# VMware vCenter
## Prerequisites:
VMware vCenter is a management software to manage and monitor VMware vSphere virtual infrastructure environments. CloudFabrix's RDA supports integrating with VMware vCenter through it's API interface to collect the inventory on-demand or on schedule basis.
* Supported VMware vCenter versions are 5.5, 6.x and above.
* User account with 'read-only' access permissions for all of the Virtual Infrastructure objects (Datacenter, Cluster, ESXi Host, Virtual Machine, Datastore, Resource Pool etc)
## Creating an user account with read-only permissions for API access:
**Step 1**: Login to VMware vCenter web client using a supported web browser with an user account which has enough privileges to create a new account and set the read-only permissions for all Virtual Infrastructure objects.
**Step 2**: Click on '**Menu**' and click on '**Administration**'.
**Step 3**: Click on '**Users and Groups**' on left menu, click on '**Users**', select domain as '**vsphere.local**' and click on ' **Add User**' button.
**Step 4**: Enter user account details as shown below and click on **Add** button.
**Step 5**: Click on '**Menu**' and click on '**Home**' button.
**Step 6**: Click on '**vSphere Cluster**' icon and click on '**vCenter**' object on left and click on '**Permissions**' tab and click on '**+**' button.
**Step 7**: Under '**vsphere.local**' domain, enter 'readonly' user account which was created above and select the '**Role**' as '**Read-only**' and click on '**OK**'.
## Adding VMware vCenter as Datasource/Extension in 'RDA':
VMware vCenter or any other datasource/extension's configuration is configured in RDA's user interface. Login into RDA's user interface using a browser.
**https\://\:9998**
Under '**Notebook**', click on '**CFXDX Python 3**' box
In the '**Notebook**' command box, type **`botadmin()`** and **`alt (or option) + Enter`** to open datasource administration menu.
Click on '**Add**' menu and under **Type** drop down, select **`vmware-vcenter`**
* **type**: Datasource/Extension type. In this context, it is '**vmware-vcenter**'
* **name**: Datasource/Extension label which should be unique within the RDA
* **Hostname:** VMware vCenter's IP Address or DNS name
* **Username**: User account that was created with 'read-only' permissions
* **Password**: User account's password
Click on '**Check Connectivity**' to verify the network access and credentials validity. Once it is validated, click on '**Add**' button to add the vCenter as datasource.
## VMware vCenter data exploration in '**RDA**':
Once VMware vCenter integration details are configured in the RDA's as datasource, it will be ready to connect to VMware vCenter instance and explore the data for the analysis.
* Run the below command to check and verify network access to VMware vCenter instance using the read-only user account's credentials entered within the RDA's datasource configuration. The '**status**' output should show as '**OK**'
```
check vcenter
```
```
> tags vcenter
or
> bots vcenter
```
* Run the below command within the **RDA CLI** to list the available '**Tags**' or '**Bots**' for VMware vCenter extension. In this example, the VMware vCenter extension is labelled as '**vcenter**' which will be referenced within each applicable tag name.
{% hint style="info" %}
Each listed '**tag**' starts with a special character (i.e. **\*** or **#** or **@**) and each hints about **tag's** filtering capability. For more information abut them, please refer to "[**RDA Terminology**](https://docs.cloudfabrix.io/rda/introduction-to-rda/rda-terminology)"
{% endhint %}
Tags:
* **vms**: Collects VMware virtual machine inventory
* **hosts**: Collects VMware ESXi Hosts and Cluster inventory
* **vswitches**: Collects VMware Standard & Distributed vSwitch inventory
* **datastores**: Collects VMware datastore storage inventory
Run the below commands to query and collect the VMware virtual machine inventory data.
```
> bot *vcenter:vms
```
```
*vcenter:vms> data
```
Run the below commands to query and collect the ESXi Hosts and Cluster inventory data.
```
> bot *vcenter:hosts
```
```
*vcenter:hosts> data
```
Run the below commands to query and collect the ESXi Standard & Distributed vSwitch inventory data.
```
bot *vcenter:vswitches
```
```
*vcenter:vswitches> data
```
Run the below commands to query and collect the ESXi datastore inventory data.
```
bot *vcenter:datastores
```
```
*vcenter:datastores> data
```
## VMWare vCenter exploration in '**RDA**':
Once VMWare vCenter integration details are configured in RDA as a datasource, it will be ready to connect to targe Nagios and explore the data for the analysis.
For the details on vCenter data collection bots, refer [**CloudFabrix RDA Bot documentation.**](https://bot-docs.cloudfabrix.io/Bots/vmware-vcenter/)
---
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