VMware Monitoring

VMware Monitoring

Virtualization Monitoring

VMware Monitoring

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.

Overview

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.

Prerequisites

VMware monitoring requires a Cloudmon probe and a VMware credential with the vSphere username and password for the vCenter or ESXi host being monitored.

Configuring VMware Credentials

  1. Navigate to Settings → Configurations → Credentials → VMware.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Fill in the credential fields as described in the table below.
  4. Click Save.
FieldDescription
NameA descriptive name for this VMware credential.
DescriptionA brief description of the credential's scope or the vCenter or ESXi it is used for.
TypeSelect VMware vCenter for vCenter credentials or VMware ESXi for direct ESXi host credentials.
Username and PasswordThe vSphere username and password used to authenticate with the vCenter or ESXi host.
TagsOptional labels for filtering and identifying the credential.

Discovering a vCenter

  1. Navigate to Virtualization → VMware and click Add.
  2. Fill in the discovery fields as described in the table below.
  3. Click Discover to start the discovery process.
FieldDescription
ProbeThe Cloudmon probe from which the vCenter discovery will be initiated.
NameA name for this vCenter discovery.
Hostname or IPThe hostname or IP address of the vCenter server to be discovered.
PortThe port of the vCenter. Defaults to 443.
CredentialThe VMware vCenter credential created in the Prerequisites step.
IntervalThe reporting interval at which the vCenter and its resources monitoring statistics will be pushed to the Controller.
Automatically Discover New Resources and MonitorWhen enabled, Cloudmon automatically discovers and begins monitoring new resources added to the vCenter at each discovery interval.
Discovery IntervalHow frequently Cloudmon scans the vCenter for new or removed resources.
Resources to be DiscoveredThe entity types to discover within the vCenter, such as Clusters, ESXi Hosts, VMs, Datastores, and Resource Pools.
Automatically Remove Resources No Longer Found in vCenterWhen enabled, resources deleted from vCenter are automatically removed from Cloudmon monitoring after the configured retention period. Enabling this option reveals the Auto Remove Retention Period field.
Auto Remove Retention PeriodSelect how long deleted resources are retained in Cloudmon before being permanently removed. Only visible when automatic removal is enabled.
Alarm RuleAn alarm rule to apply to all discovered VMware resources. Optional.
TagsOptional labels for this discovery.

After the configured reporting interval, all VMware resources are discovered and become available for monitoring under Virtualization → VMware.

Discovering an ESXi Host

  1. Navigate to Virtualization → VMware → ESXi Hosts and click Add.
  2. Fill in the same fields as the vCenter discovery above, using a VMware ESXi credential and the ESXi host IP address.
  3. Click Discover to start the discovery.

Discovery Controls

When discovering a vCenter or ESXi host, you can control which entity types are discovered. The Resources to be Discovered field in the discovery form lets you select specific entity types such as Clusters, ESXi Hosts, Virtual Machines, Datastores, and Resource Pools. This gives you fine-grained control over the scope of your VMware monitoring and prevents unnecessary discovery of entities you do not need to monitor.

Interrelated Entity Mapping

Cloudmon simplifies navigation and troubleshooting by mapping interrelated VMware entities. ESXi hosts show their associated VMs and connected datastores. Resource Pools link back to their parent cluster. Datastores list the VMs stored within them. This mapping provides a holistic view of the virtual environment and makes it easier to monitor relationships, dependencies, and resource allocation across the VMware infrastructure.

Alarms

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. Learn more.

Troubleshooting

IssueWhat to check
Discovery completes but no entities appearWait 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 immediatelyVerify 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 hostsHardware 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.
    • Related Articles

    • Is VMware credential with read access enough for monitoring Vcenter?

      Yes, as we are fetching the VMware through Native API's read access is enough for monitoring
    • Is it possible to monitor VMware ESXi?

      Yes, ESXi residing in a vCenter will be discovered and monitored or else a standalone ESXi could also be discovered and monitored., refer VMware monitoring for more details.
    • VMware vCenter / ESXi Monitoring

      Virtualization Monitoring VMware vCenter / ESXi Monitoring Monitor your entire VMware infrastructure from a single page. Covers the vCenter environment summary, ESXi host health, cluster resource usage, virtual machine performance, datastore storage, ...
    • Alarm Configuration in VMware Monitoring

      Virtualization Monitoring Alarm Configuration in VMware Monitoring Configure threshold-based alerts across all VMware entity types to detect performance and availability issues proactively. Alarms can be set at the individual entity level or applied ...
    • Virtualization Monitoring

      Virtualization Monitoring Virtualization Monitoring Monitor your entire virtualization infrastructure from a single platform. Cloudmon provides agent-based monitoring for Hyper-V environments and agentless monitoring for VMware, covering hosts, ...