Hardware and software requirements for the Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics

Review the following requirements before you deploy Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics.

Splunk platform version requirements

All of the system requirements for the Splunk platform apply for the Splunk software that you use to run this add-on.

The Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics does not support scheduler and Data Collection Node functions on Windows operating systems. Linux or UNIX are required. When deploying the VMware add-on into a Windows-based Splunk environment, deploy Linux-based virtual appliances from the Splunk-provided OVA image for both scheduler and data collection node roles.

• For Splunk Enterprise system requirements, see System requirements for use of Splunk Enterprise on-premises in the Splunk Enterprise Installation Manual.
• If you're managing on-premises forwarders to get data into Splunk Cloud, System requirements for use of Splunk Enterprise on-premises, which includes information about forwarders.

Current add-on version	Supported versions of vCenter server	Supported versions of Splunk Enterprise
4.2.4	v7.0 and v8.0	8.2.x 9.0.x 9.1.x

Browser support

The Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics supports the following browsers:

• Firefox (latest version)
• Safari (latest version)
• Chrome (latest version)

VMware indexes

Index	Description
vmware-perf-metrics	Stores metrics data from a vCenter server.
vmware-inv	Stores inventory data from a vCenter Server.
vmware-taskevent	Stores task and event data from a vCenter Server.
vmware-vclog	Stores vCenter Server log data.
vmware-esxihost	Stores ESXi host log data.

Data Collection Scheduler requirements

A DCS schedules jobs and manages DCNs that collect data from vCenter Servers. If you're deploying VMware data collection in a distributed search head environment, deploy a DCS on a dedicated Splunk Enterprise instance. You don't have to configure forwarding or receiving on the DCS. To deploy a DCS, see Deploy the Data Collection Scheduler.

Depending on your VMware vSphere environment, you may want to deploy more than one DCS.

These are the requirements to run a Data Collection Scheduler (DCS):

Splunk Enterprise version	Operating system
8.2.x	CentOS 7, RHEL 9
9.0.x	CentOS 7, RHEL 9
9.1.x	CentOS 7, RHEL 9

User account permissions

When you integrate a VMware vCenter Server on a DCS, you have to provide credentials for a user account associated with the vCenter Server on the DCS. The DCS uses the user account credentials to detect ESXi servers in the vCenter Server, and to poll metrics, task, event, and inventory data.

To collect vCenter performance metrics, the user account you provide on the DCS needs to have these permissions:

• System.Anonymous
• System.Read
• System.View

If you provide a user-defined role, it contains the System.Anonymous, System.Read, and System.View permissions even if you don't associate them with the role manually.

The following permissions are required to update the configuration and use Syslog Service on Esxi hosts:

• Global.Diagnostics
• Global.Licenses
• Global.Settings
• Host.Configuration.Change SNMP settings
• Host.Configuration.Hyperthreading
• Host.Configuration.Memory configuration
• Host.Configuration.Network configuration
• Host.Configuration.Power
• Host.Configuration.Security profile and firewall
• Host.Configuration.Storage partition configuration
• Sessions.View and stop sessions

Data Collection Node requirements

Each DCN runs worker processes to collect VMware data from vCenter servers. You can run N-1 worker processes, where N is the number of the DCNs available CPU cores. The DCN requires physical CPU cores, and can't benefit from simultaneous multithreading (SMT). Each worker process can manage 10 ESXi hosts and up to 30 virtual machines per host if the add-on collects default metrics or 15 virtual machines per host if the add-on collects all metrics according to the following guidelines.

Note:When the add-on is installed on Splunk version 8.x and there are more than 8 worker processes configured for DCNs, the hydra gateway server takes a longer time to respond to the request. For best performance and to avoid job expirations, configure no more than 8 worker processes.

Configuration	Standard guideline per worker process
If the add-on collects default metrics (no change in any configuration)	10 ESXi hosts and 30 VMs per ESXi host
If the add-on collects all metrics by configuring host_metric_allowlist and vm_metric_allowlist to .* in inframon_ta_vmware_template.conf When you collect all metrics, the number of metrics and instances might change according to the vCenter Server configuration, so it might require more resources.	10 ESXi hosts and 10-15 VMs per ESXi host

If you deploy a DCN manually, use the operating system CentOS 7 or RHEL 9.

The following are the Splunk platform and operating system requirements to run a DCN if you don't use the Splunk OVA for VMware Metrics. For more information, see About the Splunk OVA for VMware Metrics:

Splunk Enterprise version	Operating system
8.2.x	CentOS 7, RHEL 9
9.0.x	CentOS 7, RHEL 9
9.1.x	CentOS 7, RHEL 9

These are the maximum ESXi hosts and virtual machines a single DCN can manage with the minimum DCN requirements:

ESXi host	Virtual machine
70	1,750

Data volume requirements

In a typical environment, approximately 250 MB and 350 MB of data can be collected per host per day from your environment. This number varies depending on the volume of log data you collect, and the number of virtual machines that reside on a host. See the information below for further details.

Data type	Data volume
vCenter Server logs	15 MB per host per day
ESXi host logs	135-235 MB per host per day
ESXi host API (Inventory)	25 KB per host per day
ESXi host API (Performance)	16 MB per host per day
VM API (Inventory)	250 KB per VM per day
VM API (Performance)	5 MB per VM per day

These data volume readings are based on the default metrics collected by the add-on. The data volume increases based on metrics configuration in inframon_ta_vmware_template.conf.

Version compatibility

vCenter versions 5.x and 6.x are End of Life (EOL).

Compatible Splunk Enterprise version	Compatible Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics version	Compatible vCenter version	Compatible ESXi version	Compatible Splunk Add-on for VMware Metrics Indexes	Compatible Splunk Add-on for vCenter logs	Compatible Splunk Add-on for VMware ESXi logs
7.2.x to 8.0.4	4.0.0	6.0, 6.5, 6.7	6.0, 6.5, 6.7	4.0.0	4.0.0	4.0.0
7.3.x to 8.1.0	4.1.0	6.0, 6.5, 6.7	6.0, 6.5, 6.7	4.1.0	4.1.0	4.1.0
7.3.x to 8.2.0	4.2.0	6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0	6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0	4.2.0	4.2.0	4.2.0
8.0.x to 8.2.0	4.2.1, 4.2.2	6.5, 6.7, 7.0	6.5, 6.7, 7.0	4.2.1	4.2.1	4.2.1
8.0.x to 8.2.x	4.2.3	6.5, 6.7, 7.0	6.5, 6.7, 7.0	4.2.1	4.2.1	4.2.1
8.2.x to 9.1.x	4.2.4	7.0, 8.0	7.0, 8.0	4.2.1	4.2.1	4.2.1