6.4 Monitoring Virtual Machines

There are two different types of monitoring provided by ZENworks Orchestrator with the VM Management functionality:

The monitored data in the ZENworks VM Management Console can be used to influence decisions about machines to constrain to use specific joblets and be hosts to specific VMs. For the monitored data on the Orchestrator Server, you can view the information by looking at the Jobs section of the ZENworks Orchestrator Console. This information is used as feedback for jobs being executed by the Orchestrator Server.

Review the following sections for how to monitor VMs:

6.4.1 Using the ZENworks VM Management Console Monitoring View

When you are in the ZENworks VM Management Console, you can access information about your grid environment. To see the monitoring perspective:

  1. In the ZENworks VM Management Console, click the Monitoring button on the upper right side of the console.

  2. Open the Grid-Node folder in the Monitored Servers view.

  3. Provide your login name and password:

    VM Monitoring Login Dialog Box

  4. Select the node for which you want information.

  5. Double-click the node icon to display an edit view on the right.

    The following illustrates the Graphical Host View:

    Monitoring Service Graphical Host View in the ZENworks VM Management Console

  6. To change the time frame for observing the server performance, click in the Last field.

  7. If you want to see the information in a text-based layout instead of a graphical layout, click Text Host View to display the following:

    Monitoring Service Text Host View in the ZENworks VM Management Console

6.4.2 Monitoring Orchestrator Server Jobs

The Orchestrator Server monitors each job it deploys. It does this through multiple means, including the Orchestrator Agent installed on each of the nodes in the data center. The Agent reports processor load, memory usage, and basic operating system and processor information. This data is constantly used by the Orchestrator Server in making decisions about where to deploy joblets for a running job. The Orchestrator Server also sends out “discovery jobs” periodically (such as when an agent on a managed resource starts) to assess capabilities of the machine to run a joblet. ZENworks Orchestrator keeps a state or model of the VM location, basic health, and action facts. These facts and information are used to monitor the progress of a joblet and can be used to automatically reassign joblets based on policies, node failure, or operator intervention. For more information about the actual monitoring elements of the Orchestrator Server, see What Is ZENworks Orchestrator? in the Novell ZENworks Orchestrator 1.3 Installation and Getting Started Guide.