Collector Installation for vCenter Guide
Detailed instructions on how to install a new data collector on a selected infrastructure.
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Detailed instructions on how to install a new data collector on a selected infrastructure.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Collector Installation (6fusion_Doc.v03)
The server you choose for the Collector installation must meet the following requirements:
Your Collector is a small < 1MB application, download link sent by email
Installed on either Windows or Linux (physical or virtualized)
Application with these recommended specifications: 8GB RAM, 4 CPU, 3.5GB Disk
For Linux: Collector is required to run as root
Install Collectors on new machines (preferably), physically-close to the devices it will monitor.
Outgoing https connection (TLS on port 443) (proxies are supported), with 24/7 connectivity.
VMware vCenter: user account and password required with read-only access, with vCenter Statistics Collection set at Level 2 or higher
Networking (Cisco, etc): access should be confirmed for relevant ports, etc.
For Windows: to collect data from Windows hosts, the Collector must be installed on Windows
For Windows: run with administrator account (need local admin credentials to run Collector services)
Collector Size & Best Practices:
Large. This Collector will consume approximately 8GB of system memory and is capable of monitoring roughly 2000 (Linux Collector) or 750 (Windows Collector) Resources.
Minimum Recommended Disk Space for Collectors
Although the Collector operates in memory, certain operations- particularly caching- do require a small amount of available disk space on its host. The exact amount of required storage is highly variable and dependent of several factors such as Collector size, configuration, NetFlow usage, number of Collector logs, etc. Nevertheless, here are a few examples of required disk space based on these factors:
A brand new installed Collector will use about 500MB.
At most, Collector logs will use 800MB.
Temporary files (ie. upgrade files) will use less than 1,500MB.
Report cache data will use less than 500MB by default (this figure represents 30 minutes of cached data for a Large Collector)
In total, this means Collector disk usage will be, at most, up to 3.5GB.
Collector Install Options
Two main types of installation methods are supported:
64 bit Linux – (See Installing a Linux Collector section below)
64 bit Windows - (See Installing a Windows Collector section below)
vCenter Required Account information
Please provide the following VMware vCenter Information to complete the setup:
vCenter IP Address –>
vCenter Username ID –>
vCenter Username PASS ->
The installation process will consist of joint efforts by 6fusion and the customer:
Customer will create a new VM for the Collector and install either Linux or Windows Server.
Customer will create a new VMware user account for the collector. (See Prerequisites above)
Customer will be connected to the new Linux or Windows Server.
6fusion will initiate the Collector installation process by sending you links to download the Collector.
Customer will use the links provided to download and install the new Collector.
6fusion will verify that the new Collector is online and reporting properly.
6fusion will complete the configuration of the new Collector remotely.
6fusion will enable heartbeat alerting to track the Collector’s uptime and health.
6fusion will send notification emails confirming Collector installation is completed.
If vCenter is integrated with Active Directory (AD), you will find a group in vCenter that has a corresponding group in AD -
Create a user with read-only permissions.
Add it to the corresponding AD group. (If Required)
Use the format of username@domain (e.g. logicmonitor@company.com) with its password.
If vCenter is not integrated with AD -
Navigate to the Home page in vCenter.
Click on the Users and Groups
Create a new user formatted as user@vsphere.local (e.g. logicmonitor@vsphere.local) with password.
We recommend using Linux Ubuntu Server 18.04.4 LTS version for the Linux Machine - you can find information and downloads on the following link below -
You will be sent the cURL command to run during the installation process. The process involves 6fusion starting the installation process and generating a secure installation token and then providing it to you to complete the download and install on your Linux server.
In Linux environments, the Collector install must run as root. The primary reason for this requirement is that the Collector services need direct access to the networking stack for the ping collection method to function properly. You can also use the SUDO command if you are not logged in with the ROOT user account.
Step 1 - SSH into your new Linux server
Step 2 - Download bootstrap file by running the cURL command – <provided by 6fusion>
Step 3 - Change permissions to include execute – chmod +x <downloaded file name> Example:
Step 4 - Install collector - ./<downloaded file name> Example:
Step 5 - 6fusion will verify the collector is running properly and reporting data
Step 6 - 6fusion will complete the collector configuration remotely
Collector Hostname
How is the Collector's hostname set?
For Linux, the Collector will run either a "hostname -f" or "hostname" command to identify the hostname. If both commands fail, "localhost.localdomain" will be used.
To install a Windows Collector:
6fusion will provide you with a downloadable link to to the Windows Collector Exe file.
Once you've downloaded the installer, open it. This will start the Install Shield Wizard on Windows. The Install Shield Wizard will extract the binary and prompt you for credentials.
These credentials will correspond to the account that the Collector will run under. If other Windows systems will not be monitored by this Collector, you can run the services as Local System.
Otherwise, consider specifying a domain account that is a local administrator for all the Windows computers to be monitored with a password set not to expire. Running the Collector in this context greatly reduces the likelihood of authentication issues, as the account should be able to access and query all monitored computers.
If the computer hosting the Collector is not part of a domain, it is recommended that you run the Collector service as a local administrator account.
The supported Windows credentials are:
Collector and monitored resources in domain, Collector running as domain account with local administrator privileges.
Collector and monitored resources not in domain, Collector running as local administrator account, and connecting to each host with local administrator credentials.
After you've successfully installed the Collector on your Windows server, let 6fusion know it was installed successfully.
6fusion will then verify that the Collector can communicate properly with the 6fusion environment.
6fusion will then create a new Device on the Collector that will enable vCenter monitoring with the vmware account and password you provided.
Collector Hostname
How is the Collector's hostname set?
For Windows, the hostname is a combination of the DOMAIN and COMPUTER NAME
Next, we've compiled some helpful troubleshooting tips for Windows and Linux Collectors.
NSCD
The Collector makes a lot of DNS queries (to resolve the hosts it is monitoring, and to determine which servers to report data to.) While running nscd is a good idea, you should make sure that the nscd you run respects positive DNS TTLs. For example, on Redhat ES/CentOS, glibc-2.5-24 and earlier does not respect DNS TTLs correctly, so ensure you are running a later version, or disable nscd. This is important both for updates to your own hostnames that are monitored, but also if nscd returns a stale record for an hour, this would impact your monitoring.
SE Linux
sestatus
If you are having monitoring problems on your Linux box and SE Linux "current mode" is set to "active", "enabled", or "enforcing" status, please use the following command to see if it alleviates your monitoring problems:
setenforce Permissive
In permissive mode, more denials are logged because actions that would otherwise be denied in enforcing mode are allowed. As such, you may be able to run the Collector services in permissive mode and use the SELinux logs to identify the permissions that need to be enabled. Once you've done so, you should enable the necessary permissions and then use "setenforce 1" to put SE Linux back into enforcing mode.
Error 1069
A common error encountered for Windows Collectors is error 1069:
Error 1069: The service did not start due to a logon failure.
Although this error can be temporarily addressed by reentering the password for the service account, it will fail some hours later. In order to permanently address this error, the account must be assigned user rights to "log on as a service" from the computer's Domain Policy.
To assign the "log on as a service" user right to the Collector service account and update the policy…
Go to Administrator Tools | Group Policy Management.
Right-click on Default Domain Policy and click Edit from the context menu that appears.
From the Default Domain Policy folder tree, navigate to Windows Settings | Policies | Security Settings | Local Policies | User Rights Assignment | Log on as a service.
From the Log on as a service Properties page, check the Define these policy settings option and click the Add User or Group button to add the Collector service account to the policy.
Once the Collector service account is added and applied from the Default Domain Policy settings, force the group policy update by executing "gpupdate /force" from the Collector machine's command prompt.
Assuming the policy is updated to the Collector's machine, you should be able to successfully restart the Collector service. Go to Task Manager | Services, right-click on logicmonitor-agentand click Restart</strong from the context menu that appears.
Customer will set the vCenter Stat levels to Level 3 for 5 min readings ()
Note: Please make sure to enable the - Save for 1 day - Level 3
For certain Linux distributions (Redhat, CentOS, Fedora) may be enabled, which poses additional permissions hurdles for the Collector to achieve reliable monitoring. You may use the following command to query SE Linux for its current mode (enabled + enforcing or passive/disabled/permissive):
