In my previous post I described how to deploy the vRealize Lifecycle Manager 2.0 and import product binaries and patches.
Now it is time to make use of it to deploy the first vRealize product: vRealize Operations Manager.
There are some more steps, which you need to complete first, like generating a certificate or certificate signing request, and also some optional tasks, like adding an identity manager or Active Directory association. As they are described quite well in the official documentation I will skip those here.
Before you can add an environment (the term used for deploying vRealize products) a vCenter has to be added. The documentation states how to add a user with only the necessary roles, but for testing purposes you can also use the default administrator SSO account.
If you have an isolated environment the request to add a vCenter will look like the above screenshot, as it can’t get patches from the internet, but it will still work.
In the “Create Environment” screen you can select which products you want to deploy. For each product you need to select the version and the deployment type:
Next to the deployment type each product has a small “info” icon. Upon clicking that the details to each type are displayed:
After selecting your desired products you have to accept the license agreements and fill in details like license keys, deployment options, IP addresses, host names etc.
After putting in all necessary information a pre-check is performed:
The pre-check verifies the availability of your DNS servers, datastores and so on:
After submitting the LCM creates the environment according to your input:
As I made a mistake in the DNS server configuration the request failed.
Upon clicking “View Request Details” a more detailed view is presented. (see screenshot below)
Before deleting the environment and giving it another shot after having the mistake fixed you should export the configuration. Two options are offered: Simple or Advanced. I picked simple, which lets you download most of the parameters you entered as a JSON file.
The red info icon in the lower left corner gives even more details. In my case the successfully deployed master node was not reachable because of the DNS misconfiguration mentioned above.
In the “Create Environment” screen you can paste the contents of the saved JSON file (see above) to speed up the process. This brings you directly to the pre-check step. However you still need to go back one step and select your NTP servers – this doesn’t seem to be included in the JSON configuration.
While the environment creation request is in progress you can also see details:
Finally the request finished successfully. Some steps were left out, probably because this is a single node deployment and not a “real” cluster…
After the environment is created you can (and should) enable health checks via the menu which open when you click the three dots in the upper right corner of the request box. This menu also offers you to download logs and export the configuration, as done before.
The first task I am going to do with the newly deployed vROPS is to install the HF3 security fix imported earlier:
Just select the patch, click “Next” to review and install:
You can monitor the patch installation progress:
To be able to use the integrated Content Management you have to configure the environment as an endpoint. Just click the link “Edit” which appears when clicking on the three dots next to the list element:
First confirm or modify the credentials entered earlier and test the connection:
Finally you have four checkboxes to selecht your desired Policy Settings:
I will pick up the Content Management section in another blog post.
Up until then the vROPS deployed using the vRealize Suite LCM can be used as usual by opening the web GUI. It asks you to set your currency (can’t be modified later on!) and is ready to fill its dashboards with data as soon as you configure the parameters and credentials for the solutions you want to monitor, e.g. vCenter:
