Configuring a managing agent machine for virtual environment management

Managing agents are systems that manage the communication between the collector and the virtual environment we manage via VCM, that is, vCenter Server, vCD, and vShield Manager. In this recipe, we will assign a system the role of a management agent.

Getting ready

We need to have the version 5.5 or later agent installed on the machine and data collected from it, which will be designated as the managing agent. Refer to the next recipe.

The managing agent machines must have the version 5.5 or later agent installed.

We can designate any server that can communicate with VCM as well as vCD, vShield, and vCenter Server as a managing agent.

How to do it...

Log in to VCM and follow these steps to designate a managing agent and then change it to a managed virtual environment:

1. Navigate to Administration | Certificates.
   
2. Select the machine that you want to designate as a managing agent.
3. Select Change Trust Status.
4. Check to trust or uncheck to untrust the selected machines box, click on Next, and click on Finish on the next page to complete the wizard.
5. Select the machine again and click on Managing Agent in the top menu.
6. Select Enable, click on Next, and then click on Finish on the next page to complete the wizard.

   Note

   Note: The choice of managing agent solely depends on the size of the infrastructure you manage; you can use your collector as a managing agent, or you can use another Windows machine. If your individual vCenter instance manages between 1 to 30 hosts and a maximum of 1,000 guests, then you can use the collector as your managing agent. Otherwise, designate a dedicated managing agent.

   
7. The selected server will become the managing agent now.
8. Once the managing agent has been designated, we can change it for the managed virtual environment.
9. Go to Administration | Machines Manager | Licensed Machines | Licensed Virtual Environments. Select the machine whose managing agent you want to change, and click on Configure Settings.
10. Select the machine added if required.
11. On the top, there is a dropdown to select either of the available managing agents. Change to a new one and click on Next (not visible in the screenshot), and click on Finish on next page to close the wizard.
    
12. Repeat steps 8 through 10 for the remaining virtual environments in the infrastructure.

How it works...

The managing agents are systems that manage the communication between the collector and the virtual environment using the VMware APIs of the various products. They must be configured to manage secure communication between virtual environment instances and the collector.

It is recommended that VCM collector act as the managing agent if any of the vCenter instances it is managing has 1 to 30 hosts and upto 1,000 guests. The default managing agent is the Collector server, but as the workload increases, we can start adding them. In this recipe, we looked at designating a managed machine to a managed agent.

We are designating another server to communicate with the virtual environment so that some of the work can be offloaded from VCM Collector. The server must have connectivity to the virtual environment servers and VCM Collector.