How to Monitor VMware

Server virtualization is one of the most recent technologies found with data centers and has been deployed rigorously. This technology has a vast impact on corporate power and cooling expenses and data center capacity. In the events of a virtualized server crashes, all the applications on that server will be greatly impacted. A VMWare monitor is essential for monitoring, testing and planning virtualized servers and network connections. With a VMware monitor, you can even analyze your system and its load before implementation.

Things You'll Need

• Windows Server computer
• PRTG Network Monitor

Instructions

Installing and Using VMware Monitor

1. Go to Paessler's website, click on the downloads tab on the main menu, choose PRTG network monitor and download the Freeware version or click "Buy now" to purchase a commercial version. PRTG network monitor provides virtual server monitoring, bandwidth monitoring using SNMP, WMI, NetFlow and Packet Sniffing, and LAN and WAN monitoring. It runs on all Windows systems.

2. Double-click the set-up file on your computer for the PRTG server. Choose the Freeware Edition and click next. In the "Essential Settings," type your email address and keep the other default variables.

3. Double-click the PRTG Network Monitor icon on your desktop. On the login dialog, use the default setting "AJAX GUI," click on the "Use default login" option and click on the "Login" button to launch the PRTG web interface. Click on the "Home" button in the main menu on the web interface, and then click on "Network Auto-Discovery" to find your networks. Click on the "Local probe" in the "Auto-Discovery Group" screen, and click continue, in the next dialog screen, type in an IP range and provide the credentials for your Windows systems. PRTG will now start looking for your network, adding devices and sensors.

4. Click on the "Settings" tab. Type Sensor Names and Tags and also enter the Virtual Machine Settings. The "Add Sensor" dialogue box will appear automatically when you add a new sensor on a device.

5. Go to the Virtual Machine's Sensor pages, click on the "Overview" tab and view sensor details, present status and summary graphs.

References

• Paessler: PRTG Network Monitor Feature Overview
• Paessler: PRTG Network Monitor V8 User Manual
• Manage Engine: VMware Monitoring Gain Visibility into Your VMware Environment