RMI Security with Remote Collectors

vRealize Operations Manager can use remote collectors to distribute data collection across multiple data centers. However, the use of remote collectors has several security implications.

To connect the remote collector to vRealize Operations Manager, you must publicly expose the RMI interface of vRealize Operations Manager. No authentication is performed on connections to this interface. An attacker can exploit this interface to retrieve data, send rogue data, and potentially take control of vRealize Operations Manager.

In addition, the connection between the remote collector and vRealize Operations Manager is not encrypted. An attacker can potentially gain access to data sent from a Horizon Adapter instance to vRealize Operations Manager. This data includes configuration information for any Horizon Adapter instance on the collector, the server key, and the vCenter Server that the adapter uses.