I’m pretty early in my BFI deployment and I have what I hope is a basic question.
My BES Root Server cannot reach any of my VMWare VSphere servers. I have deployed task 84 “Install Additional VM Manager Tool 1.7.0.0 (OPTIONAL)” on one of my VSphere servers and it appears to be retrieving and uploading scan data. In the BFI web interface under Management: VM Managers, I see this additional VM Manager listed in the console, with Operation Status OK.
In the Overview report, it shows “No VM Manager Data” in the “IBM Capacity Data Completeness” with the pop-up message “Capacity data from the x86 hypervisor is missing”.
In a scenario where the BES Root Server cannot reach any hypervisor, is it still necessary to install the VM Manager tool on the root server?
Hi @JasonWalker
Have you tried connecting to a VCenter server from the Root Server? If that’s not an option, I recommend installing the VMM Tool on a relay that can reach the VSphere servers. The VM Manager has to be able to reach the Root Server so that the Tool Scan Results can be uploaded - the data is then captured during the BFI import process.
The BFI UI just reports on the status of the VMM Tool.
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I presume the VM Manager can upload results through the Relay hierarchy and does not require direct access to the BES Root Server? Or Root Server is segmented in such a way that none of our VM Managers can reach it directly.
The “Advanced VM Management (distributed)” topic at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSKLLW_9.5.0/com.ibm.bigfix.inventory.doc/Inventory/admin/c_scattered_approach.html deals with the scenario where the BES Root server cannot reach some of the VM Managers. I’m just not real clear on whether the BES Root server still needs a VM Manager Tool installation if it can reach none of the VM hosts.
Based on the Inventory web app, it looks like I might need the VM Manager tool installed on the root server, even if that VM manager isn’t actually going to generate any results.
Yes - scan results are passed up through Archive Manager, so the Tool doesn’t need to be present on the Root Server. Take a look at Task ID 80 (Schedule VM Manager Tool Scan Results Upload). You’ll note that this Task will be relevant for any machine with the VM Manager Tool installed.
The VMM Tool uses the VMWare API to connect to either a vCenter or vSphere server to collect the infrastructure level capacity data. The individual agents on VMs are responsible for collecting the local hardware capacity data. All of this gets passed up to the Root Server, where the BFI Import process collects and transforms the data from the Root Server.
It’s during the Import process that the vSphere host is connected to the VMs running on it in the BFI data.
@JasonWalker
This diagram here may be useful in your planning.
Flow of capacity data from VM managers
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