vCenter Operations for View 1.5 – Part 1: Deploy and configure vCenter Operations 5.7

I’m doing a vCenter Operations for View deployment and I thought I can write a short 4 part series about it. In Part 1 I will describe the requirements for the vApp deployment and the initial configuration. Part 2 will focus on how to integrate View into vCenter Operations. Part 3 will describe how customer will benefit from vCenter Operations for View. Part 4 will cover the update process to a new version of either vCenter Operations or vCenter Operations for View.
Two weeks ago vCenter Operations for View 1.5 was released and is based on the vCenter Operations Manager 5.7. Only VMware View 5.0, 5.1 and Horizon View 5.2 are supported.
Licensing
vCenter Operations for View uses the same concurrent user license model as Horizon View, packages are available in increments of 10 and 100 concurrent users. According to the Release Notes a separate vCenter Operations Manager license is required for non-View infrastructure monitoring. The license key for vCenter Operations for View is a “vCenter Operations Manager 5.6 Enterprise Key”. vCenter Operations Manager is then licensed as Advanced Edition, because the Customizable Dashboards are used by the View Adapter.

Prerequisites for the vApp
Before deploying vCenter Operations you have to create an IP Pool. IP pools provide a network configuration that is assigned to a network used by the vApp. The vApp can then leverage vCenter Server to automatically provide an IP configuration to its virtual machines.
1. Under Datacenter, select IP Pools and click Add…

2. Define an IP Pool Name, IP subnet and gateway, but DO NOT enable the Pool

3. Enter DNS domain name, search paths and DNS server

4. Assign the pool to the network port group where the vApp will reside

 
Deploy vCenter Operations vApp

 
1. Click File > Deploy from OVF template, select the appropriate OVA file and click next.

 
2. Click Next

 
3. Give the vApp an appropriate Name, choose the location in the VM and Templates View and click Next.

 
4. Choose the right configuration for the vApp

 
5. Choose a Host/Cluster, Click Next

6. Choose an Resource Pool, Storage and Disk format (DON’T use Thin provisioned in a production environment) and click Next

7. Select the Destination Network, click Next

8. Choose Fixed IP Allocation to set the IP addresses of the UI and Analytics VM manually, then click Next

9. Apply your Timezone and IP address settings here, click Next and then Finish.

Initial Configuration
After the vApp deployment go to https://<UI VM IP Address>/ in your web browser. You will be redirected to https://<UI VM IP Address>/admin.
1. Login with the default credentials

2. Enter your Hosting vCenter details and credentials and check if the Analytics VM address is correct. The Hosting vCenter is the vCenter where you put in the license key of the Operations Manager. It has nothing to do with an monitored vCenter. Normally the Hosting vCenter is the vCenter in which the vApp has been deployed. You can uncheck this box, then the first monitored vCenter will become the Hosting vCenter.

3. If your are using self signed certificates than you have to trust these in vCOPS. Click Yes and then Next

4. When you are doing the setup for the first time you will also be asked to change the default password. I already had changed the password so this step is missing. After that you will enter the information for the first vCenter you want to monitor. There are 2 users. A Registration User, responsible for registering the vCOPS Plugin within vCenter and the Collector user, which is optional, for collecting the RAW metrics. I always create 2 Service User within Active Directory and give them appropriate permissions in vCenter. If you do not want creating 2 users you can also use your Administrator user.

5. Because it is the first time that a vCenter Operations Manager Appliance is registered to vCenter we don’t have any data to import.

 
6. If you don’t have any Linked Mode vCenter click finish, if you have Linked Mode vCenter than select the vCenters from the dropdown list and click register, then finish to complete.

7. After login to the vCenter server you will find the vCenter Operations Plugin within Solutions and Applications

 
Now we are ready to use vCenter Operations 5.7. This concludes Part 1: Deploy and configure vCenter Operations 5.7. In Part 2 I will show how to install the Horizon View Adapter and integrate it into an existing Horizon View environment.
 
Part 1: Deploy and configure vCenter Operations 5.7
Part 2: Install and configure Horizon View Adapter for vCenter Operations 5.7
Part 3: Conclusion: Why should a customer use vCenter Operations for View
Part 4: Upgrade to vCenter Operations 5.7.2 and vC Ops for View 1.5.1