WhatsUp Gold WhatsVirtual Plug-In

WhatsVirtual is a new plug-in to the WhatsUp Gold core platform that allows you to discover, map, monitor and manage your VMware virtual server environment exactly in the same way and from the same console as your physical server infrastructure.

And with the power of WhatsUp Gold to manage network and application components as well, you have complete visibility to manage your entire datacenter environment from one management system. You don’t need to look at multiple screens trying to figure out what went wrong or is likely to do so – since WhatsVirtual and WhatsUp Gold bring it all together.

WhatsVirtual Features

Support for VMware ESX/ESXi monitoring, including:

• New VMware discovery role and discovery attributes
• New VMware workspaces Reports:
  • Virtual Host
  • Virtual Host List
• New VMware Performance Monitors
  • Virtual Machine CPU
  • VMware Host CPU
  • Virtual Machine Disk
  • VMware Disk
  • Virtual Machine Memory
  • VMware Memory
  • Virtual Machine Interface
  • VMware Interface
• New VM mapping
• New VMware Credential Type for VMware hosts
• New VMware Action Type
• Alert Center thresholds for VMware

WhatsVirtual provides advanced capabilities for the integrated monitoring and management of VMware ESX /ESXi virtual server environments. Key features include the following:

WhatsVirtual Basics

• Fully integrates into WhatsUp Gold versions – Standard, Premium, and Distributed v14.2 and upwards for single console operation of all infrastructure and applications
• Natively integrates with the VMware API ( based on the VMware vSphere Web Services SDK) to manage VMware ESX v3.0 and upwards and ESXi v3.5 and upwards
• Supports new VMware credentials for virtual machine discovery and monitoring
• Automatically groups and maps ESX/ESXi hosts and all associated virtual machines – even those suspended or powered off - for easy visualization of relationships
• Supports all existing Alert Center workflows and threshold configuration capabilities for problem identification and resolution

WhatsVirtual Reporting

• New Virtual Host List report details the name and IP address of the VMware ESX/ESXi host machine and all associated virtual machines.
• New Virtual Host Attributes report displays all the host server details including running configuration of the server (for example, VMware ESX or ESXi and its version), the build number and boot time
• Extends individual server performance reporting including CPU, Memory, Disk and Network Interface utilization metrics to virtual machines
• New workspace reports by resource shows resource (e.g. CPU, Memory, Disk, Network Interface) allocation and consumption by the host and associated guest machines

WhatsVirtual Management Actions

• Supports new VMware actions for multiple management tasks including –
• Power On
• Power Off
• Suspend
• Reset
• Shutdown Guest
• Reset Guest
• Take Snapshot (back up of virtual machine image)
• New WhatsUp Gold Action library elements to support automated and schedule execution of VMware management tasks

Benefits

Harness Virtualization Benefits with Minimum Management Hassle:

• Easy to use, centralized and consolidated management of physical and virtual server infrastructure – no “swivel chair” operations required
  • Saves time, effort and complexity of coordinating between and managing multiple monitoring tools
• Accurate and up-to-date reporting of performance and availability information of virtual server infrastructure ensuring the right decision support for operations
  • Native integration with the VMware API ensures that the right metrics and relationships are discovered and reported
• Powerful management actions that ensure higher uptime, reliability and lower costs
  • The ability to start/stop/suspend and reset virtual infrastructure ensures that server workloads stay in tune with application demand
• Single console monitoring, alerting, reporting and management of the entire datacenter infrastructure enabling faster correlation and resolution of infrastructure issues
  • Including physical and virtual servers, network devices, applications and traffic monitoring and analysis
  • Faster and proactive resolution saves valuable time and money and enables network and system managers to focus on other critical tasks

Support Information

What Virtualization Platforms does WhatsVirtual Currently Support?

WhatsVirtual currently supports the VMware ESX 3.0 and later and VMware ESXi 3.5 and later virtualization host systems. These are available free from VMware (for example, ESXi can be downloaded for free) and can also be purchased as part of their vSphere offering which provides robust capabilities for provisioning and maintenance of virtual server infrastructure.

Future versions of WhatsVirtual will support additional vendor systems providing heterogeneous support of virtual infrastructure.

What version of WhatsUp Gold do I need to use WhatsVirtual?

WhatsVirtual is a separately licensed plug-in and requires the presence of WhatsUp Gold v14.2 and above as a base system.