Wecker

What is Wecker?

Wecker is a solution which enables automatic startup and shutdown of the entire VMware vSphere virtualization environment. It also provides continuous monitoring of the VMware vSphere environment and alerting functionalities.

Wecker was designed for customers who:

  • have a VMware vSphere environment working with unstable power supply. If you have a VMware vSphere environment with VMware vSphere HA enabled, there is no way of orderly stopping and starting the environment in case of a power outage. Using Wecker, it is possible to stop the entire VMware vSphere environment using a single command.
  • want to automate starting and stopping of the entire VMware vSphere environment for any reason. Reasons, among others, could be any of the following: planned maintenance, IT services startup test, disaster recovery testing etc.
  • want to have an independent and from all other systems separated, effective and cheap monitoring system with alerting functionalities.
If a power outage occurs, you can (automatically, using UPS software or manually through Wecker Control Panel), run single command which will gracefully stop entire VMware vSphere environment. Using a preconfigured order, Wecker will stop all virtual machines (including VMware vCenter server and other system virtual machines), place VMware ESXi hosts into maintenance mode and power off VMware ESXi hosts.

After power is restored, Wecker will exit VMware ESXi hosts from maintenance state, check for datastores availability and start virtual machines. System virtual machines such as VMware vCenter server, database for VMware vCenter server etc. are started directly on VMware ESXi hosts. Once VMware vCenter server has been started, Wecker will connect to it and continue the starting process using connection to VMware vCenter server.

Wecker can even start your VMware ESXi hosts using Wake On LAN if your UPS does not support “power on” groups, thus preventing VMware ESXi hosts to start before the storage system.

You can test start and stop operations without impact on production.

Wecker is distributed as:

  • Rasperry Pi SD card image which you can use to run Wecker on Raspberry Pi 3 B+
  • VMware vSphere virtual appliance which you can import into your VMware vSphere environment

Monitoring functionalities of Wecker are accomplished through a separated solution called “Companion“. When you purchase Wecker, you get it in a bundle with Companion.

Companion monitors availability, performance and utilization of the VMware vCenter server, VMware Site Recovery Manager, ESXi hosts, datastores (including VSAN datastore) and network interfaces. It checks alarms, latest log data, VM snapshots status, VMware tools status and many other key elements in the VMware vSphere environment.

If a change in alarms occurs, or if some of the objects in VMware vSphere environment become unavailable, Companion will send you an e-mail alert with latest logs retrieved from VMware vSphere.

In normal everyday scenario, Companion generates daily, weekly and monthly reports with all relevant data formatted for easy identification of potential problems.

All features
  • Virtual machines automatic startup
  • VMware ESXi hosts automatic startup (using Wake On LAN)
  • Virtual machines automatic shutdown
  • VMware ESXi hosts automatic shutdown
  • Virtual machines and VMware ESXi hosts remote shutdown (possibility to run shutdown from remote system e.g. UPS using single command)
  • Testing without impact on production
  • Continuous VMware vSphere environment monitoring
  • E-mail alerting
  • Daily, weekly, monthly report (overall VMware vSphere health information)
Compatibility

Wecker has been tested with following VMware vSphere versions:

  • VMware vSphere 6.0
  • VMware vSphere 6.5
  • VMware vSphere 6.7
  • VMware vSphere 7.0

Wecker requires VMware vSphere Essentials edition and above (VMware vCenter server is required).

Trial and purchase

Feel free to download the products, documentation and trial keys on downloads page.

You can use the product in trial mode until you are sure it is the right choice for you.

If you want to purchase a product, feel free to contact us at info@quaddons.com or using the contact form.

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