vRealize Operations Manager or vROPS as it’s commonly known is part of VMware’s cloud management suite of products. This is an operations monitoring tool which can also do capacity planning and much more. One of the things i love about vROPS is how simple it is to use and the value it can give you using out of the box functionality. Deploying it is very easy too, and here’s how.
What you’ll need:
A copy of hte vROPS OVA file
Admin access to the vCenter web console
1. Log into the vCenter web console as a user with admin permissions
2. click on Hosts and templates. Navigate to the cluster you would like to deploy vROPS on and right click. On the menu, ‘select Deploy OVF Template’
3. A new windows will pop up which will step you through the OVF deployment wizard. First you need to point the wizard at the OVA file you’ve downloaded from vmware.com. To do this, click Browse and locate the file. Thank click ‘ok’. Once back on the main wizard screen your path should appear like shown below. Click ‘next’ to continue.
4. The OVA selected in step 3 will now be analysed and the next screen will show a summary of it’s details. Check that its the correct product and version you are expecting and click ‘next’ to continue.
5. Next you must agree to the license agreement. Just click the ‘accept’ button and click ‘next’.
6. Now we have to give the appliance a name. Type in your server name and then underneath choose which folder to create the appliance in. Once you’ve done both of these, click ‘next’ to continue.
7. This step is pretty crucial and can effect a lot going forwards so its important to choose the correct setting for your environment. The different configurations in the dropdown effect the requirements for the server and the capabilities of the server. Use the table below to work out which setting is best for your environment.
8. Then, select the required size and click ‘next’.
9. Next you have to select the location to deploy the appliance. You can either select the cluster, or you can specify a single host.
10. Select the datastore where you want to deploy the appliance and choose the disk format and if you use them, the storage policy too, then click ‘next’.
11. Next, select the network you want to appliance to use from the dropdown and click ‘next’.
12. On this screen you need to set the timezone and add all your ip details. You can also enable IPv6 here if you need it.
13. Lastly, here’s the summary screen. Review the settings and if you’re happy click ‘finish’ to begin the deployment. If you want to you can check the box at the bottom to boot the appliance once its deployed.
14. After a few minutes the deployment should complete. You can watch its progress from within vCenter’s recent tasks windows. Once its completed, boot the server and connect to it’s IP address using a web browser and the following address format: https://%serveripaddress%/admin. (these details are available if you view the servers console screen too) This should bring up a configuration wizard. On the first screen, you need to select the type of deployment. The choices are express (this selects a lot of the defaults and is only really recommended for lab environments) new installation (assumes its the first appliance deployment but lets you specify settings) and lastly expand exsiting installation (this is for adding addtional nodes to an existing deployment and i’ll cover this in a seperate post). For the purposes of this post, click ‘new installation’ and on the welcome screen.
15. You should now see the getting started page. Click ‘next’ to continue.
15. Enter a new password for the admin account and click ‘Next’.
16. Now you can either use the default certificate or use one of your own. Default is probably ok for most people but choose which option you prefer and click ‘next’.
17. Enter a name for your Master node. This is different from the name of the appliance itself. Then add the NTP server and click ‘add’. You can add multiple sources if you wish. Once added, click ‘next’.
18. Now you’re ready to complete. Click ‘finish’ to complete the initial configuration.
19. After a short pause, you should see the vROPS administration site. You should notice under system status it will say its preparing for first use. This will take a few minutes to complete.
20. After a short wait it should change to ‘not started’, at this point you can click the button to start vRealize Operations Manager. You will receive a wanring message about the number of nodes. Click ‘yes’.
21.The message will change to say its going online. This will carry on for a few minutes.
22. Then it will say its installing solutions for a few minutes
23. After a few minutes the vROPS login page will load. Log in using the admin login and password you set earlier. A new wizard will launch to help you get started.
24. There’s now another short wizard just to help you get started. On the first page, just click ‘next’.
25. Next, accept the EULA by clicking the box, and click ‘next’.
26. Enter a product key, or select product evaluation if you are testing, then click ‘next’.
27. Choose whether to participate in the customer experience improvement program and click ‘next’.
28. On the ready to complete page, just click ‘finish’.
29. Finally you will be logged into the vROPS interface. Rather than taking you to the default page, upon the first login it will take you to the solutions page to enable you to get up and running quicker. 
30. First you need to tell vROPS a little bit about your environment. You can do this by setting up your first adaptor. First click on ‘VMware vSphere’ and then click the configuration icon above (it looks like 2 cogs).
31. A new menu should appear. Ensure that ‘vCenter adaptor’ is selected at the top, and enter the Display name, vCenter server name and then enter the credentials for the server by clicking the green cross to add a new user and password. (description is optional)
21. Once you’ve entered these details you can click ‘test connection’ to make sure they are correct. If your details are correct, you’ll first be asked to accept the servers default certificate. Click ‘ok’
22. If the credentials are correct you should then get a message saying the test was successful.
23. If the test completes successfully, click ‘save settings’. Next click on the Python actions adaptor and repeat the same steps to add a connection and credentials to vCenter. Adding the Python connector allows you to control some vCenter tasks from vROPS. eg. you can add an extra CPU if a server is experiencing high CPU contention. Of course if you dont configure this you would still get the alerts, you’d just have to do the remediation from vCenter instead.
24. Make any changes you want to the basic settings and when you’re happy with them, click ‘next’. (default settings are generally ok for most users)
25. Now the configuration is complete. Click ‘finish’
26. Now click on the home button and you’ll be taken to the default dashboard in vROPS, the ‘recommendations’ dashboard. If your adaptors are configured correctly, within a couple of minutes you should start to see data appear on this dashboard. As more time goes by more objects will be discovered and you may see alerts being generated.
27. Going back into vCenter, you’ll also notice the tight integration. When you click on an object you’ll see the badge status being fed from the vROPS server.
This concludes the basic install of vRealize Operations manager
