In the first part of the series I discussed minor architecture layout and began Installation discussions. This part two will further discuss the installation process and delve in some best practices architecture ideas.
Installation c'ont:
Answering #1 - Picking your install type.
What are your views on virtual appliances versus application installs on current build OS's? Some individuals I have found need to have it on their installation of OS and others are fine with not using one of their licenses for this tool. Put a comment if you have an opinion about that.
Either way the installation is similar as most of the configuration is performed after the initial installation. Let's start with the vApp installation.
Getting the vApp
Head toward the download website https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VROPS-601&productId=468&rPId=7484
Enter in the credentials and download the product. Make sure to get the 6.0.1 build as numerous fixes have been applied and it is a much better product version. For reference here is the release notes for the 6.0.1 build. https://www.vmware.com/support/vrops/doc/vrops-601-release-notes.html
At the writing of this blog post hotfix #2 was available at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2116366 and includes all previous hotfixes. This will be discussed in later parts but is brought up here to get as well as the installation. In the caption to the right, it is seen at the bottom of the list.
Answering #2 - Sizing the install
Sizing the environment isn't as simple as it would seem. The install has three distinct sizes when it comes to the install. See the chart below:
Installation c'ont:
Answering #1 - Picking your install type.
What are your views on virtual appliances versus application installs on current build OS's? Some individuals I have found need to have it on their installation of OS and others are fine with not using one of their licenses for this tool. Put a comment if you have an opinion about that.
Either way the installation is similar as most of the configuration is performed after the initial installation. Let's start with the vApp installation.
Getting the vApp
Head toward the download website https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VROPS-601&productId=468&rPId=7484
At the writing of this blog post hotfix #2 was available at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2116366 and includes all previous hotfixes. This will be discussed in later parts but is brought up here to get as well as the installation. In the caption to the right, it is seen at the bottom of the list.
Answering #2 - Sizing the install
Sizing the environment isn't as simple as it would seem. The install has three distinct sizes when it comes to the install. See the chart below:
- Small - 4 vCPU and 16 GB of RAM, tiny VM eh? The more important part of the screen shows the objects and metrics. If you were to hit the 8 node maximum configuration size (which you shouldn't) with this VMGuest, non-HA, it would be capable of handling 2,400 x 8 = 19200 Objects. That seems like a ton! One (1) vCenter, one (1) Datacenter, one (1) DRS Cluster with three (3) hosts, three (3) datastores and ten (10) VMs = 19 objects. Think as the environment grows, or as additional metrics are pulled in through other management packs these objects and metrics can grow exponentially. Also if you consider putting the configuration into HA mode the object count halves to 9600 Object maximum.
- Medium - 8 vCPUs and 32 GB of RAM. This configuration more than doubles the object count and truly allows for the 8 node configuration.
- Large - 16 vCPU and 48 GB of RAM. Adds more ability but isn't the same jump from a small to a medium.
- Home Lab Size - Extra Small - This size is only to conserve use for trying the solution.
In Part 3, Planning for the Storage IOPS and disk sizing
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