Use this tab to proactively track changes on the Virtual Machines (VMs) deployed on any of these sources—VMware ESXi server, VMware vCenter server or the Amazon Web Services, Virtual Private Cloud (AWS-VPC).
When monitoring ESXi hosts that are part of the VM-Series NSX edition solution, use Dynamic Address Groups instead of using VM Information Sources to learn about changes in the virtual environment. For the VM-Series NSX edition solution, the NSX Manager provides Panorama with information on the NSX security group to which an IP address belongs. The information from the NSX Manager provides the full context for defining the match criteria in a Dynamic Address Group because it uses the service profile ID as a distinguishing attribute and allows you to properly enforce policy when you have overlapping IP addresses across different NSX security groups.
A maximum of 32 tags (from vCenter server and NSX Manager) can be registered to an IP address.
There are two ways to monitor VM Information Sources:
The firewall can monitor the VMware ESXi server, VMware vCenter server and the AWS-VPC environments and retrieve changes as you provision or modify the guests configured on the monitored sources. For each firewall or for each virtual system on a multiple virtual systems capable firewall, you can configure up to 10 sources.
If your firewalls are configured in a high availability configuration:
in an active/passive setup, only the active firewall monitors the VM information sources.
in an active/active setup, only the firewall with the priority value of primary monitors the VM information sources.
For information on how VM Information Sources and Dynamic Address Groups can work synchronously and enable you to monitor changes in the virtual environment, refer to the
VM-Series Deployment Guide
.
For IP address to user mapping, you can either configure the VM Information Sources on the Windows User-ID agent or on the firewall to monitor the VMware ESXi and vCenter server and retrieve changes as you provision or modify the guests configured on the server. Up to 100 sources are supported on the Windows User-ID agent; support for AWS is not available for the User-ID agent.
Each VM on a monitored ESXi or vCenter server must have VMware Tools installed and running. VMware Tools provide the capability to glean the IP address(es) and other values assigned to each VM.
To collect the values assigned to the monitored VMs, the firewall monitors the following attributes.
Attributes Monitored on a VMware Source
Attributes Monitored on the AWS-VPC
UUID
Name
Guest OS
VM State — the power state can be poweredOff, poweredOn, standBy, and unknown.
Annotation
Version
Network — Virtual Switch Name, Port Group Name, and VLAN ID
Container Name —vCenter Name, Data Center Object Name, Resource Pool Name, Cluster Name, Host, Host IP address.
Architecture
Guest OS
Image ID
Instance ID
Instance State
Instance Type
Key Name
Placement—Tenancy, Group Name, Availability Zone
Private DNS Name
Public DNS Name
Subnet ID
Tag (key, value) (up to5 tags supported per instance
VPC ID
Add
—To add a new source for VM Monitoring, click
Add
and then fill in the details based on the source being monitored:
Refresh Connected
—Click to refresh the connection status; it refreshes the onscreen display. This option does not refresh the connection between the firewall and the monitored sources.
Delete—Select a configured VM Information source and click to remove the configured source.
Settings to Enable VM Information Sources for VMware ESXi and vCenter Servers
The following table describes settings you can configure to enable VM information sources for VMware ESXi and vCenter servers.
Setting to Enable VM Information Sources for VMware ESXi and vCenter Servers
Description
Name
Enter a name to identify the monitored source (up to 31 characters). The name is case-sensitive and must be unique. Use only letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, and underscores.
Type
Select whether the host/source being monitored is an
ESXi server
or
vCenter server.
Description
(Optional) Add a label to identify the location or function of the source.
Port
Specify the port on which the host/source is listening (default port 443).
Enabled
By default the communication between the firewall and the configured source is enabled.
The connection status between the monitored source and the firewall displays in the interface as follows:
—Connected
—Disconnected
—Pending (The connection status may also display as yellow when the monitored source is disabled.)
Clear the
Enabled
option to disable communication between the host and the firewall.
Timeout
Enter the interval in hours after which the connection to the monitored source is closed, if the host does not respond (range is 2–10; default is 2).
(Optional) To change the default value, select this option to
Enable timeout when the source is disconnected
and specify the value. When the specified limit is reached or if the host is inaccessible or the host does not respond, the firewall will close the connection to the source.
Source
Enter the FQDN or the IP address of the host/source being monitored.
Username
Specify the username required to authenticate to the source.
Password
Enter the password and confirm your entry.
Update Interval
Specify the interval, in seconds, at which the firewall retrieves information from the source (range is 5–600; default is 5).
Settings to Enable VM Information Sources for AWS VPC
The following table describes the setting you configure to enable VM information sources for an AWS VPC.
Setting to Enable VM Information Sources for an AWS VPC
Description
Name
Enter a name to identify the monitored source (up to 31 characters). The name is case-sensitive and must be unique. Use only letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, and underscores.
Type
Select
AWS VPC.
Description
(Optional) Add a label to identify the location or function of the source.
Enabled
By default the communication between the firewall and the configured source is enabled.
The connection status between the monitored source and the firewall displays in the interface as follows:
—Connected
—Disconnected
—Pending (The connection status may also display as yellow when the monitored source is disabled.)
Clear the
Enabled
option to disable communication between the host and the firewall.
Source
Add the URI in which the Virtual Private Cloud resides in the following format: ec2.<your_AWS_region>.amazonaws.com.
For example,
ec2.us-west-1.amazonaws.com
.
Access Key ID
Enter the alphanumeric text string that uniquely identifies the user who owns or is authorized to access the AWS account.
This information is a part of the AWS Security Credentials. The firewall requires the credentials—Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key—to digitally sign API calls made to the AWS services.
Secret Access Key
Enter the password and confirm your entry.
Update Interval
Specify the interval, in seconds, at which the firewall retrieves information from the source (range is 60–1,200; default is 60).
Timeout
The interval in hours after which the connection to the monitored source is closed, if the host does not respond (default is 2)
(Optional) Select this option to
Enable timeout when the source is disconnected. When the specified limit is reached or if the source is inaccessible or the source does not respond, the firewall will close the connection to the source.
VPC ID
Enter the ID of the AWS-VPC to monitor, for example, vpc-1a2b3c4d. Only EC2 instances that are deployed within this VPC are monitored.
If your account is configured to use a default VPC, the default VPC ID will be listed under AWS Account Attributes.
—Connected
—Disconnected
—Pending (The connection status may also display as yellow when the monitored source is disabled.)
—Connected
—Disconnected
—Pending (The connection status may also display as yellow when the monitored source is disabled.)