Device and Sensor Setup > Sensor Settings

PRTG Manual: VMware Host Hardware Status (SOAP) Sensor

The VMware Host Hardware Status (SOAP) sensor monitors the hardware status of a VMware host server using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). It gives you a general status overview of the host.

The sensor also shows any states other than normal in the sensor message.

VMware Host Hardware Status (SOAP) Sensor

For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

Dutch: VMware Host Hardware Status (SOAP)
French: VMware statut du matériel du serveur hôte (SOAP)
German: VMware Hostserver Hardware-Zustand (SOAP)
Japanese: VMware ホストハードウェアの状態（SOAP）
Portuguese: Status do hardware de host VMware (SOAP)
Russian: Состояние аппаратных средств узла VMware (SOAP)
Simplified Chinese: VMware 主机硬件状态 (SOAP)
Spanish: Estado de hardware host VMware (SOAP)

Remarks

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later from Microsoft on the probe system.

We recommend Windows Server 2012 R2 on the probe system for best performance of this sensor.

This sensor requires credentials for VMware/XenServer in the settings of the parent device. Enter a user with sufficient access rights to obtain statistics (read-only usually works).

This sensor requires that the parent device is a VMware ESXi server as of version 5.2. We recommend that you do not use this sensor on your vCenter. Reliable hardware information can only be provided when this sensor is created on your physical host server as parent device.

This sensor supports IPv6.

This sensor has a medium performance impact.

This sensor only shows items that report an actual status, so you might see more "sensors" in your vSphere client than the number of states available in the channels of this sensor

Knowledge Base: I cannot add VMware sensors because of "wrong" password although it is correct. What can I do?

Knowledge Base: Why are my VMware sensors not working after upgrading to VCSA 6.5 U1?

Detailed Requirements

Requirement	Description
.NET 4.7.2 or later	This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later to be installed on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe). If the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: Which .NET version does PRTG require?

Requirement

Description

.NET 4.7.2 or later

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later to be installed on the probe system (on every cluster node, if on a cluster probe).

If the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: Which .NET version does PRTG require?

Settings on VMware Host System

If you set up this sensor on different probes (for example, when using remote probes or when running a failover cluster), you might need to change the settings of your VMware host so that it accepts more incoming connections. Otherwise, you might get connection timeouts when running plenty of VMware sensors with a short scanning interval.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: How can I increase the connection limit on VMware systems? PE121.

Add Sensor

The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.

The settings that you select in the Add Sensor dialog are valid for all sensors that you create when you finish the dialog.

VMware Host Settings

Setting	Description
Host Server	Select the host servers that you want to monitor. PRTG creates one sensor for each host server that you select. Enable check boxes in front of the respective lines to select the items. Use the check box in the table header to select all items or to cancel the selection. In large tables, use the search function in the upper-right corner.

Setting

Description

Host Server

Select the host servers that you want to monitor. PRTG creates one sensor for each host server that you select.

Enable check boxes in front of the respective lines to select the items. Use the check box in the table header to select all items or to cancel the selection. In large tables, use the search function in the upper-right corner.

Basic Sensor Settings

Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.

Basic Sensor Settings

Setting	Description
Sensor Name	Enter a name to identify the sensor. By default, PRTG shows this name in the device tree, as well as in alarms, logs, notifications, reports, maps, libraries, and tickets. If the name contains angle brackets (<>), PRTG replaces them with braces ({}) for security reasons. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What security features does PRTG include?
Parent Tags	Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe. This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.
Tags	Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited. It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>). For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added. The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor: esxserverhosthealthsensor
Priority	Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority () to the highest priority ().

Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address/DNS Name of the parent device. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings.

VMware Host Settings

Setting	Description
Managed Object Identifier (MOID)	Shows the managed object identifier of the host that this sensor monitors. PRTG shows this value for reference purposes only. If you need to change this value, add the sensor anew.
Known Warnings	Enter one or more warning messages from the VMware host that you want to ignore. Use semicolons (;) as separators, for example, Power Supply 7;Power Supply 8. Enter a string or leave the field empty. Warning messages that you enter do not affect the sensor status. We strongly recommend that you use this filter for known issues only. For example, for states that systems return because of errors in the vendors' CIM extensions. Because of this, the sensor might never show the Up status although the vSphere client does not show any warnings.
Known Errors	Enter one or more error messages from the VMware host that you want to ignore. Use semicolons (;) as separators, for example, Power Supply 7;Power Supply 8. Enter a string or leave the field empty. Error messages that you enter do not affect the sensor status. We strongly recommend that you use this filter for known issues only. For example, for states that systems return because of errors in the vendors' CIM extensions. Because of this, the sensor might never show the Up status although the vSphere client does not show any errors.
Handling of Unknown States	Define the sensor behavior when the vSphere client reports unknown states: Show unknown states (default): Show unknown states in the status message and set the sensor to the Warning status. Do not show unknown states: Do not show unknown states in the status message and do not change the sensor status.
Result Handling	Define what PRTG does with the sensor result: Discard result: Do not store the sensor result. Store result: Store the last sensor result in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval. This option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance. In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Sensor Display

Setting	Description
Primary Channel	Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor. You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type	Define how different channels are shown for this sensor: Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel. Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit	This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:

Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Scanning Interval

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Scanning Interval.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.

Access Rights

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.

Channel List

Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

Channel	Description
Alert States	The total number of items in the alert status as the vSphere client reports
Downtime	In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status
Normal States	The total number of items in the normal status as the vSphere client reports This channel is the primary channel by default.
Unknown States	The total number of items in the unknown status as the vSphere client reports
Warning States	The total number of items in the warning status as the vSphere client reports