PRTG Manual: VMware Virtual Machine (SOAP) Sensor

Performance impact

This sensor has a very high performance impact. We recommend that you use no more than 50 of this sensor on each probe.

.NET 4.7.2 or later

This sensor requires .NET 4.7.2 or later from Microsoft on the probe system. In a cluster, install it on every cluster node.

If the framework is missing, you cannot create this sensor.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: Which .NET version does PRTG require?

Windows Server

We recommend Windows Server 2016 on the probe system for best performance of this sensor.

Credentials

This sensor requires credentials for VMware/XenServer in the settings of the parent device. Enter a user with sufficient access rights to obtain statistics (read-only usually works).

Parent device

We recommend that you use vCenter as parent device. If the monitored VM changes the host server via vMotion, PRTG can still continue monitoring. The sensor can monitor VMware ESXi server as of version 5.2.

VMs

For VMware virtual machines, disk usage channels are only available as of virtual hardware version 8.

PRTG requests a full list of all VMs configured on the target device (also those that do not run). Because of this, it might take a few seconds before the dialog appears.

IPv6

This sensor supports IPv6.

Knowledge Base

• Knowledge Base: I cannot add VMware sensors because of "wrong" password although it is correct. What can I do?
• Knowledge Base: Why are my VMware sensors not working after upgrading to VCSA 6.5 U1?

Managed Object Identifier (MOID)

The managed object identifier (MOID) of the VM that this sensor monitors.

Powered-Off VM Handling

Define how the sensor reacts to VMs that are powered off:

• Alarm when VM is powered off (default): Change to the Down status if the VM is powered off.

If the sensor is in the Down status, it does not record any data in any of its channels.

• Ignore powered off state: Do not change to the Down status if the VM is powered off. The sensor reports zero values instead.

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

• Discard result (default): Do not store the sensor result.
• Store result: Store the sensor result and the last response in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file names are Result of Sensor [ID].txt and Result of Sensor [ID].Data.txt. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites these files with each scanning interval.

This option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance.

In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how this sensor shows different channels:

• Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
• Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
  You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above.

Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

CPU Ready (Percent)

The CPU readiness (%)

CPU Usage

The CPU usage

This channel is the primary channel by default.

Datastore Total Read Latency

The datastore total read latency

Datastore Total Write Latency

The datastore total write latency

Disk Read

The disk read speed

Disk Usage

The disk usage

Disk Write

The disk write speed

Downtime

In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status.

Memory Active

The active memory

Memory Consumed

The consumed memory

Memory Consumed (Percent)

The memory consumed (%)

Network Received

The received bytes

Network Transmitted

The transmitted bytes

Network Usage

The total network usage

Power

The average host power usage