vCloud Suite

Beside the standard dashboard that comes with the default installation, the vCenter Operations Manager allows you to create your own custom dashboard to meet your specific needs. The design process is done using the custom portal and not in the administration portal. The custom portal can be accessed by typing the FQDN/IP address of the UI virtual machine in the internet browser followed by /vcops-custom/. For example: https://10.10.13.28/vcops-custom/ In this example, I’ll create a custom […]

Now the vCenter Operations Manager vApp is deployed, we can proceed with the initial configuration. Initial Setup Open the vSphere Client and log in to the vCenter Server where the vCenter Operations Manager vApp is located. Select the vApp and from the Summary tab click the Available link to open the vCenter Operations Manager Administration page. Accept the SSL security warning and log in with username admin and password admin. In the Initial Setup Wizard, provide […]

So far the vCloud Suite proof of concept has been installed and configured with the vCloud Director with vCloud Networking and Security, vCloud Connector and vCenter Chargeback Manager. In this part we will take a look on how to proactively manage the health of vSphere infrastructure, virtual machines and applications. But also how to spot potential bottlenecks and how to remediate the problems. To do this, VMware offers vCenter Operations Manager, which is also part […]

Now the installation and configuration of vCenter Chargeback Manager is completed, a new chargeback hierarchy can be created. A chargeback hierarchy is an organization of vCenter Server entities and vCenter Chargeback Manager entities. The vCenter Server entities include virtual machines, hosts, data centers, resource pools, host folders, and virtual machine folders. Create New Hierarchy To identify the resource utilization and generate a usage or cost report, we must first create a chargeback hierarchy and add […]

Now that the installation requirements are met, we can proceed with installation of the vCenter Chargeback Manager. In this case, I’ve created a dedicated virtual machine with default settings running Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1. I assume you already downloaded the software and extracted it to a directory. Install vCenter Chargeback Manager Start the executable and wait for the installation wizard. Click Next at the Introduction screen. Accept the EULA and click Next. Click […]

So, the cloud environment is up and running. The organizations are created and vApps populated with virtual machines. The next question that arises is how to determine the resource utilization and how to calculate the costs for virtual machines that use resources in the cloud. The VMware vCloud Suite includes the vCenter Chargeback Manager which is suited for the job. Before we begin with the preparation, installation and configuration of vCenter Chargeback Manager, let’s first […]