vROps Management Packs for Compute and Storage!
Updated: Apr 27, 2022
Last month at VMworld 2021 VMware announced that vROps customers would be entitled to the vRTVS compute and storage management packs with the next release of vRTVS. Well, that release is now GA! Here is a link to VMware PMM Peter Haagenson's blog announcing it.
If you are a vROps customer, you can now download these management packs from the VMware Marketplace and started collecting data immediately.
Let's take a look at the compute management packs, which are now being called vROps Management Packs:
They all contain an adapter, dashboards, reports, view, alerts, and symptoms. The adapter connects to the target technology, generally via API, but details are shown here.
All connection methodologies and required credentials are documented here. They generally use least privileged credentials with read-only type access.
In addition to capturing objects and metrics from each technology, the management packs also relate the server hardware to the ESXi Hosts running on them. Relationships diagrams can be found under the Using the Management Pack - Resource Kinds and Relationships section of the documentation for each management pack. For example, the relationship diagram for the vROps management pack for Cisco UCS can be found here.
Once captured, you have the ability to inventory firmware versions, analyze alerts, trace those alerts beyond the servers themselves, and work your way into your vSphere environment. Dashboards like these are possible.
Next, let's take a look at the storage management packs, which are now being called vROps Management Packs:
They all contain an adapter, dashboards, reports, view, alerts, and symptoms. The adapter connects to the target technology, generally via API, but details are shown here.
All connection methodologies and required credentials are documented here. They generally use least privileged credentials with read-only type access.
In addition to capturing objects and metrics from each technology, the management packs also relate the storage objects to the vSphere constructs they are supporting, generally Datastores. Relationships diagrams can be found under the Using the Management Pack - Resource Kinds and Relationships section of the documentation for each management pack. For example, the relationship diagram for the vROps management pack for Pure FlashArray can be found here.
When you're hunting a problem via the Troubleshooting Workbench you can now move beyond the vSphere edge into the storage supporting your vSphere Datastores.
I recently heard a metaphor describing a customers SDDC as a large house with many rooms. As is the case in most houses, the kitchen is the most important room and is always lit up with activity. Think of the kitchen as your vSphere environment. There are many other rooms in the house, most of them dark, that we don't know much about. vROps and vRTVS Management Packs turn on the lights in these rooms, giving us visibility into what's going on there.
Now that all vROps customers are entitled to the vROps compute and storage management packs, let's turn the lights on! Go get them here!