V²: Virtualization Visualizer™: Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How does V2 communicate with VMWare servers?

A. V2 primarily relies on the VMWare APIs for gathering information about the hosts, guests, clusters, and resource pools. These APIs use an XML/SOAP interface for access. V2 does not use or require SNMP or the VMWare Console OS (COS).

Q. What kind of user credentials are required to allow V2 to collect data from VMWare?

A. Any valid user name with read-only privileges will be able to collect data. Read-Write or System Administrator level privileges are not required.

Q. What is Netreo's relationship with VMWare?

A. Netreo is a VMWare Select Development partner.

Q. How hard is to configure and install V2?

A. V2 is provided as a VMWare virtual appliance bundle (OVA) designed to run in any vSphere 4.0 or later environment on any supported host. Simply load the client image onto your VMWare server and start the guest. You will have to provide basic information for the virtual appliance, such as an IP Address, DNS server, and gateway. To begin collecting information on your virtual environment, you need only provide the IP Address and login credentials for the vCenter server (or in the case of a non-clustered environment, the VMWare host). Installation is usually completed within 10 minutes, with usable data available after 30 minutes.

Q. Does V2 support ESXi or ESXi Free?

A. V2 supports (and can monitor) vSphere, ESX, and ESXi versions 3, 3.5, 4, and 5 as well as ESXi Free. Versions of ESX/ESXi prior to version 4 may have some limitations with regards to the statistics collected and the functions you can execute on those systems with V2. However, V2 requires vSphere 4.0 or later on the host where the V2 virtual appliance is installed.

Q. Is vCenter required?

A. Only in a clustered environment. V2 is designed to be able to quickly gather cluster configuration data from VCenter. V2 can then poll vCenter for all the statistics about the cluster members. Many of the host-specific statistics are collected directly from the individual cluster hosts. If you are using V2 to monitor a standalone VMWare host, vCenter is not required.

Q. Can I monitor multiple clusters / hosts / vCenter systems with V2?

A. V2 can monitor any number of clusters or hosts, however in larger environments, multiple V2 virtual appliances may be required for performance reasons.

Q. How is V2 licensed/sold?

A. V2 is included with the OmniCenter Enterprise license.

Q. Does V2 integrate with OmniCenter?

A. When used in conjunction with OmniCenter Enterprise, all of the summary data from multiple V2 virtual appliances can be consolidated into a single dashboard and fully integrated with the OmniCenter user interface, allowing you to integrate deep VMWare functionality with a complete enterprise-ready management system. OmniCenter 7.0 is required for this integration.

Q. What are the system (CPU/Memory/Disk) requirements for V2?

A. This depends on the size of the virtual environment to be monitored. Netreo recommends at least 2GHz of CPU, 1GB RAM, and 61GB of disk space for a mid-size virtualization environment of up to 100 virtual guests. In larger environments, additional CPU and memory resources are recommended.

Q. When will V2 be available?

A. V2 is shipping to customers now. Please contact Netreo for information, or to request a evaluation copy.

For Additional Information

For additional information, download the Virtualization Visualizer brochure, or contact Netreo to arrange a customized demonstration.

Netreo is a registered VMWare Developer. VMWare, ESX, ESXi, and vSphere are trademarks or registered trademarks of VMWare, Inc.

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