All MIBs › VMWARE-HEARTBEAT-MIB
Organization: VMware, Inc
Last Updated: 2016-02-10
Category: VMware Virtualization
Description: Monitors VMware virtual machine heartbeat status and guest agent responsiveness.
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What Is VMWARE-HEARTBEAT-MIB?
VMWARE-HEARTBEAT-MIB is a VMware-specific module that implements a simple "reverse poll" heartbeat mechanism for guest systems whose SNMP agents cannot be polled normally by a management station. Rather than exposing a rich set of tables, its primary content is the vmwHbNotifications trap group, through which a guest agent periodically signals that it is alive and responsive. This is explicitly a monitoring aid for software status — it lets a management platform detect a hung, crashed, or unresponsive virtual machine guest by the absence of an expected heartbeat trap rather than by active polling. It stands alongside other VMware MIBs (such as VMWARE-RESOURCES-MIB) as part of VMware's broader SNMP instrumentation, though it addresses guest liveness specifically rather than hypervisor resource stats. It is deployed in virtualized data centers where VMware guest agents send periodic heartbeat traps to an NMS to confirm guest OS responsiveness. Network engineers evaluating or troubleshooting this functionality can download the VMWARE-HEARTBEAT-MIB file directly to load it into their MIB browser.
IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in VMWARE-HEARTBEAT-MIB. Use the built-in SNMP Monitoring Browser to explore available variables, view their current values and descriptions, and select the objects you want to monitor. You can then create SNMP monitors, configure thresholds, and receive alerts when monitored values change.
Supported Devices
- VMware virtual machine guest
- VMware ESXi/vSphere managed VM
Monitoring Examples
The module's substantive content is the vmwHbNotifications trap group under the vmwHb root; there are no polled data tables to walk. An NMS operator configures a trap receiver to watch for the heartbeat notification and alerts if it fails to arrive within the expected interval, indicating the guest agent (and likely the guest OS) has become unresponsive or crashed. Because monitoring here is event-driven rather than poll-driven, standard SNMP GET/WALK operations against this MIB return little beyond the conformance/compliance/group definitions (vmwHbMIBConformance, vmwHbMIBCompliances, vmwHbMIBGroups).
What Can Be Monitored
- guest heartbeat/liveness signal
- guest agent responsiveness (via absence of heartbeat)
Imported Objects
From SNMPv2-CONF
| MODULE-COMPLIANCE | |
| NOTIFICATION-GROUP |
From SNMPv2-MIB
| sysUpTime | OBJECT-TYPE |
From SNMPv2-SMI
| MODULE-IDENTITY | |
| NOTIFICATION-TYPE |
From VMWARE-ROOT-MIB
| vmwProductSpecific | OBJECT-IDENTITY |
OIDs
RFC description
Provides reverse polling for VMware SNMP agents through periodic heartbeat notifications for cimom indication delivery confirmation.
Start monitoring VMware virtual machine guest, VMware ESXi/vSphere managed VM (guest heartbeat-liveness notification status) with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.