Aria Operations: Installing and configuring the telegraf agent on a physical windows machine

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)
• VMware Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations) 8.x

Issue/Introduction

Note:  In order to setup a telegraf agent, you must install the cloud proxy first:  Installing Cloud Proxy in Aria Operations

For windows machines (Physical or virtual), you can setup and configure the open source telegraf agent to receive data into Aria Operations.

Environment

Aria Operations 8.16.x
Aria Operations 8.17.x
Aria Operations 8.18.x

Cause

Telegraf agents cannot start as a Windows service until they have been fully configured.

Resolution

1. Install open source Telegraf on the end point. If you have an instance installed, you can skip this step. To download and install a new instance of Telegraf, see the official documentation and search for the corresponding OS version from https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-platform/telegraf/ and Telegraf Downloads.
2. Obtain the helper script from the cloud proxy:  https://<CloudProxy>/downloads/salt/telegraf-utils.ps1 and save the file in the local system
3. Create a folder at the root path such as 'C:\telegraf' and create another folder inside that folder for the configuration data such as 'C:\telegraf\telegraf.d'. NOTE:  DO not create a folder with spaces in it as it will cause the process to fail.
4. Copy or move the files from the telegraf download and the helper script into the folder you created 'C:\telegraf\"
5. Now that you have the files there, run the windows service install command for the telegraf agent in a powershell prompt running as administrator:  '.\telegraf.exe --service install --config C:\telegraf\telegraf.conf --config-directory C:\telegraf\telegraf.d'
6. Start the service using '.\telegraf.exe --service start'
7. Obtain an API authentication token from Aria Operations as per the documentation 
8. Next you need to run the helper script :  .\telegraf-utils.ps1  opensource -c cloud_proxy_ip_or_collector_group_name -t token -d telegraf_conf_dir -e telegraf_bin_path -v vmwareariaoperations_ip_or_fqdn
Description of arguments:
      -c : [REQUIRED] cloud_proxy_ip_or_collector_group_name - Cloud Proxy IP or Collector Group Name
      -t : [REQUIRED] token - Auth Token of the user/account. For getting a new token:
           (https://<VMwareAriaOperations_IP>/suite-api/ or curl -ks -X POST https://<VMwareAriaOperations_IP>/suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" -H \"Accept: application/json\" -d \"{\"username\":\"<VMwareAriaOperations_USER>\",\"password\":\"<VMwareAriaOperations_USER_PASSWORD>\"}\")
      -d : [REQUIRED] telegraf_conf_dir - Telegraf configuration directory and it is required argument. ex: C:\Telegraf\telegraf-1.20.4\telegraf.d
      -e : [REQUIRED] telegraf_bin_path - Path of telegraf executable ex: C:\Telegraf\telegraf-1.20.4\telegraf.exe
      -v : [REQUIRED] vmwareariaoperations_ip_or_fqdn - IP/FQDN of VMware Aria Operations master node and required for on-prem
9. Once completed, you should restart the telegraf agent using '.\telegraf.exe --service stop' followed by '.\telegraf.exe --service start'
   
   NOTE:  All commands should be run within a powershell prompt running as Administrator and wait for 10 min to appear in the Aria operations

Additional Information

Related documentation: Configure Open Source Telegraf in Aria Operations