vCenter Server Appliance

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: vcsa

Overview

This collector monitors health statistics of vCenter Server Appliance servers.

This collector is supported on all platforms.

This collector supports collecting metrics from multiple instances of this integration, including remote instances.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn’t support auto-detection.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Setup

You can configure the vcsa collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for vcsa, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit `go.d/vcsa.conf` and add a job.

:::important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

:::

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every, autodetection_retry.

Group	Option	Description	Default	Required
Collection	update_every	Data collection interval (seconds).	5	no
	autodetection_retry	Autodetection retry interval (seconds). Set 0 to disable.	0	no
Target	url	Target endpoint URL.		yes
	timeout	HTTP request timeout (seconds).	5	no
HTTP Auth	username	Username for Basic HTTP authentication.		yes
	password	Password for Basic HTTP authentication.		yes
	bearer_token_file	Path to a file containing a bearer token (used for `Authorization: Bearer`).		no
TLS	tls_skip_verify	Skip TLS certificate and hostname verification (insecure).	no	no
	tls_ca	Path to CA bundle used to validate the server certificate.		no
	tls_cert	Path to client TLS certificate (for mTLS).		no
	tls_key	Path to client TLS private key (for mTLS).		no
Proxy	proxy_url	HTTP proxy URL.		no
	proxy_username	Username for proxy Basic HTTP authentication.		no
	proxy_password	Password for proxy Basic HTTP authentication.		no
Request	method	HTTP method to use.	GET	no
	body	Request body (e.g., for POST/PUT).		no
	headers	Additional HTTP headers (one per line as key: value).		no
	not_follow_redirects	Do not follow HTTP redirects.	no	no
	force_http2	Force HTTP/2 (including h2c over TCP).	no	no
Virtual Node	vnode	Associates this data collection job with a Virtual Node.		no

via UI

Configure the vcsa collector from the Netdata web interface:

Go to Nodes.
Select the node where you want the vcsa data-collection job to run and click the :gear: (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
In the Search box, type vcsa (or scroll the list) to locate the vcsa collector.
Click the + next to the vcsa collector to add a new job.
Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
- Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
- If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/vcsa.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/vcsa.conf

Examples

Basic

An example configuration.

jobs:
  - name: vcsa1
    url: https://203.0.113.1
    username: [email protected]
    password: password

Multi-instance

Note: When you define multiple jobs, their names must be unique.

Two instances.

jobs:
  - name: vcsa1
    url: https://203.0.113.1
    username: [email protected]
    password: password

  - name: vcsa2
    url: https://203.0.113.10
    username: [email protected]
    password: password

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per vCenter Server Appliance instance

These metrics refer to the entire monitored application.

See health statuses

Overall System Health:

Status	Description
green	All components in the appliance are healthy.
yellow	One or more components in the appliance might become overloaded soon.
orange	One or more components in the appliance might be degraded.
red	One or more components in the appliance might be in an unusable status and the appliance might become unresponsive soon.
gray	No health data is available.
unknown	Collector failed to decode status.

Components Health:

Status	Description
green	The component is healthy.
yellow	The component is healthy, but may have some problems.
orange	The component is degraded, and may have serious problems.
red	The component is unavailable, or will stop functioning soon.
gray	No health data is available.
unknown	Collector failed to decode status.

Software Updates Health:

Status	Description
green	No updates available.
orange	Non-security patches might be available.
red	Security patches might be available.
gray	An error retrieving information on software updates.
unknown	Collector failed to decode status.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
vcsa.system_health_status	green, red, yellow, orange, gray, unknown	status
vcsa.applmgmt_health_status	green, red, yellow, orange, gray, unknown	status
vcsa.load_health_status	green, red, yellow, orange, gray, unknown	status
vcsa.mem_health_status	green, red, yellow, orange, gray, unknown	status
vcsa.swap_health_status	green, red, yellow, orange, gray, unknown	status
vcsa.database_storage_health_status	green, red, yellow, orange, gray, unknown	status
vcsa.storage_health_status	green, red, yellow, orange, gray, unknown	status
vcsa.software_packages_health_status	green, red, orange, gray, unknown	status

Alerts

The following alerts are available:

Alert name	On metric	Description
vcsa_system_health_warn	vcsa.system_health_status	VCSA overall system status is orange. One or more components are degraded.
vcsa_system_health_crit	vcsa.system_health_status	VCSA overall system status is red. One or more components are unavailable or will stop functioning soon.
vcsa_applmgmt_health_warn	vcsa.applmgmt_health_status	VCSA ApplMgmt component status is orange. It is degraded, and may have serious problems.
vcsa_applmgmt_health_crit	vcsa.applmgmt_health_status	VCSA ApplMgmt component status is red. It is unavailable, or will stop functioning soon.
vcsa_load_health_warn	vcsa.load_health_status	VCSA Load component status is orange. It is degraded, and may have serious problems.
vcsa_load_health_crit	vcsa.load_health_status	VCSA Load component status is red. It is unavailable, or will stop functioning soon.
vcsa_mem_health_warn	vcsa.mem_health_status	VCSA Memory component status is orange. It is degraded, and may have serious problems.
vcsa_mem_health_crit	vcsa.mem_health_status	VCSA Memory component status is red. It is unavailable, or will stop functioning soon.
vcsa_swap_health_warn	vcsa.swap_health_status	VCSA Swap component status is orange. It is degraded, and may have serious problems.
vcsa_swap_health_crit	vcsa.swap_health_status	VCSA Swap component status is red. It is unavailable, or will stop functioning soon.
vcsa_database_storage_health_warn	vcsa.database_storage_health_status	VCSA Database Storage component status is orange. It is degraded, and may have serious problems.
vcsa_database_storage_health_crit	vcsa.database_storage_health_status	VCSA Database Storage component status is red. It is unavailable, or will stop functioning soon.
vcsa_storage_health_warn	vcsa.storage_health_status	VCSA Storage component status is orange. It is degraded, and may have serious problems.
vcsa_storage_health_crit	vcsa.storage_health_status	VCSA Storage component status is red. It is unavailable, or will stop functioning soon.
vcsa_software_packages_health_warn	vcsa.software_packages_health_status	VCSA software packages security updates are available.

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the vcsa collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn’t working.

Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that’s not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].
```
cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/
```
Switch to the netdata user.
```
sudo -u netdata -s
```
Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:
```
./go.d.plugin -d -m vcsa
```
To debug a specific job:
```
./go.d.plugin -d -m vcsa -j jobName
```

Getting Logs

If you’re encountering problems with the vcsa collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep vcsa

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector’s name:

grep vcsa /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named “netdata” (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep vcsa

Industry

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Use cases