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This article mainly introduces the use of VMware Skyline, has a certain reference value, interested friends can refer to, I hope you can learn a lot after reading this article, the following let the editor take you to understand it.

1. Introduction of VMware Skyline

VMware Skyline is an innovative proactive support product that brings high-performance technologies and tools to the workbench and fundamentally changes the way customer support is provided.

The traditional product technical support process is generally like this: when a user encounters a problem, open a service request SR (Service Request) through the My VMware portal. After receiving the service request, VMware's technical support team GSS (Global Support Service) engineers will further contact the user for more information, including operating system environment, product version, running log, etc., this process often has to go back and forth several times. This will affect the speed of solving user problems and ultimately affect user satisfaction.

In order to improve the user experience, VMware launched the active technical support platform Skyline, which is different from the traditional passive support service process. Skyline will actively collect the configuration and operation information of VMware products in the user environment, and actively make suggestions to users based on data analysis. Even before the user is aware of the problem, GSS engineers will actively contact the user to remind the user to take the necessary action before the problem occurs to avoid potential problems. SR,GSS engineers who deal with user submissions can also get the required information quickly and comprehensively through the Skyline platform, thus troubleshooting faster.

Technical support for VMware products is mainly divided into the following levels:

Basic support Service (Basic)-non-critical technical support, 12 hours a day, 5 days a week

Production support Service (Production)-production support service that provides round-the-clock support for problems with severity level 1

Business critical Technical support (BCS-Business Critical Support)-Personalized support provided by designated teams

Mission critical Technical support (MCS-Mission Critical Support)-priority is given to senior engineers, proactive customer management and round-the-clock support.

Those above production level are called priority Technical support (Premier Support). The Skyline platform is open to users who have purchased priority technical support and do not need to pay extra.

Skyline consists of three product components:

VMware Skyline Collector

VMware Skyline Collector can securely and automatically collect product usage data. Environment-specific analysis is based on the above data, including configuration, functional characteristics, and performance data. The information obtained through analysis may fundamentally increase visibility into the customer environment, achieve richer and wiser interactions between customers and VMware, and technical support administrators do not have to invest a lot of time and money.

VMware Skyline Advisor

You can use this browser-based self-service portal to access Skyline proactive findings and recommendations and view trends. Customers of priority technical support services also have access to other features in Advisor, including access to and download the Operations Summary report and access to more powerful findings and recommendations.

VMware Skyline Log Assist

Eliminating the time-consuming process of "manually uploading log files", VMware Technical support Engineers (TSE) need to use log files to help customers solve technical problems. If you perform this process manually, it can take hours or even days to complete, and now with Skyline Log Assist, it can do it automatically. VMware TSE requests to obtain the required logs to help with troubleshooting. After the customer approves the request, the system automatically uploads the requested log to VMware.

Second, working principle

First of all, Skyline collects the running data in the cluster on the spot through the Skyeline Collector virtual machine installed in the user's vSphere cluster. Skyline Collector will upload the collected data to the cloud Skyeline Data Paltform. The collected data will be further collated and analyzed:

Sort out the topology logic and configuration mapping diagram of the user environment for GSS engineers to understand the current state of the user environment.

Because Skyline collects data from a large number of users, some common problems have been identified through big data analysis and machine learning to identify the same problems in the new user environment.

Based on the knowledge of VMware, it actively pushes the problems found and suggestions for improvement to users.

Skyline Collector is a virtual device (Virtual Appliance). We can download this virtual machine file packaged into OVA (Open Virtual Appliance) format from My VMware and import it on vCenter Server and then use it.

Second, Skyline Advisor is the portal for users to access the Skyline platform, where Skyline shows users the analysis results of the user environment, reminds users to pay attention to some potential problems, and recommends solutions to users according to the experience and best practices of the knowledge base, so as to eliminate the problems in the embryonic stage.

Finally, after the user opens a service request SR, the GSS engineer will ask the user to provide a variety of logs. Skyline Log Assist greatly simplifies the process. Users can upload logs actively through Log Assist, or approve them when the GSS engineer makes a request, or it can be set to approve all log upload requests automatically. This function solves a pain point in the process of service support, and it is also a function that users require the most. After the user agrees, the required log is automatically uploaded to the VMware GSS engineer.

III. Mode of use

Customers with valid support service orders can install VMware Skyline Collector, a single-line device that securely and automatically collects product usage data, including configuration, feature, and performance data. After that, Collector listens for changes, events, and patterns, and Skyline uses a powerful rules engine to analyze the information. Customers can visit Advisor to view proactive findings and recommendations and automatically upload logs through Skyline Log Assist. Customers of priority technical support services will regularly receive guidance from designated support team members and review their proactive suggestions to improve the reliability and stability of the environment.

IV. User privacy and data security

Everyone may have doubts: will Skyline pose a threat to user privacy and data security when it collects data from the user environment? Skyline collects only the information needed for product support, not any other irrelevant information; the collected data is encrypted during transmission and is not shared among different users.

The CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) page of VMware explains in detail what data will be collected:

Configuration data-about how the VMware product used by the user is configured, such as product version, environment information, parameter settings, technical parameters of the physical server.

Product feature usage data-how users use VMware products, such as which product features are used, which features are most commonly used in the user interface, and so on.

Performance data-performance metrics of VMware products, such as response time of user interface, detailed statistics of API calls, and so on.

Product log data-various logs generated when the VMware product is running, which records various events and state changes during the operation of the product.

In addition to the necessary data, Skyline does not collect workload information inside the virtual machine, nor does it collect data that has nothing to do with product support, such as access control lists, ACL and firewall rules.

Thank you for reading this article carefully. I hope the article "what's the use of VMware Skyline" shared by the editor will be helpful to everyone? at the same time, I also hope that you will support and pay attention to the industry information channel, and more related knowledge is waiting for you to learn!

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