Import Additional Alarm Definitions from 3rd Party Solutions

[SGalbincea]

We have implemented a VMware replication product, Zerto, which creates a number of new vCenter alarms. I would like to include these alarms and their definitions in our Veeam One monitoring setup. What is the best way to set this up? Is there an elegant way to export the alarms from vCenter and get them into Veeam One? Am I missing something easy? I hope so, any help will be appreciated!

[Shestakov]

Hello Steve,

I would suggest to check Veeam One alarms in One Monitor -> Alarm Management, I believe there are all alarms you need.
If you want more alarms you can create it there manually, since there is no elegant way to import Zerto`s alarms to Veeam One.

Please let us know which alarms you are missing/can`t find in Veeam One.

Thank you!

[SGalbincea]

Thanks Shestakov - I am not missing any default alarms, but when Zerto is installed it installs its own set of alarms. Their initial solution would be to have vCenter email the alarms, but since I am using Veeam One for real time monitoring I would prefer to only use that. I will experiment with the XML format and see if I can come up with a way to export from vCenter into a Veeam One style XML file for import (I like challenges!) - otherwise I will just create them manually and save them for future use at other clients.

[Shestakov]

Well, if you like challenges, I wish you the best of luck
But again I`m pretty sure Veeam One has all necessary alarms.

Anyway, once you have a question, don`t hesitate to ask!

[SGalbincea]

Help me understand, are you saying that the new vCenter alarms that Zerto added should already be reflected in Veeam One?

[Shestakov]

I think so.

I`m not sure which alarms Zerto added, but I think Veeam One contains them.
As I said, the easiest way is to check if Zerto to vCenter added any alarms which are not reflected in Veeam One. If so, you can add them manually to Veeam One (and let us know what we are missing).

Thank you.

[SGalbincea]

Here is a screenshot of most of the added alarms that Zerto added which are not reflected in Veeam One:

http://take.ms/lCVZB

[Shestakov]

Steve,

After a quick review, I can say that Veeam One either have exact alarms (i.e. "MAC Address conflict" etc.) or have another names for same alarms (i.e. "DisconnectedvCenter"="vCenter Server lost connection to host", "Datastore"= "Datastore is inaccessible" etc.)

[SGalbincea]

I wish that were true, but these are specific alarms related to the functionality of the Zerto environment, not vCenter in general. I need to be notified when these alarms are triggered. Thanks for your comments, but it looks like I need to manually create all of these in Veeam One or allow vCenter to email these alarms directly.

[Shestakov]

You are right, some alarms related to Zerto and not related to vCenter are probably not available in Veeam One and need to be created manually.

[Vitaliy S.]

If these alarms are event based, then you can export their definitions from the vCenter Server and then import them to Veeam ONE. Please check the XML format we are using for our own definitions by exporting Veeam ONE alarms. After that create an "extended" XML file manually and then import it to Veeam ONE. In this case you will not need to click through the alarm creation wizard multiple times.

[SGalbincea]

Circling back to this, I have looked and cannot find a concise answer on how to export the alarms from vCenter for preparing the XML file - any hints or tips?

EDIT: It appears that this might do the trick: http://stripeyfish.wordpress.com/download/ Will report back if it does in case it helps someone else!

[Vitaliy S.]

Let us know the results of how it goes!