Install on VMware vSphere

ImageOVA
InventoryvCenter API
FlowsNetFlow from Distributed vSwitches
Durationabout 30 minutes

Watch the whole installation

This video goes through every step of this page: deploying the OVA, setting the appliance, connecting the vCenter and configuring NetFlow on the Distributed vSwitches.

Before you start

You need:

  • the DC Netscope OVA, downloaded from easyvirt.com,
  • a vCenter account DC Netscope will read the inventory with. A read-only account is enough and recommended,
  • Distributed vSwitches carrying the traffic you want to see: standard vSwitches cannot export NetFlow,
  • an IP address for DC Netscope, or a DHCP network,
  • these network openings:
Flow From To Port
Web interface Your users DC Netscope 443/tcp
Inventory DC Netscope vCenter 443/tcp
NetFlow ESXi hosts (Distributed vSwitches) DC Netscope 9000/udp

Deploy the OVA

In the vSphere Client, right-click the cluster or the host that will run DC Netscope, choose Deploy OVF Template... and select the OVA file. Follow the wizard: name, compute resource, storage and network.

The Customize template page of the wizard holds the settings of the appliance, described in the next step.

Set the network and the administrator account

On the Customize template page of the wizard:

  1. Network: choose dhcp, or static and fill the IP address, the netmask, the gateway and the DNS server. The static fields are ignored in dhcp mode.

    Network settings of the appliance

  2. Administrator account: give the email and the password of the first administrator of DC Netscope. The password is also the one of the root account of the virtual machine.

    Administrator account of the appliance

Finish the wizard and power on the virtual machine. After a few minutes, its console shows the address of DC Netscope: open https://<DC Netscope address> in your browser and log in with the account you just defined.

Changing these settings later

Power off the virtual machine, then edit Configure > vApp Options in the vSphere Client.

vApp options of an existing virtual machine

See Appliance settings for all the settings.

Connect your vCenter

DC Netscope reads the inventory of the vCenter to name the virtual machines and the hosts behind the addresses it sees in the flows.

  1. Open the administration interface, and go to the Services tab.

    Services tab

  2. In Connected infrastructures, choose vCenter, type the address of the vCenter, the user and the password, and click Add a new connector.

    Add a vCenter

  3. Check that the status of the vCenter is green.

    Status of the vCenter

Repeat for every vCenter of your infrastructure.

Send the flows of the Distributed vSwitches

Each Distributed vSwitch exports its flows, and each of its port groups must have NetFlow enabled.

  1. In the vSphere Client, open Networking, right-click the Distributed vSwitch and choose Settings > Edit NetFlow.

    Edit NetFlow

  2. Set the Collector IP address to the address of DC Netscope and the Collector port to 9000.

    NetFlow collector

  3. For each port group of the switch: right-click it, choose Edit Settings, then Monitoring, and set NetFlow to Enabled.

    Edit the port group

    Enable NetFlow on the port group

Note

A port group that does not have NetFlow enabled sends nothing: the virtual machines connected to it will be missing from DC Netscope.

Check that the flows arrive

Open the Dashboard. Within a few minutes, the collect summary shows the traffic received from the Distributed vSwitches, and the flows of your virtual machines appear with their names.

Summary of the collect

Nothing shows up? Check that 9000/udp is open from the ESXi hosts to DC Netscope, that NetFlow is enabled on the port groups, and have a look at the troubleshooting page.

Next steps