Configuring NetMRI Collectors
- Viktoryia Varapayeva (Deactivated)
Recommended NetMRI Operations Center deployments use the following:
- A physical NetMRI appliance as the central node (termed the Operations Center), and one or more virtual machine-based NetMRI nodes that operate as data collectors across the managed network;
- A NetMRI virtual appliance as the central node (termed the Operations Center), and one or more virtual machine-based NetMRI nodes that operate as data collectors across the managed network
This chapter describes how to install and set up NetMRI virtual appliances to operate Collectors as part of a larger Operations Center environment.
Note
When you deploy NetMRI Collectors, the Collectors themselves do not run Discovery. Discovery is done through the Operations Center after the collectors are registered to the Operations center.
Infoblox partners and customers download and run at least one instance of NetMRI as a virtual appliance within a VMware server. The virtual appliance comes bundled with all required system components, simplifying installation. The NetMRI instance is called a Collector.
Each Collector is separately licensed and configured to operate as part of the NetMRI Operations Center environment.
As a virtual appliance, NetMRI dynamically scales with Virtual Machine resources for CPU, memory, and disk allocations, allowing greater flexibility than a traditional hardware appliance. VMs also may be easier to deploy and manage as data collectors than hardware appliances.
Note
Any NetMRI appliance, whether virtual or physical, can operate as a Collector. The working assumption in this guide is that NetMRI VMs are being deployed as Collectors.
A NetMRI virtual appliance is ideal for customers seeking to do the following:
- Deploy an Operations Center to collect data from multiple remote NetMRI This is the optimal application for NetMRI Operations Center.
- Take advantage of the benefits of running a virtual appliance to reduce data center footprints and provide scalability to
- House multiple NetMRI Collectors on one VM server, or distribute NetMRI Collectors to VMware servers reflecting the existing topology of their
Because VMware installation parameters and hardware configurations vary, this section presents configurations that have worked well for NetMRI installations, outlines general best practices for VMware installations, and provides full instructions for setting up NetMRI virtual machines to act as Collectors in the NetMRI Operations Center.
Note
The hardware on which NetMRI runs should be supported by an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to avoid data corruption problems should there be a power outage.