RMM Virtualization

Remote Monitoring & Management (RMM)

Microsoft’s Hyper-V and VMware’s ESXI are hypervisors that run on physical servers, that are referred to as Hosts, that manage and control Virtual Servers referred to as Guests. These hypervisors can be an effective tool to reduce hardware costs and have advantages and efficiencies for managing servers, including deployment, backup and recovery. They can also be a single point of failure – if the Host is down, so are all of its Guests.

Benefits

Microsoft Hyper-V monitoring is consistent with the monitoring of any other Microsoft server. Hardware monitoring still comes in the form of SNMP or IPMI tools provided by the Hardware manufacturer. Guest monitoring is from the Monitoring Agent installed on the Guest.
VMware monitoring offers a substantial number of data points to monitor the physical hardware. It can also provide data points to monitor the Guests performance.
- Individual Fan Status
- Individual NIC Status
- Individual Power Supply Status
- Individual Temperature Sensor Status
- Logical Drive Status (Guest monitor): Disk I/0, Disk Latency, Data Read and Writes
- Guest Status: General Performance monitors: CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network are the VMware tools installed. We would monitor these on the Guests themselves with traditional agent and leave these inactive. These could provide a second data point in determining if a Guest is having issues due to physical hardware.

NOTE: The VMware monitoring requires additional software from VMware and/or the manufacturer. This can be accomplished by either utilizing the VMware ISO provided by the manufacturer for the specific server, or by utilizing a generic ISO from VMware and then installing the manufacturer’s “Offline Bundle”. This software can become outdated. In order to provide the most accurate reporting, it should be updated regularly, similar to Windows updates. VMware monitoring may show “phantom” hardware that does not exist such as more power supplies, or NICs that are not really present. It is important to know the actual physical components that make up the server so the correct data points are monitored.

Setup

Microsoft Hyper-V Host server
- Collabrance will install N-Able Agent and Anti-Virus
- Collabrance will verify administrative access to all Guests
VMware
- Collabrance will verify access to vSphere or vCenter (Provided by Service Provider)
- Collabrance will verify administrative access to all Guests

Technical Details

Monitoring and alerting is only one aspect of the Host(s). In certain environments, the hosted solution can be a very large implementation of hardware. This can include: The server(s), a NAS or SAN for hard disk space, network or fiber switches to access the NAS or SAN, iSCSI networks and other equipment. Detailed information for all of the devices in the hosted solutions is required to properly support them. IP addresses, username and passwords, and access to all configurations is necessary information for devices in the solution.

VMware requires knowing the username and password to the vCenter and/or vSphere consoles and which devices on the network have these applications installed. These devices must be physical devices that are always on and should not be end user devices (workstations or laptops).

Roles & Responsibilities

Collabrance Responsibilities

Service Provider Responsibilities

Subscriber Responsibilities

FAQs: Server Support Fee for VMware Host Servers

Does Collabrance Monitor VMware Host Servers?

Does Collabrance have an N-Central agent installed on the VMware Host?

Will Collabrance work directly with the manufacturer for hardware failures?

Does Collabrance do VMware Operating System updates?

Does Collabrance install AV on VMware Host Servers?

Is anything required for the VMware Host Servers?

** Disclaimer: Service Providers must comply with identified Collabrance Requirements in order for items referenced in our Service Catalog to perform properly. **