Citrix XenServer

XenServer Management

HQ can monitor the XenServer 4.x and 5.x family of virtualization hosts. The plugin is part of the HQ Distribution.

Plugin Requirements

This plugin requires the use of a 1.5 (or higher) JRE.

The HQ Agent remotely manages XenServer; you don't install an HQ Agent on the same host as a XenServer instance. You choose an agent on another platform to remotely monitor XenServer.

Configure a Single XenServer in HQ

Follow these instructions to monitor a single XenServer instance.  To monitor a pool of XenServers, see Configure a Pool of XenServers in HQ

1. In the HQ Portal Browse Resources page, choose New Platform from the Tools menu.
   1. Enter a name for your Xen server.
   2. Select Xen Host Platform Type.
   3. Enter the FQDN of the Xen server.
   4. Select the HQ Agent connection (this is the agent that will connect to the Xen API, and collect metrics - so there must be connectivity between this agent and the Xen host).
   5. Enter the IP address of the Xen server.
   6. Click OK to create the Xen Host in your HQ inventory.
2. You will be on the Inventory tab of your new resource. Scroll to the bottom and click the Edit button in the Configuration Properties section.
3. Enter the configuration settings (URL to Xen API - which is http://xenserverhostname:80 by default, username and password for API connecton - same as what is used to connect to Xen Center, and the server name or UUID for your Xen host), then click OK.

What is the "server name or UUID" for my Xen host? The "server name or UUID" for your Xen host is not simply the host name of the host system. The proper value for ths field can be obtained through the use of XenCenter. If you need to get the UUID (instead of the name) of a Resource Pool, Host Server or VM, you can run one of the following commands from the command prompt available from the Console tab in XenCenter:  xe pool-list xe host-list xe vm-list

If the configuration is accepted, you should begin to see metrics being collected for your Xen host in the next 1-2 minutes.

If the configuration is not accepted, something is wrong. Verify the URL to the Xen API, Username, Password, and Server Name or UUID. Also make sure the HQ Agent has network connectivity and can reach the API port on the Xen host (check firewalls).

Configure a Pool of XenServers in HQ

Follow the basic procedure described in Configure a Single XenServer in HQ, with these modifications:

• Define a New Platform in HQ for the pool master and each XenServer in the pool.
• For the pool master and each XenServer in the pool, in step 3, when you supply the URL to the Xen API, supply the URL to the API on the pool master.

Note: For each Xen host, including the master and all members of the pool, configure the associated platform in HQ with the host-specific Server Name or UUID.

Resource hierarchy

• Xen Host platform
  • Xen Host CPU service
  • Xen Host NIC service
  • Xen Host Storage service
  • Xen VM server
    • Xen VM NIC service
    • Xen VM Storage service

The current XenServer plugin does not provide VM (server) or VM NIC, storage, etc metrics to Hyperic. This is due to a change in the way access to metrics on the XenServer has changed from version 5.0 to 5.5. To make sense of it look at chapter 5 of the XenServer Software Development Kit Guide. To make the current XenServer plugin work with XenServer 5.5 nothing needs to be changed with the XenServer plugin. What does need to be done is a change in the XenServer itself. As stated in chapter 5 of the above mentioned guide you need to set the other-config:rrd_update_interval to either 1 or 2. The default is never. This is why you never get data into Hyperic.

Specifically the procedure is as follows.

First, use the xe host-list command to find the UUID of the xenserver host.

Example:

xe host-list

Second, type the command that changes the Round Robin Database collection interval.

Example:

xe host-param-set uuid=(the UUID you discovered from the xe host-list command) other-config:rrd_update_interval=1

and then hit enter. You could enter 2 if you want but is for 1 minute intervals. A value of 1 is for 5 second intervals.

Aftwards you must restart XenServer for it to take effect. When the XenServer is back up you will then need to run Autodiscovery from the Tools menu of the Platform. After that - magic - you get everything!