By: Kyle Wassink, Blue Medora
An Introduction to vROps Views
Views are resource type specific, self-contained, reusable displays of information. What do each of these features mean in practice though?
First, what does “resource type specific” mean? Simply put, you have to define the resource type (or types) that you want to use as the “subjects” for the View. As you’ll see in the second blog post in the series, this is necessary so that you can select metrics that are specific to a resource type.
Next up is “self-contained.” A Views configuration is entirely independent of other Views or settings. What this means in practice is that the View will display exactly the same everywhere it is used – no need to constantly change settings every time you use it.
Finally, “reusable.” Due to their self-contained nature, and thanks to extensive integration points provided throughout vROps, Views can be reused extensively. You can create valuable vROps Views and reuse them instead of reinventing the wheel for every table or chart.
Figure 1: The View widget
Below is a summary of the series on vRealize Operations Views from the last few weeks that will walk you through how to get the most out of this feature.
#1 vROps Views: A Practical Building Block for Maximizing vROps ROI
Learn how Views increase your vROps ROI. Whether you use Views in their Standalone setup, create reports with them, or add them to your dashboards, Views can save you a significant amount of time and enhance your experience with vROps.
#2 vROps Views: Creating a View from Scratch
A step-by-step tutorial for creating your own vROps Views. If you’ve never created a custom View before, no worries! This tutorial will walk you through each of the five steps involved in creating your own vROps Views.
#3 vROps Views: List vs Summary Presentation Mode
There are many presentation modes available when creating Views, each providing a unique way to display information. List and Summary are the two presentation modes available for displaying information in a table. Learn their similarities, differences, and when to use them.
#4 vROps Views: Trend Presentation Mode
The Trend presentation mode lets you display a graph of historical data. Learn about the settings unique to this presentation mode and when to use them.
#5 vROps Views: Distribution Presentation Mode
The final presentation mode, Distribution, displays information in a pie chart format. Learn how to configure your custom pie chart and when to use this type of View.
Figure 2: An example Trend View
Even More about Views
Every installation of vROps includes numerous Views for VMware resource kinds. Take some time to review them, and maybe even make a few new ones of your own. Additionally, many Management Packs by Blue Medora include custom Views out of the box.
To learn even more about Views and how to customize how you interact with your data in vROps, visit VMware’s vROps Documentation.
