Friday, October 10, 2014

Deploying vCOPS 5.x in vSphere Essentials Plus


VMware vCenter Operations Manager 5.x has a requirement for DRS (Distributed Resource Schedule) to be able to be deployed in a cluster - this is because it is deployed as a vApp, and vApps require DRS.

If you are attempting to install vCOPS on vSphere Essentials, Essentials Plus, or Standard, you will discover that you don't have license for DRS. VMware released this article as the resolution to the problem. Here are the steps that they detailed:

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To deploy vCenter Operations Manager in a vCenter Server environment with an Essentials Plus or Standard cluster of three ESX hosts:
  1. Remove one of the ESX hosts from the cluster so that it resides directly under the parent datacenter.
  2. On that ESX host, deploy the vCenter Operations Manager vApp, specifying static IP addresses.
  3. Power on the vApp before moving the host back into the cluser to ensure IP settings are picked up.
  4. License the solution in vCenter.
  5. Move the ESX host with vCenter Operations back into the cluster.
Note: Static IP addresses are required.

Warning: The steps above dissolve the vApp container and an error is displayed. Disregard the error message and continue moving the host into the cluster.

Moving the ESX host with the vCenter Operations vApp back into the cluster results in the addition of the two virtual machines (the UI virtual machine and the Analytics virtual machine) to the cluster, without the vApp container. vCenter Operations Manager 5.x continues to function normally when this happens.
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Also, in case you need it, the default logins for vCOPS are:
Default Administration:
admin
admin

Default Root Login:
root
vmware

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Dustin Shaw
VCP