We are excited to announce new features coming to VMware Skyline. We recently announced VMware vSAN support with the release of Skyline Collector 1.4. In addition to adding vSAN support, we shared some of the new proactive findings added to Skyline. You can read more about vSAN proactive support and review the new proactive findings here.
Over the past year, we’ve listened to customer’s tell us how Skyline is helping them identify potential issues, and risks, within their VMware vSphere and VMware NSX environments. Additionally, customer’s have requested features that align with our mission to reimagine support for you. One of the most requested features is an on-demand web-portal to view proactive findings and recommendations. Another popular feature request is the ability to upload logs with Skyline. I am excited to share the announcement of VMware Skyline Advisor and VMware Skyline Log Assist at VMworld US 2018.
Skyline Advisor
Skyline Advisor is a SaaS application, delivered by VMware, that allows customers to view their proactive findings and recommendations on-demand. Skyline Advisor contains Account Details, Proactive Findings and an OSR Library.
The Account Details page within Skyline Advisor provides an overview of the Skyline Collector(s) installed within your environment. This includes the total number of vCenter Servers, ESXi host and virtual machines that are being analyzed for potential issues. Each Skyline Collector installed within your environment is displayed. Expanding each Skyline Collector reveals each vCenter Server and/or NSX Manager that has been added to that Collector. Furthermore, you can expand each vCenter Server and NSX Manager to reveal inventory details.
The Proactive Findings page displays each potential issue identified by Skyline. The total number of proactive findings, based upon severity and category, are displayed. By default, all proactive findings are displayed. However, you can filter your proactive findings by severity, category and source name. For example, you could filter for all Critical, Network related proactive findings, export those findings and provide them to the networking team for further investigation and remediation.
Opening an individual proactive finding provides additional details. In addition to the Finding ID, Date Found, Severity and Description, recommendations for how to resolve the potential issue are provided. Recommendations are provided in the form of VMware Knowledge Base (KB) articles, VMware Security Advisories or other forms of knowledge that VMware has made available to customers. Additionally, each potentially affected object is displayed. Customers can use all of this information, in partnership with VMware Global Support Services (GSS), to remediate potential issues, before they occur.
Another exciting feature of Skyline Advisor is on-demand access to your Operational Summary Reports (OSR). VMware Premier Services customers will be able to download both past and current OSRs from the OSR Library. Additionally, the customer’s Support Account Manager/Engineer (SAM/SAE) can now generate Custom OSRs, based upon a specific criteria. Perhaps you only want to see all Critical severity findings at the next VMware Premier Services support meeting. Your SAM/SAE can create a custom OSR, only with Critical severity findings, and make it available for download from the OSR Library. Standard OSRs, which are similar to what Skyline customers receive today, will continue to be created and also available within the OSR Library.
Skyline Log Assist
Perhaps the most requested feature by customers is to reduce the time and effort needed to upload logs. Logs are needed as part of the troubleshooting process of a Support Request (SR). Today, the effort is on the customer, to first generate and save the logs, and then upload the logs to VMware via My VMware or FTP. With Skyline Log Assist, we’re shifting the effort from the customer, to VMware.
Skyline Log Assist allows Technical Support Engineers (TSE) to request logs from a vCenter Server or ESXi host, for example, attach the logs to an open Support Request and submit to the customer for approval. The only effort of the customer is to either Approve, or Deny the log request. Upon approval, the Skyline Collector orchestrates the retrieval of the logs and sends them to VMware for review by the Technical Support Engineer.
As you can see, as part of our goal to provide an effortless experience. With Skyline Log Assist, we’ve shifted the effort from the customer, to VMware. For those interested in Skyline Log Assist, your first-step is to adopt Skyline. Download the Skyline Collector from the Skyline homepage on vmware.com to get started.
Global Availability
Finally, we are happy to announce that VMware Skyline is now available globally, to all Production Support and Premier Services customers, in English. Beginning today, all customers who are eligible to receive proactive support with Skyline, can download the Skyline Collector from My VMware. Note that we will continue to monitor adoption. As we scale capacity and resources, you may receive a message that we’ve reached capacity for a particular day. We will be providing feedback within the registration process to ensure you have the most accurate and up-to-date information regarding Skyline registration.
Conclusion
As you can see, while customers are saving time and effort by remediating potential issues, they’ve also been sharing what else we can do to continue to improve the customer support experience. Skyline Advisor and Skyline Log Assist are two of the most requested features asked for by our customers. Today, we are excited to announce that these two feature requests will soon be delivered to our customers, and we can’t wait to hear their feedback.
If you’re attending VMworld and want to learn more about Skyline, there are many opportunities available. Attend a breakout or meet the expert session. Take a Hands-On Lab or go to the Solutions Exchange. Check out this blog article for all the VMware Skyline at VMworld US 2018 details.
Skyline Advisor and Skyline Log Assist will be available to all customers receiving proactive support with Skyline. Watch for updates on the VMware Support Insider blog and by following us on Twitter, @VMwareCSE (VMware Customer Support Experience). Additional details about today’s Skyline announcements are available on the VMware Skyline home page.
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