Release notes for Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics

Version 4.2.4 of the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics was released on September 13, 2023.

What's New

These features apply to Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.2.4. For compatibility information, see Data collection planning and requirements.

New feature or enhancement	Description
Compliance with Splunk advisory	The application has been updated to match the changes in Splunk as described in https://advisory.splunk.com/advisories/SVD-2023-0606. See the advisory to update the Splunk version to leverage these changes.
Support of private key encrypted SSL Certificates	The Data Collection Node now supports SSL certificate with an encrypted private key

Version 4.2.3

These features apply to Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.2.3. For compatibility information, see Data collection and planning requirements in the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics manual.

New feature or enhancement	Description
Javascript Vulnerability Fixes	Version 4.2.3 of Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics is now has the fix of javascript vulnerabilities. This makes the Add-on more secure by fixing known cross-site scripting (XSS) related vulnerabilities as well as vulnerabilities created by object prototype pollution.

Version 4.2.2

These features apply to Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.2.2 . For compatibility information, see Data collection planning and requirements in the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics manual.

New feature or enhancement	Description
Performance Improvement	Reduces the wait time of the hydra gateway server endpoint when the Job queue is empty. Refer to upgrade steps from Upgrade from Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.2.1 to version 4.2.2. If you are a new user, refer to Deploy Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics v4.2.2 and its dependency TAs.

Version 4.2.1

These features apply to Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.2.1. For compatibility information, see Data collection planning and requirements in the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics manual.

New feature or enhancement	Description
Self-service installation compatibility	The Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics is now available for self-service installation in cloud environments. The following packages have been removed from the add-on package and published as an individual apps in Splunkbase in order to support self-service installation in cloud environments: Package New Splunkbase name Version Splunk_TA_esxilogs Splunk Add-on for VMware ESXi Logs 4.2.1 Splunk_TA_vcenter Splunk Add-on for vCenter Logs 4.2.1 SA-VMWIndex-inframon Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics Indexes 4.2.1
jQuery 3.5 compatibility	The Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics is now updated to use jQuery v3.5.0. The Add-on will use the jQuery v3.5 in the Splunk version 8.2 or higher. This makes the Add-on more secure by fixing known cross-site scripting (XSS) related vulnerabilities as well as vulnerabilities created by object prototype pollution.

Please refer to upgrade steps from Upgrade from Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.0.0 or 4.1.0 to version 4.2.0. If you are new user, then please refer to Deploy Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics v4.2.1 and its dependency TAs.

Version 4.2.0

These features apply to Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.2.0. For compatibility information, see Data collection planning and requirements in the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics manual.

New feature or enhancement	Description
Addition of the default performance metrics for host and VM	The following performance metrics are added to the default performance metrics list: Host performance metric: mem.average.usage.percent (indexing metric_name: vsphere.esxihost.mem.usage) VM performance metric: disk.average.usage.kiloBytesPerSecond (indexing metric_name: vsphere.vm.disk.usage)
Addition of hierarchy inventory data	Version 4.2.0 collects hierarchical data of vCenter entities as a part of inventory data. The hierarchy inventory data is used by visualizations in the Splunk Add-on for VMware.
Removal of biased language	Occurrences of biased terms, including whitelist, blacklist, master, and slave, have been replaced with appropriate non-biased terms. These changes do not include references to Splunk Enterprise terminology or product terminology. The following parameters from the inframon_ta_vmware_collection.conf file in the Splunk_TA_vmware_inframon package have been renamed: host_instance_whitelist > host_instance_allowlist vm_instance_whitelist > vm_instance_allowlist cluster_instance_whitelist > cluster_instance_allowlist managed_host_blacklist > managed_host_excludelist managed_host_whitelist > managed_host_includelist host_instance_blacklist > host_instance_denylist vm_instance_blacklist > vm_instance_denylist cluster_instance_blacklist > cluster_instance_denylist perf_entity_blacklist > perf_entity_denylist In addition, in the the vCenter configuration, you'll see inputs for Included hosts and Excluded hosts instead of Whitelisted hosts and Blacklisted hosts, to allow/block the performance data collection of certain hosts present in the vCenter server.

The field alias functionality is compatible with the current version of this add-on. The current version of this add-on does not support older field alias configurations.

Version 4.1.0

These features apply to Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.1.0. For compatibility information, see Data collection planning and requirements in the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics manual.

New feature or enhancement	Description
Data collection through the add-on	Performance data of vCenter, Cluster, Datastore, ESXi Host, and virtual machines are ingested into the metrics index. Inventory, tasks, and events data of VMware vSphere are ingested into the events index. By default, add-on only collects certain fields of performance and inventory data. However, these performance fields/metrics are configurable using the <entity>_metric_allowlist into inframon_ta_vmware_template.conf.
Metrics allowlist/denylist to filter performance data	You can filter the performance metrics/fields of vCenter, Cluster, ESXi Host, and Virtual machines by configuring the respective <entity>_metric_allowlist and <entity>_metric_denylist in the inframon_ta_vmware_template.conf. For more information, see Configure Metrics Allowlist/Denylist to filter performance data collection.
Datastore performance metric collection	Performance data for VMware datastore metrics are ingested into the metrics index. The datastore performance fields are the required inventory fields (Capacity, FreeSpace, Used Percent), so the metrics allowlist/denylist functionality is not supported for datastore entities.

Version 4.0.0

These features apply to Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version 4.0.0. For compatibility information, see Data collection planning and requirements in the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics manual.

New feature or enhancement	Description
FIPS compliance and Python compatibility	The Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics is FIPS compliant and is compatible with Python 2 and 3.
Coexistence with Splunk Add-on for VMware configuration	Existing Splunk Add-on for VMware users can install the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics on the same scheduler, indexer, and search head instances. The DCN instance for both add-ons needs to be different.
Collection Configuration page	You can configure the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics using the Collection Configuration page.
Data collection through the add-on	Performance data of vCenter, Cluster, ESXi Host and virtual machines are ingested into the metrics index. Inventory, tasks and events data of VMware vSphere are ingested into the events index. By default, add-on only collects certain fields of performance and inventory data. These fields are the default fields.
Data visualization	You can use the latest version of SAI to visualize the data collected by Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics.

Upgrade from Splunk Add-on for VMware version 3.4.7

The Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics collects performance data of vCenter servers, Clusters, ESXi hosts and virtual machines in the metrics index. The data collected and transformed by the add-on can be visualized using Splunk App for Infrastructure (SAI).

To upgrade to the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics, see Upgrade from Splunk Add-on for VMware version 3.4.7.

Upgrade from Splunk VMware Add-on for ITSI version 1.1.1

The ITSI installation package for version 4.4.x and 4.5.x includes the vmware_ta_itsi parent directory which contains components you need to deploy VMware data collection for SAI. If you're using this version of the add-on, see Upgrade from Splunk VMware OVA for ITSI version 1.1.1 for upgrade instructions.

Fixed Issues

This version of the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics has the following reported fixed issues. If no issues appear below, no issues have yet been reported.

Known Issues

This version of the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics has the following reported known issues and workarounds. If no issues appear below, no issues have yet been reported.