Do I even need the Skyline Collector appliance in vSphere 7.x ?

[vtfreddy]

We just upgraded from vSphere 6.7.x to 7.0.x and my vendor is saying that Skyline recommendations are now built into Lifecycle Manager (formerly Update Manager).  And they are saying we will retire the original appliance.  I de-registered it in Vmware Cloud Services but i am reluctant to delete the powered-off appliance until i get some clarity on this.

Thoughts ?

Thanks, 

Mark F

[Shen88]

@vtfreddy, I guess your vendor is referring to Skyline Health feature available within your 7.x environment and not lifecycle manager.

VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle (formerly vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager) is solely used for product lifecycle management and content lifecycle management. Please refer this product page to learn more on the new Aria Suite Lifecycle.

vSphere Health in vSphere 6.7 is used to assist customers in a self-service manner, by discovering environmental issues and even best practices by analysing telemetry data collected from the vSphere environment. Now, the same feature is called Skyline Health and this feature is enabled by joining the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) 

Whereas on the other hand, VMware Skyline Collector is a standalone virtual appliance that automatically and securely collects product usage data that is sent to VMware and analysed. The analysis of this data is then presented to you within Skyline Advisor. You access Skyline Advisor via VMware Cloud Services, using a Customer Connect username and password.

So, please discuss with your vendor again and get this clarified.

Regards,
Shen

[vtfreddy · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the input, very helpful.  I guess there are the two choices, then, Skyline Health being free with CEIP and Skyline Advisor being a bit more robust and requiring paid Support contracts at some minimum level. 

There is additional clarification here:

https://virtualg.uk/skyline-vsphere-health-in-vsphere-7-0/

Mark