VMware vCenter Integration Guide

VMware vCenter provides a central management and monitoring interface for your vSphere environment. vCenter simplifies deployment of new VMs, assists with resource allocation to achieve maximum efficiency in your virtual infrastructure, and more – all from a single location.

This integration works by sending email from your vCenter server to a PagerDuty email integration address. Please contact our support team if you have any questions about how to configure this integration.

In PagerDuty

1. Navigate to Services → Service Directory.
2. On the Service Directory page:
   • If you are creating a new service for your integration, click +New Service.
   • If you are adding your integration to an existing service, click the name of the service you want to add the integration to. Then click the Integrations tab and click the Add a new integration link.
3. Select your app from the Integration Type menu and enter an Integration Name.If you are creating a new service for your integration, in General Settings, enter a Name for your new service. Then, configure the Incidents Settings and Incident Behavior for your new service.
4. Click the Add Service or Add Integration button to save your new integration. You will be redirected to the page of your service.
5. Copy the Integration Email for your new integration.

On Your vCenter Server

1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client and navigate to vCenter Inventory Lists.
2. Click vCenter Servers, then select the vCenter server you wish to configure alerts for.
3. Go to the Manage tab, select Settings, then go to the General panel and click Edit.
4. Go to the Mail panel and make sure you have a valid mail server address and sender configured for your vCenter server. Click OK when you are done.Note: You will need an SMTP server in your network for vCenter to send alert messages. PagerDuty does not provide an SMTP server for this integration.
5. Go to Alarms Definitions and select one of the existing alarms, then click Edit, or create a new alarm by clicking the add (+) button.
6. Go to the alarm’s Actions panel, click the add (+) button, then select Send a notification email from the Action column and paste your PagerDuty integration email address in the Configuration column. Select the type of email you wish to send to PagerDuty in the other columns and click Finish when you are done.

FAQ

Can vCenter automatically resolve incidents in PagerDuty when an alarm clears?

Yes. PagerDuty email management rules can be configured to automatically resolve incidents when vCenter sends an alarm clear email. You can use the following email management rules in PagerDuty for many vCenter alarms:

• Trigger an incident if Any of the following conditions apply:
  • The email subject matches the regular expression /.* is (Yellow|Red|Warning|Critical)/ms
• Resolve an incident if Any of the following conditions apply:
  • The email subject matches the regular expression /.* is (Green|Normal)/ms

You will also need to set the Incident Key as follows for both rules:

• In the email body, match all text between Alarm and because.
  • Note: No space should be added after the text.

These rules cover many (if not most, or even all) of vCenter’s out-of-the-box email alerts, however we recommend testing your alarms to ensure they work as expected, or setting PagerDuty’s fallback option If an email does not match any of the rules above, to create a generic incident so you don’t miss any important alerts from vCenter.

See Getting Started with Email Management: How to Automatically Resolve Incidents Triggered via Email in our knowledge base for more information and example rules.

Can I integrate vCenter with PagerDuty without using email?

Yes – if you have another monitoring system in place that supports SNMP.

vCenter supports SNMP in addition to email, so you can use your other monitoring system that supports SNMP traps to monitor your vCenter server, and then integrate this monitoring system with PagerDuty. Monitoring systems that support SNMP traps and have API-based integrations with PagerDuty include Nagios, SolarWinds, and many others.