Attach a VMware Cloud Foundation deployment as a VMware Tanzu Platform data source

As a Tanzu Platform administrator, to ingest your VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) inventory data into Tanzu Platform hub, you must add a VCF collector. Transferring your inventory data to Tanzu Platform helps you build, run, and manage your applications on VMware Cloud Foundation as well as enhancing the tracking and management of your VMware Cloud Foundation resources.

Supported versions of VMware Cloud Foundation and VCF collector

Tanzu Platform supports the latest VCF collector version.

VCF Collector	VMware Cloud Foundation Environment
1.1.1	VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1 with VMware Aria Operations VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 with VMware Aria Operations

How it works

1. You install the VCF collector on a Kubernetes cluster that is in your VMware Cloud Foundation environment or that has access to your VMware Cloud Foundation environment.
2. You configure the VCF collector with read-only access to the VMware Aria Operations deployment in your VMware Cloud Foundation environment.

3. After the installation, the VCF collector ingests inventory data from VMware Aria Operations into Tanzu Platform for the following VMware Cloud Foundation components:

   • vCenter Server instances
   • Data centers
   • Clusters
   • ESXi hosts
   • Virtual machines
   • vSAN datastores
   • Virtual distributed switches
   • Virtual distributed port groups
   • Resource pools
   • Folders
   • Kubernetes clusters
   • Kubernetes namespaces
   • Kubernetes pods

Install a VCF collector

To add a VCF collector, you install an agent on a Kubernetes cluster and configure it with VMware Aria Operations login details for the data collection.

Before you begin

• Verify that the Kubernetes cluster on which you want to install the VCF collector meets the resource requirements.

  Resource	Limit
  CPU	1
  Memory	1Gi

• Verify that the target Kubernetes cluster is running kubectl.
• Verify that your VMware Aria Operations deployment allows traffic to the VCF collector.

• Verify that you have VMware Aria Operations login details.

  • IP address or FQDN of the VMware Aria Operations node or cluster
  • VMware Aria Operations credentials of a user with at least the ReadOnly role

• Verify that your environment allows outbound traffic from the VCF collector to Tanzu Platform hub.

• Verify that you have the Tanzu Hub Admin service role for the Tanzu Platform cloud services organization.

Step 0: Navigate to the collector installation wizard

1. In Tanzu Platform hub, select Setup & Configuration > VCF Collectors.
2. Click Add New Collector.
3. Select vROPS or vCenter for the collector type.

Step 1: Connect your VMware Cloud Foundation Operations console account

If you selected vRops:

1. In the Collector Name text box, enter a name for the VCF collector.
2. In the VCF Operations Console Username tex box, enter the user name of your VMware Aria Operations account.
3. In the Password and Re-enter Password text boxes, enter the password of your VMware Aria Operations account.
4. In the VCF Operations Console IP/Host URL text box. enter the URL of the VMware Aria Operations node or cluster, https://node-FQDN-or-IP-address.
5. Click Next.

If you selected vCenter:

1. In the Collector Name text box, enter a name for the VCF collector.
2. In the vCenter Admin Username tex box, enter the user name configured with your vCenter.
3. In the Password and Re-enter Password text boxes, enter the password with your vCenter.
4. In the vCenter HostName text box, enter the IP address of the vCenter example: 10.0.0.1
5. Click Next.

Step 2: Install the collector

1. Prepare the Kubernetes cluster on which you plan to install the collector.

   1. If not already installed, install kapp-controller by using the instructions at https://carvel.dev/kapp-controller/docs/v0.50.x/install/#installing-kapp-controller-cli-kctrl.

      Important

      Skip this step if the Kubernetes cluster is managed by Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service (TKG).

   2. Run the following command to download the Carvel dependencies.

      kubectl apply -f https://github.com/carvel-dev/kapp-controller/releases/latest/download/release.yml
      

2. Run the following command to create the vcf-remote-collector namespace.

   kubectl create namespace vcf-remote-collector
   

3. Run the following command to add the VCF collector package repository to the namespace.

   For vROPS:

   Replace <package-version> with the latest supported version of the VCF collector for your environment.

   kctrl package repo add -r remote-collector --url tanzu-platform.packages.broadcom.com/adie/vcf-remote-collector-repo.tanzu.vmware.com:<package-version> -n vcf-remote-collector
   

   For vCenter:

   Replace <repo-version> with the latest supported version

   kctrl package repo add -r remote-collector --url tanzu-platform.packages.broadcom.com/adie/vcf-remote-collector-repo.tanzu.vmware.com:<repo-version> -n vcf-remote-collector
   

4. Create a values.yaml file by downloading or copying the lint code from the UI.

   For vROPS:

   env:
       hostname: ********
       onprem_username: ********
       onprem_password: ********
       lemans_token: ********
       lemans_url: ********
       org_id: ********
       collector_id: ********
       client_id: ********
       client_secret: ********
   

   For vCenter:

   env:
       hostname: ********
       onprem_username: ********
       onprem_password: ********
       lemans_token: ********
       lemans_url: ********
       org_id: ********
       collector_id: ********
       collection_source: vCenter
   

5. Run the following command to get the version of the package (<package-version>).

   kctrl package available get -n vcf-remote-collector -p vcf-remote-collector.tanzu.vmware.com
   

6. Run the following command to install the VCF collector.

   Replace <package-version> with the version from the preceding step.

   kctrl package install -i remote-collector -p vcf-remote-collector.tanzu.vmware.com -v <package-version> --values-file values.yaml -n vcf-remote-collector
   

7. Click Finish.

View your VCF collectors

After the installation completes, you can see the newly added VCF collector on the Setup & Configuration > VCF Collectors page in Tanzu Platform hub.

The VCF Collectors page shows a table list of all VCF collectors in your Tanzu Platform.

Property	Description
Name	The name of the collector.
Type	The type of the collector.
Status	The status of the collector: Ready - the collector is ingesting data into Tanzu Platform. Pending - the collector is trying to establish a connection with the environment.
Version	The version of the vcf-remote-collector package. To upgrade it, see Edit, upgrade, or uninstall a VCF collector.
Creation Time	The date and time when the collector was installed.
Last Updated	The date and time when the collector ingested data for the last time.

Edit, upgrade, or uninstall a VCF collector

To edit or upgrade a VCF collector, you must uninstall it and reinstall a new one with a new configuration or version.

To uninstall a VCF collector:

1. In Tanzu Platform hub, select Setup & Configuration > VCF Collectors.
2. Click the double chevron >> on the left side of the collector to delete, and click Detach.
3. Click Detach to confirm.

View your VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure in Tanzu Platform hub

After you have set up VCF collectors, you can view information about your deployments to VMware Cloud Foundation directly in Tanzu Platform hub.

1. In Tanzu Platform hub, select Infrastructure.
2. Select Search.
3. Select VMware Cloud Foundation from the All Accounts drop-down menu, and search for the IP address of your vCenter Server instance.

All of the Tanzu resources that you have deployed to VMware Cloud Foundation are listed. The map of objects shows the relationships between the different VMware Cloud Foundation services, for example networking, hosts, data centers, and so on. By selecting an object in the map, you see the configuration of that object.

View VCF collector logs

1. Set kubectl to the context of the Kubernetes cluster on which the VCF collector is running.

   kubectl config use-context <cluster-context>
   

2. Obtain the ID of the VCF collector pod.

   kubectl get pods -n vcf-remote-collector
   

3. Use the pod ID to obtain the VCF collector logs logs from the pod.

   kubectl logs -f vcf-remote-collector-deployment-<pod-id> -n vcf-remote-collector