topic Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used in Open Q&A

Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

stuart_reid — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 16:00:37 GMT

Hi There

How can you see what ActiveGate is being used to monitor VCenter metrics? We are an MSP and could possibly have 100s of VCenters being monitored. We want to be able to define which activegate is listening for a specific vCenter. Is this possible?

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

natanael_mendes — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 17:50:29 GMT

So your flag is going to be enabled like in the image bellow (the last)

in parallel take a look on the documentation page

Install and configure ActiveGate

Install an Environment ActiveGate in your data center before connecting Dynatrace to your VMware platform.
For Dynatrace Managed you can use the embedded ActiveGate running on the cluster node. However, the Cluster ActiveGate is typically used to forward RUM and/or Synthetic monitoring data to the Dynatrace Cluster. We recommend that you don't overutilize this ActiveGate with another type of monitoring data. Depending on the VMware size, you might consider using a dedicated ActiveGate per environment.

For virtualization monitoring, the vmware_monitoring_enabled property in custom.properties must be set to true (default value).

See Customize ActiveGate properties for details.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

radek_jasinski — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 17:54:40 GMT

Hi,

You can use Network Zones for this to assign the appropriate AGs to specific VMWare instances.

Radek

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

stuart_reid — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:16:24 GMT

Thanks, but how do you set which network zone to use? I cannot see anywhere to define it.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

stuart_reid — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:17:36 GMT

Thanks, but if I have multiple AG's in a domain and I want to use one of them to monitor a vCenter, how do I choose which one?

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

radek_jasinski — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:19:06 GMT

Hi,

From the Deployment Status >> ActiveGates tab, you can manage Netowork Zones for AG.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

stuart_reid — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:24:51 GMT

Sorry, for the newbie questions. But how is the VCenter assigned to the Network Zone?

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

radek_jasinski — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:26:40 GMT

No problem 😉

You are not assigning a specific vCenter just the AG that supports it. To split the environment you will need more AG instances.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

stuart_reid — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:28:36 GMT

So is it 1 vcenter per AG? I have a test environment with 2 AG's but I can only configure 1 vcenter.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

andre_vdveen — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 17:37:07 GMT

Hi @stuart_reid, you do not assign a specific ActiveGate to a vSphere for monitoring, or vice versa. Any AG that is enabled for VMware monitoring, can be used or will be used...so if you have e.g., 4 AGs, all VMware integration enabled, any of those four will do the work.

As far as I know, network zones are only used to route OneAgent traffic efficiently, which does not help in your scenario.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

radek_jasinski — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 19:40:01 GMT

@andre_vdveen you are right - I was wrong to use Network Zone with AG. I agree with what you wrote.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

stuart_reid — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 11:29:54 GMT

Thanks @andre_vdveen If I am working as a MSP where we have contracts sharing an activegate, is there any way of defining which one is used?

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

radek_jasinski — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 14:16:33 GMT

There is no such possibility.
As a workaround, you can use closing traffic on the firewall from specific AG instances to VSphere.

Re: Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

andre_vdveen — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 08:08:38 GMT

Pleasure, @stuart_reid - sorry that it's not the answers you were hoping for! 😐

I'm not sure what the setup looks like as an MSP, but I would most likely not share ActiveGates between clients/contracts unless they all connect into the same SaaS tenant/Managed environment of course, in which case @radek_jasinski's suggestion is your best bet. In fact, that would be the only way to prevent a certain vSphere/ESXi host from getting to an ActiveGate...there is, unfortunately, no other means at this stage.