Integrating Solutions
with vSphere ESX Agent Manager
vSphere ESX Agent
Manager is a standard
solution that allows other solutions to deploy, monitor, and manage ESX agents
on ESXi hosts.
ESX Agent Manager performs the
following functions:
- Provisions ESX agent virtual machines for solutions.
- Monitors changes to the ESX agent virtual machines and their scope in .
- Reports configuration issues in the ESX agents to the solution.
- Integrates agent virtual machines with vSphere features such as Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), Distributed Power Management (DPM), vSphere High Availability (HA), fault tolerance, maintenance mode, and operations such as adding and removing hosts to and from clusters.
A solution can add functions to
an ESXi host by deploying an ESX agent virtual machine and an optional vSphere
Installation Bundle (VIB) that provide this function. For example, a solution
that provides a distributed firewall can extend a host with firewall
capabilities for the virtual machines that run on it, by installing a VIB,
deploying a virtual machine, and integrating them both with DvFilter.
As another example, the EAM
Sample Solution deploys an ESX agent and a VIB that add a DvFilter virtual
switch to the ESXi hosts on which the solution runs.
Every
instance contains a running ESX Agent Manager.