Appendix 1: Setting Up Monitoring for VMware

VMware vSphere 6.5

Setting up monitoring for your VMware infrastructure with vSphere version 6.5 will require access to the CIM counters for the user account that has been set for the object. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to setup a user account with read-only access to the CIM counters, i.e. minimum rights for monitoring.

Login to vSphere Web Client as administrator.

Select Home > Administration > Users and Groups

Add a new user called cimuser.

Navigate to Roles (Home > Administration > Access Control > Roles).

Add a new Role called CIM Only. Give the role CIM privileges only. Note: This is the minimum level that is required for RAMP to monitor.

Add user permissions at the Hosts and Clusters view.

Click add user button.

Select the cimuser from the list, then click add, then click OK.

Select the role for the cimuser called CIM Only.

You have created a user called cimuser with CIM Only access to vSphere. Use this set of credentials on RAMP discoveries to begin monitoring servers from the vCenter host.

VMware vSphere 6.0 (& older)

Setting up monitoring for your VMware infrastructure requires access to the CIM counters for the user account that has been set for the object. Here’s a guide on how to setup a user account with read-only access to the CIM counters, i.e. minimum rights for monitoring.

Using the vSphere Client, log on to your ESXi host > Click the Local Users & Groups tab.

To add a new user, right-click the white area and choose “Add…”

Name the user, set a password and assign it to the following groups: “root” and “tty”.

To set up the permissions, go to Inventory -> Administration -> Roles or click Ctrl+Shift+R

Right-click on any white space and choose “Add…”. Name the role and select only the privileges as in the example below (CIM interaction).

Go back to the main screen and choose the “Permissions” tab.

Add the user you created earlier and in the dropdown box for “Assigned Role”, choose your newly created role.