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.

vRealize Operations Manager Logo

Planning and Reading:


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:

vROM - OVA File

Go to File, then Deploy OVF Template:

2 Deploy OVF Template

 

 

 

 

 

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

1 vROM - Browse for OVF

Click Next:

2 vROM - OVF Details

Read the EULA, click Accept then Next:

3 vROM - EULA

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

4 vROM - Name and Location

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

5 vROM - Appliance Sizing

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

vROM - Sizing Chart

 

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

6 vROM - Storage

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

7 vROM - Disk Format

Pick a port group for networking. Click Next:

8 vROM - Port Group Selection

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:

9 vROM - Properties

Ready to Deploy! If everything is correct click Finish:

11 vROM - Ready to Complete

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!

10 vROM - Completed

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.

11 vROM -Getting Started

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

12 vROM - New Install

Enter a password for the admin account. Click Next:

13 vROM - Set admin password

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

14 vROM - SSL Cert

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

15 vROM - Deployment Settings

Click Finish:

16 vROM - Ready to Complete

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

17 vROM - Start vRealize Operations Manager

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

17-1 vROM - Confirm Nodes

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:

18 vROM - Login

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

19 vROM - Choose Configuration

Read the EULA, click Accept then Next:

20 vROM - EULA

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:

21 vROM - License Key

Click Finish:

22 vROM - Ready to Complete

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

28 vROM - Configure vCenter Adapter

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:

vROM - Configure adapters

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

29 vROM - Define Monitoring Goals

Click Finish:

 

30 vROM - Ready to Complete

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

31 vROM - vCenter Adapter Configured

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

vROM - Dashboard

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

11 thoughts on “Deployment of VMware vRealize Operations Manager”

  1. Hi !
    Awesome and very precise article. I tried installing in my lab environment. It was successfully deployed. However when I powered it on and opened console, it got stuck at a point called – install.sh or it ended with a blue+grey half screen which was blank. Despite the error, I tried logging in by typing the IP /FQDN which I had used during deployment but no luck. Can you pls help me? I am at my wits end…

    Reply

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