Free, open source, light interface to manage Vmware ESXi hosts and Hyper-V.
gCenter is a bundle of

• SSH information gatherer for Esxi
• Windows Services (for Hyper-V, to allow WMI query execution)
• web interface to let you view, list and manage virtual machines and hosts

Small to Medium installation of Vmware ESXi hosts (for example an internal "Lab" that does not require DRS or similar advanced feature).
Mixed installation of ESXi and Hyper-V environment.
Enabling basic support team (ServiceDesk or L1) to operate a virtual enviroment without SystemCenter or vCenter complex interface.

Or for any installation that does not want to pay licenses for management software:

• ESXi is free
• Hyper-V core is free and with gCenter you can list and manage vms on different host, completely free.

• apache
• php
• mariadb
• sshpass (actually the only method to connect to ESXi host is with sshpass, future improvement soon)
• hyperv-wmi-http-adapter-service (windows service to enable gCenter to connect to Hyper-V hosts)

a. download project from repo
b. import db_schema.dump in your mariadb database
c. create virtualhost that point to the ./website subfolder
d. configure conf/db.php to point to your mariadb instance with the gcenter scheme imported on point "b"
e. insert FIRST login user into the db, for example, to start using the gCenter you can create the first admin user : username : admin password : password

insert into users values ('admin', md5('password'), 'email.address@domain.com' );
insert into roles values ('admin', 'ADMIN', '*' );

f. other users could be added/deleted using the Setting->Users feature g. by default newly created users are VIEWER, you can define specific roles for specific resource and user with the Settings->Roles feature in the web interface.

ESXi
i. schedule the gatherer to get information from your ESXi hosts.
Here the example of a crontab entry to query your ESXi hosts every 5 minutes, assuming that the gCenter was installed in folder /var/www/gCenter/

# m h  dom mon dow   command
*/5 * * * * cd /var/www/gCenter/gatherer/; php /var/www/gCenter/gatherer/gather.php > /tmp/gatherer.log 2>&1

ii. you can insert ESXi host(s) using the Settings->ESXi hosts feature in the web interface

Hyper-V
i. schedule the gatherer to get information from your Hyper-V hosts.
Here the example of a crontab entry to query your Hyper-V hosts every 5 minutes, assuming that the gCenter was installed in folder /var/www/gCenter/

# m h  dom mon dow   command
*/5 * * * * cd /var/www/gCenter/gatherer/; php /var/www/gCenter/gatherer/hyperv-gatherer.php > /tmp/hyperv-gatherer.log 2>&1

ii. install on the Hyper-V host(s) the hyperv-wmi-http-adapter-services. Please read installation instructions in the adapter folder.
iii. you can insert Hyper-V host(s) using the Settings->Hyper-V hosts feature in the web interface

Housekeeping and data retention
An housekeeping procedure is provided.
i. configure data retention for "registry" data (like host, datastore, vm informations) and performance data (eg: cpu and memory usage) simply by editing the file

conf/db.php

ii. schedule the housekeeping scripts in crontab once a day, at your preferred timing.
Here the example of a crontab entry to run everyday at 2:01 AM

# m h  dom mon dow   command
1 2 * * * cd /var/www/gCenter/gatherer/; php /var/www/gCenter/gatherer/housekeeping.php > /tmp/housekeeping.log 2>&1

Vmware ESXI Created gatherer scripts to collect data into the database for:

• esxi hosts informations
• vm
• vm config
• vm runtime informations
• vm resource usage statistics
• vm snapshots
• datastores
• datastore content

Microsoft Hyper-V Created gatherer scripts to collect data into the database for:

• Hyper-V hosts informations
• vm health status informations and power state
• vm snapshots

Defining roles
  You can define user and resource-based privileges.
  Please read ROLES.md file

Vmware ESXI

• login with username and password (note: actually ROLE is not yet implemented - everyone could operate on all resources)
• poweron/poweroff/reboot vms
• take vm snapshot
• list esxi information (software, hardware, etc)
• list vm for each esxi host
• check vm cpu and memory statistics/graphs
• list datastore for each esxi host
• list and take vms snapshots
• list datastore content (filesystem tree)
• list vswitch/portgroup informations
• list network interfaces and porgroup assignation
• list vm disks

Micrososft Hyper-V

• hyperv-wmi-http-adapter-service windows service to interface WMI
• collect hosts informations
• collect vms informations
• poweron/poweroff vms
• listing vms snapshots
• taking vms snapshots
• list vm network interface and vswitch connections
• listing virtual switches
• check vm cpu and memory statistics/graphs

2023-11-28 Feature : added esxi vm disk gatering and listing on web interface
2023-10-23 Feature : added hyper-v host creation/deletion from web interface
2023-10-22 Feature : update Hyper-V wmi agent to version 1.0.7 with vm network port and vswitch informations (require updating .exe file on all Hyper-V hosts)
2023-10-16 Feature : added virtualswitch listing on Hyper-V wmi agent (require updating .exe file on all Hyper-V hosts)
2023-09-27 Feature : added esxi hosts creation/deletion from web interface
2023-09-27 Feature : added user creation/deletion
2023-09-27 Feature : event logging
2023-09-27 Feature : added support for SNAP_MGMT roles (plus some bugfix about roles)
2023-09-17 Feature : added support for ROLES (see ROLES.md file for more details)
2023-09-14 Feature : added "open console" on ESXi virtual machines and "open ESXi host web UI" on ESXi host
2023-09-14 Bugfix : fixed housekeeping script to apply data retention
2023-06-20 Feature : added housekeeping script in gatherer/housekeeping.php to keep tables size under control
2023-06-20 Feature : added VM network interfaces and portgroup details
2023-06-14 Feature : added vswitch and portgroup gatherer feature
2023-05-21 Feature : added Hyper-V vm ram/memory usage feature/graph
2023-05-20 Feature : added Hyper-V vm cpu load feature/graph
2023-05-17 Feature : added Hyper-V 'list vm snapshots' feature
2023-05-14 Feature : added Hyper-V 'take vm snapshot' feature
2023-05-14 Feature : minor bugfixes
2023-05-11 Feature : added Hyper-V virtual machine memory details
2023-05-07 Feature : added Hyper-V virtual machine power management
2023-05-05 Feature : added listing Hyper-V vms and hosts
2023-05-04 Feature : added hyperv-wmi-http-adapter-service, that need to be installed on Hyper-V hosts
2023-05-04 Feature : added hyper-v gatherer for virtual machines informations
2023-05-04 Feature : added hyper-v gatherer for hosts informations
2023-03-27 Feature : added summary view to see all hosts and all vms
2023-03-27 Bugfix : Modified styles and added version in login page
2023-03-22 Feature : added vm hard reboot
2023-03-22 Feature : added login with username and password
2023-03-10 Feature : added get datastore content (file and directories) in the gatherer and implemented datastore info table in UI
2023-03-09 Feature : added get vm snapshot in the gatherer and implemented snapshot table in UI.
2023-01-01 Feature : Created gatherers and single-page interface to display structure and host informations.
2023-01-04 Feature : released VM poweroff/poweron
2023-01-22 Feature : released "Take snapshot" feature
2023-01-25 Feature : added vm runtime and configuration informations.
2023-01-25 Feature : added vm statistics runtime collection