VMware’s vRealize Infrastructure Navigator (VIN) is designed to uncover how applications, virtual machines, and services actually connect inside a vSphere environment. Instead of guessing or relying on outdated documentation, you get a live, visual map that shows real application dependencies as they exist right now.
What makes VIN stand out is its agentless approach. You don’t need to install extra software inside your virtual machines. Once deployed, VIN scans each VM to identify running services and open ports, then uses that data to build a real-time dependency map. This approach keeps performance intact while delivering deep visibility into your infrastructure.
Unlike traditional network monitoring tools that only track traffic flows, VIN focuses on application-level relationships. It shows exactly which services communicate with each other and how those connections behave across hosts and virtual machines. That visibility matters. If you don’t know a service exists, you can’t secure it, optimize it, or troubleshoot it effectively.
VIN fits naturally into the vRealize management suite, working closely with tools like vRealize Operations and vRealize Automation. Together, they give IT teams a clear, application-centric view of the environment. With that clarity, teams can resolve issues faster, plan changes with confidence, and manage complex systems without flying blind.
| Aspect | Details |
| Product Name | vRealize Infrastructure Navigator (VIN) |
| Developer | VMware, Inc. |
| Initial Release | 2014 (as vCenter Infrastructure Navigator) |
| Latest Version | 5.8.7 (released Aug 2016) |
| End of General Support | March 2017 |
| Delivery | Virtual Appliance (OVA) deployed via vSphere Web Client |
| Included with | vRealize Operations Manager Enterprise Edition (Management Pack integration) |
| License | Commercial (requires vROps Enterprise) |
| Core Purpose | Automated discovery and mapping of VM-based applications and their inter-VM dependencies |
What is vRealize Infrastructure Navigator?
VIN is VMware’s tool that lets virtualized networks host applications and initiate connections in a virtual environment. After installing the VIN appliance in your vSphere cluster, it operates as a hidden network sensor. It doesn’t require software on the guest OS, as it scans for VMs’ running processes, services, and open ports. The information is then converted into a real-time map of your data center’s infrastructure. When you access the vSphere Web Client, go to Infrastructure Navigator, it will present diagrams of connected VMs and their services. For instance, VIN groups the VMs that correspond to a 3-tier web application (with web, application, and database servers) and displays their connections automatically.
Agentless Dependency Mapping
VIN has a VM that is not coupled with the guest OS and uses VMware interfaces to interact with them for services and ports. There is no need for software deployment inside virtual machines; also, apps and the OS will remain the same not even requiring a restart.
Real-Time Topology Visualization
VIN is a data visualization tool that constantly updates its maps. VIN catches everything from new apps population to services’ IP changing, and it reports this the very moment the change occurs. You are able to review the data and use visualization tools to understand how devices are connecting to each other.
Fully Integrated into VMware
VIN is the standard virtual appliance. The procedure of giving it an IP address is usually done by the administrator who right-clicks on the vCenter server and picks, “Deploy OVF Template”, then turns it on. It becomes an added tool to the vCenter servers, which can be run without an extra interface.
Custom Application Definitions
VIN offers the ability to name the groups of applications manually, although auto group discovery is also available. So if you had a custom app that extended through several VMs, you could group those servers as one app. One of these applications could be a “Payment System”, or another could be an “Email Service”, for instance, and these can be visualized on one map.
Ecosystem Plug-In
VIN’s data not only sync with other VMware tools. There is a vRealize Operations (vROps) Management Pack that handles VIN data. VIN’s data is used as input for the operational reports, alerts, and planning in vROps. There are vROps Custom Groups that you can set up from VIN data, which will enrich the performance reports by depicting the business services rather than VMs.
Key Features and Architecture
VIN is a virtual infrastructure (VI) network system designed to read the Virtual Machine environment at the application layer. This technology is able to find and keep track of both VMs, which are virtual machines, and the application-specific servers and services on them. VIN can know if a VM is a web server, DB server, or mail server by analyzing the ports and processes it uses.
Multi-Tier Application Mapping
If you configure an application pattern, e.g., 3-tier web app, VIN will display all such examples of that pattern in your vCenter. In addition, the tool will show a stack diagram for every instance, illustrating the interconnectivity among these layers.
Continuous Monitoring
VIN is like a security camera of your virtual infrastructure. It never goes offline and as a result it can track events in time and notify any anomaly unless it is a one-time transient issue. Supposing if any opened or closed port or any new service is started VIN gives that information without delay.
VM and Service Inventory
VIN produces a central list of all VMs plus the respective services and partially or fully links them to these services. By clicking the VM name, you will find the network points and the programs that VIN has detected. You are never in the dark as to whether you have a clear floor plan of all your data center software.
Integration with SRM and Recovery Workflows
VIN has the ability to communicate with VMware Site Recovery Manager(SRM) and some other vCenter tools as well. A VIN-generated roadmap will connect VM usages of fault tolerance invoked through SRM when things should be running smoothly under normal circumstances as opposed to when we are under a disaster situation.
Self-Updating Patterns
VIN comes with a lot of inherent service identifiers like MySQL and Apache that it can pick out automatically. If VIN guesses wrong or completely overlooks a service, you can create your own custom rules by defining the service through the settings. VIN will then include that new service in the association.
VIN acts as your digital private eye that investigates your virtual configuration in a rather simple way. It fetches, from the services, ports, and VM notes, clues needed to represent the network communication in its entirety. This approach is very powerful, enabling you to maintain an updated map of the application dependencies, a task that is hard to do manually in a complex infrastructure.
Deployment and Integration
Starting with VIN is an elementary process. Simply, the first step is to get the VIN OVA file from VMware’s website. The OVA file, being the main component of vRealize Operations Enterprise, is shipped along with the software. Then, use the vSphere Web Client to install the VIN. VIN does not require many resources—a minimum of 2 virtual CPUS and 4 GB of RAM, plus data storage, which is enough for the whole data. After the initial configuration, the VIN license has to be assigned, which is generally included in vRealize Operations Enterprise, and at the same time, the “VM Access” feature should be turned on in the VIN settings to enable VIN to look inside the VMs.
Upon the activation of VIN, it starts verifying all running VMs whose host trails back towards your vCenter server. The next thing you can do is go to each VM and open the “Application Dependencies” tab. Click on this tab to see a local map that will display all the connections that your VM has with the other services and other VMs. In the case that VIN misses a specific application (for instance, a custom service), you would need to install it by defining the port and process name and then add VIN to the map that includes it.
vCenter Integration
VIN takes the role of a plug-in in the vSphere Web Client. Thus, you can interact with it quite similarly to getting at your hosts, VMs, and storage; more administration power will be found there. It finds its place within the inventory tree in conjunction with your vCenter objects so that an admin does not need to worry about moving back and forth into the different interfaces.
vRealize Operations
To connect with the monitoring, the first thing to do is to get the Monitoring Pack for vRealize Operations. By this, vROps will use VIN found relationships as inputs to alerts generation or showing these relationships in dashboard creation. For instance, if App A depends on Service B, you can set up vROps such that when Service B fails then it notifies you about the issue of App A. Thus, this alert shows you that Service B failing might cause App A to fail.
Licensing Notes
VIN typically wants the right vSphere permissions to be in place. It is typically inclusive with vRealize Operations Enterprise licenses or as part of packages like vCloud Suite or vRealize Suite. You should confirm that your version has it, as the free vSphere Standard kit does not include it.
Use Cases and Benefits
Organizations input VIN with the advanced purpose to examine most of the details and realize different, yet mostly favorable, views of the introduced under item. Some common benefits may be excellent but may also prove to be disadvantages:
Faster Troubleshooting
Consider an example where an incident is reported by one of the users that CRM app which is a critical for business operation is not stable. On the other hand, the provided VIN’s maps can be used for something else. You can rather identify that Service X is on VM1 which connects to Database Y on VM2 and Web Frontend Z on VM3, where the story changes to the better. That is the solution which saves time of the organization for identifying the problem with a certain component. Admins usually share VIN “helps find defects within a fraction of the original time” because it gives you an inside look at the server that just stands out as weird. Like a user connecting with a server without you knowing, which is unusual, it identifies the problem for you.
Improved Security and Compliance
By tracking hidden connections with VIN a company could be then sure that all the devices are properly placed according to the safe standards. Another caused vulnerability of a secure environment is misconfigured virtual machines (VMs) not accessible to the internet. VIN, on the other hand, can scan a link making the whole dependency chart visible. To the great astonishment of all, the invention also provides reports during audits on the VMs and ports used in an application. Which is more, it has all the information that he may get even though it was not needed for compliance. In the words of a user, vinyl provides insights “you didn’t know you need” for compliance.
Informed Capacity Planning
Without the VIN system the management would again be wandering in the dark about what applications use resources and how they do it. Planning is often complicated by the question of dependency groupings. A visual overview of the different scenarios will be given. Assumed, you need to add more server capacity to an app, VIN will indicate this on its map. But if a system is only under pressure because of a very popular app, then VIN can be a great support in diagnosing. VIN has the ability to examine applications qualitatively, not quantitative, hence rationalizing the resource utilization.
Safe Migrations and Upgrades
VIN, through its influence on auto-organizations, protects the services by keeping them all united during the service transformation. However, the way I see it, these are some of the VIN maps’s shortcomings. But while the system is being upgraded, VIN will be there to scan for any broken connections. It turned out that the IT team detected after a storage transfer, one VM could not connect to a necessary service and VIN marked the problem immediately.
Application-Centric Reporting
If you are thinking of automating your system settings with VIN data in vRealize Operations, the most evident way to approach this is the creation of custom graphs through data mapping (as with the one above). First, let’s create a filter “Email Service” that includes hits and ports for the VMs we use for email services. This will allow the system to be fully repaired. Moreover, VIN’s expanding tool makes it possible to create a dynamic view of the system through direct hard group checking.
Lifecycle and Modern Alternatives
vRealize Infrastructure Navigator (VIN) is a product that was not being used anymore and VMware stopped supporting it in 2017. This was not usable with the latest vSphere versions, only with older systems. Of course, VIN’s basic philosophy still stands.
VMware included some VIN functions in the latest products. VMware Aria Operations now utilizes tags and metrics on the connectivity of the related services, but it’s not as effective as VIN was. VMware Aria Network Insight checks out the network paths and security, thus is a companion to VIN in that respect, it’s still does not provide us with all the data.
For new deployments, I propose to implement along with a third-party tool some of the built-in features. Some organizations employ app monitoring tools to have the same kind of views. Not a single tool of VMware remains in line with VIN these days. You can only get the same type of VIN maps by using outdated systems or doing the process manually.
VIN is a stopgap now. If you have VIN, the best way to move to new VMware systems is to use it. Otherwise, use the new vRealize (Aria) tools, VMware Cloud Foundation, or NSX tools for the same insights.
Conclusion
vRealize Infrastructure Navigator revolutionized VMware operations by making application dependencies transparent. In just a few clicks, it turned your virtual infrastructure into a live, navigable map of services. Administrators could easily see which VM is talking to which and detect blind spots in their architecture. This agentless, integrated solution provided clarity that was otherwise hard to achieve in dynamic virtual environments. Even though VIN itself is now in legacy mode, its impact lives on: today’s cloud and datacenter management platforms build on the same principles of visibility and automation.
By studying VIN’s approach – auto-discovery, service mapping, and seamless VMware integration – you’ll be better equipped to design and operate modern systems. Whether you continue using VIN in a supported setup or migrate to newer VMware Aria tools, the goal remains the same: keep your infrastructure transparent, connected, and under control. With VIN’s lessons in hand, your team can confidently troubleshoot issues, plan changes, and secure your applications from the inside out.
FAQs
Q: What does vRealize Infrastructure Navigator (VIN) do?
A: VIN searches through apps and services on virtual machines to see how they are connected. There is no need for the VMs to have any additional software.
Q: How does VIN find dependencies?
A: VIN evaluates each VM by checking for open network ports and running services using Jolokia/JMX interface. Then it connects the pieces of information to make a map of which servers are connected to each other.
Q: Is VIN still supported by VMware?
A: No, VMware quit updating VIN in early 2017. It still works but has issues with the latest vSphere releases. VMware now advises people to get the latest vRealize (Aria) suite instead of VIN.
Q: Can VIN data be used in vRealize Operations?
A: Yeah, VIN Management Pack for vRealize Operations (vROps) is the way to go about it. This allows vROps to utilize VIN information to construct custom Dashboards and Reports, enabling easier infrastructure management that is also on the Service basis.
Q: What’s the difference between VIN and vRealize Network Insight?
A: VIN revolves around the deployment of VMs and the services with which they interact, while vRealize Network Insight examines network traffic and security on a larger scale. VIN is about “apps-to-apps” Network Insight is about “networks-to-networks.”
Q: How do I get VIN-like mapping today?
A: If VIN still operates on your end, you can continue its use. With new systems, the latest tools such as vRealize Operations for performance management and Aria Network Insight for network flow should be used. Applications may be the others to be added, but keeping the map updated is essential.
