Installation overview

Installation of the Splunk OVA for VMware and Splunk Add-on for VMware are prerequisites for the Splunk App for VMware. The Splunk App for VMware cannot be installed using a GUI.

Splunk App for VMware package contents

The Splunk App for VMware contains the following components:

• SA-Threshold
• SA-VMware HierarchyInventory
• SA-VMware LogEventTask
• SA-VMW Performance
• Splunk for VMware
• SA-VMNetAppUtils

Install components

The table shows where to install the individual components of Splunk App for VMWare in your distributed environment.

Component	Search head	Scheduler	Indexer	Data Collection Node (DCN)	ESXi log forwarder	vCenter log forwarder
Splunk_for_vmware	x
Splunk_TA_vmware		x		x
Splunk_TA_esxilogs	x		x		x
Splunk_TA_vcenter	x		x			x
SA-VMW-HierarchyInventory	x
SA-VMW-LogEventTask	x
SA-VMW-Performance	x
SA-Hydra	x	x		x
SA-VMNetAppUtils	x
SA-Threshold	x
SA-VMWIndex			x
TA-VMW-FieldExtractions	x

SA-Hydra, Splunk_TA_Vmware, Splunk_TA_esxilogs, Splunk_TA_vcenter and SA-VMWIndex, and and TA-VMW-FieldExtractions are contained in the Splunk Add-on for VMware package on Splunkbase.

Forwarding vCenter application logs to syslog, an intermediate forwarder, or directly to a Splunk indexer is supported for 6.x versions of vCenter server. As of vCenter 6.x, installing a forwarder on your vCenter server for log forwarding is not necessary or recommended.

The installation of SA-VMNetAppUtils on your license server is optional if your Splunk platform deployment does not use a license server. If your search head handles licensing then SA-VMNetAppUtils should already be installed on your search head.

Component reference

Refer to this table to see the Splunk App for VMware components that are installed and where the components get installed in the Splunk Enterprise and VMware infrastructure.

Component name	Description
Search head	If you have a dedicated search head, install all of the components except Splunk_TA_vmware and SA-VMWIndex on it. Install SA-Hydra and SA-VMNetAppUtils on distributed deployments. Installation of all components on the search head lets you view a complete working version of the app.
Scheduler	Manages jobs. If you use SHC in your Splunk platform environment, run the scheduler on a separate machine from your SHC members.
Indexer	Install SA-VMWIndex dedicated indexer.
Data Collection Node	The data collection node OVA ships with all components installed. To build your own data collection node, see create your own data collection node in Splunk OVA for VMware.
Esxi host	Install the log forwarding technology on the ESXi host. If you use an intermediate heavy forwarder to forward logs, install Splunk_TA_esxilogs on the forwarder.
vCenter server	Only install the log forwarding technology on the vCenter server. If you use a universal forwarder or light forwarder to forward vCenter logs, install Splunk_TA_vcenter on it as it contains scripts that configure the inputs.conf.
License Master	See "Configure a license master" in the Splunk Enterprise admin manual.