How do I manually add a VM platform to my network?

Manually adding a VM platform

Entuity supports management of the following types of VM platform:

• Amazon Web Services
• Microsoft Azure
• Microsoft Hyper-V
• Nutanix Prism
• OpenStack (as of Entuity v23 P01 upwards)
• Oracle VM Manager (support removed from Entuity 22.0 and v21.0 P05 upwards - please see this note for further information)
• Proxmox VE (as of Entuity v23 P01 upwards)
• VMware vCenter or ESXi

The management of VM platforms is through their VM platform API, which necessitates a different set of connection attributes to other device types. 

Some products have specific URL requirements:

• The connection URL for VMware vCenter or ESXi hypervisors will require the format: 
  https://{hostname-or-IP-of-vCenter-or-ESXi}/sdk/
• The polled hostname/IP address for Nutanix must be to the Nutanix Prism Element interface.
• The polled hostname/IP address for Proxmox VE (Entuity v23 P01 upwards) must be the IP address used to log into the ProxMox Virtual Environment

Cloud-based VM platforms cannot be added by Auto Discovery, and can only be added manually. Locally-hosted VM platforms can be discovered using Auto Discovery but are initially identified as Ping-Only (Basic) devices - after discovery, you will need to modify their Asset Category to 'VM platform'.

There are product-specific requirements:

• AWS is not discoverable by Auto Discovery, because it is not available to either ICMP Ping or SNMP polling. AWS connection attributes include an access key and secret access key.
• For Microsoft Azure, you must create an Azure user account that Entuity can use to communicate with the platform. The user account must be assigned the Monitoring Reader role.
• Entuity manages Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors by remote Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). From Entuity v19.0 through v22.0 P06, only Entuity servers installed on Windows can manage Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors. As of v22.0 P07, Entuity servers installed on Linux can also manage Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors.
  Note, Microsoft Hyper-V servers must be configured to allow WinRM. For more information on configuring WinRM, see this article.
• For Nutanix platforms, connecting to the Nutanix Prism Central endpoint will not allow monitoring of virtual machines, and is not supported. The Nutanix Prism Element endpoint must be used instead.
• For OpenStack (Entuity v23 P01 upwards), you have to specify the Keystone application credential token project ID-secret pair.
• for Oracle VMs, you have to specify security credentials (support removed from Entuity 22.0 and v21.0 P05 upwards).
• For Proxmox VE (Entuity v23 P01 upwards), you must create a user account that Entuity can use to communicate with the platform. For more information, see this article.

After adding VM platforms, Entuity can discover their hypervisors and virtual machines. To allow this discovery, you must ensure Entuity can communicate with the platform. For example, with Microsoft Hyper-V you should configure its firewall to allow remote Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) from the Entuity server.

Manually Adding a VM platform

You can manually add a VM platform asset to your network without using a discovery profile. Click Add Assets at the top of the Managed Assets tab on the Managed Assets page (or from the Overflow Menu).

The Add Asset form is displayed. Depending on your choice, this form can have the following sections:

• Management Level
• Asset Details
• Credential
• User Defined Monitoring
• Associated Assets

Management Level

1. In the Asset Category dropdown field, select VM Platform.
2. Leave the Management Level field as Full. This is the default.
3. In the Asset Type dropdown field, specify the type of VM platform that you are adding. Select from:
   • Amazon Web Services
   • Microsoft Azure
   • Oracle VM Manager (support removed from Entuity 22.0 and v21.0 P05 upwards).
   • Hyper-V

   • VM Collector
     Note, this option must be selected for the following platforms:

     • OpenStack (Entuity v23 P01 upwards)
     • Proxmox VE (Entuity v23 P01 upwards)
     • Nutanix VM

     Within the Monitoring section, select either OpenStack (REST), ProxMox Virtualization (REST), or or Nutanix PRISM (REST) from the Connection Method dropdown. 

   • VMware vCenter or ESXi

Asset Details

Note, the fields available in this section depend on the type of VM platform that you are adding.

1. Specify the zone to which the device will be added in the Zone dropdown field.
2. Enter the device name (which must be resolvable on the Entuity server) or IP address that Entuity uses to poll the device in the Polled Name/IP address field.
3. Specify the device name displayed within the product in the Display Name Using dropdown field, choosing from the following:
   • Polled Name/IP address - the identifier Entuity uses to poll the device, as specified in the Polled Name/IP address field. This is the default.
   • IP Address - the management IP address of the device.
   • Resolved Name - the resolved name of the device.
   • Resolved Name (fully qualified) - the fully qualified resolved name of the device.
   • System Name - the administrator-assigned name of the device.
   • Custom - the name that you manually enter as a device display name.
4. Specify the IP version that will be used to communicate with the device from the IP Protocol dropdown field, either IPv4 or IPv6.
5. Specify whether to allow duplicate IP addresses in the Allow Duplicate IP Addresses dropdown field.

Credential

1. Click the Credential field to go to the Credential form, where you can either search from a list of shared credential sets, or create a local credential. For more information on credentials, see this section.
   Notes to consider:
   • Microsoft Azure - enter the Client Identity, Secret Key, and Tenant Identity of an Azure user account that's assigned the Monitoring Reader role.
   • OpenStack - enter the Keystone application credential token project ID-secret pair in the Username and Password fields, where the project ID goes in the Username field and the secret goes in the Password field. For more information about OpenStack application credentials, see the OpenStack Application Credentials documentation. 
   • Proxmox VE - use the Credential Type field on the Credential form to specify the authentication method to use (API Key or User and Password (not SSH)). For more information on Proxmox VE authentication methods, see this article.
2. Click Done on the Credential form to save your changes. Otherwise, click Cancel.
3. Specify the Connection URL, if applicable. 
   Note, if you are adding a VMware vCenter or ESXi hypervisor, this must take the format: https://{hostname-or-IP-of-vCenter-or-ESXi}/sdk/

User Defined Monitoring

Here you can specify the credentials that will be applied to any user defined REST poller that you might create and add to the current device.

1. Click the Credential field to go to the Credential form, where you can either search from a list of shared credential sets, or create a local credential. For more information on credentials, see this section.
2. Click Done on the Credential form to save your changes. Otherwise, click Cancel.
3. Specify the Connection Port, if applicable.
   Notes to consider:
   1. OpenStack - if left blank, port 5000 is the default.
   2. Proxmox VE - enter port 8006, unless you have specifically configured a different port to use.

For more information on user defined REST polling, see this section.

Associated Assets

1. Specify whether to automatically Manage Associated Assets of the VM platform or SD controller. 
   If set to Yes, all new and existing associated assets of the VM platform are discovered and managed automatically. If set to No, you must select each associated asset for management on the Asset Management page.  
   Notes to consider:
   • The associated assets of a VM platform or SD controller include virtual machines, Meraki devices, Viptela devices and wireless APs, which are now first discovered as candidate associated assets. These must then be put under management in order to fully manage them.
   • For an associated Meraki device (that is associated to a Meraki Cloud Controller) to move from 'Pending' to 'Managed' status, the associated Meraki device must have a populated Name value.  Although the device Name does not necessarily need to be assigned on the Controller for that device to exist, in Entuity it is insufficient that just the Mac and Serial are populated, the Name must also be assigned.

Once you have specified the parameters of the server, click Done on the Add Asset form to save your changes. Otherwise, click Cancel.

Note, due to a limitation with VMware, there is no method to retrieve and display individual in and out traffic rates when monitoring a VM via a vCenter. These metrics are available when monitoring an ESXi host directly, however.