After installing vRNI the first thing most people will want to add as a data source is their vCenter. This post outlines the steps to add vCenter as a data source. If you haven’t installed vRNI I have a previous blog post covering it here.
All the screenshots shown below are with vRealize Network Insight 5.3.
vRNI Initial Setup
Start by logging into the web interface for the Platform VM. It should simply be http://”Platform VM FQDN or IP”
You’ll be prompted for a username and password. This admin account was configured during the setup of the Platform VM right after activating the license. In the username field enter admin@local followed by the password.
You can choose to join the Customer Experience Improvement Program or not. Make your selection and click Submit.
You’re then presented with a brief overview of vRNI. You can click through using the Next button. All 4 screens showed below for reference.
On the last screen you can choose to turn on the Self Service option which will provide you a step by step list of what you should do to get started with vRNI. You’ll see below what it looks like and it can be closed at any time using the ‘x‘ in the bottom right corner of the screen. If you close it and want to see the list again simply click the graduation cap that appears in the lower right of the screen.
For almost everyone you start by adding your vCenter server to the collection within vRNI. Keep in mind you do need vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS) to collect flow data. It doesn’t mean every host or every network has to be on VDS to add the vCenter. You can only see details of the flow data for workloads attached to the VDS. All other data points appear as an IP address with no context.
On the Welcome screen click VMware vCenter. If you are not on the welcome screen and are on the main vRNI dashboard simply navigate to Settings > Accounts and Data Sources where you can select VMware vCenter.
For the Collector VM drop down select the Collector(Proxy) VM you previously installed. The chosen collector will be used to gather the data from your vCenter server. If you have multiple then select the one you intend to have gathering vCenter Server flows. Next enter your vCenter Server FQDN or IP followed by the Username and Password. I’m using an account that has administrative privileges in vCenter. To check the specific permissions required check the documentation here.
Click Validate to make sure the vRNI can communicate with vCenter.
After clicking Validate it is best to Enable NetFlow (IPFIX). This does enable NetFlow at the VDS level in vCenter, but does not impact any workloads.
You can select which VDS, if you have multiple, to enable NetFlow collection on. Finally enter a Nickname for your vCenter Server and click Submit.
You should see a Success message and can then click Finish.
Now you’ll be presented with the main dashboard. There won’t be any data to look at yet. vRNI needs some time to collect flows. Some data will start showing within an hour, but I typically wait at least 24 hours to start looking at flows.
You may see a notification that the “System Events Notifications” are not enabled, as shown below in yellow. You can choose to enable these now or later. If you click Enable it will take you to the System Events so you can see what you are enabling.
Take some time to review these and modify them accordingly. For reference here is the documentation listing the System Events
If you’d like to go add other vCenter Servers you can do that or even add other data sources to collect flows from. You can add your NSX Managers, VMC on AWS cloud, or even your physical firewalls and network gear. Just click on the gear icon in the upper right corner then to Settings > Accounts and Data Sources > Add Source. Another way to get to settings is to type “Settings” in the vRNI search bar.
The official documentation for adding various data sources can be found here. Be sure to check that your data source is supported and has the proper requirements met. Below are the Data Sources you can choose from.
At this point vRealize Network Insight 5.3 is installed and collecting flow data from your vCenter(s). Time to check out all the awesome data it can show you.
Thanks for reading!