yet.org

howto
vmware

VMware Infrastructure Navigator-2.0

VMware Infrastructure Navigator is a component of vCenter Operations Suite, it’s an application awareness plug-in to the vCenter Server that provides continuous dependency mapping of applications. Infrastructure Navigator offers application context to the virtual infrastructure administrators to monitor and manage the virtual infrastructure inventory objects and actions. Administrators can use Infrastructure Navigator to understand the impact of the change on the virtual environment in their application infrastructure. This article is a condensed howto about installing and configuring VIN version 5.6, released November 29, 2012.

Here are the different VIN Components:

  • Server in Infrastructure Navigator VM, transfers the data to the DB component
  • DB in Infrastructure Navigator VM, stores data received from Server component.
  • Infrastructure Navigator Plug-In in the vSphere Web Client, provides a GUI to view and analyse dependencies
  • Inventory Service, a vSphere service in which VIN exports its data

You’ll find a lot more details in the VIN admin guide.

Product Packaging

VMware Infrastructure Navigator is included with vCops Advanced and Enterprise version of the suite.

Prerequisites and Architecture

If you don’t have vCops installed in your environment, you have to start here first, come back here after.

Before starting your installation, it’s a good idea to read the release notes.

VIN 2.0 is distributed as an Open Virtualization Format (OVF), if you’ve done the vCops deployment you should already have it, if you need it you can access it here:

The following Ports are used by vCops
From your PC to VIN
5480 for appliance web console
5489 If VMware Update Manager (VUM) is installed
22 SSH access to VIN VM
vCenter to VIN
2868 For plugin download while registering it
6969 For connectivity with vSphere Web Client to VIN
VIN to vCenter
443 To access vSphere service API
80 To access vSphere Web service API
10109 To access vSphere Inventory Service
VIN to target hosts and VMs
443 Fox VIX protocol on target hosts to perform discovery
902 For VIX protocol on target hosts to perform discovery

Required Components/Informations:

  • VIN license key
  • vSphere Web Client 5.1
  • vCenter version 5.0 (registered with vSphere Web Client 5.1) or vCenter 5.1+
  • ESX 3.5 P25, 4.0.0 U3, 4.1.0 P03, ESX 5.x+
  • Predefined static IP/Netmask on desired Port Group
  • Default Gateway, DNS.
  • vCenter IP address and administrator credentials
  • IE 7,8,9, Chrome 14, Firefox 3.6, Adobe Flash 11.1.0+

Registering vCenter with Web Sphere Client

If you have a vCenter version 5, you need to register it with a vSphere Web Client 5.1. Login to your vSphere 5.1 appliance and type the following command

/usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/scripts/admin-cmd.sh register https://<WebClient_IPorHostName>:<WebClient_HttpsPort>/vsphere-client <VC_IP> <VC_Admin-User> <VC_Admin-Passwd>

Example

/usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/scripts/admin-cmd.sh register https://webclient.mydomain.com:9443/vsphere-client vc.mydomain.com administrator 'CENSORED'

If you use a windows vSphere 5.1 installation you can login to the server and access the following administrative tool instead :

https://127.0.0.1:9443/admin-app

Then click on Register vCenter Server.

Virtual Machine resources requirements:
CPU 2 vCPU
Memory 4 GB
Disk size 20 GB
Network 2 Gbps

Installation

If you have multiple vCenter, you need to deploy a separate instance of VIN for each vCenter.

  1. Deploy OVF Template to target vCenter
  2. Follow the wizard, select thin provisionned disk.
  3. Select Power on after deployment and click Finish.
  4. Log out from vSphere Web Client and log in again.
  5. Enter VIN license.

Deploy vCops vApp

  1. Connect to your vCenter
  2. Enable DRS in the cluster
  3. Verify that the VM network that you connect this vApp to has an IP Pool and select that network during the .ova deployment
  4. File > Deploy OVF Template
  5. Select Disk format, Thick provisioned eager-zeroed provides a 10% performance improvement (recommended)
  6. Select Fixed or DHCP IP allocation
  7. Finish
  8. Power on the vCops Manager vApp
  9. Check vCops VM IP address on Summary tab

Set ESX Host Time

  1. Select host in the inventory
  2. Configuration > Time Configuration > Properties to adjust time and click OK

Connect vCops to vCenter

  1. http:///admin l:admin p:admin
  2. update admin password (min 8 chars, one letter, one digit)
  3. update root password (vmware by default)
  4. type a name for the vCenter Server system (for reference only)
  5. type IP or FQDN of vCenter
  6. type registration credentials (require following access : Global: Licenses and Extension: Register extension, unregister extension, update extension.)
  7. you can optionally enter collection credentials (usefull if you want to limit vCops to a subset of your datacenter)
  8. click Save

Assign a license

  1. vCenter > Home > Licensing
  2. select Asset
  3. right click your vCenter Operations edition and select Change License Key
  4. select Assign a new license key to this solution
  5. click Enter Key and enter it
  6. click OK

SMTP/SNMP Configuration

  1. connect to http:///admin with your new password
  2. On the SMTP tab, select the Enable report email service check box.
  3. Type the SMTP server address and port number.
  4. Type the name and email address to use when sending alerts or reports.
  5. If required select the Server requires an encrypted connection check box and select the encryption protocol.
  6. If required select the Outgoing SMTP server requires authentication check box and type the credentials.
  7. Select the Enable SNMP check box and type the destination host, port, and community information.
  8. Click Update to apply your settings.

Verify installation

  1. click vCenter > vCenter Operations Manager icon or access it from your browser http:///
  2. ignore the certificate warnings that might appear.
  3. Look at the dashboard and verify that the inventory objects you expect to see appear.

Installing a vCops Adapter

  1. Obtain the PAK file for the adapter from VMware
  2. connect to http:///admin
  3. Update > Browse > locate your PAK file
  4. click Update and click OK
  5. Accept EULA and click OK
  6. Login to https:///vcops-custom/
  7. Select Admin > Support
  8. On the Info tab, click the Describe icon in the Adapters pane.
  9. Click Yes to start the describe process and click OK
  10. Verify Build number which should match the one you’ve uploaded.

Infrastructure Navigator Adapter

The Infrastructure Navigator adapter is an embedded adapter for vCops Advanced, it retrieves application-related information. You can customize it by modifying properties in the vin_adapter.properties file

Property Description Default
workerThreadCount Number of threads for retrieving Infrastructure Navigator documents from the vCenter Inventory service. You can configure up to 100 threads. 10
docBuilderCount Number of DocumentBuilder objects for parsing Infrastructure Navigator data documents. You can configure up to 100 objects. 10
syncInterval Time interval, in minutes, that the adapter synchronizes its entire local cache with the vCenter Operations Manager Advanced server. 60
certCheckEnabled Boolean value that determines whether the adapter checks the vCenter Operations Manager Advanced server certificate. true in a vApp installation, false otherwise
vin20Enabled Boolean value that determines whether to retrieve and process application-related information that is available only in Infrastructure Navigator 2.0. true

/data/vcops/log/adapters/VinAdapter Infrastructure Navigator adapter log files
/data/vcops/log Collector log files on Analytics VM

To get more information you can set for a short interval DEBUG level logging.

Upgrading

You can upgrade a vCops , 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3 vAPP to vCenter Operation Manager 5.6x. It will require the following disk space :

Resource Min requirement
UI VM Disk 1: 4GB & Data Disks: 250 GB
Analytics VM Disk 1: 4 GB & Data Disks: 120 GB

If you don’t have enough available disk space, you can add virtual disks to the UI VM.
Now to upgrade follow this procedure :

  1. Save the .pak file of the latest vCenter Operations Manager Build ot your local storage
  2. login to http:///admin
  3. Update > Browse and select .pak file
  4. click Update
  5. Accept the EULA and click OK
  6. Accept and confirm the update
  7. login back to check the Status tab
  8. login to vSphere Client or Custom UI to verify vCops interface is fine.

That’s it we leave you with that. Enjoy vCops 5.6.