Before you begin using VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS), you must install a Cloud Proxy or a Cloud Native Collector.

Note: Before you install Cloud Proxy or Cloud Native Collector, make sure to follow the port requirements. See Port Requirements of Cloud Proxy and Cloud Native Collector.

Cloud Proxy

Important:

The Cloud Proxy is deprecated. You can continue to use your existing Cloud Proxy configurations, but there will be no new feature updates to the Cloud Proxy.

A Cloud Proxy receives log and event information from monitored sources and sends it to VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) where it can be queried and analyzed. You can use a Cloud Proxy for on-premises vCenter VM instance with a lower bandwidth (up to 100 MBps).

There are two initial setup tasks for Cloud Proxy.
  • Deploy a Cloud Proxy.

    VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS) includes the Cloud Proxy as a .ova file for you to download and install, typically on a vCenter virtual machine.

    For more information, see Deploy a Cloud Proxy for VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS).

  • Configure event forwarding for the Cloud Proxy.

    After the Cloud Proxy is in place, you must configure your data sources and protocol settings to forward events to the Cloud Proxy. Several protocols are supported, including syslog, rsyslog, syslog-ng and others. Use of the VMware Aria Operations for Logs ingestion API and agent are also supported.

Cloud Native Collector

The Cloud Native Collector is a Docker container that can be installed on any cloud VM. It provides log aggregation and configuration management, and can be configured to forward logs to VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS). You can use a Cloud Native Collector for an AWS or Azure VM instance with a higher bandwidth (greater than 100 MBps).

You can install a Cloud Native Collector on an AWS EC2 instance, an Azure VM, or a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) VM instance.

For more information, see Deploying a Cloud Native Collector for VMware Aria Operations for Logs (SaaS).