Vcenter Monitoring - Defining which ActiveGate Is Used

[stuart_reid]

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?

[natanael_mendes]

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.

[stuart_reid]

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?

[radek_jasinski]

Hi,

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

Radek

[stuart_reid]

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

[radek_jasinski]

Hi,

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

 

[stuart_reid]

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

[radek_jasinski]

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.

[stuart_reid]

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

[andre_vdveen · Accepted solution]

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.

[radek_jasinski]

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

[stuart_reid]

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?

[radek_jasinski · Accepted solution]

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

[andre_vdveen]

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.