Windows Host Integration Tutorial

Starting July 3, 2023, Operations for Applications is a service on the VMware Cloud services platform. After this date, we support two types of subscriptions:

• Operations for Applications subscriptions onboarded to the VMware Cloud services platform.
• Original subscriptions – the existing ones which remain as is until they migrate to VMware Cloud services.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to ingest data from a Windows host machine to Operations for Applications by using a Wavefront proxy. Although Operations for Applications supports direct ingestion in non-production environments, such as POC or development and test environments, in production environments using a Wavefront proxy is the recommended and supported way for ingesting data.

Onboarded Subscriptions

When your service is onboarded to VMware Cloud services, the Wavefront proxy requires a VMware Cloud services access token with the Proxies service role. There are two options for the proxy to retrieve the access token and you can configure the proxy with:

• The credentials of a server to server OAuth app that belongs to the VMware Cloud organization running the service.

• An API token that belongs to your user account in the VMware Cloud organization running the service.

  Note that, periodically, you might need to regenerate the API token and reconfigure the proxy. This depends on the TTL configuration of the API token.

In this tutorial, we will create a server to server OAuth app in VMware Cloud services and we’ll retrieve the necessary credentials. Then we will install the Wavefront proxy and the Telegraf agent on the same Window host and we’ll start to monitor the metrics flowing from the same Windows host.

Step 1: Create a Server to Server OAuth App in Your Organization

Let’s create a server to server OAuth app and retrieve the app ID and app secret. You will need the app ID and app secret when you install the Wavefront proxy.

1. Log in to the VMware Cloud Services Console as a user with the required permissions, such as Organization Owner, Organization Administrator, or an Organization Member with the Developer additional role assigned.

   For details about the organization roles in VMware Cloud Services, see What Organization roles are available in VMware Cloud Services.

   1. In a Web browser, navigate to https://console.cloud.vmware.com/.
   2. Enter your account email and click Next.
   3. Type your password and click Sign In.
2. In the navigation panel on the left, click Organization > OAuth Apps and click the Create App button.
3. Select Server to server app and click Continue.
4. Provide a meaningful name and description of the app. For example:
   • App Name: wavefront_proxy.
   • App Description: Server to server app to use for my Windows integration setup.
5. In the Access Token TTL field, specify the time to live for the access token of your server to server app.
6. Define the scopes by assigning roles to the server to server app. For example:
   1. Assign the Organization Member organization role.
   2. Search for Operations for Applications in the list of scopes, expand the VMware Aria Operations for Applications service roles, and select Proxies.
   Note: Note that these are the minimum required roles for the server to server app that you’ll use to install the Wavefront proxy.
7. Click Create.

8. On the OAuth app created screen, click Download JSON, save the file to a secure place, and click Continue.

   The JSON file contains the app ID and app secret that you need when you install the Wavefront proxy.

9. To add your newly created app to the organization, on the Add to this organization page, click Add.

Step 2: Retrieve the Organization ID

You will need the organization ID when you install the Wavefront proxy.

1. In the VMware Cloud Services Console, click your user name.

   You see the name of the organization and the organization ID below it.

2. Click the Copy icon.
3. Paste the organization ID in a text file to have it handy.

Step 3: Navigate to Operations for Applications

To install the Wavefront proxy, set up an integration, and install integration dashboards, you must have the Proxies and Integrations permissions. For more information see Operations for Applications Permissions in VMware Cloud Services.

1. In the VMware Cloud Services Console, click VMware Cloud Services.
2. Search for Operations for Applications and click the VMware Aria Operations for Applications tile.

3. Click Launch Service.

   In a multi-tenant environment, you should also select a tenant.

   

Step 4: Start the Setup Process

1. In your Operations for Applications service instance, click Integrations on the toolbar.
2. Click the Windows Host integration tile.
3. Click the Setup tab.

Step 5: Install the Wavefront Proxy

1. Download wavefront-proxy-setup.exe file to the Windows host machine.
2. Open the command prompt and navigate to the directory in which you downloaded the installer.

3. Run the command to install the Wavefront proxy:

    .\wavefront-proxy-setup.exe /server=https://<your_product_cluster>.wavefront.com/api/ /cspAppId=<CSP_APP_ID> /cspAppSecret=<CSP_APP_SECRET> /cspOrgId=<CSP_ORG_ID> /SILENT
   
   

   Here, you must replace:

   • <CSP_APP_ID> with the app ID of your server to server app
   • <CSP_APP_SECRET> with the app secret of your server to server app
   • <CSP_ORG_ID> with the ID of your organization

Once installed, the proxy automatically starts. Check Program Files (x86)\Wavefront\wavefront.log to verify the installation.

Step 6: Install the Telegraf Agent

1. Download wavefront-telegraf-64-setup.exe.
2. Double-click the installer and follow the instructions to install Telegraf.

Step 7: Verify That Metrics Are Flowing

When the Wavefront proxy and the Telegraf agent are installed and the proxy starts ingesting data to Operations for Applications, on the Metrics tab, you’ll see the metrics that are flowing along with charts for each metric.

On the Dashboards tab, you can see that the Windows Host dashboard installed. Click the Windows Host Metrics dashboard link and the dashboard opens in another browser tab.

Original Subscriptions

Watch the following video to learn how to ingest Windows host metrics when your service is not onboarded to VMware Cloud services.

Note that this video was created in 2021 and some of the information in it might have changed. It also uses the 2021 version of the UI.

You can also watch the video here .