Platform and hardware requirements

Splunk App for VMware works on Splunk Enterprise deployed in a *nix environment. Windows is not a supported operating system for this app. See "System requirements" in the Splunk Enterprise Installation Manual. The requirements below must be satisfied to install and run the Splunk App for VMware:

Splunk App for VMware Installation Prerequisites

The Installation Guide assumes the following prerequisites:

• A configured and ready to use Splunk platform environment.
• A search head that runs on a 64-bit Linux operating system. Your Splunk environment can be a single-instance deployment, or a deployment with a dedicated search head and one or more indexers.
• A default Splunk Enterprise configuration with a licensing volume that can support approximately 300MB of data per host per day.
• You are using a supported version of VMware vCenter Server to manage hypervisors. Splunk App for VMware integrates with a vCenter Server and the hypervisors it manages. Environments with Windows-based vCenter and/or Linux-based vCenter Server Appliance are supported. ESXi servers that are not managed through vCenter are not supported.
• You are using a standard deployment configuration. The Installation Guide describes installing Splunk App for VMware with Data Collection Node (DCN) virtual appliances in their standard configuration. See "Set up a data collection node" in the Configuration Guide to learn how to create a custom DCN.

Component version compatibility

See the table below to identify component version compatibility for your Splunk VMware deployment:

Compatible Splunk platform version	Compatible Splunk App for VMWare version	Compatible vCenter version	Compatible vSphere version	Compatible ESXi version	Compatible SA-Hydra version	Compatible SA-Utils version
6.2.0 and above	3.2.1 and above	5.0 and above	4.1, 5.0, 5.0 Update 1, 5.1, 5.5, 5.5a, 6.0 and above.	4.1, 5.0, 5.0 Update 1, 5.1, 5.5 on 64-bit x86 CPUs, 5.5 update 1 and above.	4.0.2 and above	3.5.0

Additional Considerations:

• If you are evaluating Splunk App for VMware and are already using Splunk Enterprise in production, consider installing Splunk App for VMware in a test environment. See "Plan your installation in a test environment."
• See capacity planning according to the guidelines in "Splunk Enterprise capacity planning".
• You can use Splunk App for VMware with Splunk Enterprise deployments that use search head clustering. Contact your sales engineer or Splunk Technical Support for planning assistance.
• If your deployment includes NetApp devices, install and configure Splunk App for NetApp Data ONTAP before you install Splunk App for VMware. See "Prepare your Splunk App for NetApp."

Scheduler requirements

For single deployments of the VMWare app scheduler, refer to Splunk Enterprise's search head hardware recommendations.

Distributed Collection Scheduler requirements

These supporting add-ons support the Distributed Collection Scheduler in the Splunk App for VMware. They are versioned separately to the Splunk App for VMware. It is important to note the versions installed if you have Splunk App for NetApp ONTAP installed as it also uses the Distributed Collection Scheduler. See "Prepare Splunk App for NetApp Data ONTAP".

• SA-Hydra version 4.0.2.
• SA-Utils version 3.5.0.

Supported versions

Splunk App for VMware supports many VMware product versions.

• VMware vSphere versions 4.1, 5.0, 5.0 Update 1, 5.1, 5.5, 5.5a, and 6.0.
• ESXi 4.1, 5.0, 5.0 Update 1, 5.1, 5.5 on 64-bit x86 CPUs, and 5.5 Update 1.
• vCenter Server on a Windows operating system.
• Linux-based vCenter Server Appliance. Collect API data and syslog data using Splunk App for VMware. You can also collect VMware vCenter Server Linux Appliance log data. See "Set up the Splunk App for VMware to collect log data".

Splunk App for VMware supports vCenter Server systems in Linked Mode. Splunk App for VMware collects API data for vCenter Server systems in a linked pool after you add them to the Collection Configuration dashboard in Splunk App for VMware. Splunk App for VMware does not recognize vCenter Servers in a linked pool that are not included in the data collection configuration.

Supported browsers

• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and 10
• Apple Safari
• Google Chrome

Splunk App for VMware does not support Internet Explorer 8 or Internet Explorer 9 Compatibility Mode.