Deploying the vRealize Operations virtual appliance

Deploying the vRealize Operations 6.6 virtual appliance is very similar to any standard OVF/OVA deployment on vSphere. First, download the latest OVA appliance from VMware. Then deploy into the environment using the Deploy OVF Template wizard.

This can be done through the vSphere Web Client. The vSphere Web Client will be used as it is the only available client since vSphere 6.5. The thick C# client is deprecated and no longer available.

Browse to https://<vCenter FQDN>:9443/ or just https://<vCenter FQDN>:vsphere-client/.

1. If you have deployed any OVF or OVA package before, this process is no different. Select Deploy OVA Template on the cluster as shown in the following screenshot.
2. Select the vRealize Operations 6.6 OVA Template and follow the bouncing ball through the different selections. In here, configure:
   • Name and folder: Name of the virtual machine and the folder it will reside in.
   • Configuration: This is where you can select the size of the deployment. In this deployment, we will be doing extra small, which is 2 vCPU and 8 GB RAM. Note that extra small and small nodes are primarily intended for test and proof of concept environments.
   • Storage: This is the datastore where the virtual machine will be placed and in what disk format it will be placed (Thick or Thin). It is recommended to select the thick provisioned eager-zero option when possible.
   • Networks: Which port group the virtual machine network card will be assigned to.
   • Customization: This is where we configure the time zone and networking details.

1. Once all the correct information is entered, click Finish and the OVA Template will now deploy the first vRealize Operations node.
2. When the node has been deployed, ensure that is has been powered on. Once the virtual machine has booted up the following splash screen indicates that you are ready to begin configuring the vRealize Operations cluster.

As per the previous example, browse to the URL of https://<ip or fqdn> and you should be presented with a screen similar to the following screenshot: