Ive been getting requests on gathering information from some very high utilization customer clusters. So my first thought was to deploy VMware’s product which of course is better equipped to ascertain logging information as it is from the same family. This is a quick rundown of the deployment of vRealize Log Insight v4.5. (4.5.1) (Cluster is running vCenter 6.5U1). Overall, very easy to deploy and get into.
Ill start this quick walkthrough assuming you have access to the ova
Configure Appliance
Template selection
Select the name and deployment location
Compute resource selection (in this case I have the lab broken up into 1 management and 1 test host)
Details Review
License Acceptance
Configuration Selection (Deployment Size)
Extra Small
* 2 CPUs (minimum 2.0GHz)
* 4GB RAM * 132GB of storage (100GB for event storage) – thick provisioned, eager zeroed highly recommended
* VM hardware version 7 or greater (vSphere 4.0 or greater)
Small
* 2 CPUs (minimum 2.0GHz)
* 4GB RAM * 132GB of storage (100GB for event storage) – thick provisioned, eager zeroed highly recommended
* VM hardware version 7 or greater (vSphere 4.0 or greater)
Medium
* 2 CPUs (minimum 2.0GHz)
* 4GB RAM * 132GB of storage (100GB for event storage) – thick provisioned, eager zeroed highly recommended
* VM hardware version 7 or greater (vSphere 4.0 or greater)
Large
* 16 CPU (minimum 2.0GHz)
* 32GB RAM
* 510GB of storage (490GB for event storage) – thick provisioned, eager zeroed highly recommended
* VM hardware version 8 or greater (vSphere 5.0 or greater)
Since this is a test, I chose “Extra Small” deployment (reserved for proof of concepts)
Storage Section
Network Section
Config Template (IP, DNS, etc)
Finish and Deploy
The appliance took a few minutes to boot and restarted at least once during its self configuration.
Configure vSphere Logging
Next head over to https://APPLIANCE IP/admin
Select start new deployment, in this case
Administrative account creation
Add License (You can use the Key for your vcenter )
System Notification Information, for system level events
Set NTP (Can leave defaults or set your own)
SMTP
Compete Configuration
vSphere Integration Configuration (I did test connection) Initial Data Ingest
You can now select hosts on the left to see what is being polled. Note that you may need to wait a few minutes, and refresh the page after initial adding, as the appliance states.
Once polling has started you can glance over at Dashboard and Interactive Analytics to see the initial events collected
Im going to continue messing around with this, and hope to update with more information on how to make use of what we see.
Update: Im going to update the keys and see about making use of the 3rd party content pack plug-ins.
Notes:
VMware Hands on Labs are a valuable resource if you dont have access to a lab, and they are free: Try VMware vRealize Ops & vRealize Log Insight Hands-on Lab
SDN product NSX 6.2.3 and forward will include licensing for vRealize VMware FAQ
