Exclude classes from discovery outside of Configuration Console (VM Instance specifically)

[Kaylee Price2]

We are looking to exclude vm instances from vsphere discovery, but I want to make sure we do it correctly. I don't see anywhere besides possibly turning off the midserver script file or the probe? vsphere seems to use probes still.

[SK Chand Basha]

Hi @Kaylee Price2 

The exclude IP option only works with IP-based discovery, and since vCenter discovery operates through an API, it doesn't apply.

You could disable the probe that discovers all VMs, but this would require modifying the out-of-the-box sensor script, which is not recommended.

Mark it Helpful and Accept Solution!! If this helps you to understand.

[Kaylee Price2]

Thank you! It turns out we dont have to touch the script. We can add a parameter to one of the probes and it worked! Posting what support told me: The probe which is responsible for VM Data collection is the 'VMWare - vCenter VMs' probe, via the VMWarevCenterVMsProbe script include.

Disabling this probe will prevent the VM data from being collected. vCenter probe parameters allow you to disable the probes for the objects you are not interested in discovering.

In order to disable execution of the VMs probe you would need to add a parameter to the parent probe - VMWare - vCenter Datacenters

The parameter you would add would set would be the disable_vm_probe parameter, setting it to true.

Please note; Before disabling a probe, be aware of any dependencies the probe might have. If the probe you disable triggers another probe, the dependent probe is also disabled, and cannot collect data.

In this case, disabling the VM probe would prevent the VM NICS and VM Tags probes from executing.


This doc covers vCenter probes and probe parameters in more detail;

https://docs.servicenow.com/csh?topicname=vcenter-probes.html&version=latest

I wanted to include this article as well, as it gives a great overview of the vCenter discovery process;

https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0813327