Monitor Vmware Infrastructure

---
name: monitor-vmware-infrastructure
description: "Use this skill for safe, risk-free queries of VMware infrastructure — code-level enforced safety means no destructive operations exist in the codebase. Directly handles: list VMs/hosts/datastores/clusters, check active alarms with remediation hints, view recent events, get VM de…"
category: "DevOps & Infra"
author: community
version: "1.5.14"
icon: server
---

# VMware Monitor (Read-Only)

> **Disclaimer**: This is a community-maintained open-source project and is **not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by VMware, Inc. or Broadcom Inc.** "VMware" and "vSphere" are trademarks of Broadcom. Source code is publicly auditable at [github.com/zw008/VMware-Monitor](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-Monitor) under the MIT license.

Read-only VMware vCenter/ESXi monitoring — 8 MCP tools, zero destructive code.

> **Code-level safety**: This skill contains NO power, create, delete, snapshot, or modify operations. Not disabled — they don't exist in the codebase.
> **Companion skills**: [vmware-aiops](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-AIops) (VM lifecycle), [vmware-storage](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-Storage) (iSCSI/vSAN), [vmware-vks](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-VKS) (Tanzu Kubernetes), [vmware-nsx](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-NSX) (NSX networking), [vmware-nsx-security](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-NSX-Security) (DFW/firewall), [vmware-aria](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-Aria) (metrics/alerts/capacity), [vmware-avi](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-AVI) (AVI/ALB/AKO).
> | [vmware-pilot](../vmware-pilot/SKILL.md) (workflow orchestration) | [vmware-policy](../vmware-policy/SKILL.md) (audit/policy)

## What This Skill Does

| Category | Capabilities |
|----------|-------------|
| **Inventory** | List VMs, ESXi hosts, datastores, clusters |
| **Health** | Active alarms, recent events (filter by severity/time) |
| **VM Details** | CPU, memory, disks, NICs, snapshots, guest OS, IP |
| **Scanning** | Scheduled alarm/log scanning with Slack/Discord webhooks |

## Quick Install

```bash
uv tool install vmware-monitor
vmware-monitor doctor
```

## When to Use This Skill

- List or search VMs, hosts, datastores, clusters
- Check active alarms or recent events
- Get detailed info about a specific VM
- Set up scheduled monitoring with webhook alerts
- Any read-only VMware query where safety is paramount

### Alarm/Event Output: `suggested_actions` Field

`get_alarms` and `get_events` results include a `suggested_actions` list.
Each item is a ready-to-use hint pointing to the correct companion skill and tool:

```json
{
  "alarm_name": "VM CPU Ready High",
  "entity_name": "prod-db-01",
  "suggested_actions": [
    "vmware-aiops: acknowledge_vcenter_alarm(entity_name='prod-db-01', alarm_name='VM CPU Ready High')",
    "vmware-aiops: reset_vcenter_alarm(entity_name='prod-db-01', alarm_name='VM CPU Ready High')"
  ]
}
```

AI agents (especially smaller local models) can read these hints directly to determine which skill and tool to call next, without needing to reason about skill routing themselves.

**Use companion skills for**:
- Power on/off, deploy, clone, migrate --> `vmware-aiops`
- iSCSI, vSAN, datastore management --> `vmware-storage`
- Tanzu Kubernetes clusters --> `vmware-vks`
- Load balancing, AVI/ALB, AKO, Ingress --> `vmware-avi`

## Related Skills — Skill Routing

| User Intent | Recommended Skill |
|-------------|------------------|
| Read-only vSphere monitoring, zero risk | **vmware-monitor** ← this skill |
| Storage: iSCSI, vSAN, datastores | **vmware-storage** |
| VM lifecycle, deployment, guest ops | **vmware-aiops** |
| Tanzu Kubernetes (vSphere 8.x+) | **vmware-vks** |
| NSX networking: segments, gateways, NAT | **vmware-nsx** |
| NSX security: DFW rules, security groups | **vmware-nsx-security** |
| Aria Ops: metrics, alerts, capacity planning | **vmware-aria** |
| Multi-step workflows with approval | **vmware-pilot** |
| Load balancer, AVI, ALB, AKO, Ingress | **vmware-avi** (`uv tool install vmware-avi`) |
| Audit log query | **vmware-policy** (`vmware-audit` CLI) |

## Common Workflows

### Daily Health Check
1. Check alarms --> `vmware-monitor health alarms --target prod-vcenter`
2. Review recent events --> `vmware-monitor health events --hours 24 --severity warning`
3. List hosts --> `vmware-monitor inventory hosts` --> check connection state and memory usage
4. **If connection fails** --> run `vmware-monitor doctor` to diagnose config/network issues

### Investigate a Specific VM
1. Find the VM --> `vmware-monitor inventory vms --power-state poweredOff`
2. Get details --> `vmware-monitor vm info problem-vm`
3. Check related events --> `vmware-monitor health events --hours 48`
4. **If VM not found** --> verify VM name with `vmware-monitor inventory vms --limit 100` or check target with `--target <other-vcenter>`

### Set Up Continuous Monitoring
1. Configure webhook in `~/.vmware-monitor/config.yaml`
2. Start daemon --> `vmware-monitor daemon start`
3. Daemon scans every 15 min, sends alerts to Slack/Discord

## Usage Mode

| Scenario | Recommended | Why |
|----------|:-----------:|-----|
| Local/small models (Ollama, Qwen) | **CLI** | ~2K tokens vs ~8K for MCP |
| Cloud models (Claude, GPT-4o) | Either | MCP gives structured JSON I/O |
| Automated pipelines | **MCP** | Type-safe parameters, structured output |

## MCP Tools (8 — all read-only)

| Tool | Description |
|------|------------|
| `list_virtual_machines` | List VMs with filtering (power state, sort, limit) |
| `list_esxi_hosts` | ESXi hosts with CPU, memory, version, uptime |
| `list_all_datastores` | Datastores with capacity, free space, type |
| `list_all_clusters` | Clusters with host count, DRS/HA status |
| `get_alarms` | All active/triggered alarms — includes `suggested_actions` remediation hints |
| `get_events` | Recent events filtered by severity and time — includes `suggested_actions` hints |
| `vm_info` | Detailed VM info (CPU, memory, disks, NICs, snapshots) |

All tools are **read-only**. No tool can modify, create, or delete any resource.

## CLI Quick Reference

```bash
vmware-monitor inventory vms [--target <t>] [--limit 20] [--power-state poweredOn]
vmware-monitor inventory hosts [--target <t>]
vmware-monitor inventory datastores [--target <t>]
vmware-monitor inventory clusters [--target <t>]
vmware-monitor health alarms [--target <t>]
vmware-monitor health events [--hours 24] [--severity warning]
vmware-monitor vm info <vm-name> [--target <t>]
vmware-monitor scan now [--target <t>]
vmware-monitor daemon start|stop|status
vmware-monitor doctor [--skip-auth]
```

> Full CLI reference: see `references/cli-reference.md`

## Troubleshooting

### Alarms returns empty but vCenter shows alarms
The `get_alarms` tool queries triggered alarms at the root folder level. Some alarms are entity-specific — try checking events instead: `get_events --hours 1 --severity info`.

### "Connection refused" error
1. Run `vmware-monitor doctor` to diagnose
2. Verify target hostname/IP and port (443) in config.yaml
3. For self-signed certs: set `disableSslCertValidation: true`

### Events returns too many results
Use severity filter: `--severity warning` (default) filters out info-level events. Use `--hours 4` to narrow time range.

### VM info shows "guest_os: unknown"
VMware Tools not installed or not running in the guest. Install/start VMware Tools for guest OS detection, IP address, and guest family info.

### Doctor passes but commands fail with timeout
vCenter may be under heavy load. Try targeting a specific ESXi host directly instead of vCenter, or increase connection timeout in config.yaml.

## Setup

```bash
uv tool install vmware-monitor
mkdir -p ~/.vmware-monitor
vmware-monitor init
chmod 600 ~/.vmware-monitor/.env  # if using webhooks
```

> All tools are automatically audited via vmware-policy. Audit logs: `vmware-audit log --last 20`

> Full setup guide, security details, and AI platform compatibility: see `references/setup-guide.md`

## Audit & Safety

All operations are automatically audited via vmware-policy (`@vmware_tool` decorator):
- Every tool call logged to `~/.vmware/audit.db` (SQLite, framework-agnostic)
- Policy rules enforced via `~/.vmware/rules.yaml` (deny rules, maintenance windows, risk levels)
- Risk classification: each tool tagged as low/medium/high/critical
- View recent operations: `vmware-audit log --last 20`
- View denied operations: `vmware-audit log --status denied`

vmware-policy is automatically installed as a dependency — no manual setup needed.

## License

MIT — [github.com/zw008/VMware-Monitor](https://github.com/zw008/VMware-Monitor)