The purpose of this blog post is to provide the guidance and the steps needed to install, setup, and configure a VMware Skyline Collector. Release notes can be found here and the VMware Skyline Collector User Guide can be found here.
- Download the VMware Skyline Collector appliance here. At the time these instructions were put together, v3.4.0 was the current version. Click on Go To Downloads to proceed:
- Select Download Now:
- If you’re not already logged into the VMware Customer Connect portal with your VMware credentials, you’ll be prompted to do so:
- Once you’ve read through the VMware General Terms, please select the radio box next to I Agree to the terms… and then select Accept.
- The OVA appliance will begin to download to your local machine:
- Log into your vSphere environment:
- Right-click the host you’d like to deploy the OVA appliance to and select Deploy OVF Template:
- When prompted to select an OVF template, select the Local File radio button, then click on Upload Files and navigate to the location to where the OVA was downloaded to,followed by Next:
- Enter a name for the Skyline Collector and then select Next:
- Select the desired Compute Resource and then select Next:
- Review the details and then select Next:
- Accept the License Agreement and then select Next:
- Select your desired Datastore for storage including the preferred Virtual Disk Format, and then select Next:
- Select your desired VM Network. Since this will be deployed in a test\home lab environment, the default settings will remain. Select Next to proceed:
- Enter a password for the Root account and then select Next:
- Review the configuration and select Finish to deploy the OVA:
- The OVF deployment begins and can be tracked under Recent Tasks:
- Once it has been successfully deployed, right-click the VM and select Power followed by Power On:
- To access the new Skyline Collector, open a web browser and enter the IP address assigned to the Collector in the address bar:
- Please keep in mind, the username is admin, and the default password is default. You will be prompted to change the password immediately:
- Once you’ve logged in successfully with the new password, you will be prompted to complete each step found in the image below:
- Next, you’ll need to provide the Collector Registration Token with your respective Cloud Services Organization. To get the token from the Cloud Services Portal, you will need to login to the Cloud Portal with an account that has the Skyline Admin Role. Without this role, you will not even see the register button (see page 3 of https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Skyline/services/user-guide.pdf for more info). Once the token is provided in the field below, select Register Collector followed by selecting Continue:
- Next, provide a Friendly Collector Name and then select Continue:
- You now have the option to enable the Auto-Upgrade option to install any future Skyline updates automatically:
- The last required step in the Initial Configuration process is to add your vCenter Server including the account username and password used to access the vCenter Server. Please keep in mind the vCenter account must include minimum required privileges that are sufficient to collect product usage data and transferring log bundles with log assist and they include vCenter Server Read-Only role, Global.Diagnostics, Global.Health, Global.Licenses, Global.Settings, and Host profile.View:
- It will take 24-48 hours for environment data to fully populate in the Skyline cloud portal.
- The remaining steps (not documented here) are optional.
If I have missed anything or if you have any suggestions, please let me know.
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