Configure vCenter alarms for "VMFS heartbeat timeout" VMkernel Observations(VOB) message

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When ESXi detected a datastore heartbeat timeout, a event was reported on the vobd.log file.

Example:

--/var/run/log/vobd.log

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(14) vobd[2097763]:  [vmfsCorrelator] 614045975024us: [esx.problem.vmfs.heartbeat.timedout] ########-########-####-############ Test_Datastore

Environment

VMware vSphere 7.x

VMware vSphere 8.x

Cause

If it's plan to trigger the vCenter alarm for this event, it could be added by manually.

Resolution

Follow the steps mentioned below to register the alarm manually:

1. Navigate to vCenter Server -> Configure -> Alarm Definitions

2. Click Add

3. Input alarm name "VMFS volume connectivity degraded" or "VMFS heartbeatbeat timeout".

4. Choose the "Target type" as Hosts and click Next

5. In the "Alarm Rule1" page, Input "esx.problem.vmfs.heartbeat.timedout" as the trigger condition.

6. Select severity as "Show as Critical"

7. Optionally, you can configure email notification or SNMP traps or running any script whenever such alarm is triggered

8. Click Next

9. In the Review page, verify if the alarm rules is set correctly and make sure the "Enable this alarm" option is enabled.

10. Click CREATE.