VMware Aria Operations for Logs placement of collector VM [6.14.1]

[aenagy]

The documentation has this to say about placement of Aria Ops for Logs platform and collector VMs:

Can you have platform VM in different regions?
No, we require the Platform nodes to co-located be in the same site. The collector servers can be geo-distributed.[REF1]

Q1: If a vCenter instance manages ESXi hosts in many different locations/sites/regions, i.e. 180, then does each site with a host require a Ops for Net collector VM, or only where the vCenter instance is located?

References:

1. VMware Aria Operations for Networks 6.14 - Clustering - Installing and Configuring
   https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/aria/aria-operations-for-networks/6-14/vrealize-network-insight-frequently-asked-questions-6-14/clustering-main/clustering-install-and-configure.html

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[Shen88]

@aenagy,

Each site with ESXi hosts typically requires its own VMware Aria Operations for Networks (Ops for Net) collector VM to ensure reliable data collection and optimal performance.

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If you find this answer right, please 'Recommend' this post.

Thank you!

Regards,
Shen
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[aenagy]

@Shen88:

Q1: Does the Ops for Net Collector communicate directly with the ESXi hosts?

Q2: If so then that means deploying 180 (1 per site) Ops for Net Collectors. Have I got that right?

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[vmotiontheinfo]

Hi There 

The answer to your question depends upon what kind of Data you are trying to fetch via Ops for Network. It provides 2 types of Data

1. Inventory Data : Ops for Network get this data using vCenter APIs. If you are interested in this data, you don't need to deploy collectors VMs separately and a central collector VM will be able to do this job.
2. Flow Data: 5 Tuple flow which you would get via NetFlow / IPFix enabled on VDS on each ESXi Host. This is required for flow / traffic analysis which is basically the real use-case of Ops for Net. I would recommend to group your 180 sites into geographic regions. Deploy a Hub-Spoke topology for collectors, as in have 1 collector in a Hub site for each region and configure the ESXi hosts in the "Spoke" sites to send IPFIX to their nearest Regional Collector. Before going ahead with this topology, I would recommend you to open a Support Ticket with Broadcom / VMware to understand about other parameters, like acceptable latency between sites, etc

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