VMware integration

Relevant properties, accessed by right-clicking a Virtual Machine Host in Virtual Machine Hosts, are displayed for the selected host server as read-only information. The information may vary based on the type of equipment and can contain information about the virtual machines running on that host. The check box enables the impact analysis feature for this host. See also VMware integration enabling migration of virtual machines impacted by alarms Associating Live Data from an External System to the Layout Configuring VMware integration to automatically migrate virtual machines impacted by alarms Locating virtual machines hosts with impact in the layout  Disabling maintenance mode on a virtual machine host after the impact has been resolved

ITA offers a consolidated view of the data center's physical infrastructure. It holds data about the physical location of the equipment in the data center as well as an advanced configuration of for example power path and real-time device alarm data from Data Center Expert or other monitoring system. This enables you to quickly analyze how an alarm on one piece of equipment may impact other equipment located in the data center. Making this data available to a virtual machine management system enables this system to automatically move the potentially impacted virtual machines to healthy hosts.  This feature requires an ITA: Capacity license and prior installation and configuration of the communication to a supported virtual machine management system: VMware vCenter Server You can configure the integration in ITA System Setup > External System Configuration. If you connect to more than 5 vCenter servers, you may experience a performance decrease with the server communication. Alarm and impact configuration in ITA For each host for which you want to enable impact, you must set the properties to include it in the impact analysis in ITA. Otherwise, it will not show as impacted and the virtual machine management system will not be notified of an impact on the host and enable migration. The impact analysis data is available in the rack layout in Data Center Planning and as read-only information in ITA. You configure the position of your host servers in the data center layout and associate the servers with your virtual servers. In ITA, a number of alarms are considered crucial to the continuous operation of the virtual machines. If you have associated a host to a server in the layout that is affected by one of the following scenarios, the system will notify the virtual machine management system of an impact on the host that should be migrated: A power supply with an alarm that could lead to imminent power loss, e.g. a UPS is failing or running low on battery A cooling unit with an alarm that could lead to a server overheating, e.g. a cooling unit's compressor or power supply is failing The associated host will be marked as critically impacted (red icon). In VMware vCenter Server, the impacted hosts will be put into maintenance mode. For further information, refer to the VMware documentation. However, an alarm that occurs on one of the power supplies in a redundant power supply setup is considered a non-critical impact and the associated host will be marked as non-critically impacted (yellow icon). No data will be communicated from this type of impact to the vCenter Server and no servers will be migrated.

For integrations between ITA and VMware vCenter Server(on-premise only), the host data refreshes dynamically. However, for integrations between ITA and Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager, the data is refreshed at the configured frequency. The ITA: PRO Pack Agent ensures the data from the Virtual Machine Manager server is updated at the configured frequency, e.g. every 10 minutes (minimum). The agent is installed with the ITA: PRO Pack. You will see an icon on the task bar when the agent is running. Open the agent window by right-clicking the icon on the task bar and selecting Show (or if the agent is disabled, restart it through Start> All Programs> Startup> ITA PRO Pack). Define the interval of getting updated data from Virtual Machine Manager into ITA . Updates include: Virtual machine hosts: Addition/removal, switch between maintenance/normal mode Virtual machines: Addition/move/deletion See also VMware integration enabling migration of virtual machines impacted by alarms Associating live data from an external system to the layout Configuring VMware integration to automatically migrate virtual machines impacted by alarms  Locating virtual machines hosts with impact in the layout  Disabling maintenance mode on a virtual machine host after the impact has been resolved  Virtual Machine Host Properties

When VMware integration and impact analysis has been configured, ITA shows virtual machine hosts in the layout that have been associated with potentially failing equipment, e.g. a UPS, PDU, or rack PDU. You can view impact on virtual machine hosts in the layout since associated hosts are highlighted on the modeled servers: 102237506_360036208074.jpg Red icon: Critically impacted virtual machine host. For example, if a critical alarm occurs on the power supply. 102237491_360036208074.jpg Yellow icon: Non-critically impacted virtual machine host. For example, if a critical alarm occurs on one of the power supplies in a redundant power supply setup. 102237485_360036208074.jpg Gray icon: Non-impacted virtual machine host. Note: If you have set up the tool tips to include this information in > Tools> Preferences > Tool Tips, virtual machine host data will be shown when you hover over a virtual machine host icon in the rack layout. To locate a specific impacted virtual machine host in the layout: Double-click the room in Navigation. Right-click the virtual machine host in Navigation, and select Show in Layout to identify and highlight the server in the rack layout with the associated host. Multiple devices can be associated to one server in the layout. See also Associating Live Data from an External System to the Layout VMware integration enabling migration of virtual machines impacted by alarms Configuring VMware integration to automatically migrate virtual machines impacted by alarms Locating virtual machines hosts with impact in the layout Disabling maintenance mode on a virtual machine host after the impact has been resolved Virtual Machine Host Properties

You can disable maintenance mode on a host when working in ITA as well as in the VMware environment. In ITA, identify the host in Navigation that used to be critically impacted but is now safe. It is marked as in maintenance mode and is highlighted on the modeled servers in the layout with a yellow or gray V icon (used to be red), and it is marked as in maintenance mode. Right-click the virtual machine host in Navigation, and select Exit Maintenance Mode to disable the maintenance mode on the host. For information on how it is done in the VMware environment, refer to the VMware documentation. See also VMware integration enabling migration of virtual machines impacted by alarms Associating Live Data from an External System to the Layout Configuring VMware integration to automatically migrate virtual machines impacted by alarms Locating virtual machines hosts with impact in the layout  Virtual Machine Host Properties

Once this integration has been configured, physical location, alarm, and impact data is communicated from ITA to the VMware vCenter server. Based on this data, the VMware environment is then able to move the relevant virtual machines to healthy hosts. To configure the integration between ITA and VMware vCenter Server: Ensure you have the necessary user rights on the VMware vSphere Client. vMotion functionality is being utilized and must be configured and enabled as well as user rights given. In System Setup > External System Configuration, configure the server communication settings to allow ITA to exchange data with the VMware environment. Click Add server to type the logon information of the new vCenter Server to connect to: hostname/IP address, port number, and user credentials. If you connect to more than 5 vCenter servers, you may experience a performance decrease with the server communication. For a high-security logon session, select Use SSL and accept the certificate. Ask the vCenter Server administrator for details if you are unsure whether to use SSL. Recommendation If the ITA server is restarted, wait for several minutes before you make any changes to the vCenter communication configuration. Once you have set up this server communication, ITA displays virtual machine hosts in the Device Association view. These discovered Virtual Machine hosts need to be associated with modeled servers in the ITA data center model. Virtual Machine host data from the VMware vCenter Server is sent to ITA which, in return, sends physical location, alarm and impact data of virtual machine hosts. For each host for which you want to enable this feature, you must set the properties to include it in the impact analysis. Otherwise, it will not show as impacted and the virtual machine management system will not be notified of an impact on the host and enable migration. The option is available by right-clicking the virtual machine host, and selecting Properties > Virtual Machine Host and then enabling Enable Power and cooling impact for this host. See also VMware integration enabling migration of virtual machines impacted by alarms Associating live data from an external system to the layout Locating virtual machines hosts with impact in the layout Refreshing virtual machine host data Disabling maintenance mode on a virtual machine host after the impact has been resolved Virtual Machine Host Properties  Configuring external system integration Viewing external system data