Install checkmk agent on vCenter?

General
1

I want to monitor a vCenter (and the “connected” ESXi hosts and VMs). The datasource rule “Check state of VMWare ESX via vSphere” lets me select a query type.

I chose “Queried host is a vCenter” and eveything works fine. But I can also pick “Queried host is a vCenter with Check_MK Agent installed”:

image

This makes me wonder how I would install the Check_MK agent on a vCenter? Has anyone done that?

Another question: If I select “Queried host is a host system”, what does that mean? Does it refer to one of the ESXi hosts?

2

This is a relic from ancient CMK versions :smiley:
Before you had the possibility to select the nice settings for agent and SNMP, there was only the option agent, SNMP, booth or nothing.
And only one datasource per host was allowed.
With this trick it was possible to have two datasources on one host. vCenter was also possible to install on normal Windows servers and then you wanted to have monitoring for the Windows and the vCenter.
The same applies to the first Linux vCenter appliances. This was a normal Linux with vCenter software.

1 Like
3

Hi,

This makes me wonder how I would install the Check_MK agent on a vCenter? Has anyone done that?

Agent on VCSA: Just install rpm package, automatic update ist working. You need to install xinetd.

Open TCP:6556: In VSCA VAMI enter IP address of checkmk host in firewall settings. On appliance create a script:

/etc/vmware/appliance/firewall/checkmk

{
  "firewall": {
    "enable": true,
    "rules": [
      {
        "direction": "inbound",
        "name": "checkmk",
        "port": "6556",
        "portoffset": 0,
        "porttype": "dst",
        "protocol": "tcp"
      }
    ]
  }
}

and reload firewall:

/usr/lib/applmgmt/networking/bin/firewall-reload

"Queried host is a host system”, what does that mean?

You query ESX, not vCenter.

Regards,
ttr

2 Likes
4

Thank you both very much for the replies. I cannot decide who gets the “solution” medal so I choose @ttr because @andreas-doehler has already collected a lot of them :blush:

Our security policies are very restrictive and installing the agent on the vCenter will probably not be allowed but it’s good to know it would be possible.

5

That’s the same problem with every appliance and the discussion if it is “allowed” to install something.
:smiley:

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6

and the discussion if it is “allowed” to install something

That’s true, you might experience vendor support problems. But those new Photon-OS appliances just work like a charm with checkmk and VMware support never complained.

Regards,
ttr

1 Like
7

Hello
we used this in “ancient” times when vCenter required a Windows Server to run on.
But the option “Queried host is a host system with Check_MK agent installed” is new to me though :wink:

BR Thomas

8

I’ve never installed an agent on vCenter appliance.
What you can do is enable SNMP on the appliance and monitor it using SNMP.

Regards,
Erik

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9

Don’t do it :smiley: the data is more like gaze into a crystal ball.

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10

we use a read-only vcenter admin and the special agent. I wonder: do I get more information with the agent installed?
Is this still working with VCenter 6.7 and above?

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11

If you install the normal Linux agent (rpm) on a vCenter appliance, you will get the usual Linux agent checks i.e. mostly information related to the operating system itself.

If you are curious about the internal function of the appliance, you can do this, sure. But IMO this information is not really relevant on an appliance. I’m not going to modify the swap size or tune some kernel parameters on that system, anyway. Rather treat it as a blackbox and check it using only the supplier’s tools.

1 Like
12

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