Deployment of VMware vRealize Operations Manager

vRealize Operations Manager (vROM/vROPS) gives you visibility into the performance and health of your virtual infrastructure. The bad thing about virtualization is how easy it is to accumulate over-provisioned virtual machines. When your environment grows the numbers can really be staggering. With vROM you can find these VMs and really tweak your environment making it more lean and resource efficient. vROM also has the ability to ensure compliance with IT policies, regulatory requirements, and smart alerting. Basically vRealize Operations Manager will take your structure data like performance metrics and give you a unified interface of analytics. Here is my documented deployment of vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.1 in my lab environment.

Planning and Reading:

• VMware vRealize Operations Manager – This is all the documentation in one place!
• vRealize Operations Manager Sizing Guidelines – VMware KB2093783
• vRealize Operations Manager vApp Deployment and Configuration Guide
• Exploring New vRealize Operations Capabilities – VMware Blog, David Davis
• If you are deploying vROM in your lab and need a license I highly recommend you check out the VMUG Advantage subscription.

Deploying Log Insight:

I used the thick client to deploy vROM, the web client could also be used. When you download the appliance it will be a OVA file:

Go to File, then Deploy OVF Template:

 

 

 

 

 

Browse to the location of the OVA file. Select it then click Next:

Click Next:

Read the EULA, click Accept then Next:

Pick a location where the appliance should be placed. You can move it later if you didn’t premake a folder. Click Next:

My lab only has 2 hosts so I needed the smallest size possible. You will want to pick something that relates to your environment.

Here is a chart of the resources each configuration will use:

 

Pick the storage you want to install on. Click Next:

For best performance use Thick Eager Zeroed. For my lab Thin Provisioning will be just fine. Click Next:

Pick a port group for networking. Click Next:

Here you get to name the appliance, give it a IP address, DNS, and a root password. Highly advise not to use DHCP. This is also a good time to create a DNS entry if you haven’t done so yet. Click Next:

Ready to Deploy! If everything is correct click Finish:

Once finished you can power on the appliance. Here is what the console screen will look like once booted. Now you are ready to configure it.

Note: Before powering on the VM I reduced the memory down to 4 GB. My lab environment is super small, just be sure not to starve vROM!

Configuring the Appliance:

Open a browser and go to the IP address or DNS name of your appliance. It will come up with the Get Started message below. This is my first vROM appliance in my environment so I will use the New Installation option.

Note: If you are using Internet Explorer and it is stuck on the Startup message, add the appliance web address to your trusted sites and or switch to Chrome/Firefox. I had this problem and that resolved it.

I love that VMware gives you a visual of what each installation path looks like. Click Next:

Enter a password for the admin account. Click Next:

Here you can add a SSL certificate. You can use the default and add one later. Click Next:

Enter a node name and add a NTP server. Click Next:

Click Finish:

Once it finishes this is the screen that it brings up. Click on Start vRealize Operations Manager:

Ensure you have enough nodes for your environment. Refer to the sizing guide above. Click Yes:

vROM is now running! However there is more configuration to be done. Login using the admin account and the password that was set above. Click Login:

This is my first vROM appliance in my environment so I will proceed using New Environment. Click Next:

Read the EULA, click Accept then Next:

If you have a license key you can enter it now otherwise you can proceed with the evaluation mode. You can enter the license key later. Click Next:

Click Finish:

Now we are ready to configure the vROM vCenter adapter. Under Solutions click the Configure icon:

Enter a display name, your vCenter FQDN, then use a vCenter service account. My service account is in the vCenter administrator group. Test your connection, then click Next:

Here you can configure the default monitoring policy. I left mine default as you can tweak it later. Click Next:

Click Finish:

 

The vCenter Adapter should change to say Collecting and Data Receiving. vROM is now monitoring your vCenter environment!

Give vROM 1-2 weeks to collect metrics to gain an accurate state of your environment.

Hope someone found this useful! Leave comments below with any tips, tricks, and issues you might have.