By Brent Douglas
In early December, VMware launched an exciting new array of updates to its products. For some products, this update was a refinement of already widely used functionality and capabilities. For other products, the December release marked a new direction and new path forward. One such product is vRealize Operations Manager.
With VMware’s acquisition of Integrien’s patented real-time performance analytics solution in August 2010, VMware added a powerful tool to its arsenal of virtualization management solutions. This tool, vCenter Operations Manager, enabled customers to begin managing beyond “what my environment is doing now” and into “what my environment will be doing in 30 minutes—and beyond?” In essence, with vCenter Operations Manager, customers gained a tool that could predict―and ultimately prevent―the phone from ringing.
Since August 2010, vCenter Operations Manager received bug fixes, regular updates, and new features and capabilities. Even with those, the VMware product designers and engineers knew they could produce a new version of the product that captured and extended the capabilities of vCenter Operations Manager. On December 9, VMware released that tool—vRealize Operations Manager.
In many respects, vRealize Operations Manager, is a new product from the ground up. Due to the differences between vCenter Operations Manager v5.x and vRealize Operations Manager v6.x, current users of vCenter Operations Manager cannot simply apply a v6.x update to existing environments. For customers with little historical data or default policies, the best course forward may be to just install and begin using vRealize Operations Manager. Other customers, with deep historical data and advanced configuration/policies, the best path forward is likely a migration of existing data and configuration information from their vCenter Operations Manager v5.x instance.
A full discussion of migration planning and procedures is available in the vRealize Operations Manager Customization and Administration Guide. This guide also outlines many common vCenter Operations Manager scenarios and suggests migration paths to vRealize Operations Manager.
Important note: In order to migrate data and/or configuration information from an existing vCenter Operations Manager instance, the instance must be at least v.5.8.1 at a minimum, and preferably v5.8.3 or higher.
Question 1: Should any portion of my existing vCenter Operations Manager instance(s) be migrated?
VMware believes you are a candidate for a full migration (data and configuration information) if you can answer “yes” to any one of the following:
- Have you operationalized capacity planning in vCenter Operations Manager 5.8.x?
- Actively reclaiming waste
- Reallocating resources
- Have you operationalized vCenter Operations Manager to be performance- and health monitoring-based?
- Do you act upon the performance alerts that are generated by vCenter Operations Manager?
- Is any aspect of data in vCenter Operations Manager feeding another production system?
- Raw metrics, alerts, reports, emails, etc
- Do you have a company policy to retain monitoring data?
- Does your current vCenter Operations Manager instance fall into this category (e.g., it’s running in TEST)?
VMware believes you are a candidate for a configuration-only migration if you answer “yes” to any one of the following:
- Are you happy with your current configuration?
- Dashboards
- Policies
- Users
- Super Metrics
— AND —
- I do not need to save the data I have collected
- Running in a test environment or proof-of-concept you have refined and find useful
- Not really using the data yet
If you answered “no” to these questions, you should install and try vRealize Operations Manager today. You are ready to go with a fresh install without migrating any existing data or configuration information.
Question 2: If some portion of an existing vCenter Operations Manager instance is to be migrated, who should perform the migration?
vRealize Operations Manager is capable of migrating existing data and configuration information from an existing vCenter Operations Manager instance. However, complicating factors may require an in-depth look by a VMware services professional to ensure a successful migration. The following table outlines some of the complicating factors and suggests paths forward.
That’s it! With a bit of upfront planning you can be well on your journey to vRealize Operations Manager! The information above addresses the “big hitters” for planning a migration to vRealize Operations Manager from vCenter Operations Manager. As mentioned, a full discussion of migration planning and procedures is available in the vRealize Operations Manager Customization and Administration Guide.
On a personal note, I am excited about vRealize Operations Manager. Although vCenter Operations Manager served VMware and its customers well for many years, it is time for something new and exciting. I encourage you to try vRealize Operations Manager today. This post represents information produced in collaboration with David Moore, VMware Professional Services, and Dave Overbeek, VMware Technical Marketing team. I thank them for their contributions and continued focus on VMware and its customers.
Brent Douglas is a VMware Cloud Technical Solutions Architect
