In last post of this series we had a look on deployments steps of the Platform and Proxy VM. In this post we will configure the vRNI deployments and will see what kind of data the dashboard presents to user.
If you have missed earlier posts of this series, you can read them from below links:
1: Introduction to vRealize Network Insight
Lets begin with configuring the appliance.
Login to vRNI appliance by typing https://<IP or FQDN of the platform appliance> in your browser.
First we have to add a data source. To do so click the settings button on the top right corner as shown below.
Click on Add new source button
From the drop down menu select vCenter server as source type.
Fill in the vCenter details and click on validate.
As a best practice, I like to use service accounts for components communication. I have added an account and configured the role in vCenter.
Once you click on validate button, you will see a green check mark which tells you that vCenter has been added successfully.
Once the details are validated, all the available VDS are listed and you have the option to enable NetFlow on the vCenter. If you want to enable it, select the required options and click on Submit.
Now you will see your vCenter Server listed under Data Source
Next is to add NSX manager. Note that the NSX manager should be registered to the vCenter server which you just added.
Fill up the details of NSX manager and click on verify.
I have also enabled NSX controller cluster and also edge gateway (Don’t want to miss any NSX related details). Click on submit after filling up relevant details.
Now Our NSX manager has been also added as Data Source.
Additionally you can deploy more platform nodes if you are looking for a clustered architecture for vRNI in your environment. This can be done from Install and support menu option on the top.
Apart from that you can add Syslog server/Mail server for email notifications/SNMP settings and LDAP server for centralized authentication and role based access.
Now I am able to see data started populating in my dashboard.
And vRNI already started reporting issues in my environment.
Now its time to play around various options available within the dashboard and explore this product more.
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