The Skyline Collector virtual appliances are connected to the region-specific management VXLANs, Mgmt-RegionA01-VXLAN and Mgmt-RegionB01-VXLAN, for isolation and co-location with endpoint sources. The networking design also supports administrative access to the Skyline Collector instances and outbound access for each Skyline Collector instance to VMware for diagnostic data analysis.

Figure 1. Networking Design of the Skyline Collector Deployment


Application Virtual Network Design for Skyline Collector

This networking design has the following features:

  • Skyline Collector instances have routed access to the management network through the universal distributed logical router (UDLR) for the SDDC endpoints deployed in the management cluster.

  • Routing to the management network and the external network is dynamic, and is based on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

For more information about the networking configuration of the application virtual networks for Skyline Collector, see Application Virtual Network and Virtual Network Design Example in the Architecture and Design documentation of VMware Validated Design for Software-Defined Data Center.

Table 1. Design Decisions on the Application Virtual Network for the Skyline Collector Instances

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

SDDC-SKY-003

Deploy the Skyline Collector instances on the region-specific application virtual networks.

  • Ensures localized collection of diagnostic data per region if a cross-region network outage occurs.

  • Avoids cross-region bandwidth usage for data collection.

  • Provides a consistent deployment model for management applications.

You must use NSX to support this network configuration.

IP Subnets for Skyline Collector

You can allocate the following example subnets to the Skyline Collector deployment.

Table 2. IP Subnets in the Application Virtual Networks of Skyline Collector

Region

IP Subnet

VXLAN

Region A

192.168.31.0/24

Mgmt-RegionA01-VXLAN

Region B

192.168.32.0/24

Mgmt-RegionB01-VXLAN

DNS Records for Skyline Collectors

Skyline Collector virtual appliance name resolution uses a region-specific suffix, such as, sfo01.rainpole.local or lax01.rainpole.local according to the region deployment. The Skyline Collector instances in the two regions have the following fully qualified domain names registered in DNS.

Table 3. FQDNs for Skyline Collectors

Region

FQDN

Region A

sfo01sky01.sfo01.rainpole.local

Region B

lax01sky01.lax01.rainpole.local

Table 4. Design Decision on the DNS Records for Skyline Collector

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

SDDC-SKY-004

Configure forward and reverse DNS records for each Skyline Collector virtual appliance.

Each Skyline Collector is accessible by using а fully qualified domain name instead of by using IP addresses only.

You must provide forward and reverse DNS records for each Skyline Collector virtual appliance.

External Connectivity

A Skyline Collector instance uses network connections to collect and transfer diagnostic data information securely.

A Skyline Collector instance requires external network connectivity to VMware Skyline to upload diagnostic data. You can use an HTTP proxy server for outbound connectivity, but access to SDDC endpoints must be direct.

Table 5. Design Decision on Network Connectivity for Skyline Collector

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

SDDC-SKY-005

Provide direct or proxied HTTPS access to the external endpoints for Skyline Collector instances.

Skyline Collector instances require outbound network connectivity to the external VMware Skyline systems to upload diagnostic data.

You must provide the Skyline Collector instances with direct or proxied HTTPS access to the external VMware Skyline systems.