Adding vCenter Servers
To monitor VMware ESXi hosts and virtual machines, you must add the vCenter Servers that manage them.
Before you begin
Identify the IP addresses and user credentials of the vCenter Servers that manage the VMware ESXi hosts and virtual machines you want to monitor. IBM Storage Insights uses this information to connect to the vCenter Servers and discover their managed VMware ESXi hosts and virtual machines. You can add multiple vCenter Servers at the same time if they share the same user credentials.
- When you add vCenter Servers
for monitoring, you must specify the connection credentials of users that will be used to collect
metadata. The users must meet the following requirements:
- Role: Read Only (minimum). For example, the Administrator role or Virtual Machine Power® User role.
- Privilege: Browse Datastore
Remember, this user is different from the user that is used to log in to IBM Storage Insights.
- The following outbound port number is used to connect to hosts: 443. You must configure your firewall to allow outbound communication on HTTPS port 443 using TCP to the IP address of your service.
About this task
When you connect to a vCenter Server, all the VMware ESXi hosts and virtual machines that it manages are automatically added for monitoring. The vCenter Server itself is not monitored.
Procedure
- In the menu bar, go to .
- Click Add vCenter Server.
- Enter the IP addresses or hostnames that you use to connect to the vCenter Server and then enter authentication credentials such as user name and password that are shared by all the vCenter Servers that you are adding.