the host machine. Since OME supports physical hosts, it gathers the detailed hardware inventory from those as part of discovery/inventory process for the host machine.
That information is different from the classification information gathered as part of discovery process of a VM when the VM IP is part of discovery range. That information is not used for classification of VMs.
The list of VMs in host inventory is unrelated to the VM devices listed and cannot be used for classification. Here are couple of cases which might make it clear.
As I mentioned in the response above, you may have hosts in your discovery range and get the list of VMs and not have any VMs in your discovery range. In that case you will not have any entries for VMs under unknown devices.
Conversly, you may have multiple VMs as part of your discovery range and not discover the physical host. In that case you will have entries for VMs under unknown devices but will not have list of VMs as you haven't discovered the host.
I see. So what about in the event that the VMs listed and classified as such are on the same host as some VMs which are listed but show N/A as the model? That's the problem I'm describing above.
As mentioned above, VMs are not guranteed to be classified. Since VMs are not supported for management/monitoring, all the configurations are not tested with OME. Those may be on the same host but may have different responses for the data OME queries. It can be result of different configuration/credentials/OS versions or any other setting differences between those VMs.
DELL-Abhijit P
Community Manager
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711 Posts
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September 24th, 2012 08:00
Hi,
Thanks for your post.
OME currently classifies VMs under unkown devices as it doesn't support monitoring/managing the VMs. The physical hosts are classified appropriately and the hardware inventory information is displayed for those.
Having said this, I understand the confusion it creates by grouping unkonwn devices and VMs together. We are surely planning to look at this for the future release and perhaps make it a configurable option to classify VMs separately under device tree (separating those from unknown devices) or leave those as unknowns.
Regards
Abhijit
Speeddymon
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September 24th, 2012 09:00
Ok. I have VMs listed in unknown devices. One of the columns indicates that it's a vm, I can send a screen shot in a little bit. Some of the VMs correctly indicate that they are VMs. Others do not.
We mainly use SNMP discovery since its what gets the most information out of a machine. Having SNMP enabled or disabled does not affect whether the vmware indicator appears in the column, it seems to be something else.
DELL-Abhijit P
Community Manager
•
711 Posts
0
September 24th, 2012 09:00
Hi,
Can you clarify the question a bit more? I'm not sure about the concern.
All the VMs in the device tree will be classified as unknown. The entry for a VM will appear under unknown group if the IP address/host name of a VM is part of your discovery range.
The list of VMs running on a physical host is gathered during inventory of host and is shown as part of host inventory. This list is different from the device entries shown for these VMs in the device tree. This list is not refreshed real time. The inventory operation runs once a day by deafult and the data is gathered during that time.
It is possible that you don't have any VMs in your discovery range and in that case you will not have any entry in for a VM the device tree under unknown groups. At the same time your physical host machine may be part of your discovery range and in that case you will see the list of VMs on that physical host as part of host inventory.
Regards
Abhijit
Speeddymon
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September 24th, 2012 09:00
Hi, yes I'm aware of that. My concern is that I have VMs which appear in the inventory of the hosts, but also appear not classified as a vm in the unknown devices list. I also have done that are classified as a vm I'm there as well, but not all of the VMs are listed that way.
Speeddymon
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19 Posts
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September 24th, 2012 10:00
That still hasn't covered the problem I am having. I'll make a screen shot in a few minutes to illustrate the problem.
DELL-Abhijit P
Community Manager
•
711 Posts
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September 24th, 2012 10:00
Thanks for the updates.
I understand your question now.
Since OME does not monitor or manage VMs, those are generically classified under unknown devices. As a result OME will not gather detailed information over various combinations of protocols to classify all instances of VMs.
The information you get for VM is approximation of physical machines. The classification of physical servers depends on multiple factors. If you are using SNMP, OME relies on OMSA to get information from the server to classify that correctly and gather detailed hardware inventory/health. Hardware inventory or overall hardware health is not really applicable to the VM. As I mentioned above, we are planning to look at adding the option of classifying the VMs separately. When that support is officially added, we will analyze further to see what scenarios cause VMs to not get classified correctly.
For now, VMs are part of unclassified devices and all instances of VMs may not get classified in OME.
Regards
Abhijit
Speeddymon
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19 Posts
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September 24th, 2012 10:00
The screenshot is here: imageshack.us/.../screenzh.jpg
Basically, the 3 of the darker blue lines are the problem. All three are VMs which appear in their respective hosts' inventory.
The top and bottom ones are VMWare, the middle one is HyperV. The lighter blue was just where my mouse happened to be when I took the screenshot, so that one can be ignored.
The bottom one shows N/A for the model even though it appears in its host's inventory, while the top two both show the model as being either VMWare or Virtual Machine and also appear in their host's inventory.
The question is why does the bottom one not indicate that it is a VMWare VM, when it does appear in the ESX servers' inventory?
Hope this clarifies things.
DELL-Abhijit P
Community Manager
•
711 Posts
0
September 24th, 2012 11:00
Thanks for the updates. The image clarifies the question but doesn't change the answer. As I mentioned above, OME currently does not support managing/classifying the VMs and does not gather additional information to do the same when VMs are discovered as part of discovery range.
The list of VMs shown as part of host server's inventory comes from the respective providers(VMWare and Microsoft) which are running on the host machine. Since OME supports physical hosts, it gathers the detailed hardware inventory from those as part of discovery/inventory process for the host machine.
That information is different from the classification information gathered as part of discovery process of a VM when the VM IP is part of discovery range. That information is not used for classification of VMs.
The list of VMs in host inventory is unrelated to the VM devices listed and cannot be used for classification. Here are couple of cases which might make it clear.
As I mentioned in the response above, you may have hosts in your discovery range and get the list of VMs and not have any VMs in your discovery range. In that case you will not have any entries for VMs under unknown devices.
Conversly, you may have multiple VMs as part of your discovery range and not discover the physical host. In that case you will have entries for VMs under unknown devices but will not have list of VMs as you haven't discovered the host.
Hope this clarifies the situation.
Regards
Abhijit
Speeddymon
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19 Posts
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September 24th, 2012 11:00
I see. So what about in the event that the VMs listed and classified as such are on the same host as some VMs which are listed but show N/A as the model? That's the problem I'm describing above.
Speeddymon
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19 Posts
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September 24th, 2012 12:00
I see, thanks for the clarification!
DELL-Abhijit P
Community Manager
•
711 Posts
0
September 24th, 2012 12:00
As mentioned above, VMs are not guranteed to be classified. Since VMs are not supported for management/monitoring, all the configurations are not tested with OME. Those may be on the same host but may have different responses for the data OME queries. It can be result of different configuration/credentials/OS versions or any other setting differences between those VMs.
Regards
Abhijit