Collector 2.

Nutanix Collector
User Guide
August 31, 2020
Contents

1. Overview...................................................................................................................... 3

2. Nutanix Collector Compatibility Information............................................... 4

3. Installation.................................................................................................................. 5
Installing Nutanix Collector (Desktop Application)..................................................................................... 5
(Optional) Creating a Desktop Shortcut..........................................................................................................5

4. Data Collection........................................................................................................ 7
Collecting Data from vCenter Server (Desktop Application).................................................................. 7

5. Troubleshooting......................................................................................................14
1
OVERVIEW
Nutanix Collector collects the cluster statistics such as usage data of the allocated resources
from your VMware clusters and Nutanix clusters. You can upload the data generated from
Nutanix Collector into Nutanix Sizer. The data collected by using Nutanix Collector improves
estimates generated by Nutanix Sizer, which gives you a better understanding of the usage of
the resources than the manual estimates.

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2
NUTANIX COLLECTOR COMPATIBILITY
INFORMATION
The following table shows the compatibility between Nutanix Collector and the operating
system, vSphere, and Python versions.

Table 1: Nutanix Collector Compatibility Matrix

Operating System vSphere Nutanix AOS (Prism)

Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Windows 6.0, 6.5 5.8.1 and later
Server 2016, Windows Server
2012 R
Linux (Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, 6.0, 6.5 5.8.1 and later
18.04)
macOS X- High Sierra, 10.13, 6.0, 6.5 5.8.1 and later
10.3+
3
INSTALLATION
You can install Nutanix Collector using a CLI, or as a desktop application and create a desktop
shortcut.

Note: Ensure that the system on which you install Nutanix Collector has network access to
vCenter Server, Prism Central, and Prism Element.

Installing Nutanix Collector (Desktop Application)

About this task
Perform the following procedure to download and install the Nutanix Collector desktop
application.

Procedure

1. On the Nutanix portal, go to Downloads > Tools & Firmware to download the Nutanix
Collector desktop application package.

2. Unzip the package in a folder of your choice on your local computer.

3. Go to the folder where you have saved the package and click the package to launch the
application.

(Optional) Creating a Desktop Shortcut

About this task
Perform the following procedure to create a desktop shortcut of the Nutanix Collector desktop
application.

Procedure

1. Go to the directory or folder where you have saved the Nutanix Collector package.

2. (Linux only) Do the following to create a desktop application on a Linux system.

a. Right-click the application icon and select the Make link option.
A replica of the Nutanix Collector icon with an arrow appears.
b. Copy the replica to the desktop.

3. (Windows only) Do the following to create a desktop application on a Windows machine.

a. Right-click the Nutanix Collector icon.

b. Click Send to and then select Desktop (Create Shortcut).
You can now directly access the Nutanix Collector application from your desktop.

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4. (macOS only) Do the following to create a desktop application on a macOS machine.
Drag and drop the application to the macOS dock.

Note: You might have to provide the Download program from unauthorized developer
permission to the application.
4
DATA COLLECTION
Collecting Data from vCenter Server (Desktop Application)
About this task
To initialize data collection from your VMware clusters, you must connect to vCenter Server.
After Nutanix Collector establishes a connection with vCenter Server, data collection is
initialized. Nutanix Collector generates the output files in the Excel format after the data
collection is complete.
Nutanix Collector enables you to collect information from either of the following.

• A single entity (datacenter or cluster) or all the entities registered to a vCenter Server.
• Prism Central or a cluster.
Perform the following procedure to connect to vCenter Server and initialize data collection.

Procedure

1. Do one of the following.

» Go to the folder or directory where you have saved the Nutanix Collector package.
» Go to the desktop if you have created a shortcut.

2. Double-click the package to launch the application.

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3. Do the following in the Home screen.

a. In the IP address or name field, do one of the following.

» Type the IP address or host name of vCenter Server if you want to collect information
from all the hosts in the ESXi cluster.
» Type the IP address or host name of the single host from which you want to collect
information.
» Type the IP address or host name of the cluster from which you want to collect
information.
» Type the IP address or host name of the Prism Central from which you want to collect
information.
b. In the Port field, type the port number of vCenter Server or the single ESXi host or the
Prism instance (Prism Central or Prism Element).

Note: The Port field is populated by default with the port number 443. If the port number
is different in your setup, you can change the port number.

c. In the Username field, type the user name of the user account that you want Nutanix
Collector to use to access vCenter Server or a single ESXi host Prism instance (Prism
Central or Prism Element).
d. In the Password field, type the password of the user account you specified in the
preceding step.
e. Click Connect.

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 Figure 1: Nutanix Collector Home Screen

After Nutanix Collector establishes the connection with vCenter Server, a single host, or a
Prism instance (Prism Central or Prism Element), all the clusters and datacenters in your
vCenter Server are displayed, or parent datacenter or cluster of the ESXi host you have
connected to is displayed.

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4. Select the datacenter, cluster, ESXi host, or the Prism instance for which you want to collect
data and click Connect.

Figure 2: Datacenter or Cluster Hierarchy

The Loader screen displays the progress of the data collection.

After data collection is complete, you are directed to the Output screen.

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5. (Optional) In the Loader screen, click Cancel if you want to stop the data collection before it
is complete.

Figure 3: Nutanix Collector Loader Screen

6. In the Output screen, click Save output as .XLS to save and download the collected data to
your local system.
The Output screen displays a summary of the collected metrics for the datacenters or
clusters you have selected.
The Clusters Summary tab displays the configuration details and performance metrics of
the clusters including the number of powered on and powered off VMs, and the guest OS
running on these VMs. The Performance data tab displays the VM utilization, CPU utilization
and memory utilization of the last 7 days on the cluster.
The Host Summary tab displays the details and performance data of the last 7 days of the
host you selected. You can see the performance data of the CPU, memory, and disk usage of

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 the host. After you click the Host Summary tab, select the host for which you want to view
the details from the drop-down list.
On Clusters Summary tab, you can customize the graphs to display the CPU and memory
utilization in the Median, Average, or Percentile formats.

Figure 4: Nutanix Collector Output Screen (Clusters Summary tab)

Figure 5: Nutanix Collector Output Screen (Host Summary tab)

The downloaded excel sheet includes data of only the selected entities (datacenters or
clusters) and the data is available only in the selected type of calculation (Median, Average,
or Percentile).

7. (Optional) If you want to change the selection of datacenters or clusters, in the left pane of
the Output screen, select the datacenters or clusters for which you want to download the
data, and click Apply.
The details in the summary section of the Output screen are updated with the data for the
selected entities. You can then click Save output as .XLS to save and download the collected
data for the updated selection.

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8. (Optional) To rerun data collection, do one of the following.

» In the Rerun on drop-down list, select different datacenters/cluster to collect data

from different datacenters or clusters registered with the same vCenter Server or Prism
instance.

» In the Rerun on drop-down list, select a different vCenter/Prism to collect data from a
different vCenter Server or Prism instance.

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5
TROUBLESHOOTING
The following troubleshooting tips can help you resolve a few common issues that can occur
when you are using Nutanix Collector.

vCenter Server / Prism Connection Failures

If Nutanix Collector fails to connect to vCenter Server, appropriate error messages are
displayed in the terminal window or the Home screen of the desktop application. To
troubleshoot connection failures, ensure the following.

• IP address or host name of vCenter Server, the ESXi host, or Prism is correct.
• Credentials (user name and password) of the user account that you want Nutanix Collector
to use to access vCenter Server, the ESXi host, or Prism are correct.
• No firewall restrictions are set up.

Figure 6: Connection Failure Error Messages

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Data Collection Failures
If data collection failures occur, an error stack trace is displayed in the terminal window.
Alternatively, you can download the ntnxcollector.log file.
To download the ntnxcollector.log file from the desktop application of Nutanix Collector, click
Download log file in the error message that appears.

Figure 7: Download log file

You can share the error stack trace or ntnxcollector.log file with the support team to
troubleshoot the issue further at our Sizer-Collector community.

Note: Do not open Nutanix support case.

Unavailable Values
If a value for a parameter is not available or accessible, None is displayed for the parameter in
the JSON file.

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