5.2 Monitoring Virtual Machines

There are two different types of monitoring provided by ZENworks Orchestrator with the VM Management functionality: direct monitoring in the VM Management interface, and monitoring in the Orchestrator Server. The monitored data in the VM Management interface 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 Orchestrator Console. This information is used as feedback for jobs being executed by the Orchestrator Server.

5.2.1 Using the VM Management Interface Monitoring View

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

  1. Launch the VM Management interface console (see Section 2.1.2, Launching the VM Management Interface for more information).

  2. Click Monitoring button on the upper right side of the interface.

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

  4. Provide your login name and password.

  5. Select the node you want to get information about.

  6. Double-click the node icon to display a graphical edit view on the right:

  7. Click in the Last field to change the time-frame for observing the server performance.

  8. Click Text Host View if you want to see the information in a text-based layout instead of a graphical layout.

5.2.2 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 1.2 Installation and Getting Started Guide.