Data Collection Guide

Lanamark Snap
April 2018

Abstract
Converged, hyper-converged and storage infrastructure design can be optimized by
leveraging inventory and performance data from existing VMware R environments. This
guide outlines the steps for discovering and profiling VMware Infrastructure using the
Lanamark Snap data collector, which is an integral part of the Lanamark One systems
engineering automation platform.
Contents
1 Introduction 3
1.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Outbound Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Data Collection Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 Data Collected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 Installation 9
2.1 Engagement Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 End User License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Internet Connectivity Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4 Choosing Install Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 Completing Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6 Auto-update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3 User Interface 15
3.1 Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4 Pausing Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.5 Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.6 Exporting Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4 Uninstall 22
4.1 Launch Uninstall Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.2 Uninstall wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.3 Change, repair, or remove installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.4 Remove collected data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.5 Confirmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Lanamark Snap 1 Data Collection Guide

List of Tables
1 Host system requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Processor, Memory and Disk Space Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3 Target System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4 Collection Period Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5 Infrastructure assessment workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6 Adding endpoint workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7 Endpoint status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8 Endpoint administration actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
9 Version History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Lanamark Snap 2 Data Collection Guide

1 Introduction
Lanamark Snap is a light-weight, agent-less data collector designed for profiling VMware resources
TM
through VMware vCenter Server R and VMware ESXi host management interfaces.
Lanamark Snap requires a dedicated Microsoft Windows R physical or virtual machine. It deploys a
Microsoft Windows service for running data collection tasks in the background and provides a user
interface console for discovering VMware environments and performing administrative tasks.

All VMware targets should be discovered at the beginning of the assessment. Lanamark Snap should
be allowed to collect data continuously for two weeks to characterize the daily and hourly seasonality
of compute and storage workloads. During data collection, inventory and performance data snap-
shots are created and securely transmitted to Lanamark so that Lanamark Partner Systems Engineers
("Systems Engineers") can perform analysis, reporting, performance modeling and infrastructure de-
sign.
Lanamark Snap is designed to collect detailed inventory and performance data for core resources
managed by VMware: datacenters, VMware ESXi hosts, virtual machines and datastores. It can be
configured to profile one or more VMware vCenter Servers or VMware ESXi hosts from a single Lana-
mark Snap instance. It is also possible to deploy multiple Lanamark Snap collectors across different
geographic locations or network segments and allow Lanamark One to aggregate inventory and per-
formance data for single plane of glass analytics.

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1.1 System Requirements
Lanamark Snap should be installed on a physical or a virtual machine running Microsoft Windows. A
server version of Microsoft Windows is recommended, as continuous data collection running in the
background may be affected by client operating system updates and restarts.

Table 1: Host system requirements

Requirement Description

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7, 8 or 10

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 or 2016

Application Components Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 Client Profile (or higher)

Note: If Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 Client Profile (or higher) is

not found it will be downloaded and installed automatically during
Lanamark Snap installation

Network Outbound Internet connectivity via port 443 (SSL) recommended for au-
tomatic snapshot uploads and automatic product updates.

Security The user is responsible for installing patches and updates to the .NET
Framework and the underlying operating system.

Table 2: Processor, Memory and Disk Space Requirements

Virtual Machines vCPUs/Cores Memory (GB) Free Disk Space (GB)

Up to 100 1 4 2

100 - 499 1 4 5

500 - 999 2 8 10

1,000 - 2,499 2 8 25

2,500+ 4 16 10 MB / VM

Note: Offline mode requires 20 MB per VM per week of data collection.

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1.2 Outbound Connectivity
Lanamark Snap uploads data to *.lanamark.one over port 443. All communication is secured using
HTTP over SSL/TLS and identity of Lanamark servers is verified. Please use nslookup to determine the
IP address for the firewall configuration.
All credentials are encrypted using AES-256 and stored securely by Lanamark Snap on a local system
drive. Credentials are never transmitted outside the IT environment and are not stored in snapshots.

Offline Mode
If there is no outbound Internet connectivity, Lanamark Snap can be configured to run in offline mode
during installation. Offline mode requires manual export, exchange and uploading of snapshots and
is recommended for locked down environments only.

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1.3 Data Collection Overview
Inventory and performance data collection is supported for resources managed by VMware Infrastruc-
ture. Data snapshots are transmitted to Lanamark so that Systems Engineers can analyze compute
and storage workloads, generate data center assessment reports and commence performance mod-
eling. Information provided to Systems Engineers is then used for designing optimal infrastructure
solutions based on measured workload resource demands.

Table 3: Target System Requirements

Area Description

Supported VMware vSphere versions VMware vSphere 5.0 - 6.5

Permissions Authorized user for VMware vCenter Server or VMware ESXi

host with read-only role.

Configuration VMware vSphere performance data should be retained for at

least one hour (default).

Network A network path must exist between Lanamark Snap and

VMware vCenter Server and VMware ESXi hosts. The default
configuration for VMware uses HTTPS on port 443.

The recommended data collection period is two weeks during a peak in the business cycle when re-
source consumption peaks. It is highly recommended that all VMware Infrastructure resources be dis-
covered at the beginning of the data center assessment to avoid delaying solution design. Please refer
to Table 4 for more details about the Lanamark Snap collection workflow and the assessment lifecycle.

Table 4: Collection Period Intervals

Schedule Interval

Inventory data collection 12 hours

Performance data collection 30 minutes

Performance data granularity 5 minutes

Snapshot synchronization 3 hours (data uploaded to Lanamark servers)

Software update checks 1 hour

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Lanamark Snap polls VMware vCenter and VMware ESXi host management interfaces periodically to
obtain inventory data for all managed resources. Inventory data snapshots are updated two times per
day and include information about the following VMware Infrastructure resources:
• Datacenters
• Datastores
• Hosts
• Virtual machines
• Compute resources
• Virtual switches and networks
Lanamark Snap collects performance metrics by requesting data for the last hour, week and month
from VMware. The monitoring collection interval is set to 30 minutes for consistency with the one-
hour retention policy for raw data samples in VMware vCenter Server and VMware ESXi. For additional
information please refer to the VMware vSphere Monitoring and Performance guide.

Table 5: Infrastructure assessment workflow

Step Description

Download the Lanamark Snap and install it on a dedicated physical

1. Install Lanamark Snap or virtual machine meeting system requirements outlined in chapter
1.1 above.

Add VMware vCenter Server or VMware ESXi host using hostname or

2. Add VMware vCenter IP address.
Server or VMware ESXi host
Note: if VMware vCenter is present, it is recommended that it is
discovered instead of discovering individual VMware ESXi hosts.

3. Synchronize snapshots Inventory and performance metrics are automatically and securely
transmitted to Lanamark daily for fourteen (14) days. Afterwards,
snapshot uploads can be manually forced for up to forty-five (45)
days.

Note: Credentials are encrypted when they are entered into

Lanamark Snap and are never transmitted outside the collected
environment.

A Systems Engineer will analyze profiled server workloads and review

4. Review Data Center the Data Center Assessment Report with the client while commencing
Assessment Report storage performance modeling and infrastructure design.

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Collected data points are aggregated and persisted with a five-minute sampling interval to optimize
capacity and bandwidth requirements. Performance data snapshots include metrics related to:
• CPU utilization
• Physical memory usage
• Disk I/O and capacity
• Network I/O statistics
Inventory and performance data is persisted locally on the machine hosting Lanamark Snap before
being uploaded to Lanamark One.

1.4 Data Collected

Lanamark One data collector captures performance and inventory metrics for applications, services,
processes, workloads, desktops, servers, storage arrays, network devices and other systems. It does
not inspect or collect data stored on the actual endpoints. This is outlined in the End User License
Agreement (EULA) of each Lanamark One data collector.

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2 Installation
After receiving a welcome email click on the download link and save Lanamark Snap to a machine
where it will be deployed. The installation package uniquely associates Lanamark Snap with the en-
gagement created by the Systems Engineer. Each product installation is tracked and all active Lana-
mark Snap instances report data to the same engagement. The download link should not be shared
outside the client organization and Lanamark Snap installer should only be used to collect inventory
and performance data from the IT environment it was created for.

2.1 Engagement Information

This welcome screen contains your company name and contact details of your Systems Engineer. If
this information is not correct, the installation should be aborted.

Site name is a unique string identifying the deployment site. Lanamark Snap automatically sets the
current domain name as the site name, but it can be customized to better identify the environment
where data collection is taking place. This is particularly useful for large-scale deployments, where
multiple Lanamark Snap instances need to be deployed.

Note: Data from multiple Lanamark Snap instances is aggregated within the client engagement to
provide System Engineers with accurate insight into the overall resource consumption.

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2.2 End User License Agreement
Please review the End User License Agreement carefully. Product installation cannot proceed unless
the license agreement is accepted.

Lanamark Snap 10 Data Collection Guide

2.3 Internet Connectivity Settings
Installer automatically attempts to establish a network connection to Lanamark One. If Internet con-
nectivity is not present, the following screen is displayed, allowing custom proxy server settings to be
specified.

Click Next to perform a connectivity validation check. The installation process cannot continue unless
connectivity to Lanamark One is established successfully.
For locked down IT environments, it is possible to configure Lanamark Snap to run offline by checking
Enable Offline Mode. Lanamark Snap auto-update and automatic data synchronization features will
be disabled. Collected data will be persisted to the local disk and will need to be manually exported,
shared and uploaded by the Systems Engineer at the end of the data collection period.

Note: Offline mode configuration cannot be changed after installation.

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2.4 Choosing Install Directory
Browse button can be used to override the Lanamark Snap installation folder path. It is also possible
to disable automatic application shortcut creation on the desktop and in the Start menu.

Lanamark Snap installation directory is also used by auto-update for downloading new product ver-
sions. Data cleanup of the folder is performed automatically, removing all successfully installed up-
date packages.

Note: Lanamark Snap uses %windows%ServiceProfiles/LocalService/AppData/Local/Lanamark direc-

tory to store its internal database and collected data between snapshot uploads.

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2.5 Completing Installation
Click Install to begin Lanamark Snap installation.

The following screen is displayed once installation is complete. Check the Launch Lanamark Snap 2017
R1 checkbox to start discovering VMware systems after installation.

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2.6 Auto-update
Lanamark Snap checks for new software releases hourly and installs them in the background auto-
matically. This feature requires outbound Internet connectivity to Lanamark One.
Silent updates are not performed if the Lanamark Snap user interface console is open. A warning
screen with a countdown is displayed, with options to either commence the Update process or to Post-
pone the operation by 10 minutes.

Note: Auto-update feature is not available when Lanamark Snap is installed in offline mode. Please
refer to section 1.2 for more details.

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3 User Interface
Lanamark Snap provides a graphical user interface for discovering VMware target systems. It works
as a management console for the the Lanamark Snap Collector Service, which is configured to start
automatically with the operating system. The service is responsible for running data collection tasks,
persisting data locally and uploading inventory and performance data snapshots to Lanamark One.

3.1 Discovery
When Lanamark Snap is launched for the first time, it allows hostname or IP address of VMware vCen-
ter Server or a VMware ESXi host to be specified, along with the required credentials and a custom port
number (if required). Discovery requires an authorized user account with the read-only role enabled.
Please refer to Table 3 for more details.

Discovering VMware vCenter Server, instead of adding VMware ESXi hosts individually, is recommended
so that all managed hosts and resources can be discovered and monitored together.
The discovery operation is limited to ten seconds and should give Lanamark Snap enough time to
connect to a VMware vCenter Server or a VMware ESXi host. Upon successful discovery, a new endpoint
tile will appear on the Endpoints screen and display the following information: hostname, IP address,
VMware product version and current endpoint status. Please refer to Table 7 for details.

Note: Lanamark Snap prevents adding VMware ESXi hosts already managed by a discovered VMware
vCenter Server instance.

Note: The first inventory data collection task is scheduled immediately and the first performance data
collection task is scheduled with a five-minute delay.

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The Endpoints screen contains an Add button for discovering additional VMware vCenter Server or
VMware ESXi host instances. Lanamark Snap does not display tiles for individual virtual machines or
other managed resources. This detailed information is only available to the System Engineer, who
created the engagement, in the Lanamark One portal.

Data center assessment setup is completed once all required VMware systems are discovered and the
corresponding endpoint tiles display a green status along the left edge. The Lanamark Snap user in-
terface console can be closed and data collection will continue in the background.

Table 6: Adding endpoint workflow

State Description

Discovering When the Add button is clicked, Lanamark Snap will attempt to discover the
specified hostname or IP address and check if a VMware vCenter Server or a
VMware ESXi host responds. The discovery process typically takes less than 30
seconds but may take longer for large environments. During discovery, Lana-
mark Snap connects to the VMware API.

Detected Lanamark Snap requests basic information about the target system. If this op-
eration is successful it adds the endpoint and sets its status to Detected. Lana-
mark Snap then attempts to collect inventory data and if successful, changes
the endpoint status to Collecting.

Collecting Lanamark Snap collects five-minute samples every 30 minutes.

Note: It is recommended that all systems be discovered at the beginning of engagement and check the
data collection status after 3-4 hours to ensure that all systems are still being successfully monitored.

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3.2 Monitoring
Lanamark Snap is designed to continuously collect performance data for all monitored systems and
maintain a 24x7 data coverage profile. Coverage profile tracks performance data samples collected for
every endpoint for each hour of each day of the week. A 24x7 profile should be complete if all systems
are discovered at the same time and monitored continuously for one week.

The user interface console displays the 24x7 coverage profile as progress indicator located at the top
of the console window. The progress indicator appears automatically once data is collected for at least
one endpoint.
100% collection progress indicates that Lanamark Snap has captured performance data samples from
each endpoint being monitored for each hour of each day of the week.
Each endpoint tile shows a status indicator, which is updated every five (5) seconds, and contains infor-
mation regarding the most recent status change. Please refer to Table 6 below for more information.

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Table 7: Endpoint status

State Description

Detected Lanamark Snap has successfully queried basic information from the target system
and is ready to collect data.

Collecting Lanamark Snap is successfully collecting performance data from the target endpoint
by capturing five-minute samples every 30 minutes.

Problematic Endpoint connectivity cannot be established or data collection results in an error.

This situation may be due to network or endpoint issues such as expired license or
invalid credentials.

Deleted Endpoint has been deleted. No further data collection will be initiated unless the
same endpoint is added again, in which case the data collection will be restored.

3.3 Administration
The user interface console can be used for managing data collection settings. Endpoint credentials
can be updated and discovered endpoints can be excluded from the assessment if necessary. The
delete operation stops data collection for the endpoint but does not remove already collected data.

Note: If a deleted endpoint is re-discovered in the future it will be restored and collection will resume.

All endpoint related administration actions are accessible through context button in the top right cor-
ner of the endpoint tile. Please refer to Table 8 for more information about available actions.

Lanamark Snap 18 Data Collection Guide

Table 8: Endpoint administration actions

Option Description

Edit Change the Host Name, IP address or credentials for the existing endpoint

Delete Stop data collection for the endpoint and change its state to Excluded. Deleting
an endpoint will not remove already collected or uploaded data.

Collect Force an immediate inventory and performance data collection request. This op-
eration may take a few minutes to complete.

3.4 Pausing Data Collection

To pause data collection for all monitored endpoints without uninstalling Lanamark Snap, stop the
Lanamark Snap 2017 R1 service using the Service Control Manager snap-in for the Windows Manage-
ment Console.
When the Lanamark Snap service is stopped or unreachable, the user interface console will change
the service connection indicator to Disconnected. Administrative tasks cannot be performed in the
console until the service is started again.
To resume data collection, start the Lanamark Snap 2017 R1 service. Once the service starts, the user
interface console will automatically reconnect to it.

Lanamark Snap 19 Data Collection Guide

3.5 Settings
Connectivity between Lanamark Snap and Lanamark One is validated during installation. To mod-
ify the connectivity settings during data collection click Settings in the upper right corner of the user
interface console.

Note: Offline mode can only be enabled at the time of installation and cannot be changed later.

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3.6 Exporting Snapshots
In offline mode Lanamark Snap is unable to automatically synchronize collected data with Lanamark
One. A user with Local administrator privileges can use the user interface console to export data into
a local file at the end of the assessment and share the resulting file with the Systems Engineer for
manual upload into Lanamark One.

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4 Uninstall
It is recommended that Add or remove programs be used to uninstall Lanamark Snap using the same
account used to install it. Lanamark Snap can also be removed using the Uninstall Wizard.

4.1 Launch Uninstall Wizard

Select the Uninstall Lanamark Snap shortcut from the Start menu to launch the Uninstall Wizard:

4.2 Uninstall wizard

Click Next to continue

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4.3 Change, repair, or remove installation
Click Remove to uninstall the application

Note: Currently Change and Repair options are disabled.

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4.4 Remove collected data
Choose if you want to keep the collected data. Uninstall then keeps Lanamark Snap R1 folder under
Local Application data. It may be helpful to keep the data if there is a plan to run Lanamark Snap again
in the near future.

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4.5 Confirmation
Click Remove to complete Lanamark Snap uninstall process

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Appendix A: Security
Credentials
Passwords entered into the Lanamark Snap are encrypted using AES-256 and are never displayed in
plaintext or transmitted externally.

Data Synchronization
Lanamark Snap takes inventory and performance data snapshots of VMware Infrastructure and up-
loads them securely to Lanamark One using HTTPS (port 443) every three hours.

Data Storage
Inventory and performance data is stored on encrypted storage infrastructure and is only available to
the Lanamark partner performing the assessment.

Lanamark Snap 26 Data Collection Guide

Version History
Table 9: Version History

Version Date Document Version History

Version 1.0 November 25, 2017 Release

Version 1.1 March 21, 2018 Discovery information updated

Version 1.2 April 1, 2018 System requirements updated

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Legal Disclaimer

c Copyright 2018, Lanamark Inc.
This document is copyrighted. This document may not, in whole or part, be copied, duplicated, re-
produced, translated, used in services other than those delivered by authorized Lanamark partners
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serves the right to make corrections, updates, revisions, or changes to the information contained
herein, but are not obligated to do so. Lanamark Inc. does not warrant the material described herein
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AND PROGRAMS DESCRIBED HEREIN ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, IN-
CLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PAR-
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