When using remote vCenter endpoints with vRealize Automation, it is important to configure a vRealize Business for Cloud Remote Data Collector (or two) local to the remote endpoint.
Similar to how vROps uses Collectors to delegate the task of gathering endpoint data to send back to the main server, vRealize Business leverages Remote Data Collectors.
When looking into these ‘lesser-spotted’ vRB Data Collectors, I found information a little more scarce on the ground than what’s generally available around vROps Collectors.

Our environment is running the following:
- vRA v7.3.0
- vRB v7.3.1
- vCenter v6.0
The primary steps covered in this post are:
- vRB Remote Data Collector Deployment
- Generate One Time Key for vRB Remote Collection
- Register Remote Data Collector
- Manage vCenter Server Connection
Deployment
Just deploy a vRB appliance from the vRB ova as normal. There is no separate ova or install. There’s not a lot to this, just deploy as standard. We will see when registering the remote data collector how the vRB appliance is configured as a collector only.
Generate One-time Key
Click the Generate a new one time use key link. You then see a key on the Success dialog box.

Copy or note down the key, and Click OK. Note: The key is active for 20 minutes only.
Register Remote Data Collector
This is where the persona of the vRB appliance is set to Collector, where we log into the Data Collector UI.
- Log in to the vRB data collection manager on the 9443 port as a root user e.g. https://vrb-c1:9443/dc-ui (where vrb-c1 is our collector name, in format of https://Remote_Data_Collector_IP_address:9443/dc-ui/.
- Expand the Registration with vRealize Business Server option.
- Enter the IP address or the host name of the vRealize Business for Cloud server.
- In our instance this was https://vrb01.domain.local
- Enter the one-time key that was generated earlier on vRB for Cloud.
- Click Update.
- Inspect/View and Accept SSL certificate as appropriate
- Once Successfully Registered, click OK
Manage vCenter Server Connection
Next step is to to configure the vCenter Server connection. Staying logged into the vRB data collection manager, do the following:
Back in the main vRA tab for Business Management, we can also verify that all is well by clicking on the Green Status icon in the top-right corner, from where we should be able to then see the status of the various system processes, including vCenter Data Collection.
So there you go. Deploying a vRB Remote Data Collector. Very Rock and Roll 🙂
Resources
- The vRB Cloud Install Guide provides the official information on how to configure the vRB data collector.
- Further design information is available in the VMware Validated Design 4.2 documentation.
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