PRTG Manual: VMware Virtual Machine (SOAP) Sensor
The VMware Virtual Machine (SOAP) sensor monitors a virtual machine (VM) on a VMware host server using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.
- Dutch: VMware Virtuele Machine (SOAP)
- French: Machine virtuelle VMware (SOAP)
- German: VMware Virtual Machine (SOAP)
- Japanese: VMware 仮想マシン(SOAP)
- Portuguese: VMware Máquina virtual (SOAP)
- Russian: Виртуальная машина VMware (SOAP)
- Simplified Chinese: VMware 虚拟机 (SOAP)
- Spanish: Máquina virtual VMware (SOAP)
- This sensor can have a high impact on the performance of your monitoring system. Use it with care. We recommend that you use no more than 50 sensors of this sensor type on each probe.
- This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later on the probe system.
- This sensor requires credentials for VMware/XenServer in the settings of the parent device. Ensure that you enter a user with sufficient access rights to obtain statistics (read-only usually works).
- We recommend that you use vCenter as parent device. If the monitored VM changes the host server via vMotion, PRTG can still continue monitoring. The sensor can monitor VMware ESXi server version 5.2 or later.
- We recommend Windows 2012 R2 on the probe system for best performance of this sensor.
- For VMware virtual machines, disk usage channels are only available as of virtual hardware version 8.
- This sensor supports the IPv6 protocol.
- This sensor has a very high performance impact.
- See the Knowledge Base: I cannot add VMware sensors because of "wrong" password although it is correct. What can I do?
- See the Knowledge Base: Why are my VMware sensors not working after upgrading to VCSA 6.5 U1?
Requirement |
Description |
---|---|
.NET Framework |
This sensor requires the Microsoft .NET Framework. .NET 4.7.2 or later must 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.
|
Settings on VMware Host System
If you set up this sensor on different probes (for example, when using remote probes or when running a 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 details about this setting, see the Knowledge Base: How can I increase the connection limit on VMware systems?
The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the setting fields that are required for creating the sensor. Therefore, you do not see all setting fields in this dialog. You can change (nearly) all settings in the sensor's Settings tab later.
PRTG requests a full list of all VMs configured on the device. Because of this, it might take a few seconds before the dialog is loaded.
Select the VMs that you want to monitor. PRTG creates one sensor for each VM that you select in the Add Sensor dialog. The settings you select are valid for all sensors that you create when you finish this dialog.
The following settings in the Add Sensor dialog differ in comparison to the sensor's Settings tab.
VMware Virtual Machine Settings
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Virtual Machines |
You see a list of all VMs available on the host server on this device, including the ones that do not run. All VMs are listed by name and the operating system that they run on. Select the desired items by adding check marks in front of the respective lines. PRTG creates one sensor for each selection. You can also use the check box in the table header to select all items or cancel the selection. |
Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.
Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address or DNS Name of the parent device on which you created the sensor. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings. See below for details on available settings.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Sensor Name |
Enter a meaningful 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.
|
Parent Tags |
Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe. This setting is shown for your information only and cannot be changed here. |
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.
The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor:
|
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 ( |
VMware Virtual Machine Settings
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
MoID |
Shows the Managed Object Reference ID of the VM that this sensor monitors. Once you have created the sensor, you cannot change this value. It is shown for reference purposes only. If you need to change this value, add the sensor anew. |
Handling of "Powered Off" VM |
Define the sensor behavior for a VM that is powered off:
|
Result Handling |
Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:
|
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.
|
Graph Type |
Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:
|
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. |
By default, all of the following settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. You should 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. You then see the options described below.
For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.
Click to interrupt the inheritance.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Scanning Interval |
Select a scanning interval from the dropdown list. The scanning interval determines the amount of time that the sensor waits between two scans. Choose from:
|
If a Sensor Query Fails |
Select the number of scanning intervals that the sensor has time to reach and to check a device again if a sensor query fails. Depending on the option that you select, the sensor can try to reach and to check a device again several times before the sensor shows the Down status. This can avoid false alarms if the monitored device only has temporary issues. For previous scanning intervals with failed requests, the sensor shows the Warning status. Choose from:
|
Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Windows
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.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Schedule |
Select a schedule from the list. You can use schedules to monitor during a certain time span (days or hours) every week. Choose from:
|
Maintenance Window |
Select if you want to set up a one-time maintenance window. During a maintenance window, monitoring stops for the selected object and all child objects. They show the Paused status instead. Choose between:
|
Maintenance Begins |
This setting is only visible if you enable Set up a one-time maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the start date and time of the one-time maintenance window. |
Maintenance Ends |
This setting is only visible if you enable Set up a one-time maintenance window above. Use the date time picker to enter the end date and time of the one-time maintenance window. |
Dependency Type |
Select a dependency type. You can use dependencies to pause monitoring for an object depending on the status of a different object. You can choose from:
|
Dependency |
This setting is only visible if you enable Select a sensor above. Click |
Dependency Delay (Sec.) |
This setting is only visible if you enable Select a sensor above. Define a time span in seconds for the dependency delay. After the master sensor for this dependency returns to the Up status, PRTG additionally delays the monitoring of the dependent objects by the time span you define. This can prevent false alarms, for example, after a server restart or to give systems more time for all services to start. Enter an integer value.
|
Click to interrupt the inheritance.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
User Group Access |
Define the user groups that have access to the sensor. You see a table with user groups and group access rights. The table contains all user groups in your setup. For each user group, you can choose from the following group access rights:
|
Click to interrupt the inheritance.
Setting |
Description |
---|---|
Channel Unit Types |
For each type of channel, select the unit in which PRTG displays the data. If you define this setting on probe, group, or device level, these settings can be inherited to all sensors underneath. You can set units for the following channel types (if available):
|
Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the monitored device, the available components, and the sensor setup.
Channel |
Description |
---|---|
CPU Ready (Percent) |
The CPU readiness in percent |
CPU Usage |
The CPU usage in percent
|
Datastore Total Read Latency |
The datastore total read latency in milliseconds (msec) |
Datastore Total Write Latency |
The datastore total write latency in msec |
Disk Read |
The disk read speed in bytes per second |
Disk Usage |
The disk usage per second |
Disk Write |
The disk write speed in bytes per second |
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 in percent. |
Memory Active |
The active memory in bytes |
Memory Consumed |
The consumed memory in bytes |
Memory Consumed (Percent) |
The memory consumed in percent |
Network Received |
The received bytes per second |
Network Transmitted |
The transmitted bytes per second |
Network Usage |
The total network usage in bytes per second |
Power |
The power status |
KNOWLEDGE BASE
I cannot add VMware sensors because of "wrong" password although it is correct. What can I do?
Why are my VMware sensors not working after upgrading to VCSA 6.5 U1?
Which .NET version does PRTG require?
How can I increase the connection limit on VMware systems? PE121
What security features does PRTG include?
Monitoring VMware ESXi 5.5 does not work. What can I do?
For which sensor types do you recommend Windows Server 2012 R2 or later and why?
For more information about sensor settings, see the following sections: