vCenter Server pulls data from solutions about their health status. Solutions expose health data by providing a URL to an XML file that defines the health model of the solution. Solutions Manager provides a graphical representation of the health data that vCenter Server receives from the solutions that it manages.

All solutions must provide an XML file that specifies their health model. The health specification XML file for your solution must conform to the VMware Health Service extensible schema definition (XSD). See Solution Health XML Schema for the complete VMware solution health schema.

Solutions expose health data about themselves to vCenter Server by publishing XML documents that declare different health statuses, depending on the events that occur in the solution. You provide messages to accompany each health status in the XML document that the solution exposes to vCenter Server. Solutions can provide the following statuses to vCenter Server:

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alert

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warning

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info

When you develop a solution, you must include a program or function that generates the health status XML file for the solution. The health status of a solution can be red, yellow, or green.

Solutions Manager displays the health data graphically for each solution that is running in a vCenter Server instance. You can see an overview of the health status of all running solutions in the vCenter Server view in Solutions Manager. You can see health status information about each solution individually in the view for each solution in Solutions Manager.

You must pass a URL to the XML file that defines the health model for a solution to the ExtensionHealthInfo object in the program that manages the solution.

The EAM Sample Solution provides two classes that provide health data about the solution to Solutions Manager. You find these classes in eam_work_folder\src\com\vmware\eam\sample\solution\health.

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VimHealthProvider.java defines the health statuses for the EAM Sample Solution.

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HealthStatusServlet.java dynamically creates the XML file in which the solution exposes health status data. For an example of the XML file that HealthStatusServlet.java creates, see Example: Contents of the EAM Sample Solution Health XML File .

In the EAM Sample Solution, the Manager.java class implements ExtensionHealthInfo. The Manager.java class sets a URL to a health definition XML file in the ExtensionHealthInfo url property. The URL that Manager.java provides is the path to the health.xml file that HealthStatusServlet.java creates.

Prerequisites
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Download the vSphere ESX Agent Manager SDK.

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Verify that you have set up and started the EAM Sample Solution in an application server.

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Verify that you have opened eam_work_folder\src\com\vmware\eam\sample\solution\Manager.java in an editor.

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Examine the code of the VimHealthProvider.java and HealthStatusServlet.java classes to see how they extract health data from the EAM Sample Solution and publish it to Solutions Manager in an XML file.

Procedure
1

Create a program that defines the health statuses of the solution.

The EAM Sample Solution defines the health statuses in the VimHealthProvider.java class.

2

Create a program that creates an XML file that exposes the health status data, conforming to the VMware health service XSD.

The EAM Sample Solution creates the health data XML file in the HealthStatusServlet.java class. HealthStatusServlet.java implements VimHealthProvider to extract the health status from the solution. The class creates an XML file, health.xml, that exposes the health data about the solution according to the health status that VimHealthProvider provides.

3

Create an instance of ExtensionHealthInfo in the program that manages the solution.

The EAM Sample Solution implements ExtensionHealthInfo in Manager.java. 

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();
  [...]
  ExtensionHealthInfo healthInfo = new ExtensionHealthInfo();
  [...]
}
4

Call the ExtensionHealthInfo.setUrl() method to set the URL at which the solution publishes its health data XML file.

The EAM Sample Solution publishes an XML file, health.xml, that the HealthStatusServlet.java class generates. 

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();
  [...]
  ExtensionHealthInfo healthInfo = new ExtensionHealthInfo();
  healthInfo.setUrl(_url.toString() + "/health/health.xml");
  [...]
}
5

Call the Extension.setHealthInfo() method to add the ExtensionHealthInfo object to the solution

Manager.java provides a link to the health.xml XML file that the HealthStatusServlet.java class generates. 

private Extension createExtensionObject() { 
  Extension extension = new Extension();
  [...]
  ExtensionHealthInfo healthInfo = new ExtensionHealthInfo();
  healthInfo.setUrl(_url.toString() + "/health/health.xml");
  extension.setHealthInfo(healthInfo);
  [...]
}

You added passed a URL to the health definition of a solution to vCenter Server. Solutions Manager displays the health information when the solution registers with vCenter Server.

Example: Contents of the EAM Sample Solution Health XML File

The EAM Sample Solution publishes health data at http://vCenter_server_ip_address:solution_port/eam-sample/health/health.xml. The HealthStatusServlet.java class in the EAM Sample Solution generates this file when the solution starts. This example shows the XML file that HealthStatusServlet.java generates when the EAM Sample Solution is running correctly. 

<vimhealth schemaVersion="1.0">
  <health id="null">
    <name>null</name>
    <status>green</status>
    <message id="null" level="info" time="2011-07-12T13:21:32">Running</message>
  </health>
</vimhealth>
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