Have you created some great dashboards for vRealize Operations? Do you want to share them and earn VMware Community points? In this blog post I will explain how to use the Sample Exchange at the VMware {code} site to upload and manage vRealize Operations content. You spent a lot of time creating your useful dashboards but you can share your vRealize Operations dashboards very easily.
All you need to get started is a My VMware or Partner Central account (or have an employee account at VMware). .
Getting Started with Sample Exchange
If you are not familiar with the VMware {code} website, you are missing out on some valuable information. You don’t have to be a developer or even a scripting expert to explore and learn about how to extend VMware products and services using APIs and SDKs.
For the purposes of vRealize Operations dashboards, you don’t even have to know a single language or write a single line of code!
Browse to the VMware {code} website and click the link for Sample Exchange.
Once there, you can begin to explore samples uploaded by others from the VMware community such as customers, partners and employees. Allow me to point out some items on the page:
- I recommend clicking the “Take the Tour” button to get an overview before going further. It’s short but will explain some key features.
- The default tab for Sample Exchange is the “Samples” area. But, you can also click on “Requests” if you don’t see what you are looking for and maybe some other community member will upload what you need.
- Search and filter. For any vRealize Operations dashboards, you can use the Language filter for “vRealize Ops Dashboard” to narrow the list.
- A sample! This is a vRealize Operations dashboard contribution I added. You can see the tags for vRealize Operations Manager and vRealize Ops Dashboards. Clicking the sample link here will allow you to read more about how to install and use the dashboard or you can just click the download link to grab it right away.
- Add your own sample with the “Add New Sample” button. I will spend the rest of this post explaining how to do just that.
Prepare Your Dashboard Sample
Before you upload your sample, there are some things you need to do to make it easy for people to use. First, be sure to export all artifacts required for your dashboard along with the dashboard itself and combine into a single zip file. Here is an example of the zip file I prepared for my contribution:
I gave the file a descriptive name “SDMP Trouble Shooting Dashboard Content” and included the following:
- Exports for Views consumed by the dashboard
- SDMP Discovery Failures.zip
- SDMP No Success Tools Running.zip
- SDMP No Success Tools Version.zip
- SDMP VM No Services Discovered.zip
- The XML content for a Metric Config required by one of the dashboard widgets
- xml
- The exported dashboard json file
- json
Other items you can include are a text file with instructions on usage and installation. Also, screen shots showing the dashboard in use might be helpful to add.
In my case, I have a blog post on my personal blog to explain how to install and use the dashboard. So, I will just include that in the sample submission description. This is a fantastic way to get more readers for your blog!
Now you have your content ready, you can upload your creation to Sample Exchange for the world to enjoy.
Upload Your Dashboard
Click on the link to “Add New Sample” as I covered in the overview above. You will need to sign in if you have not already (employees, use the link in the top right corner of the page to use Workspace One SSO).
Here you are on the “Add a Sample” page, which is easy to follow step-by-step.
For a dashboard contribution, select the “Upload Sample” option and then click the “Choose File” button to browse to the zip file containing all the dashboard artifacts as described in the previous section.
Now you are ready to fill out the form to describe your dashboard and provide details on how to install and use it. Here is an example of my dashboard contribution:
As I mentioned, I have a blog post for instructions on this dashboard, so I provide a brief description and then link to details. I also include an image to give an idea of what the dashboard looks like in use.
On the bottom half of the submission screen are some details you will need to complete.
- For “Programming Language” please always use ‘vRealize Ops Dashboard’ so others can easily find your contribution.
- For License, I recommend MIT. This is a simple license and unless you are uploading actual code there is really no benefit to other licenses.
- For “SDK/Platform/Tool” always select ‘vRealize Operations Manager’
- Check the agreement to the terms of use
Click “Submit” to publish and you are done! You can also update your dashboard content and edit your submission easily. Also, you can see how many times your dashboard has been downloaded. So, share your vRealize Operations dashboards on VMware {code} Sample Exchange today!
