How VIA works.
Downloadable software, delivered as an OVA appliance you import and run yourself. Five steps. Sixteen tabs. Five deliverables.
From preflight to report.
Everything is agentless (L1, L2, and L3) and driven from the WebUI. An L1 scan already gives an actionable infrastructure report; the optional L2/L3 passes, recommended, enrich the sections that depend on guest systems (applications, dependencies, connections).
Connection and readiness map
Read-only vCenter: permissions, topology, readiness map. License activated here if required.
Full inventory via vCenter
Full inventory via the vCenter API, no guest credentials. An actionable infrastructure report is already produced.
Credentials, scope, test
Credentials and scope, tested on a sample (picker) before the real run.
Intra-VM analysis
In-guest read via VMware Tools (WinRM/SSH as an opt-in fallback): installed packages, OS and network config (L2), running services and active TCP connections (L3). Minimal load.
Report generation
All deliverables, generated at once and offline. Detailed right below.
What each level collects, and the rights required.
| Level | What it collects | Rights required | Guest access |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | vCenter inventory: VMs, hosts, datastores, vSphere network | Read-only vCenter account | No guest access |
| L2 | Adds installed packages and software, processes, scheduled tasks, config, Linux connections | Standard local user | Guest Operations API, no execution |
| L3 | Adds Windows connections, services, Linux process names | Local admin or sudo | Execution of read commands |
At every level: no persistent agent, read-only, through the vCenter and Guest Operations API, no port opened to the guest. Optional fallback to SSH or WinRM, with the same read-only commands.
OVA appliance. Embedded WebUI.
VIA is delivered as a pre-configured OVA appliance. Import it into your VMware environment, configure your license and vCenter settings, and you're ready.
The embedded WebUI is ultra-simple: it guides each phase, displays the discovery tree as the scan runs, and lets you validate scope before each step.
- Standard OVA import; vCenter/ESXi compatibility confirmed before deployment
- WebUI accessible from your browser, within your network
- Guided setup: vCenter, scope, guest credentials (L2/L3)
- No components installed on analyzed VMs
Screenshots from a synthetic demonstration environment.
No persistent agent. No configuration changes.
No persistent agent
Nothing is durably installed on analyzed VMs. VIA uses the vCenter API (L1) and VMware Guest Operations via VMware Tools (L2 and L3).
No configuration changes
VIA changes no configuration: the vCenter service account is read-only, with no write privileges. The L2/L3 guest scans run read-only commands only; L3 writes a small temporary output file in the guest that it reads and leaves in place (details in the portal Security doc).
Transient, schedulable load
The L2 and L3 guest passes read from inside the VM via VMware Tools: they add a brief, limited load. Schedule and validate collection for the size and constraints of your environment.
Five deliverables.
A full dynamic report and reusable diagrams, plus the Excel workbook, the PDF summary, and the raw exports. All in a single run, anonymized option available.