The return of the One Click Cluster Capacity Dashboard on vROps 6.0

Let me begin this post by thanking all the readers of vXpress who voted this year during the TopvBlog2015 survey. I am happy to share that your support and encouragement has helped vXpress retain a spot in the Top 50 Virtualization blogs in the year 2015 as well by being ranked as number 38 in the world. Here are the full results of this years ballot.  I will continue to share my experiences through this blog and I hope that the quality and the quantity of the content increases this year as compared to the previous year.

On this note, I should share that in March 2014, I wrote a post on creating a one-click cluster capacity dashboard in vCOps. I must say that the response I got on that post was enormous and that dashboard was replicated in hundreds of vCOps installations across the globe. Since the release of vRealize Operations Manager, I have received an over-whelming amount of requests to re-create the one click cluster capacity dashboard on vROps 6.0. I should mention here that the dashboard which I created with vCOps 5.x would not work with vROps 6.0, since a number of metrics have changed in vROps 6.0 and the one which remain are also laid in a different pattern within the database. 

So without further ado, let me quickly show you the face of the NEW ONE CLICK CLUSTER CAPACITY DASHBOARD....

Just like the previous version of the dashboard, you would need to click on the cluster name on the left pane which will give you the details of the cluster and the important capacity metrics. With vROps 6.0, I have selected the metrics which I believe are important and would give you an overview of the cluster. Let me quickly explain these 16 metrics to you.

• Total Hosts = Total number of hosts in the cluster
• Total Datastores = Total number of datastores in the cluster
• Total VMs = Total number of virtual machines
• Powered on VMs = Number of powered on VMs in the cluster
• VM:HOST = Average number of running virtual machines per running host.
• vCPU:pCPU = Ratio of CPU consumption to provision based on consumer demand
• vMEM : pMEM = Ratio of Memory consumption to provision based on consumer demand
• WASTAGE% = Overall score of waste, on a scale of 100
• VM Remaining Average = Capacity remaining based on average consumer demand
• CPU - VM Remaining = Capacity remaining based on average consumer CPU demand
• Memory - VM Remaining = Capacity remaining based on average consumer Memory demand
• Disk - VM Remaining = Capacity remaining based on average consumer Disk Space demand
• VM Remaining Large = Capacity remaining based on Large consumer demand
• VM Remaining Medium = Capacity remaining based on Medium consumer demand
• VM Remaining Small = Capacity remaining based on Small consumer demand
• VM Remaining Average = Capacity remaining based on average consumer demand

In case you want some more or other metrics to show up in your scoreboard widget, then you can refer to the vROps Admin Guide here which gives you the description of various metrics available.

Now let me tell you how to replicate this dashboard in your environment. Here are the pre-requisites:-

• vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.1
• Advanced Edition or Above
• Administrative Access to vROps
• Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox

Here are the steps to replicate the dashboard.

• Login to your vROps instance with an administrator account. (This could be to any instance of the cluster in case you are running a vROps Cluster).

• Click on Content - > Manage Metric Config -> Expand the folder "ReskndMetric" -> Click on the Green PLUS Sign to add a new XML -> Name the file as "cluster-cap" (without .xml extension) Copy the xml content highlighted in RED from below and paste it on the right window -> Click on Save.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<AdapterKinds>
   <AdapterKind adapterKindKey="VMWARE">
<ResourceKind resourceKindKey="ClusterComputeResource">

<Metric attrkey="summary|total_number_hosts" label="Total Hosts" unit="" yellow="63" orange="64" red="65" />
                <Metric attrkey="summary|total_number_datastores" label="Total Datastores" unit="" yellow="255" orange="256" red="257" />
                <Metric attrkey="summary|total_number_vms" label="Total VMs" unit="" yellow="9999" orange="10000" red="10001" />
<Metric attrkey="summary|number_running_vms" label="Powered On VMs" unit="" yellow="9999" orange="10000" red="10001" />

                <Metric attrkey="summary|avg_vm_density" label="VM : HOST" unit=":1" yellow="15" orange="30" red="40" />
                <Metric attrkey="cpu|demand|vConsumption.per.pConsumption" label="vCPU : pCPU" unit=":1" yellow="5" orange="6" red="7" />
                <Metric attrkey="mem|demand|vConsumption.per.pConsumption" label="vMEM : pMEM" unit="memory" yellow="2" orange="3" red="4" />
               <Metric attrkey="badge|waste" label="WASTAGE%" unit="%" yellow="20" orange="30" red="40" />

<Metric attrkey="summary|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_average" label="TOTAL VM REMAINING" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />
                 <Metric attrkey="cpu|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_average" label="CPU - VM REMAINING" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />
                 <Metric attrkey="mem|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_average" label="MEMORY - VM REMAINING" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />
<Metric attrkey="diskspace|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_average" label="DISK SPACE - VM REMAINING" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />

<Metric attrkey="summary|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_large" label="VM REMAINING-LARGE" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />
               <Metric attrkey="summary|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_medium" label="VM REMAINING-MEDIUM" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />
<Metric attrkey="summary|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_small" label="VM REMAINING-SMALL" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />
               <Metric attrkey="summary|capacityRemainingUsingConsumers_average" label="VM REMAINING-AVERAGE" unit="" yellow="10" orange="5" red="0" />

      </ResourceKind>
   </AdapterKind>
</AdapterKinds>

Once you are done with creating this file, you now need to import a dashboard which is called "CLUSTER CAPACITY DASHBOARD" To import this dashboard you need to download the following file: CLUSTER-CAP.json (click on the filename to download).

Once you have this file, let's see the steps to import it.

• Login to your vROps instance with an administrator account. (This could be to any instance of the cluster in case you are running a vROps Cluster).

• Click on Content - > Dashboards -> Actions -> Click on the Import Dashboard.

• Browse to the CLUSTER-CAP.json file and click on Ok.

This will bring the Cluster Capacity Dashboard in the list of dashboards which you have..

Hope you enjoy the new Cluster Capacity Dashboard!!

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