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vCenter Inventory

Supported Versions 

Type 

Authentication Type 

vCenter Server 6.5 update 2 - 7.0.3

Local Plugin

User API Key

The vCenter inventory plugin connects BigPanda to your vCenter Server enriching incoming alerts with your up-to-date infrastructure information

The BigPanda vCenter Inventory integration works by registering a local plugin with your vCenter Server. Within the Configuration page of the plugin, one can set a schedule for how frequently to export data to BigPanda. All host and virtual machine inventory data is then transmitted to BigPanda for processing and transformation into a BigPanda enrichment which then immediately starts enriching your incoming alerts.

Updating to vCenter 1.0.8

If you have already integrated BigPanda and vCenter and wish to upgrade to the latest version, you'll need to unregister and delete the previous version before installing the new version.

Key Features

  • Enriches alerts in BigPanda with topology information from vCenter Inventory export of hosts and virtual machines.

  • Schedule automatic exports of the vCenter Inventory.

  • Automatically creates and manages Enrichments in BigPanda.

Install the Integration

Install the Integration by following these steps:

Before You Start

  • Ensure you have admin access to the vCenter Server

Register the plugin with vCenter Server

  1. Download the vSphere Client SDK 7.0.

  2. Using the terminal or command prompt, navigate to CLIENT_SDK/tools/vCenter plugin registration/prebuilt

  3. Run the following command to register the BigPanda Plugin with your vCenter Server.

    • Make sure to input the vCenter Server IP or FQDN as well as a user and password to access the server.

    • Make sure to use the correct script (shell/bash) based on the OS you are running.

    RegisterExtension

    ./extension-registration.sh -action registerPlugin -local \
-n BigPanda \
-c BigPanda \
-v 1.0.8 \
-k io.bigpanda.vcenter \
-s "BigPanda export plugin" \
-pu https://bp-bin.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/integrations/vcenter/latest/bigpanda-plugin.zip \
-st E8:EE:A0:D0:24:8E:9C:2E:DE:11:82:37:25:83:DA:D7:5B:D0:50:4C \
-url <https://VCENTER_IP_OR_FQDN/sdk> \
-u <USER> \
-p <PASSWORD>

  4. Log out and back into the vCenter Server. A new user session triggers the download of any newly registered plugin.

  5. The BigPanda Plugin should now be present in the shortcut menu. If it does not appear, don't worry, just wait another few seconds and refresh your browser.

vcenter_bigpandashortcut

BigPanda Plugin

Configure the Integration

The integration configuration page needs just a few inputs for it to start exporting the vCenter Inventories to BigPanda.

vcenter_bigpandaconfig

BigPanda Integration Configuration 

Input 

Description 

Example 

API Key

Access the API Key from the BigPanda Console

Endpoint

(Optional) Endpoint for the export of data

Default: BigPanda integration endpoint.

EU users may need to add an additional prefix.

Username

vCenter username with read-only access

This user should be a local user to vCenter often denoted with the @vsphere.local suffix

Password

Password for the user

Export Period

Represents the interval at which the export should be done

Values: Hourly, Daily, Weekly

Export Frequency

Represents how often within the interval should the export occur

Value: number

export period: Daily

export frequency: 5

This will perform an export of the data every 5 days

Field Renaming

(Optional) If you would like to rename the default field names, you can provide a list here

host: server

vcenter_server: vcenter

Blacklist

(Optional) A comma-delimited list of properties to remove from the inventory export.

vcenter_server, storage_size, storage_free_space

Username and password

The username and password fields are required for the plug-in to be able to perform inventory retrieval when a user is not logged in.

When assigning the Read-Only Role to the user, ensure the Propagate to children is checked. If it is not, the user will fail to authenticate.

The password is encrypted on a local configuration file within the vCenter server and is never shared outside to BigPanda.

Enrichment Data

Once the export is successful, BigPanda will process and create two BigPanda enrichment schemas. One for all Hosts and the other for all Virtual Machines.

Host Enrichment Map

Below are all the tags that will be added to each BigPanda Alert where the host tags match

Enrichment Tag

Description

host

The name of the vSphere host

physical_host

Duplicate of host value

vcenter_server

The name of the vCenter Server

cluster

The name of the cluster this host is in

vm_list

A list of all the Virtual Machines in this host

datastores

A list of all datastores this host has access to

cpu_cores

Number of CPU cores

cpu_usage

Percentage of CPU utilization

memory_size

Size of memory in GB's

memory_usage

Percentage of memory utilization

storage_size

Total storage capacity for this host

This is an aggregate of all storage capacity for the datastores this host has access to

storage_free_space

Total free storage for this host

This is an aggregate of all free storage available across all the datastores this host has access to

Virtual Machine Enrichment Map

Below are all the tags that will be added to each BigPanda Alert where the host tags match

Enrichment Tag

Description

host

The name of the virtual machine

physical_host

The name of the vSphere host where this virtual machine lives

vcenter_server

The name of the vCenter Server

cluster

The name of the cluster where the physical_host resides

cpus

The number of CPU cores available to this virtual machine

memory

The amount of memory available for this virtual machine ( in GB's)

storage

The total amount of storage committed to this virtual machine across all datastores

guestos

The operating system installed on this virtual machine

ip_adress

The IP Address associated with this virtual machine

> export VMAFD_CLI="/usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli"
# This command will restart the UI within the vCenter Server
> vmon-cli -r vsphere-ui

Additional Troubleshooting

Plug-in Installation Logs

It’s possible the plugin registered successfully but is still not showing in the UI. Have the user check vCenter for any errors.

  • Within the vCenter shell, navigate to the vCenter log files. On a Linux installation log files are located at /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/ and /var/log/vmware/vsphere-client/logs/. On a Windows Installation log files are located at C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\Logs\vsphere-client\logs and C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\Logs\vsphere-ui\logs.

  • Search the vsphere_client_virgo.log for "io.bigpanda.vcenter". An example using grep is below

grep "io.bigpanda.vcenter" ./vsphere_client_virgo.log

Unregister the Plugin

  • Using the same SDK that was used to register the plugin, run the following command to unregister it.

    • Make sure to use the correct script (shell / bash) based on the OS you are running on.

```UnregisterExtension
./extension-registration.sh -action unregisterPlugin \
-k io.bigpanda.vcenter \
-url <https://VCENTER_IP_OR_FQDN/sdk> \
-u <USER> \
-p <PASSWORD>
```

Remove Plugin Files

The unregister process does not remove the plugin files from vCenter. This process would need to be done manually.

  • Log into the shell window of the vCenter Server and navigate to one of the following directories based on your vCenter install: vCenter Server Appliance /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity/ vCenter for Windows C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client\vc-packages\vsphere-client-serenity\ Windows OS %PROGRAMFILES%/VMware/vSphere Web Client/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity/ Mac OS /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/vsphere-client/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity/

  • Remove the directory io.bigpanda.vcenter-<VERSION>

  • To flush the vCenter Server from any caches files it's recommended to restart the vSphere UI.

```Shell
> export VMAFD_CLI="/usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli"
# This command will restart the UI within the vCenter Server
> vmon-cli -r vsphere-ui
```

Manually resolve any open alerts sent from the integration to remove the associated incidents from your incident feed. These incidents will not automatically resolve without an ok status from the original sending integration.

Release Notes

Recent updates to the ServiceNow BigPanda integration:

v2.9 (2/9/24)

New Features

  • Application: Introduced a toggle to store BigPanda integration configurations within BigPanda for improved troubleshooting capabilities

  • Changes: Proper date formatting is used in BigPanda regardless of date format used in ServiceNow

  • CMDB: "Choice Table" SNOW records now use Display Value in CMDB

  • Incident Reports: Updated default fields to improve reporting capabilities

  • Incident Reports: Proper date formatting is used in BigPanda regardless of date format used in ServiceNow

  • Incidents: Updated the default settings for Transform Field Maps to remove maps that have no logic associated

  • Incidents: Suppressed callback activity back to BigPanda from resolved ServiceNow incidents

  • Incidents: Restructured SNOW Layout to match design language in BigPanda Unified Console

  • Incidents: Added RCC Suspect/Matches to ServiceNow Incident Description

  • Incidents: Added AIA Summary to ServiceNow Incident Description

  • Incidents: Updated Impact/Urgency fields, removed Priority field

  • Incidents: Added a dropdown to control direction of incident tag sync ("to and from BigPanda," "to BigPanda only," or "to SNOW only")

  • Incidents: Added option to insert description of incident in the worknotes

  • Incidents: Created Button Elements in ServiceNow that open BigPanda

Bug Fixes

  • Changes: Ensure support for all ServiceNow timezone options

  • CMDB: Rows will now be skipped when records contain non UTF-8 compatible values

  • Incidents: Incident Tags Sync Configuration is now case-insensitive

  • Incidents: OK alerts excluded fromsetPrimaryAlert()utility

v2.8 (4/28/23)

The BigPanda team resolved logical bugs related to the newly introduced event-type metadata tracking that were present in v2.5-2.7.

New Features

  • Application: The Javascript Mode has been updated to ES12 (ECMA2021) For more details check this ServiceNow Developer Blog post.

  • CMDB: Support for inactivating individual tables, which can be used to test the addition of new tables

  • CMDB: Improved logging (track incorrect queries, missing columns, etc.)

  • CMDB: Prepopulate configuration with most frequently used tables (only for new downloads; these will not be applied when updating)

  • Configuration: Set Affected CIs checkbox in Changes to true as default

  • Incident Reports: Sync historical incidents with BigPanda for MTTR analysis

  • Incidents: Flapping - Block Resolve toggle will only resolve a ServiceNow incident if it is not flapping

  • Incidents: When tickets fail to get created in ServiceNow, Comments are now posted back to BigPanda with details

  • Incidents: Description and Short Description defaults were updated based on feedback from users

  • Incidents: Update BigPanda incident tag to use HTML anchor link

  • OAuth: Support for OAuth-based authentication when creating tickets from BigPanda

Bug Fixes

  • Incidents: Prevent occasional duplicate notifications on initial ticket creation

  • Incidents: Support syncing BigPanda Incident Tags with space characters

  • If using v2.7, clearing browser cache may be required to fix configuration form entries

  • Resolve issues when using CMDB and upgrading from version < 2.2.1

  • Updated the CDMB Script Includes to retrieve the display names of glide_list and Choice Table records

v2.7 (4/14/23)

Bug Fixes

  • Changed "===" to "==" and "!==" to "!=" in Business Rules and Script actions

  • Resolved NLU “fix missing record” errors when installing/applying Update Sets

  • CMDB 'Active' checkbox now works on individual rows for ServiceNow Utah

  • Added Incident ID to Incident Reports

v2.5 (1/11/23)

New Features

  • CMDB: Support for inactivating individual tables, which can be used to test adding a new table

  • CMDB: Improved logging (track incorrect queries, missing columns, etc.)

  • CMDB: Prepopulate configuration with most frequently used tables (only for new downloads; these will not be applied when updating)

  • Incident Reports: Sync historical incidents with BigPanda for MTTR analysis

  • Incidents: Flapping - Block Resolve toggle will only resolve a ServiceNow incident if it is not flapping

  • Incidents: When tickets fail to get created in ServiceNow, post Comments/Incident Tags back to BigPanda with details

  • Incidents: Description and Short Description defaults were updated based on feedback from users

  • OAuth: Support for OAuth-based authentication when creating tickets from BigPanda

Bug Fixes

  • Incidents: Prevent occasional duplicate notifications on initial ticket creation

  • Incidents: Support syncing BigPanda Incident Tags with space characters

  • Resolve issues when using CMDB and upgrading from version <2.2.1

v2.4 (7/1/22)

Bug Fixes

  • When a closed incident in ServiceNow is reopened in BigPanda a new ServiceNow incident is created instead of reopening the closed incident

  • Set standard "Content-Type", 'application/json' Request Headers to support debugging

  • CMDB will now replace newline characters with spaces

  • In Chrome, auto-complete will be unable to insert incorrect passwords on the Configuration form

  • All changes sent to BigPanda will be in UTC to prevent incorrect time zone shifting

  • Fix bug sending blank values for Incident Tags

v2.1.8 (Feb 2, 2024)

  • Updated Splunk's Add-On Builder to 4.1.4

  • Updated the configuration api_url placeholder to point to the oim endpoint

v1.0.8 (2/28/23)

  • Bug fix for paging of data coming to the BigPanda API

  • Added retries in the event of failure sending to the BigPanda API

v1.0.7 (1/23/23)

  • Support sending inventory information to the BigPanda API in batches to handle customers with larger vCenter environments

v1.0.6 (12/7/22)

  • Fixed packaging issue for vCenter version earlier than 6.6.3

v1.0.5 (11/30/22)

  • Enhanced vSphere API session management

  • Additional debug logging

v1.0.4 (7/8/22)

  • Fixed incomplete data being returned for customers with a large inventory in their environment

  • Fixed physical host for a VM being incorrect

  • Fixed the datastore field to be only the datastore of the VM and not all datastores in an environment

v1.0.3 (6/13/22)

  • Fixed package issue found during install

v1.0.2 (11/20/20)

  • Fixed validation of property when attempting to cast to Object Types

v1.0.1 (9/13/20)

  • Added datastores field to Host mapping enrichment

  • Added datastores and ip_address fields to Virtual Machines mapping enrichment

  • Fixed a bug causing the configuration UI to potentially hang

  • Fixed a bug causing authentication to sometimes fail

v1.0.0

  • Initial release

In this section: