The Data Collector is a centralized and remotely managed data collection mechanism. This Java application is responsible for interfacing with enterprise objects, such as backup servers and storage arrays, gathering information related to storage resource management.

The Data Collector continuously collects data and sends this data, using an http or https connection, to another Java application, the Data Receiver. The Data Receiver runs on the Portal Server and stores the data that it receives in the Reporting Database. When you use the Portal to generate a report, the Portal requests this information from the Reporting Database, then returns the results in one of the many available reports.

The Data Collector obtains all of its monitoring rules from a Data Collector configuration file. This file resides in the Reporting Database in XML format. When the Data Collector first starts, it downloads this file from the Reporting Database. The Data Collector uses this file to determine the list of enterprise objects that are to be monitored and included in its data collection process.

Data collection requires the following configuration steps for the components described below.

The Portal server runs the Data Receiver, which serves as the recipient of the collected data. Typically, the Reporting Database also resides on this server.

In the Portal, you must first create a Data Collector and then populate it with product-specific or host data collection policies (see Data Collector Policy Configuration in the Portal). A single Data Collector can be installed for multiple capacity, fabric, virtualization, file analytics, and backup products. This Data Collector configuration in the Portal contains the configuration details for communicating with the corresponding Data Collector Server.

A Data Collector Policy provides the configuration details required to communicate with a subsystem to retrieve data that will be stored in the StorageConsole database. These details are specific to the vendor of the enterprise object from which data is collected. Prior to creating Data Collector Policies, a Portal Data Collector must be created.

This is the physical server on which the Data Collector software is installed. After installing the Data Collector software on the Data Collector server, run checkinstall to validate connectivity.

This software component, installed on the Data Collector Server, interfaces with each of the supported subsystems to extract meta-data about the underlying environment. For example, backup data can include job details and tape inventory information. In the case of Capacity Manager, the Data Collector communicates with the storage arrays in your SAN (Storage Area Network) to collect meta-data.