VMware ESXi and vSphere
  • 20 Mar 2024
  • 3 Minutes to read
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VMware ESXi and vSphere

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Article Summary

VMware ESXi is an enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor for deploying and serving virtual computers.
VMware vSphere is VMware's cloud computing virtualization platform.

Types of Assets Fetched

This adapter fetches the following types of assets:

  • Devices
  • Users

About VMware ESXi and vSphere

Use cases the adapter solves
The Axonius VMware ESXi adapter is the window into all virtualized workloads under VMware. It provides full details of each guest system including OS, IP, ‘hardware’ parameters, network allocation, and VMware tools are installed.

Data retrieved by VMware ESXi and vSphere
ESXi is focused only on devices, and each system (whether on or off) can be reported in Axonius together with Interfaces, IP addresses, MAC, OS details, operational status, etc.

Parameters

  1. Host (required) - The hostname of a specific ESX server or of the vSphere server.
    If a vSphere server hostname is supplied, the connection for this adapter will pull information about all ESX servers managed by that vSphere server.

  2. User Name and Password (required) - The credentials for a user account that has the permissions to fetch assets. The user name format is user@domain.
    For details, see the Creating a User in vCenter section.

  3. vCenter REST API URL (optional) - The URL of the vCenter, created using input from the Host value. It should be in the format https://{vcenter_server_ip_or_dns}/api

  4. Verify SSL - Select whether to verify the SSL certificate of the server against the CA database inside of Axonius. For more details, see SSL Trust & CA Settings.

  5. To learn more about common adapter connection parameters and buttons, see Adding a New Adapter Connection.


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Advanced Settings

Note:

Advanced settings can either apply for all connections for this adapter, or you can set different advanced settings and/or different scheduling for a specific connection, refer to ​Advanced Configuration for Adapters.

  1. Fetch only turned on machines
    • If enabled, all connections for this adapter will only fetch ESXi devices in which their power state is turned on.
    • If disabled, all connections for this adapter will fetch all ESXi devices, regardless of their power state.
  2. Exclude IPv6 addresses - Select whether to fetch IPv6 addresses.
    • If enabled, all connections for this adapter will fetch only IPv4 addresses.
    • If disabled, all connections for this adapter will fetch both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
  3. Use UUID as manufacturer serial number - Select whether to fill the 'device_manufacturer_serial' field with the value of the UUID.
  4. Use formatted UUID as preferred serial number (default: false) - Select this option so that the Preferred Serial Number (and the Device Manufacturer Serial) for the ESX device will have a value with the format
    VMware-xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx-xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
    where the x’s are the characters of the UUID.
  5. Fetch snapshots (required, default false) - Select this option to fetch snapshots from Virtual Machines.
  6. List of tags to parse as fields - Enter a comma-separated list of tag keys to be parsed as device or user fields. Each tag is a key-value pair that is part of the Adapter Tags complex field.
    • The tag is only parsed on VirtualMachineresource types by default.
      • Tags with case-sensitive values are supported. Enter tags with case-sensitive values with double-quotes, e.g. VirtualMachine:"DEVELOP”
      • To specify a different resource type, enter the tag name in the form vmware_resource_type:tag_name Example: ComputerResource:CR, VirtualMachine:VM, HostSystem:HS
Note:

For details on general advanced settings under the Adapter Configuration tab, see Adapter Advanced Settings.

APIs

Axonius uses the vCenter API to fetch information about virtual devices, ESX hosts and local accounts.

Creating a User in vCenter

  1. Log in to vCenter as an administrator.
    NOTE

    The screenshots below were taken from the vSphere Client.

  2. Select Menu > Administration.
    image.png
  3. From the left menu, click Users and Groups. Under the Users tab, from the Domain field, select the domain. Then click Add User.
    image.png
  4. Fill in the relevant details.
    image.png
  5. From the left menu, click Global Permissions and add a 'Read-only' permission to the created user. Select the Propagate to children checkbox. To fetch Users (Local Accounts) a super administrator role is required.
    image.png

Version Matrix

This adapter has only been tested with the versions marked as supported, but may work with other versions. Please contact Axonius Support if you have a version that is not listed and it is not functioning as expected.

VersionSupportedNotes
VMWare Versions 6.0 - 7.0YesUsers supported from vCenter 6.7 and higher.
VMWare Version 8Yes



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