Controlling the Application Monitoring Heartbeat
Last Updated December 16, 2024

To run HA application monitoring programs, the virtual machine must be running on an ESXi host, and application monitoring must have been enabled when configuring HA.
You can enable heartbeats with the compiled
vmware-appmonitor
program. Usage is as follows:
vmware-appmonitor { enable | disable | markActive | isEnabled | getAppStatus | postAppState }
  • enable
    – Enable application heartbeat so vSphere HA starts listening and monitoring the heartbeat count from this guest virtual machine. The heartbeats should be sent at least once every 30 seconds.
  • disable
    – Disable the application heartbeat so vSphere HA stops listening to heartbeats from this guest.
  • markActive
    – This starts sending the actual heartbeat every 30 seconds or less.
  • isEnabled
    – Indicates whether the heartbeat monitoring was enabled.
  • getAppStatus
    – Gets the status of the application, either Green, Red, or Gray.
  • postAppState
    – Posts the state of the application. Arguments can be:
    • appStateOk
      – Sends an “Application State is OK” signal to the HA agent running on the host.
    • appStateNeedReset
      – Sends an “Immediate Reset” signal to the HA agent running on the host.