Data Collector Components
Data collection requires the following configuration steps for the components described below.
1. On the Portal Server:
• Create a Data Collector in the Portal to enable the Portal server to receive data from the Data Collector server.
• Add subsystem-specific Data Collector Policies.
2. On the Data Collector Server:
• Add the Portal IP address to the Local Hosts file on the Data Collector server or on any available client with web-browsing capabilities. Note: Only edit the local hosts file if a DNS entry hasn’t already been set up in your enterprise to resolve both http://hbsmportal.yourdomain.com and http://hbsmagent.yourdomain.com to the Portal IP address.
• Install the Data Collector software.
• Run the checkinstall script to validate connectivity.
Portal Server
The Portal server runs the Data Receiver, which serves as the recipient of the collected data. The Reporting Database also resides on this server.
Data Collector Configuration in the Portal
In the Portal, you must first create a Data Collector and then populate it with product-specific or host data collection policies (see
Data Collector Policy Configuration in the Portal). A single Data Collector can be installed for multiple capacity, fabric, virtualization, file analytics, and backup products. This Data Collector configuration in the Portal contains the configuration details for communicating with the corresponding Data Collector Server.
Data Collector Policy Configuration in the Portal
A Data Collector Policy provides the configuration details required to communicate with a subsystem to retrieve data that will be stored in the Storage Viewer database. These details are specific to the vendor of the enterprise object from which data is collected. Prior to creating Data Collector Policies, a Portal Data Collector must be created.
Data Collector Server
This is the virtual machine (recommended) or physical server on which the Data Collector software is installed. After installing the Data Collector software on the Data Collector server, run checkinstall to validate connectivity.
Data Collector Software on the Data Collector Server
This software component, installed on the Data Collector Server, interfaces with each of the supported subsystems to extract meta-data about the underlying environment. For example, backup data can include job details and tape inventory information. In the case of Storage Viewer for Capacity, the Data Collector communicates with the storage arrays in your SAN (Storage Area Network) to collect meta-data.