Using the SSH VMWare ESX(i) Disk Sensor I want to monitor my vSphere VMware host via SSH.

The sensor only works when I enter the credentials of the root user in the parent device. With any other user credentials the sensor connection fails.

Why is this?

Article Comments

This article applies to PRTG Network Monitor 9 or later

About VMware and SSH

SSH requests to the VMware system only work flawlessly when using root user credentials.

On ESX 4.x systems there is a work around available. For details, please see the following article: VMware KB: Local ESX & ESXi 4.1 users are not able to issue any administrative commands

As far as we know there is no such work around available on ESX 5 systems.

We recommend you enter the credentials of the VMware root user in the PRTG settings of the parent device or group (section Credentials for Linux (SSH/WBEM) Systems).


Mar, 2012 - Permalink

Disabling SSH root login on both VMware and Linux servers is a common practice on many sites. Are PRTG's SSH sensors useless on these sites?


Jul, 2012 - Permalink

Might be that the VMware Sensors then do not work. Please bear in mind though that it is not us who lay down the rules for the permissions and what account/privileges are necessary to obtain certain information from VMware target systems. THIS IS DONE BY VMWARE.


Jul, 2012 - Permalink