PRTG Manual: VMware Host Hardware (WBEM) Sensor

Enabled CIM Interface on ESXi Host

To access the ESXi host and retrieve monitoring data via WBEM, the CIM interface must be enabled on the ESXi host. On ESXi 6.5, CIM is disabled by default, so you need to manually activate it.

For details, see the Knowledge Base: How do I enable the CIM interface on VMware ESXi 6.5?

Hardware Element

Select the hardware elements that you want to monitor. PRTG creates one sensor for each element 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.

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:

▪esxshealthsensor

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 ().

Hardware Element

Shows the hardware element that this sensor monitors.

PRTG shows this value for reference purposes only. If you need to change this value, add the sensor anew.

Automatic Sensor Status

Define if the sensor changes its status depending on the health status reading:

▪Set sensor to warning or down status: Set the sensor to the Warning or the Down status when the server returns respective values. The sensor also changes to the Down status if the connection to the server fails.

▪Report the current reading: Never change the sensor's status dependent on the values returned by the server. The sensor only changes to the Down status if the connection to the server fails.

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.

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.

Current

The current in milliampere (mA)

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

Healthstate

The health status

▪Up status: OK Unknown

▪Warning status: Degraded, Minor

▪Down status: Critical, Major, Non Recoverable Error

Power

The average host power usage in watts

Rotational Speed

The fan revolutions per minute (RPM)

Temperature

The temperature