[tweetmeme]
If there one tool that is an absolute must to add to your vCenter installation, this is it. vCenter Operations is a trending and analysis tool that goes beyond the boundaries of sending an alert once a threshold has been reached, it intelligently monitors usage over time and builds a repository of trends for your organization. Any measurement that peaks beyond or below this trend line then generates an alert. There are stories of enterprise customers that were using traditonal methods of monitoring their vmware infrastructure which were generating hundreds of unmanageable alerts, then after implementing vCenter Operations, alerts dropped down dramatically to the 10’s instead of 100’s. You can read more about what vCenter Operations does by visiting the Vmware website here. But for now let’s get started with the installation and configuration. vCenter Operations is a virtual appliance that is downloaded from the Vmware website here. There is a 60 day evaluation license key for trial users.
1. Download the OVA file from Vmware’s website above. To deploy the OVA open vCenter and click on the file menu – Deploy OVF Template. Browse to where you saves the OVA file. Click Next.
2. This screen will show a summary of the OVF. Click Next.
3. Click Accept on the license agreement and then click Next.
4. Give the Virtual Appliance a name and select the folder that you wish to place the virtual appliance into. Click Next.
5. Select the resource pool that you wish to place the virtual appliance into. Click Next.
6. Select the datastore where you would like to place the virtual appliance. Click Next.
7. I will select Thin Provisioned Format as I don’t want to allocate all the storage space now. Click Next.
8. Select the network you would like to connect to your Virtual Appliance. Click Next.
9. A Summary screen is presented. Click Finish.
10. Once the Virtual Appliance has been deployed. Open the Console and power it on. The virtual appliance will boot into the following screen. If you have DHCP on the network, it will obtain and IP address by default. Select Login will take you to the shell prompt. Within the shell prompt type passwd to change the root login. Default username is root and password vmware. Type exit to exit the shell. Select Configure Network to configure a static ip, subnet mask, default gateway, dns servers and to give the virtual appliance a hostname. Lastly set the Timezone accordingly. Once you are done you can close the console window, the rest of the config is done via a web browser.
11. Open up a web browser and browse to the IP that you specified in step 10. Default username and password is admin and admin. Click Login.
12. The first screen prompts you to change the default admin password. Type the current password, admin, and a new password of your choice.
13. Back on the Setup Tab we will enter our vCenter information. This will register the vCenter Operations into vCenter itself. Enter in a name for you vCenter Server, IP, user name and password, collection user name and password. Click Save.
14. You will get a certificate warning. Click Install this certificate and do not display any security warning check box followed by clicking Ignore.
15. You will then get the following message indicating that your vCenter registration was successful. Click Ok.
16. Open up vCenter. Next we’ll need to enter the license information for vCenter Operations. Click Home and under Administration click Licensing. Click on Asset in the Report section. Locate the vCenter Operations Standard and right click it and select Change License Key.
17. Enter in the License Key and click Ok.
18. Once vCenter Operations is license you are ready to starting viewing the workload, health and capacity of your vmware infrastructure. There are two ways to do this. Once is through vCenter by click on the Home button and under Solutions and Applications selecting vCenter Operations. The other way is by browsing to the ip address of the virtual appliance. TIP: to enter back into the admin interface of the virtual appliance enter in the following URL https://
To learn more about the features of Vmware vCenter Operations please head on over to the forums where you can see an indepth video on this product.
https://sysadmintutorials.com/forums/showthread.php?47-Vmware-vCenter-Operations&p=51#post51
Disclaimer:
All the tutorials included on this site are performed in a lab environment to simulate a real world production scenario. As everything is done to provide the most accurate steps to date, we take no responsibility if you implement any of these steps in a production environment.
Be the first to comment