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Why do I need root credentials when monitoring VMware hosts via SSH?

Votes:

0

Using the SSH VMWare ESX(i) Disk Sensor I want to monitor my vSphere VMware host via SSH.

The sensor only works when I enter the credentials of the root user in the parent device. With any other user credentials the sensor connection fails.

Why is this?

esx esxi prtg ssh vmware vsphere

Created on Mar 21, 2012 9:45:32 AM by  Daniel Zobel [Product Manager]

Last change on Mar 21, 2012 9:57:13 AM by  Daniel Zobel [Product Manager]



3 Replies

Accepted Answer

Votes:

1

This article applies to PRTG Network Monitor 9 or later

About VMware and SSH

SSH requests to the VMware system only work flawlessly when using root user credentials.

On ESX 4.x systems there is a work around available. For details, please see the following article: VMware KB: Local ESX & ESXi 4.1 users are not able to issue any administrative commands

As far as we know there is no such work around available on ESX 5 systems.

We recommend you enter the credentials of the VMware root user in the PRTG settings of the parent device or group (section Credentials for Linux (SSH/WBEM) Systems).

Created on Mar 21, 2012 9:56:21 AM by  Daniel Zobel [Product Manager]



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0

Disabling SSH root login on both VMware and Linux servers is a common practice on many sites. Are PRTG's SSH sensors useless on these sites?

Created on Jul 12, 2012 6:03:34 AM



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Might be that the VMware Sensors then do not work. Please bear in mind though that it is not us who lay down the rules for the permissions and what account/privileges are necessary to obtain certain information from VMware target systems. THIS IS DONE BY VMWARE.

Created on Jul 12, 2012 10:54:09 AM by  Torsten Lindner [Paessler Support]




Disclaimer: The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.