VMware improves vRealize Operations (vROps) yet again in their latest release, 8.1! This piece will focus on the new notification integration with Slack, but I'd like to point out a few helpful links from VMware regarding what's new in this release:
1. Announcing General Availability of vRealize Operations 8.1 from Brandon Gordon - https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2020/04/announcing-general-availability-of-vrealize-operations-8-1.html
2. What's New in vRealize Operations 8.1 from Taruna Gandhi - https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2020/03/whats-new-in-vrealize-operations-8-1.html
3. vRealize Operations Manager 8.1 Release Notes - https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Operations-Manager/8.1/rn/vRealize-Operations-Manager-81.html
The data analytics engine within vROps detects anomalies, makes predictions, and provides insight into your environment. The notification framework makes support teams aware of these potential problems, but how? Let's talk about notifications, previously we had the following options:
In vROps 8.1, we now have a Plugin Type called the Slack Plugin:
Let's add one. Go to Administration - Management - Outbound Settings and click the ADD button. From the Plugin Type dropdown choose Slack Plugin. Give it an Instance Name, then provide the Test Webhook URL. I've used the URL provided to me by my Slack workspace, ie the URL shown once I've logged into bluemedora.slack.com. You will be able to test this again later with the Webhook URL provided by your Slack App, but for now let's just test our base Slack workspace.
Click the TEST to perform a test connection:
We've now confirmed that we can connect to the desired Slack Workspace. Let's create a Slack app and prepare it for notification reception.
1. Create the Slack app using the documentation here: https://api.slack.com/messaging/webhooks#enable_webhooks.
Click Create New App here:
Give your app a name and put it in your previously tested workspace, in my case I was using our base Blue Medora workspace.
Click Create App. Then add features and functionality by selecting Incoming Webhooks:
Turn On Activate Incoming Webhooks, then click Add New Webhooks to Workspace:
Now give the new App permission to access the tested Workspace and select a channel to post to, this is the final destination for your notifications. Once done click Allow.
You will now be presented with the Webhook URL for the workspace/app/channel you just created (highlighted below in blue).
You can test the original Slack Plugin Instance with this Webhook URL by pasting it in the Test Webhook URL, then click TEST:
Now that we've configured our Outbound Instance, let's start using it. Go to Alerts - Configuration - Notifications - ADD
You will now start receiving Slack notifications for the alerts you configured above. This is just one of many great new features in vROps 8.1!