Agentless monitoring for VMware infrastructure using native vCenter and ESXi APIs. Supports over 200 metrics across clusters, ESXi hosts, virtual machines, datastores, and resource pools. Supports VMware environments from vCenter 7 and ESXi 6.
Cloudmon VMware monitoring integrates directly with vCenter and ESXi through native VMware APIs, requiring no agent installation on the hypervisor or virtual machines. Supported entity types include vCenter, Clusters, ESXi Hosts, Virtual Machines, Datastores, and Resource Pools. All discovered entities are accessible under Virtualization → VMware in the Cloudmon navigation bar.
Key capabilities include monitoring of CPU, Memory, Network, and Disk utilisation, hardware health metrics (temperature, voltage, power, fan speed, processor status) via VMware API, and continuous availability and health monitoring of all VMware resources.
VMware monitoring requires a Cloudmon probe and a VMware credential with the vSphere username and password for the vCenter or ESXi host being monitored.
The vSphere account used for the credential requires the Read-Only role assigned at the vCenter level, with Propagate to children enabled so the permission applies to all clusters, hosts, virtual machines, datastores, and resource pools beneath it.
Before adding a vCenter or ESXi host, create the credential in Cloudmon as follows.
| Field | Description |
| Name* | A descriptive name for this VMware credential. |
| Description | A brief description of the credential's scope or the vCenter or ESXi host it is used for. |
| Type* | Select VMware vCenter for vCenter credentials or VMware ESXi for direct ESXi host credentials. |
| Username* | The vSphere username used to authenticate with the vCenter or ESXi host. |
| Password* | The vSphere password used to authenticate with the vCenter or ESXi host. |
Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware vCenter and click Add. The Add VMware vCenter panel is organized into four sections: Monitor Details, Discovery Settings, Configuration Details, and Alert Settings.
Monitor Details: basic identification details for this monitor.
| Field | Description |
| Probe* | The Cloudmon probe from which the vCenter discovery will be initiated. |
| Display Name | A name for this vCenter discovery. |
| Hostname or IP* | The hostname or IP address of the vCenter server to be discovered. |
| Port* | The port of the vCenter. Defaults to 443. |
| Credential* | The VMware vCenter credential created in the Prerequisites step. |
Discovery Settings: resource discovery, auto-removal, events and alerts.
| Field | Description |
| Automatically discover new resources and monitor | Enabled by default. When checked, Cloudmon automatically discovers and begins monitoring new resources added to the vCenter at each discovery interval. |
| Discovery Interval | How frequently Cloudmon scans the vCenter for new or removed resources. |
| Resources to be Discovered* | The entity types to discover within the vCenter, such as Clusters, ESXi Hosts, VMs, Datastores, and Resource Pools. |
| Automatically remove resources no longer found in vCenter | Unchecked by default. When enabled, resources deleted from vCenter are automatically removed from Cloudmon monitoring after the configured retention period. Enabling this reveals the Auto Remove Retention Period field. |
| Auto Remove Retention Period | How long deleted resources are retained in Cloudmon before being permanently removed. Only visible when automatic removal is enabled. |
| Collect Alerts | Disabled by default. Retrieves the alerts raised by vCenter so they are visible in Cloudmon alongside the metrics collected from the environment. |
| Collect Events | Disabled by default. Retrieves the events recorded by vCenter, giving a record of activity in the environment alongside the alert stream. |
Configuration Details: scheduling and tags configuration.
| Field | Description |
| Interval* | The reporting interval at which the vCenter and its resources' monitoring statistics will be pushed to the Controller. |
| Tags | Optional labels for this discovery. |
Alert Settings: configure alarm rules and notification channels.
| Field | Description |
| Alarm Rule | An alarm rule to apply to all discovered VMware resources. Optional. |
| User Groups | The user groups that should be notified when an alarm is raised for any resource discovered under this vCenter. |
| Third Party Services | Third-party integrations to notify when an alarm is raised. Inherited automatically by the attached alarm rule. |
Click Discover to start the discovery process. After the configured reporting interval, all VMware resources are discovered and become available for monitoring under Virtualization → VMware.
Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware ESXi and click Add. The Add VMware ESXi panel is organized into four sections: Monitor Details, Discovery Settings, Configuration Details, and Alert Settings.
Monitor Details: basic identification details for this monitor.
| Field | Description |
| Probe* | The Cloudmon probe from which the ESXi discovery will be initiated. |
| Display Name | A name for this ESXi discovery. |
| Hostname or IP* | The hostname or IP address of the ESXi host to be discovered. |
| Port* | The port of the ESXi host. Defaults to 443. |
| Credential* | The VMware ESXi credential created in the Prerequisites step. |
Discovery Settings: resource discovery, auto-removal, events and alerts.
| Field | Description |
| Automatically discover new resources and monitor | Enabled by default. When checked, Cloudmon automatically discovers and begins monitoring new resources added to the ESXi host at each discovery interval. |
| Discovery Interval | How frequently Cloudmon scans the ESXi host for new or removed resources. |
| Resources to be Discovered* | The entity types to discover within the ESXi host. |
| Automatically remove resources no longer found in ESXi | Unchecked by default. When enabled, resources deleted from the ESXi host are automatically removed from Cloudmon monitoring after the configured retention period. Enabling this reveals the Auto Remove Retention Period field. |
| Auto Remove Retention Period | How long deleted resources are retained in Cloudmon before being permanently removed. Only visible when automatic removal is enabled. |
| Collect Alerts | Disabled by default. Retrieves the alerts raised by the ESXi host so they are visible in Cloudmon alongside the metrics collected from the environment. |
| Collect Events | Disabled by default. Retrieves the events recorded by the ESXi host, giving a record of activity in the environment alongside the alert stream. |
Configuration Details: scheduling and tags configuration.
| Field | Description |
| Interval* | The reporting interval at which the ESXi host and its resources' monitoring statistics will be pushed to the Controller. |
| Tags | Optional labels for this discovery. |
Alert Settings: configure alarm rules and notification channels.
| Field | Description |
| Alarm Rule | An alarm rule to apply to all discovered ESXi resources. Optional. |
| User Groups | The user groups that should be notified when an alarm is raised for any resource discovered under this ESXi host. |
| Third Party Services | Third-party integrations to notify when an alarm is raised. Inherited automatically by the attached alarm rule. |
Click Discover to start the discovery process. After the configured reporting interval, all ESXi resources are discovered and become available for monitoring under Virtualization → VMware.
The vCenter page provides a summary of the entire VMware vCenter environment. Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware vCenter to access this view. It shows general vCenter information alongside counts of all key entities: ESXi hosts, datastores, clusters, VMs, and resource pools.
| Section | What it shows |
| Entity Summary | Total counts of ESXi hosts, datastores, clusters, VMs, and resource pools discovered under this vCenter. |
| Top ESXi Hosts | The top ESXi hosts ranked by CPU usage, memory usage, and VM count, helping to identify which hosts are under the most load. |
| Top Datastores | The top datastores ranked by available space, highlighting which datastores are approaching capacity. |
| Recent Alarms | Recently raised alarms for any monitored vCenter entity, ensuring teams are immediately informed of potential issues. |
| Alerts | Alerts collected from vCenter, with a summary of total, resolved, and unresolved counts broken down by Critical, Warning, and Info severity. Each alert shows its title and message, the entity type and entity it was raised against, whether it has been resolved or acknowledged in vCenter, and the time it triggered. Available when Collect Alerts is enabled on the monitor. |
| Events | The activity record collected from vCenter, giving a history of configuration and operational activity in the environment. Available when Collect Events is enabled on the monitor. |
Alerts and Events tabs are available on every VMware entity detail page, not only on the vCenter. Opening an ESXi host, cluster, virtual machine, datastore, or resource pool shows the alerts and events scoped to that specific entity.
Alerts are raised by vCenter using its own built-in alarm definitions, and are resolved and acknowledged in vCenter rather than in Cloudmon. They are distinct from the Alarms tab, which shows alarms raised by the Cloudmon alarm rule attached to the monitor.
Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware ESXi and click any host to view its detail page. Cloudmon tracks the following for each ESXi host:
| Section | What it shows |
| Resource Utilisation | Processor, memory, and network usage metrics that help identify performance bottlenecks on the host. |
| Hardware Details | Physical health of the ESXi server including fan status, temperature, processor health, and system board status retrieved via VMware API. |
| VM Information | All VMs running on the ESXi host with details on their status and performance. |
| Datastore and Disk I/O | Datastores associated with the ESXi host alongside disk input/output statistics for storage performance analysis. |
| Network Details | Network utilisation and configuration details ensuring the host network is performing optimally. |
The ESXi list view shows each host's version, assigned probe, health status, power status, CPU model, memory size, and boot time, making it easy to compare hosts at a glance before drilling into a specific one.
Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware Cluster and click any cluster to view its detail page. The cluster list shows each cluster's health status, assigned probe, total CPU, total memory, and the number of datastores and ESXi hosts it contains, with a toggle to enable or disable monitoring directly from the list. Cloudmon tracks the following for each cluster:
| Section | What it shows |
| Resource Utilisation | How the cluster is using CPU, memory, and storage across all member hosts. |
| ESXi Hosts | All ESXi hosts that are members of the cluster, with individual performance tracking at the host level. |
| Datastores and VMs | All datastores and virtual machines within the cluster. |
| DRS Configuration | Distributed Resource Scheduler settings showing how load balancing is configured across the cluster's ESXi hosts. |
Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware VM and click any VM to view its detail page. The VM list shows each VM's hostname, IP address, health status, power status, operating system, CPU core count, memory size, last polled time, boot time, and uptime, with toggles to enable or disable monitoring for individual VMs. Cloudmon tracks the following for each virtual machine:
| Section | What it shows |
| Resource Utilisation | Real-time CPU, memory, and disk utilisation for the VM, ensuring it is running efficiently and not resource-constrained. |
| Networks and Datastores | Network connections and datastores the VM is using, providing context on its connectivity and storage dependencies. |
| Logs | VM-level logs to support troubleshooting and root cause analysis for performance or availability issues. |
Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware Datastore and click any datastore to view its detail page. The datastore list shows each datastore's type (VMFS, NFS, or vSAN), health status, assigned probe, free space, capacity, and the number of virtual machines and ESXi hosts using it. The detail page is organized into the following sections: Summary, Storage, Latency, Snapshots, Alerts, Events, Outages, Alarms, and Settings.
| Section | What it shows |
| Summary | Availability, downtime, Free Space and Capacity gauges, and Virtual Machines and ESXi Hosts counts. A space breakdown chart shows max file size, usage, free space percentage, free space, and capacity. Free Space and File Size trend charts show usage over time. A Datastore Details list flags capability support (Data Hierarchy, IORMSUPPORT, Native Snapshots, Raw Disk Mapping, Thinprovisioning). Sub-tables list the connected ESXi Hosts and Virtual Machines. |
| Storage | Detailed storage capacity and usage trends for the datastore over time. |
| Latency | Storage I/O latency metrics for performance monitoring and optimisation of the datastore. |
| Snapshots | Snapshot activity associated with VMs on this datastore. |
| Alerts | Alerts collected from vCenter scoped to this datastore. |
| Events | Events recorded by vCenter for this datastore. |
| Outages | A history of availability outages recorded for the datastore. |
| Alarms | Alarm triggers and history for this datastore. |
| Settings | Edit the datastore's monitoring configuration. |
Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → VMware Resource Pool and click any resource pool to view its detail page. The resource pool list shows each pool's health status, VM count, assigned probe, CPU utilisation, and memory utilisation. The detail page is organized into the following sections: Summary, CPU, Memory, Virtual Machines, Alerts, Events, Outages, Alarms, and Settings.
| Section | What it shows |
| Summary | Availability, the parent Cluster name and monitored status, downtime, and a Virtual Machines count. CPU Configuration and Memory Configuration panels each show Reservation, Limit, Expandable Reservation, Shares Level, and Share Value. A Virtual Machine Power Split chart shows the proportion of VMs that are powered on, powered off, or in an unknown state. |
| CPU | CPU usage and configuration trends for the resource pool over time. |
| Memory | Memory usage and configuration trends for the resource pool over time. |
| Virtual Machines | All virtual machines assigned to this resource pool. |
| Alerts | Alerts collected from vCenter scoped to this resource pool. |
| Events | Events recorded by vCenter for this resource pool. |
| Outages | A history of availability outages recorded for the resource pool. |
| Alarms | Alarm triggers and history for this resource pool. |
| Settings | Edit the resource pool's monitoring configuration. |
Resource pools link back to their parent cluster, providing context on how the pool fits within the overall cluster resource management strategy.
Each alarm is built around a simple IF/THEN model, where you select a metric, set a threshold, and define what happens when it is breached. To attach an alarm rule to a vCenter or ESXi discovery, select the desired profile from the Alarm Rule field under Alert Settings. Learn more.
| Issue | What to check |
| Discovery completes but no entities appear | Wait for at least one full reporting interval to pass after discovery completes. Entities are not populated until the first data push from the probe. Also confirm the Resources to be Discovered field included the desired entity types. |
| Discovery fails immediately | Verify the probe can reach the vCenter or ESXi host on port 443. Confirm the VMware credential username and password are correct and that the account has read access to the vSphere environment. |
| Hardware health metrics not appearing for ESXi hosts | Hardware health data is retrieved via the VMware API. Confirm the vCenter or ESXi credential has sufficient privileges to query hardware health counters. Some hardware vendors may not expose all sensor data through the VMware API. |