VMware vSphere vCenter Server 4.0 - Manual (Page 66)

After enabling and running VMware DPM, you can verify that it is functioning properly by viewing each host’s
Last Time Exited Standby information displayed on the Host Options page in the cluster Settings dialog box
and on the Hosts tab for each cluster. This field shows a timestamp and whether vCenter Server Succeeded
or Failed the last time it attempted to bring the host out of standby mode. If no such attempt has been made,
the field displays Never.
N
OTE
Times for the Last Time Exited Standbyfield are derived from the vCenter Server event log. If this log
is cleared, the times are reset to Never.
Monitoring VMware DPM
You can use event-based alarms in vCenter Server to monitor VMware DPM.
The most serious potential error you face when using VMware DPM is the failure of a host to exit standby
mode when its capacity is needed by the DRS cluster. You can monitor for instances when this error occurs by
using the preconfigured Exit Standby Error alarm in vCenter Server. If VMware DPM cannot bring a host out
of standby mode (vCenter Server event DrsExitStandbyModeFailedEvent ), you can configure this alarm to send
an alert email to the administrator or to send notification using an SNMP trap. By default, this alarm is cleared
after vCenter Server is able to successfully connect to that host.
To monitor VMware DPM activity, you can also create alarms for the following vCenter Server events.
Table 6-2. vCenter Server Events
Event Type Event Name
Entering Standby mode (about to power off host) DrsEnteringStandbyModeEvent
Successfully entered Standby mode (host power off succeeded) DrsEnteredStandbyModeEvent
Exiting Standby mode (about to power on the host) DrsExitingStandbyModeEvent
Successfully exited Standby mode (power on succeeded) DrsExitedStandbyModeEvent
For more information on creating and editing alarms, see the Basic System Administration guide.
If you use monitoring software other than vCenter Server, and that software triggers alarms when physical
hosts are powered off unexpectedly, you might have a situation where false alarms are generated when
VMware DPM places a host into standby mode. If you do not want to receive such alarms, work with your
vendor to deploy a version of the monitoring software that is integrated with vCenter Server. You could also
use vCenter Server itself as your monitoring solution, because starting with vSphere 4.x, it is inherently aware
of VMware DPM and does not trigger these false alarms.
vSphere Resource Management Guide
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