Xylok Documentation
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  3. Data Collection
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  5. Devices Types
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  7. VMWare Devices

VMWare Devices

Instruction Overview

Data collection is done from either a Windows system using Powershell, or from a Unix-like system POSIX shell. Both types of runners (Powershell/POSIX) include the required VMWare PowerCLI Powershell modules, and in the case of a Unix-like system, the required Powershell core executables are also packaged with the scripts. When the scripts execute, they make connections to the remote VMWare device using PowerCLI functions. Neither SSH or the ESXi shell need to be enabled for VMWare data collection.

Applicable Systems

These instructions apply to collecting data from VMWare systems. This currently includes:

  • ESXi
  • vCenter

Execution Procedure (Windows)

These are the basic steps that need to be accomplished:

  1. Copy all files from the collection script directory for the machine to a location writable by the machine from which the scan is launched

    a. The Desktop of a file share may be a good option b. Making a new directory makes removing any Xylok files easier

  2. In the case where an ISO was used for script generation, a copy of the powercli.zip from the ISO root directory will need to be placed in the execution folder to supply the required Powershell modules

  3. Open Powershell as an admin user (local Administrator may work better, if a domain admin fails)

  4. In the terminal, navigate to the directory the script is in

  5. Collect data by running powershell -ExecutionPolicy bypass .\xylok-collect.ps1

  6. The script will prompt for the ESXi/vCenter host, username and password

    a. For host, enter the IP address or host name of the ESXi/vCenter host b. For username/password, enter the credentials of an admin/root user that is typically used to access the web interface of ESXi or vCenter, as appropriate. The credentials are displayed so they can be verified before proceeding c. Depending on the number of benchmarks assigned to the host, there may be multiple prompts for host/user/password. Enter the same information each time for a single host

  7. Copy the results file called xylok-results-<machine info>.xylok off the system and to the Xylok Scanner host.

  8. Remove all Xylok files from the host (if desired)

  9. Upload into Xylok

Execution Procedure (Linux/Unix)

These are the basic steps that need to be accomplished:

  1. Copy all files from the collection script directory for the machine to a location writable by the machine from which the scan is launched.

    a. The user’s home directory or an NFS mount are good choices b. Making a new directory makes removing any Xylok files easier

  2. In the case where an ISO was used for script generation, a copy of both the powercli.zip and powershell-linux-x64.tar.gz from the ISO root directory will need to be placed in the execution folder to supply the required Powershell executables and Powershell modules

  3. In a terminal, navigate to the directory the script is in

  4. Become root

  5. Collect data by running sh xylok-collect.sh

  6. The script will prompt for the ESXi/vCenter host, username and password

    a. For host, enter the IP address or host name of the ESXi/vCenter host b. For username/password, enter the credentials of an admin/root user that is typically used to access the web interface of ESXi or vCenter, as appropriate. The credentials are displayed so they can be verified before proceeding c. Depending on the number of benchmarks assigned to the host, there may be multiple prompts for host/user/password. Enter the same information each time for a single host

  7. Copy the results file called xylok-results-<machine info>.xylok off the system and to the Xylok Scanner Host

  8. Remove all Xylok files from the host (if desired)

  9. Upload into Xylok

gdoc_arrow_left_alt Networking Devices Windows (Non-Powershell) Devices gdoc_arrow_right_alt