Docs » Supported integrations in Splunk Observability Cloud » Configure application receivers for hosts and servers » VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere πŸ”—

The Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector uses the Smart Agent receiver with the vsphere monitor type to collect metrics from vSphere through the vSphere API.

This integration is available on Kubernetes, Linux, and Windows. You can install it on the same server used by vSphere if it’s running on Linux or Windows.

This integration uses VMware govmomi SDK, which officially supports vCenter 6.5, 6.7, and 7.0. While this monitor might work with vCenter 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0, these versions are not officially supported. Photon Operating System is not supported.

Note

When you add a custom role, don’t assign any privileges to it. The role is created as a read-only role with three system-defined privileges: System.Anonymous, System.View, and System.Read. For more information, see the vSphere official documentation on user roles.

Caution

VMware does not allow any modifications to their Virtual Appliances, including vCenter.

Benefits πŸ”—

After you configure the integration, you can access these features:

Installation πŸ”—

Follow these steps to deploy this integration:

  1. Deploy the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector to your host or container platform:

  2. Configure the integration, as described in the Configuration section.

  3. Restart the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector.

Configuration πŸ”—

To use this integration of a Smart Agent monitor with the Collector:

  1. Include the Smart Agent receiver in your configuration file.

  2. Add the monitor type to the Collector configuration, both in the receiver and pipelines sections.

Example πŸ”—

To activate this integration, add the following to your Collector configuration:

receivers:
  smartagent/vsphere:
    type: vsphere
    ...  # Additional config

Next, add the monitor to the service.pipelines.metrics.receivers section of your configuration file:

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [smartagent/vsphere]

See the following example with extended config options:

receivers:
  smartagent/vsphere:
    type: vsphere
    host: hostname
    username: user
    password: pass
    insecureSkipVerify: true
exporters:
  signalfx:
    access_token: abc123
    realm: us2
service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers:
        - smartagent/vsphere
      exporters:
        - signalfx

Configuration settings πŸ”—

The following table shows the configuration options for the vsphere monitor:

Option

Required

Type

Description

host

No

string

Hostname or IP address of the vSphere instance. For example,

127.0.0.1.

port

No

integer

Port of the vSphere instance. The default value is 0)

username

No

string

vSphere username.

password

No

string

vSphere password.

insecureSkipVerify

No

bool

Controls whether a client verifies the server’s certificate

chain and host name. The default value is false.

inventoryRefreshInterval

No

integer

Controls how often to reload the inventory and inventory

metrics. The default value is 60s.

perfBatchSize

No

integer

Controls the maximum number of inventory objects to be queried

for performance data per request. Set this value to 0 to request performance data for all inventory objects at a time. The default value is 10.

tlsCACertPath

No

string

Path to the CA certificate file.

tlsClientCertificatePath

No

string

Path to the client certificate. Both tlsClientKeyPath and

tlsClientCertificatePath must be present. The files must contain PEM encoded data.

tlsClientKeyPath

No

string

Path to the keyfile.

vmHostDimension

No

string

The host dimension value set for monitored VMs. The options are

ip (default value, the VM IP if available), hostname (the VM Hostname if available) , and disable (the vsphere monitor does not set the host dimension on the VM metrics).

To report metrics for a vSphere deployment, this monitor logs into a vCenter Server and retrieves data about the deployment and real time performance data on a regular interval. When the monitor first runs, it logs in to the vCenter Server and traverses the inventory, gathering and caching all of the hosts and virtual machines and their available metrics.

After the initial sweep, the monitor queries the vCenter for performance data and metrics. This query runs every 20 seconds, which is the interval at which the vCenter makes real time performance data available. As a result, regardless of the intervalSeconds value in the agent configuration, this monitor runs every 20 seconds.

The monitor also refreshes, at a configurable interval, the cache of hosts, virtual machines, and metrics. By default, this refresh takes place every 60 seconds; however, this interval can be changed by updating the configuration field InventoryRefreshInterval.

Metrics πŸ”—

The following metrics are available for this integration:

Notes πŸ”—

  • To learn more about the available in Splunk Observability Cloud see Metric types

  • In host-based subscription plans, default metrics are those metrics included in host-based subscriptions in Splunk Observability Cloud, such as host, container, or bundled metrics. Custom metrics are not provided by default and might be subject to charges. See Metric categories for more information.

  • In MTS-based subscription plans, all metrics are custom.

  • To add additional metrics, see how to configure extraMetrics in Add additional metrics

Troubleshooting πŸ”—

If you are a Splunk Observability Cloud customer and are not able to see your data in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can get help in the following ways.

Available to Splunk Observability Cloud customers

Available to prospective customers and free trial users

  • Ask a question and get answers through community support at Splunk Answers .

  • Join the Splunk #observability user group Slack channel to communicate with customers, partners, and Splunk employees worldwide. To join, see Chat groups in the Get Started with Splunk Community manual.

This page was last updated on Oct 04, 2024.