Users Guide

Setup and Administration 37

Configuring the SNMP Agent on Systems Running Supported VMware

ESX 4.0 Operating Systems to Proxy VMware MIBs

The ESX4.0 server can be managed through a single default port 161 using

the SNMP protocol. To do this, snmpd is configured to use the default port

161 and vmwarehostd is configured to use a different (unused) port, for

example, 167. Any SNMP request on the VMWare MIB branch will be

rerouted to the vmware-hostd using the proxy feature of the snmpd daemon.

The VMWare SNMP configuration file can be modified manually on the ESX

server or by running VMWare RCLI command vicfg-snmp from a remote

system (Windows or Linux). The RCLI tools can be downloaded from the

VMware website (http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/drivers_tools.html).

Below are the required steps for the configuration. After these steps is a

python script that automates the configuration process. You may copy and

paste the contents to a file and run it on the ESX server to do the

configuration.

Edit the VMWare SNMP configuration file (

/etc/vmware/snmp.xml

)

either manually or run the following vicfg-snmp commands to modify the

SNMP configuration settings. This will include the SNMP listening port,

community string, and the trap target ipaddress/port and trap community

name and then enable the VMWare SNMP service.

a vicfg-snmp.pl --server <ESX_IP_addr> --username

root --password <password> -c <community name>

-p X –t <DMC_IP_Address>@162/<community name>

Where X represents an unused port. To find an unused port, you may look

at the

/etc/services

file for the port assignment for defined system services.

Also, to make sure that the port selected is not currently being used by any

application/service, run the following command on the ESX server -

netstat –a command

NOTE: Multiple IP addresses can be entered using a comma-separated list.

To enable VMWare SNMP service, run the following command:

vicfg-snmp.pl --server <ESX_IP_addr> --username

root --password <password>

-E

To view the configuration settings, run the following command:

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