Ninja Guide to Manage vRealize Network Insight using vRSLCM

The vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager automates installation, configuration, upgrade, patch, configuration management, drift remediation and health from within a single pane of glass.

This provides the IT Managers or Cloud admin resources to focus on business-critical initiatives, while improving time to value (TTV), reliability and consistency.

VMware’s vRealize Suite of Products are great, they provide lot’s of feature and capabilities.

Supported Products:

vRealize Automation
vRealize Operations Managers
vRealize Log Insight
vRealize Business for Cloud
vRealize Network Insight

Using vRSLCM we can Deploy, Upgrade, Add Data Source, Change Password, Delete Environment, Export, Re-create Complete vRNI Environment and many other cool things can be done.

vRSLCM prerequisites:

Under vRSLCM settings:

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Download the vRealize Network Insight 3.8 or 3.9

If you already have the OVA downloaded then you can import it under the Product binaries tab.

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Verify that you have vRealize Network Insight binaries status as completed.

vRealize Network Insight>>platform
vRealize Network Insight>>proxy

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From 2.0 version of vRSLCM, user can manage Certificates used across vRealize product environments from a single place. You can replace product certificates as Day-2 operation.
User has ability to specify certificates at both product and environment level. User can create Certificate using vRSLCM or can import certificate.
Configure NTP Servers for deploying products in environments

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Under Data Centers

Create a Data Center with an associated location.

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Add the vCenter Server where the vRA environment will be deployed to.

Make sure the data collection is successful.

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vRealize Network Insight Create Environment Flow :

First we need to create environment :

LCM has 4 different type of Environment.

a) Development

b) Test

c) Production

d) Staging

Note: Default Password provided will be set as vRNI Platform and Collector Admin, Support and Consoleuser Password.

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LCM supports 2 type of deployment for vRNI

Standard

Standard Deployment Consist of 1 Platform and 1 Cluster

2. Cluster

Cluster Deployment consist of 3 Platform and 1 Cluster. Clustering will be done as part of flow no manual intervention required.

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To check Supported version for each product

Click admin@localhost on top right corner
Click Products

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A popup will appear. Which will list all the supported products in vRSLCM and there version.

In vRSLCM 2.0 version, vRNI supported version are 3.8 and 3.9.

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User can select version and Deployment Type from drop down.

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Going forward in Blog we are taking Deployment Type as Cluster and Version as 3.8.0

Select vRealize Network Insight window, check the selection box on top left corner.
Select New Install, Choose Version, Choose Deployment Type from drop-down
Click NEXT
Scroll to bottom and accept EULA
Click NEXT
License Details
Enter your license key for vRNI, if you are using vRSLCM you probably have a vRealize or vCloud Suite license to add.

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You can also choose License from your Myvmware account. Click on Choose Key on extreme left of License Window.

If no Account is listed. You have to add your My Vmware account from settings. Refer to vRSLCM prerequisites.

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Click NEXT
Infrastructure Details
Select vCenter Server entered in the vRSLCM data center.
Select the cluster
Select the Network where appliances will be deployed on
Select the Datastore where appliances will be deployed on
Select disk formatSelect Applicable Time sync mode with recommendation NTP servers.
Select the NTP servers created in settings
Click NEXT
Network Details

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Enter the default gateway
Enter the domain name
Enter the domain search path
Enter the domain name servers, with comma separated
Enter netmask
Click NEXT
Certificate Details

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Certificate can be generated as well as imported.

After entering all details Click NEXT
Product Details
Under Product Properties
Select NTP servers
Under Components
Select vRealize Network Insight Platform

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Enter VM name
Enter IP Address
Enter Node SIze (As vRNI cluster requires Platform to be of Large Size. By default it will be Large in Cluser Deployment Type)
If you have some custom configuration for vRNI then select the Advanced settings button on top right corner of node.
Select vRealize Network Insight Collector
Enter VM name
Enter IP Address
Enter Node SIze

If you have some custom configuration for vRNI then select the Advanced settings button on top right corner of node.

If you want to add additional components you can do so at the top of the Product Details.

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Click NEXT
PreCheck Details

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Click Run PreCheck

If error or warning appears, follow the instructions from the required actions. Run the pre-check again to verify fixes. I have performed the installation with the older releases and since v2.0 the preCheck has been greatly improved.

If the precheck validation comes back successful, Click NEXT

Request Summary
Before clicking submit
Review your configuration and scroll all the way to the bottom.
Click on Download Configuration.
This will save your configuration settings, which are very useful if for some or other reason you have to reinstall.
Click Submit

Installation Status

Click On Request

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Click on the Request State In Progress

Note: Except First Platform all nodes will be deployed in parallel improving time to value (TTV).

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Here you can follow the steps.

If you want to know what the current workflow is running, then you can click on the blue dot.

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Once successfully completed, and this can take up to 90 minutes, you can view vRNI deployment under Environments.

Click View Details

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Click View Details again

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Here you will find all the details regarding your existing environment.

Now to really make full use of vRSLCM, and to complete your full SDDC stack environment, you can add additional products to your environment like:

vRA
vROPS
vRLI
vRB
vRNI (since 1.3)

Upgrade vRealize Network Insight from 3.8 to 3.9 using vRealize Suite Life Cycle Manager

Go to Manage Environment. There all environments will be available.
Click view details of Environment containing vRNI.

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Click on vertical ellipsis on top right corner of product.

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Click on Upgrade Option.

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Two Repository Type are available in vRSLCM .

a) Respository URL : Updates from a Custome Repository

b) vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager Repository : Updates from a vRSLCM product repository.

In my upgrade i am using vRSLCM Repository. 3.9 upgrade bundle is already mapped in product binaries tab in settings.

Click NEXT
PreCheck Details

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Click Run Precheck

If the precheck validation comes back successful, Click NEXT

Request Summary
Before clicking submit
Review your configuration and scroll all the way to the bottom.
Click Submit
Upgrade Status
Click On Request

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Click on the Request State In Progress

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Here you can follow the steps.

If you want to know what the current workflow is running, then you can click on the blue dot.

Once successfully completed, and this can take up to n hours depending on n number of nodes.

Import vRealize Network Insight Using vRealize Life Cycle Manager

For Import we need to Create Environment.

vRSLCM has 4 different type of Environment.

a) Development

b) Test

c) Production

d) Staging

Enter Environment Data

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Click NEXT
Create Environment
Check the box for vRealize Network Insight

Since we already have an environment that we need to import, select the import Radio button.

Click NEXT

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Product Details

Note: All Nodes while importing should have same console/support/admin password.

Ex. Console support admin

platform 1 Test@123 Demo@123 Vrni@123

platform 2 Test@123 Demo@123 NA

platform 3 Test@123 Demo@123 NA

vrni-proxy-release Test@123 Demo@123 NA

Enter vRNI Admin Username (admin@local)
Enter console password
Enter Support password
Enter Admin Password
Enter Platform 1 Ipaddress
Select vCenter Server from the drop-down where the vRNI nodes are running.

If collector is running on other vCenter. We can add vCenter after clicking add another.

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Click NEXT
Review summary
Click Download configuration to save the JSON file for later use.
Click Submit

This will run for a while to configure the environment and import vRNI

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Import Status

Click on the Request State In Progress
Here you can follow the steps.
Once successfully completed, Environment will be listed under Manage Environment.

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Verify that all the information of your vRNI environment is accurate. vRSLCM collects all your Nodes information as well as where each component resides. Data Sources are also collected as part of Import.

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