vSphere Topology

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: vsphere

Overview

Map VMware vSphere infrastructure. The vSphere collector renders clusters, hosts, VMs, and datastores with placement links and datastore-utilization overlays; enabling collect_network_topology adds the network and port-group attachments.

The vSphere collector reads the vCenter inventory and renders it as a netdata.topology.v1 graph.

This integration is supported on all platforms.

This integration supports multiple instances configured side-by-side.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

Built from the configured vCenter inventory.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Setup

You can configure the vsphere collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for vsphere, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit go.d/vsphere.conf and add a job.

important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

Prerequisites

vCenter access

A vCenter Server reachable from the Netdata Agent, and a read-only account with permission to browse the inventory.

Configuration

Options

Configure the vSphere collector with the vCenter URL and credentials. See the vSphere collector page for all options, including collect_network_topology, which is off by default and is what adds the network and port-group actors to the map.

via UI

Configure the vsphere collector from the Netdata web interface:

1. Go to Nodes.
2. Select the node where you want the vsphere data-collection job to run and click the ⚙ (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
4. In the Search box, type vsphere (or scroll the list) to locate the vsphere collector.
5. Click the + next to the vsphere collector to add a new job.
6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
   • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
   • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/vsphere.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/vsphere.conf

Examples

Minimal job with topology enabled

The three required fields plus collect_network_topology, which is off by default and is what adds the network and port-group actors to the map.

jobs:
  - name: vcenter
    url: https://vcenter.example.com
    username: netdata@vsphere.local
    password: SECRET
    collect_network_topology: yes

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Metrics