Enabling metric calculation of VMware products (advanced VM management)

Available from 9.2.7. You can calculate license metric utilization of the VMware products: vCenter and vSphere in complex environments where the VM managers are distributed across separated networks. Use advanced (distributed) VM management to enable data retrieval.

Before you begin

To collect granular information about the license metric utilization of VMware vCenter and vSphere
  • Update the VM Manager tool to the newest version. Metric calculation of VMware products is supported starting from version 1.5.0.0.
  • Ensure you have BigFix Inventory version 9.2.1 or higher.
  • Ensure that the user defined for the VMware connection has Global.Licenses permission.
Note: The API for retrieving the license data is available starting from vSphere API 4.0. The resource utilization is collected only for the VMware installations that are defined as VM managers for BigFix Inventory.

About this task

When you enable the license metric calculation of VMware vCenter and vSphere, the .slmtag files are created locally on the machine running VM Manager tool and collected by the resource utilization scan.

Procedure

  1. On the computer where VM Manager tool is installed, go to the BES Client\LMT\VMMAN\config directory.
  2. Open and edit the vmmmainconf.properties file.
  3. Set the vmm_slm_tags_enabled parameter to true. 
    vmm_slm_tags_enabled=true

    If the parameter does not appear in the properties file yet, add the line above to this file. For more information, see: VM Manager Tool settings.

  4. Optional: To specify the maximum size of each VMware .slmtag file, configure the vmm_slm_tags_file_size_limit parameter value.
  5. Optional: To specify the maximum number of VMware .slmtag files that are stored on the computer for each license key under VMware instance, configure the vmm_slm_tags_files_per_software parameter value.
  6. Save the file.
  7. Go to BES Client\LMT\VMMAN.
  8. Run the following command in the command-line interface.
    • Linux ./vmman.sh -reloadconfig
    • Windows vmman.bat -reloadconfig
    For more information, see: VM Manager tool command-line options.
  9. The data will be available in BigFix Inventory after the next resource utilization scan and data import.

Results

To view license metric utilization, log in to BigFix Inventory and navigate to Reports > Resource Utilization.
The following columns are specific to the VMware vCenter and vSpere license metric utilization data:
  • Computer Name always shows a name of the computer where the VM Manager tool is installed.
  • Software Name shows the name and the version of the software with additional information about license.
  • Metric Subtype indicates if the count refers to the license metric utilization or overall license capacity. The column shows one of two values. USED refers to the license metric utilization of the specified license on a particular machine. CAPACITY reflects the limit agreed in this license. The number is specified in Maximal Trend Value column.
    The screen shows the example of the license metric utilization from the Resource Utilization panel.
    Note: The maximal trend value for unlimited licenses is always set to 999,999.
  • Instance shows the instance identifier that consists of:
    • License key, for example: P142Q-08L40-H8041-013RP-CHPQ1
    • Machine type: virtual center or ESX box.

      Virtual center refers to the entire vSphere infrastructure for which VM manager connection is defined. The number of used licenses for virtual center shows the license metric utilization for all the boxes within this center. Virtual center can consist of more than one ESX, or ESXi box. VM manager can connect directly to the ESX, or ESXi box. Then, the displayed license metric utilization is calculated for each individual box.

      License utilization is reported for the VMware connection that is defined in BigFix Inventory. Thus, if you define the virtual center connection, the .slmtag files are generated for this center, not individual ESX, or ESXi boxes.
      Note: One license key can be shared between different virtual centers. Therefore, license metric utilization might not represent the entire license consumption.
    • Host name, for example: 198.51.100.0
    To enable the Instance column, hover over the Settings icon Settings icon, and click Configure View.

What to do next

To disable the license metric calculation of the VMware products, change the vmm_slm_tags_enabled parameter value to false. The collected data will no longer be retrieved, however, the historical data will still be displayed on the Resource Utilization report.