Implement all the best practices when you deploy a production instance of vRealize Operations.

Analytics Nodes

Analytics nodes consist of a primary node, primary replica node, and data nodes.
Note: The master node is now referred to as the primary node. The master replica node is now referred to as the primary replica node.
  • Deploy analytics nodes in the same vSphere Cluster except when activating Continuous Availability.
  • Deploy analytics nodes with the same disk size on storage of the same type.
  • When activating Continuous Availability, separate analytics nodes into fault domains based on their physical location.
  • Depending on the size and performance requirements for analytics nodes, apply Storage DRS Anti-Affinity rules to ensure that nodes are on separate datastores.
  • Set Storage DRS to manual for all vRealize Operations analytics nodes.
  • If you deploy analytics nodes into a highly consolidated vSphere cluster, configure the resource reservation to ensure optimal performance. Ensure that the virtual CPU to physical CPU ratio is not negatively impacting the performance of analytics nodes by validating CPU ready time and CPU co-stop.
  • Analytics nodes have a high number of vCPUs to ensure performance of the analytics computation that occurs on each node. Monitor CPU Ready time and CPU Co-Stop to ensure that analytics nodes are not competing for CPU capacity.
  • If the sizing guideline provides several configurations for the same number of objects, use the configuration which has the least number of nodes. For example, if the number of collecting is 120,000, configure the cluster with four extra-large nodes instead of 12 large nodes.
  • Deploy an extra even number of nodes to activate Continuous Availability. If the current configuration is an odd number of analytics nodes, deploy an extra analytics node to create an even pairing.

Witness Nodes

A witness node is required when continuous availability is activated to manage the analytics nodes in the fault domains. vRealize Operations can have only one witness node in its cluster.

  • Deploy the witness node before activating continuous availability.
  • Deploy the witness node using the witness configuration.
  • Deploy the witness node in a different cluster separate from the analytics nodes.

Cloud Proxy

Using cloud proxies in vRealize Operations, you can collect and monitor data from your remote data centers. You can deploy one or more cloud proxies in vRealize Operations to create a one-way communication between your remote environment and vRealize Operations. The cloud proxies work as one-way remote collectors and upload data from the remote environment to vRealize Operations. Cloud proxies can support multiple vCenter Server accounts.

Cloud Proxy and Telegraf Agents

  • Deploy Cloud Proxy in the same vCenter Server as the end point VMs on which you want to deploy the Telegraf agents. For Cloud Proxy sizing information see vRealize Operations Sizing Guidelines.
  • Ensure that your operating system platform is supported by Cloud Proxy, and the most recent versions of Windows and Linux OS are supported.
  • System times must be synchronized between cloud proxy, end point VMs, the vCenter Server, ESX host, and vRealize Operations. To ensure synchronized time, use Network Time Protocol (NTP).
  • Ensure that all the prerequisites are met. For more information, see Prerequisites.
  • Disable UAC on Endpoint VMs before installing the Telegraf agent. If you cannot do this due to security restrictions, see KB article 70780 for a work around script.
  • Ensure that the version later than 10.2 of VMware Tools is installed on the end point VM on which you want to deploy the Telegraf agent.
  • To deploy Telegraf agents onto end point VMs, ensure that the following prerequisites are met for the user account being used for deployment:
    Windows - The user account must be either:
    • An administrator account
    • A non-administrator account that is a member of the built-in administrator group

    Linux - The user account must be either:

    • A root user with all privileges
    • A non-root user with all privileges
    • A non-root user with specific privileges

    For more information, see User Account Prerequisites in the vRealize Operations Configuration Guide.

Management Packs and Adapters

Various management packs and adapters have specific configuration requirements. Ensure that you are familiar with all prerequisites before you install a solution and configure the adapter instance.

  • Utilize collector groups to separate data collection into fault domains when continuous availability is activated.

Deployment Formats

Deploy vRealize Operations with the same vRealize Operations vApp version for the following node types:
  • Primary
  • Primary Replica
  • Data
  • Witness

See the vRealize Operations vApp Deployment and Configuration Guide for more information.