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Google Chat space notification for failed vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) backups using VEBA

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It is always good idea to verify that your vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) backups are occurring and if there are any failures, you are notified about them immediately!

As alluded to at the end of that blog post, you can easily build event-driven automation using the popular VMware Event Broker Appliance (VEBA) solution, triggering notifications based on several types of VCSA backup events:

  • com.vmware.applmgmt.backup.job.failed.event
  • com.vmware.applmgmt.backup.job.finished.event
  • com.vmware.applmgmt.backup.job.start.event

I recently built a PowerShell function that would send a notification to a Google Chat space by enabling their incoming webhook integration as you can seen from the screenshot below:


While the message customization is not as extensive as using Slack (e.g. supporting advanced layouts and emoji), it does get the job done and you will know immediately when a backup has failed or when it has started or has completed.

Note: For existing VEBA users (pre-v0.8 release), the function.yaml needs to be updated to trigger off of the subject keyword rather than the type, which is due to replacing the event router with Tanzu Sources for vSphere. You also need to ensure the prefix of "com.vmware.vsphere" is removed along with trailing "v0" as this is the next syntax for vCenter Events once VEBA v0.8 is released.

spec:
  broker: default
  filter:
    attributes:
      subject: com.vmware.applmgmt.backup.job.failed.event

Quick Tip - Verifying vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) Backup Status

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I recently found out that my vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) scheduled backups had been failing for some time but I was not aware. While there is a default vCenter Server alarm for failed VCSA backups, however it is only visible when you have selected the vCenter Server inventory object in left hand navigation, which is not a typical item that I select as shown in the screenshot below.


Furthermore, I was actually logged into the VCSA's VMware Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) not too long ago while updating to a newer patch release and I had checked to see if backups were successful, which I thought they were when looking at the "Status" column.


It was not until I took a closer look, did I realize that the schedule backup activity log is ordered from oldest to newest, meaning what I saw was a backup that has happend a long time ago and not necessary the latest backup attempt. I found this to be a really strange UX since as you would need to page to very end to check whether the latest backups were succssful or not.

Note: I have already filed an internal bug to ask for the VCSA schedule backup activity to be ordered from newest to oldest, so users can quickly see if the latest backups are successful or not.

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Exploring new VCSA VAMI API w/PowerCLI: Part 10

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In Part 10, we are going to take a look at local user management for the VAMI interface. By default, only the root local user exists but customers have the option of creating additional accounts. In vSphere 6.5, the VAMI has been enhanced to support different roles such as Admin, Operator and SuperAdmin. You can refer to the VAMI documentation on what each of the roles provides.

VAMI UI Area of Focus

There is not a VAMI UI for user management, this is currently only available using the VAMI REST APIs.

VAMI APIs Used

  • GET /appliance/techpreview/localaccounts/user
  • POST /appliance/techpreview/localaccounts/user
  • DELETE /appliance/techpreview/localaccounts/user/{user-id}

PowerCLI Function

Sample Output

To retrieve all VAMI users, use the Get-VAMIUser function. By default, your system will probably only have the root user unless you have already added additional VAMI users.


To create a new user, we will use the New-VAMIUser which requires a few input parameter that should be pretty self explanatory. The role parameter can be one of three values: admin, operator or superAdmin as defined in the VAMI documentation.

Here is an example of creating a new user called lamw:

New-VAMIUser -name lamw -fullname "William Lam" -role "operator" -email "*protected email*" -password "VMware1!"


If we now re-run our Get-VAMIUser command, we should see the new user that we had just created.


To remove a VAMI user, you simply use the Remove-VAMIUser and specify the name of the user you wish to remove. Below is an example of deleting the user we had just created.


One thing to note is that when using the Connect-CisServer cmdlet to interact with the VAMI REST API, it currently does not support connecting with local VAMI users, only SSO users. This is a limitation with the PowerCLI implementation and does not affect direct use of the VAMI REST API or using it through other SDKs. This is something that will be resolved in a future update of PowerCLI, so something to keep in mind as I was scratching my head when trying to use a local user to authenticate.