Understanding the VM Manager Tools panel

Use the VM Manager Tools panel to view, install, configure, update, and remove VM Manager tool installations in your environment.

Overview

To open the VM Manager Tools panel, click Management > VM Manager Tools.

The panel lists computers where VM Manager tool installations are present. For each installation, the panel shows the last action that was triggered against the tool and its current status. If no action has been started for a given installation, the default displayed value is <no data>.

Only computers that belong to the computer group to which you are assigned are visible on the panel. You can manage only those computers.

The list includes VM Manager tool installations that were created from this panel as well as existing VM Manager Tools in user environment, as long as at least 1 VM Manager scan result was imported from it.

The VM Manager Tool Version column is populated when a new VM Manager tool is installed or an existing one is updated by using this panel.

Permissions

To access and use the VM Manager Tools panel, you must meet the following requirements:

Permission: Manage VM Managers and Servers (by default part of Infrastructure Administrator role)

You can manage only computers that are assigned to you in your computer group.

Columns

The VM Manager Tools panel displays the following columns:

Last Action Status: The status of the last action that was triggered for this VM Manager tool installation. The status is displayed as a combination of the action type and the result, for example Installation: Successful. If no action has been started, the value is <no data>.
Action Started By: The user name of the person who triggered the last action.
Action Start Time: The date and time when the last action was triggered.
Computer Name: The name of the computer on which the VM Manager tool is installed.
Internal Computer ID: The internal identifier of the computer in BigFix Inventory.
Data Source Name: The name of the data source to which the computer belongs.
VM Manager Tool Version: The version of the VM Manager tool that is installed on the computer. This value is populated when the tool is installed or updated from this panel.
Install Date: The date when the VM Manager tool was installed on the computer.

Supported actions

You can perform the following actions from the VM Manager Tools panel:

New (Installation): Install a new VM Manager tool on a target computer. For the detailed workflow, see Installation workflow.
Configure: Send updated configuration to an existing VM Manager tool installation. For more information, see Editing configuration.
Update: Update an existing VM Manager tool to a newer version. If the VM Manager Tool is already in the latest version, the action returns Update: Not Relevant.
Uninstall: Remove the VM Manager tool from a computer. For more information about the behavior, see Uninstall, delete, and reinstall behavior.
Reinstall: Reinstall the VM Manager tool on the same computer. For more information about the behavior, see Uninstall, delete, and reinstall behavior.
Delete from report: Remove the VM Manager tool record from the VM Manager Tools panel. For more information about the behavior, see Uninstall, delete, and reinstall behavior.

Action statuses

Each action can have one of the following statuses. The status is displayed in the Last Action Status column as a combination of the action type and the result, for example Installation: Pending or Update: Not Relevant.

Pending: The action was triggered and is waiting to be processed or is currently running on the target computer.
Successful: The action completed successfully. Finished actions are stopped on the BigFix side.
Failed: The action did not complete successfully. Finished actions are stopped on the BigFix side. Investigate the failure in the BigFix console by reviewing the action information for the corresponding fixlet.
Not Relevant: The fixlet that corresponds to the action is not relevant on the target computer. The fixlet relevance conditions were not met. For example, Update: Not Relevant appears when the newest version of the VM Manager tool is already installed or when the fixlet relevance conditions are not met.
Expired: The action neither succeeded nor failed within 12 hours. The action was stopped and marked as Expired. Investigate the reason in the BigFix console. Verify that the target computer is reachable and that the BigFix client is running.

For more information, see: VM Manager Tools action statuses.

Installation requirements

For the complete list of requirements, see: VM Manager tool installation requirements.

Installation workflow

For the full procedure, see: Installing additional VM Manager tool.

Uninstall, delete, and reinstall behavior

The following describes the behavior of uninstall, delete, and reinstall actions:

Uninstall: Uninstalling a VM Manager tool removes the tool from the target computer. After a successful uninstallation, the status changes to Uninstallation: Successful. The record remains on the panel so that you can reinstall or delete it.
Delete from report: Deleting a VM Manager tool marks the record as deleted and removes it from the VM Manager Tools panel. All VM managers that are linked to the deleted VM Manager tool are also removed from the VM Managers panel.
Important: Deleting a VM Manager tool does not preserve the existing application configuration or VM manager connections.
Reinstall: Reinstalling a VM Manager tool on the same computer preserves the existing VM Manager tool application configuration and all linked VM manager connections.

Editing configuration

When you select a VM Manager tool installation on the panel, the current configuration is displayed in the bottom panel. You can modify the configuration parameters and click Configure to send the updated configuration to the endpoint. Changing VMMT configuration from the VM Manager Tools panel replaces the previous mechanism for editing the configuration of the central VMMT from the Advanced Server Settings panel. The parameters in the Advanced Server Settings panel now define the default configuration for new VMMTs. Additionally, these parameters are now hidden by default.

CAUTION: The configure action sends the VM Manager tool configuration and all of its VM managers in one action. On the first distributed edit or add action, the application configuration on the endpoint can be overwritten. Back up any custom parameter values before making the first change from the user interface.

For more information about the configuration model, see: Advanced server settings.

Limitations

The following limitations apply to the VM Manager Tools panel:

Distributed VM Manager tool installations receive the default configuration during the first configure action. Any custom VM Manager tool parameter configuration that was set directly on the endpoint may be lost unless it is backed up before the first configure action.
Configuration changes that are made directly on endpoints (for example, by editing the vmmmainconf.properties file) are not synchronized back to BigFix Inventory.
The same VM Manager tool installation should be managed from only one BigFix Inventory instance. Managing the same installation from multiple instances can lead to configuration conflicts.

Note:

The first three limitations listed above are planned to be lifted with the introduction of configuration synchronization. REST API support for updating distributed VM Manager tool configurations is also planned.