vROPS Custom properties to monitor VMs NSX-T TAGs

I’m using NSX-T Tags to add group members for my DFW rules and I wanted to track the NSX-T TAG assignment/unassign changes, also I would like to get vROPS report/dashboard based on the NSX-T TAG along with other vSphere VM properties. To make it easy, I have created NSX-T tags as custom properties for Virtual Machine resource kind in vROPS. I have a powercli script created to update the vROPS NSX-T custom properties, the script also included in this article. If I schedule the script to run every day then the NSX-T manager tag changes will be updated in in vROPS custom properties.

Fig 1

Fig 1, I have two NSX-T tags are in my NSX-T Manager and these are assigned to vrops01 and vrops02 VM’s in my NSX-T manager. These tags are used for my group membership and DFW rule.

Fig 2

Fig 2, the NSX-T tags are visible in vSphere Virtual machine object as custom properties and I can see when the TAG assigned/removed to this VM.

Fig 3

Fig 3, A view created to display the TAG status, I can use this view to create a report or dashboard alone with other VM properties/metrics. The VM’s assigned the TAG in NSX-T will have the value 1 and the value 0 for if the VM is not assigned with this NSX-T tags(vrops-icmp-disable, vrops-ssh-disable)

# server names and authentication information

$nsxt_username = "username"                     
$nsxt_password = "password"
$nsxtFQDN ="site-a-nsx.domain.local"
$esxiHost = $null

$vcFQDN="site-a-vc01.domain.local"
$vc_username="username"
$vc_password="password"


$vropsFQDN="vrops.domain.local"
$vrops_username ="username"
$vrops_password="password

$nsxtTags=@("vrops-ssh-disable", "vrops-icmp-diable") # NSX-T tags name needs to be updated in vROPS
$clustername="Site-A-Compute"                         # VM's in teh cluster will get assigned the NSX-T TAG cutome properties in vROPS
$nsxtTagVMs=[System.Collections.ArrayList]@()


$PWord = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $nsxt_password -AsPlainText -Force
$Credential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $nsxt_username, $PWord

# TO get the VM's assigend with teh tag from NSX-T manager
Function getNSXTTagVMs()
{
param(
[Parameter (Mandatory = $false)] [String]$nsxtTag
     )

$headers = New-Object "System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[[String],[String]]"
$headers.Add("Content-Type", 'application/json')
$headers.Add("Accept", 'application/json')
$uri = "https://{0}/policy/api/v1/infra/tags/effective-resources?tag={1}" -f $nsxtFQDN,$nsxtTag
$res = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Headers $header -Method 'GET' -Authentication:Basic -Credential $Credential -SkipCertificateCheck

foreach($nsxtRes in $res.results)
{
   
   $nsxtTagVMs.add($nsxtRes.target_display_name)
}
}

# Update the TAG as custom properties along with status to the VM Resource Kind provided to this function
Function setvROPSNSXTTag()
{
    param(
[Parameter (Mandatory = $false)] [String]$vmName,
[Parameter (Mandatory = $false)] [String]$tag,
[Parameter (Mandatory = $false)] [String]$value
     )
Write-Host($vmName + " " + $tag + " " + $value)
$vmRes = Get-OMResource -name $vmName -ResourceKind VirtualMachine
 
$customProperties = New-Object VMware.VimAutomation.VROps.Views.PropertyContents
$customProperty = New-Object VMware.VimAutomation.VROps.Views.PropertyContent
$customProperty.StatKey = "nsxt-tag|"+$tag
$customProperty.Values = @($value)
$customProperty.Timestamps = 1605764821000
$customProperties.Propertycontent = @($customProperty)  
$vmRes.ExtensionData.AddProperties($customProperties)
$customProperty = $null
$customProperties = $null
$vmRes = $null
}

Connect-VIServer $vcFQDN -User $vc_username -Password $vc_password
Connect-OMServer $vropsFQDN -User $vrops_username -Password $vrops_password
$clusterVM = get-cluster $clustername | get-vm 

# Loops runs for every NSX-T mentioned in the array variable nsxtTags
foreach($nsxtTag in $nsxtTags)
{
    
    getNSXTTagVMs -nsxtTag $nsxtTag
    
foreach($vm in $clusterVM)
{
# Loops runs for every VM in the mentioned vSphere Cluster and update the respective NSX-T tag and status in vROPS custome properties
   if($nsxtTagVMs.contains($vm.name))
    {
       setvROPSNSXTTag -vmName $vm.name -tag $nsxtTag -value 1

    }
    else
    {
       setvROPSNSXTTag -vmName $vm.name -tag $nsxtTag -value 0
    }
   $nsxtTagVMs.Remove($vm.name)
}

}
Disconnect-OMServer $vropsFQDN -confirm:$false
Disconnect-VIServer $vcFQDN -confirm:$false