Introduction

The Server Manager imports initial topology from the IP Availability Manager. After the topology is imported, Server Manager discovers domain-specific entities related to the licensed features and creates additional topology objects for those features. For example, for the VMware feature, the Server Manager topology includes VMware entities, such as the VMware ESX server and virtual machines (VMs).

After discovery and topology creation, the Server Manager reconnects with the IP Availability Manager by which it discovered the topology. It then places the IP addresses of the virtual machines it discovered on the Pending List of the IP Availability Manager. This ensures that every virtual machine is discovered as a separate entity.

Server Manager performs domain-specific monitoring that varies depending on the feature being monitored, as listed in Protocols used for monitoring.

Table 1. Protocols used for monitoring

Monitored objects	Protocols
Atmos nodes and services	SNMP
VMware products	vCenter API
VMware NSX platform	RESTful web services API
Microsoft Hyper-V	Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (MS WMI)
Microsoft Cluster	Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (MS WMI)
Host Performance monitoring	SNMP, WMI
KVM hypervisor	OpenStack NOVA API, RESTful web services API
F5 BIG-IP	SNMP
SAN elements	EMC M&R Web Interface API
XenServer	Citrix XenServer Management API

For the Server Manager to perform process discovery and monitoring using SNMP, the HOST-RESOURCES-MIB needs to be enabled on host servers. Server Manager supports WMI-based process discovery and monitory for hosts that do not have SNMP support.

In addition, the Server Manager subscribes to IP Availability Manager events such as Host Down and uses them to perform cross-domain root-cause and impact analysis. The Server Manager correlates the effect of problems with the physical host systems on the virtual entities for that feature.