How to add an ESXi 5.x server to the KACE SMA inventory using the Agentless functionality (4312880)

How to add an ESXi 5.x server to the KACE SMA inventory using the new Agentless functionality introduced in version 6.0

Using the new Agentless functionality introduced in KACE SMA v 6.0, it is possible to add to the inventory the ESXi 5.x servers to keep track of them and get updated information.

ESXi server is an Operating System based on Linux and if enabled in the security setting, it is accessible via SSH.  To use the Agentless functionality it is necessary to access it using the SNMP protocol instead of SSH.

The SNMP agent on ESXi is not enabled by default.  There are some configurations steps to enable it before using the SMA appliance to Discover them using Discovery Schedules.

Refer to the guide of your version of ESXi 5.x to enable SNMP for more information,  but in general the procedure is the following:

• Access the CLI of ESXi and then type the following commands:
• esxcli system snmp set --communities public
• esxcli system snmp set --enable=yes

These commands will enable the SNMPv2 agent on ESXi. To enable the SNMPv3 you can refer to the documentation of ESXi 5.x

After enabling the SNMP protocol on the ESXi server it is possible to add it to the appliance inventory following these steps:

1. Under the Inventory | Devices section click on Choose Action | New | Agentless Device
2. Enter these parameters in the Agentless Device Connection Details interface:

Name:                   the FQDN name of the ESXi server (e.g.: myesxi.mydomain.prv )
Connection Type: SNMP
SNMP Version:     SNMPv2c
Read Community: public
Inventory Type:     Inventory/Walk
Log Level:             Warning
DNS Server: your DNS server IP (e.g. : 192.168.1.132)

The Agentless devices are normally polled once a day but it is possible to change the frequency of the Agentless polling from the menu Settings | Provisioning | Communication Settings | Agentless Inventory.

In case of problems, a log about Agentless polling is available under Settings | Logs | Agentless Log