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vRealize Log Insight 4.8 Install & Configure

vRealize Log Insight is a log collection and analytics virtual appliance that enables administrators to collect, view, manage and analyze syslog data. Log Insight provides real-time monitoring of application logs, network traces, configuration files, messages and performance data. This makes any unstructured logs easy to view and organize.

vRealize Log insight delivers heterogeneous and highly scalable log management with intuitive, actionable dashboards, sophisticated analytics and broad third-party extensibility. It provides deep operational visibility and faster troubleshooting across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

Prerequisite

  • Check the Product Interoperability Matrixes here for the VMware products compatibility.
  • Virtual appliance comes pre-configured, when sizing the infrastructure consider the following:
  • Extra small – 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 132 GB disk (thick provisioned)
  • Small – 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 510 GB disk (thick provisioned)
  • Medium – 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 510 GB disk (thick provisioned)
  • Large – 16 vCPU, 32 GB RAM, 510 GB disk (thick provisioned)
  • Log Insight collects data using any of two feeds, these being:
  • The syslog protocol using UDP or TCP over port 514 or TCP (SSL) over port 1514.
  • The VRealize Log Insight Ingestion API using TCP over port 900 or TCP (SSL) over port 9543.
  • vRealize Log Insight can be licensed in packs of operating system instances, per CPU, or as part of vRealize and vCloud suites.

vRealize Log Insight Installation

To install the vRealize Log Insight, Download the ova file from VMware.

Right click on the vCenter Server Cluster in the navigation window and select Deploy OVF Template

Browse to the location of the downloaded OVA file and click Next. Review the template details and click Next.

Configure a name and location for the virtual appliance, click Next.

Select the compute resource on which you want to deploy the Appliance and Click Next.

Review the OVA Template details and Click Next.

Accept the EULA and Click Next.

Select the appropriate deployment configuration and click Next according to your Infrastructure sizing.

Select the Datastore on which you wan to save the Virtual Appliance and Click Next.

Enter the network settings for the virtual appliance and Click Next.

Configure IP Address, Subnet, Gateway, DNS and root password for the appliance and click Next.

Review the summary page and click Finish to proceed with Deployment. You can view the deployment status on Recent Tasks tab

After the deployment power on the appliance, once the configuration is completed, we can see console like below.

Open a web browser and connect to the IP address or FQDN of the newly deployed appliance. The setup wizard will AutoStart, click Next.

As we don’t have any existing deployment Click Start New Deployment.

Enter an email address and new password for the admin user, click Next.

Enter a license key and click Save and Continue.

Configure system notification settings and click Save and Continue.

Enter the NTP server(s) to use and click Test. If the test succeeds click Save and Continue.

Configure the SMTP server to use and click Save and Continue.

Once the setup complete page click Finish.

The vRealize Log Insight appliance is now deployed and can begin collecting data. Now we can configure to collect logs from vCenter Server by clicking vSphere Integration

Enter the connection details of the vCenter Server. To configure only specific hosts to send logs to Log Insight click Advanced options.

Test the connection and when you are ready click Save.

Other administrative menus are located on the left side of the page. The administration page can be accessed at any time by clicking the three-line menu in the top right-side corner of the page.

You can also access the Content Pack Marketplace from this menu. Content packs can be added to collect data from other VMware and third-party products.

To add a content pack select it and click Install, for example to collect NSX logs and events we can install the NSX content pack.

With the collecting logs from vCenter and ESXi hosts we can see the Dashboards by clicking Overview.

For more details on vRealize Log Insight check the below VMware Docs page

https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Log-Insight/index.html

Thanks,

If you have any comments, please drop me a line.
I hope this article was informative, and don’t forget to buy me a coffee if you found this worth reading.



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