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External Monitoring#

Overview#

This page describes how to integrate VergeOS with external monitoring and observability platforms. VergeOS is API-first and exposes platform health, performance, and hardware sensor data through three supported paths.

SNMP is not supported

VergeOS does not include an SNMP agent, MIB, or trap mechanism. SNMP was designed in the late 1980s for managing hardware network devices, such as routers, switches, and printers, not modern software-defined platforms. VergeOS is API-first: every metric and resource an SNMP agent would expose is already available through the REST API and the Prometheus Exporter, which provide richer structured data over standard HTTP. This mirrors the broader industry shift, with Microsoft deprecating the SNMP service in Windows Server 2012, and cloud-native and hypervisor platforms standardizing on the Prometheus exposition format. If your legacy monitoring tool requires SNMP, see SNMP-First Tools below for the available workarounds.

Supported Monitoring Paths#

Path Use For Audience
Prometheus Exporter (ioMetrics) vSAN, cluster, and node metrics Recommended starting point for most environments
REST API Custom collectors, polling any resource Tool-specific integrations, scripted checks
IPMI Per-node hardware health and sensors Hardware-level monitoring outside VergeOS

Prometheus Exporter (ioMetrics)#

The VergeOS Prometheus Exporter (ioMetrics) is the recommended path for platform-level metrics. It collects vSAN tier, cluster, and node-level metrics from VergeOS and exposes them in standard Prometheus format, ready for scraping by Prometheus, Grafana, VictoriaMetrics, or any Prometheus-compatible system.

  • First-party — maintained in the verge-io organization
  • Standards-based — any Prometheus-compatible monitoring tool can consume the output

See the Prometheus Exporter (ioMetrics) page for the in-product overview, exposed metrics, and links to the open-source project.

REST API#

The VergeOS REST API exposes every resource the UI can read, which makes it the right path for custom collectors, scripted health checks, or integrating with tools that don't speak Prometheus.

Authentication#

External monitoring collectors are long-running and should authenticate with an API Key rather than a session token. API Keys are created per user and can be IP-scoped and given an expiration. See API Keys for setup and the API Guide for the full list of supported authentication methods.

Swagger Documentation#

The complete, version-accurate API reference is available inside VergeOS:

  1. Click the user icon in the top-right of the VergeOS UI.
  2. Select System.
  3. Select API Documentation.

The Swagger page lists every table and operation, with examples that can be run directly against the system.

Where to Start

For background on HTTP conventions, filtering, sorting, and example requests, see the API Guide in the knowledge base.

When to Use the REST API for Monitoring#

  • The monitoring tool supports HTTP polling but not Prometheus
  • A specific metric or resource is not exposed by the Prometheus Exporter
  • A custom collector is needed to integrate with an in-house observability platform

IPMI#

For per-node hardware health and sensor data — temperature, fan speed, voltage, power draw, hardware errors — VergeOS surfaces the node's IPMI interface directly.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Nodes from the top menu.
  2. Double-click the desired node to open the node dashboard.
  3. Under the IPMI submenu, click Connect to open the IPMI web interface in a new tab, or Test to verify connectivity from VergeOS.

Hardware-Only

IPMI exposes the physical hardware state of a host node — not VergeOS application-layer metrics. Most monitoring platforms already include IPMI collectors that can poll the node BMCs directly, in parallel with the Prometheus Exporter and REST API paths above.

For configuring stored IPMI credentials and testing connectivity, see the IPMI page.

SNMP-First Tools#

Tools such as SolarWinds, LogicMonitor, PRTG, and Nagios are often configured to monitor infrastructure over SNMP. VergeOS has no turnkey integration for these tools because there is no SNMP agent to point them at.

Check for Native Prometheus Support First

Some of these platforms now ingest Prometheus metrics natively — LogicMonitor (OpenMetrics DataSource) and SolarWinds Observability (Prometheus integration). If your platform is one of them, point it at the Prometheus Exporter and skip the rest of this section. The two options below cover tools that don't speak Prometheus — including the on-prem SolarWinds Platform / SAM, PRTG, and Nagios.

Option 1 — Custom REST Collector#

Most enterprise monitoring platforms allow custom HTTP/REST collectors:

Platform Mechanism
SolarWinds API Poller (SAM)
LogicMonitor Scripted DataSource (Groovy / HTTP)
PRTG HTTP XML/REST Custom Sensor
Nagios check_http / custom plugin

Point the collector at the VergeOS REST API, authenticate per the API Guide, and parse the JSON response. This is the lowest-overhead path — no intermediate process to maintain, and the collector talks directly to the source of truth.

Option 2 — Prometheus-to-SNMP Bridge#

If the monitoring tool only speaks SNMP and a custom collector is not an option, the community pattern is to run the Prometheus Exporter and place a Prometheus-to-SNMP bridge in front of it. The bridge re-exposes Prometheus metrics as SNMP OIDs that an SNMP poller can scrape.

Not Verge-Supported

Prometheus-to-SNMP bridges are community projects and are not built, tested, or supported by Verge. We do not endorse a specific bridge — the choice depends on which subset of Prometheus metrics needs to be re-exposed and how the downstream tool consumes SNMP. Treat this path as a stopgap, not a long-term integration.

Choosing a Path#

Scenario Recommended Path
New monitoring deployment, no existing tooling commitment Prometheus Exporter + Grafana
Existing Prometheus / Grafana / VictoriaMetrics stack Prometheus Exporter
Monitoring tool that polls HTTP but not Prometheus REST API custom collector
Hardware health (temperature, fans, power) IPMI
SolarWinds / LogicMonitor / PRTG / Nagios (SNMP-first) Custom REST Collector preferred, Prometheus-to-SNMP Bridge as a fallback

Next Steps#

  • Prometheus Exporter (ioMetrics) — in-product overview and links to the open-source project
  • API Guide — authentication, HTTP conventions, and example requests
  • IPMI — testing connectivity, managing credentials, and accessing the IPMI web interface

Documentation and Resources#

Resource Description
vergeos-exporter Open-source Prometheus exporter for VergeOS
Prometheus Documentation Upstream Prometheus docs
Grafana Documentation Building dashboards on Prometheus metrics