Accepted Solutions
This should be fairly straight forward, but there are quite a few steps involved.
Create a Custom Group:
If the group of VMs aren't all in the same cluster and easy to report on, you can create a custom group and make sure the VMs are all in that group.
Start by navigating to Environment Overview. You should see a screen similar to the below image:
Click the green plus sign to create a new group:
Fill out the sections I highlighted. It doesn't have to be exactly the same as what I filled out. Like the "Group Type" can be changed to whatever you want, you can also chose what ever custom policies you have defined. Make sure you select the Object Type as Virtual Machine, and you can add any criteria you want to add. In this example I am keeping it simple and just adding specific objects, so the group won't be updated dynamically.
Next expand the "Objects to Always Include" using the little double arrows in the bottom right. Make sure to select the "All Objects" from the drop-down under "Filtered Objects" on the left-hand side (It defaults to Custom Groups). Then just navigate to your objects, in this case vCenter Adapter -> Virtual Machines -> Select the Checkboxes for each VM you want. Finally click the "Add" button to move them into the group.
You can also expand the "Objects to Always Exclude" but again since we are keeping it simple and doing a static group I'm not going to get into that. But it is essentially the same concept as what we just talked about.
Now you have a Custom Group. Next we need to create a View to feed our report.
Creating a Custom View:
Go to Home -> Content -> Views. You should see a screen like this:
Click on the green plus sign in order to create a new view. Give it a name and a description. Then click on "Presentation".
Choose which type of presentation you want to present. I am putting a list for this demonstration. Then select "Subjects".
For subjects you want to make sure to select "Virtual Machine" as the subject. We don't need to add any at this point. Select "Data" next.
Now you need to pick your metrics on the left-hand side and drag-and-drop them to the right. I would also suggest changing the label to something more readable as that will show up in the column headers for your report. I forgot to change the "Transformation" on this image, but you can select Average, Maximum, etc for each metric depending on your needs. It defaults to "Last" which is the last reported value for each metric. Next click on "Visibility" to choose where this view is going to be seen/used.
I am just checking the box for "Reports" but you can use this view for dashboards as well. Click save and you are done.
Now that we have created the view we need to add it to a report. Luckily this is the easiest part of the whole process.
Creating a Custom Report:
Go to Home -> Content -> Reports. You should see a screen like this:
Click on the green plus sign in order to create a new custom report. Give it a name, description and click on "Views".
Filter on the name of your view by typing it in the search box. Then Drag your view over to the right pane. Click on "Formats".
I usually just keep both PDF and CSV checked because you never know when you are going to use either. Click on "Layout Options".
Now you can add a cover page, table of contents, and footer. I don't usually include these but if you wanted to have a custom branded report you would just upload an image here to make it look all fancy. Click "Save" and you are done with your report.
Finally we just need to schedule the report.
Scheduling a Report:
Navigate to Home -> Environment Overview. Notice that when "Custom Groups" is selected your custom group shows up. Click on your Custom Group in the main pane.
Now that your custom group is selected, click on the "Reports" tab on the right-hand side of the page. Type in the name of your custom report in order to filter out the others. Then click on the link labeled "Schedule" to create a schedule for your report. Then click on the green plus sign in the window that opens up (not pictured).
Choose how often you would like your report to be generated. And at the bottom if you have Email setup for your vROPs instance already (I don't because I'm lazy), you can click on the "Email Report" checkbox and type in the email addresses of those you would like to receive your scheduled report.
Okay this turned out to be alot longer than I was expecting. But if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will be on later to answer.
Cheers,
Jeff
This should be fairly straight forward, but there are quite a few steps involved.
Create a Custom Group:
If the group of VMs aren't all in the same cluster and easy to report on, you can create a custom group and make sure the VMs are all in that group.
Start by navigating to Environment Overview. You should see a screen similar to the below image:
Click the green plus sign to create a new group:
Fill out the sections I highlighted. It doesn't have to be exactly the same as what I filled out. Like the "Group Type" can be changed to whatever you want, you can also chose what ever custom policies you have defined. Make sure you select the Object Type as Virtual Machine, and you can add any criteria you want to add. In this example I am keeping it simple and just adding specific objects, so the group won't be updated dynamically.
Next expand the "Objects to Always Include" using the little double arrows in the bottom right. Make sure to select the "All Objects" from the drop-down under "Filtered Objects" on the left-hand side (It defaults to Custom Groups). Then just navigate to your objects, in this case vCenter Adapter -> Virtual Machines -> Select the Checkboxes for each VM you want. Finally click the "Add" button to move them into the group.
You can also expand the "Objects to Always Exclude" but again since we are keeping it simple and doing a static group I'm not going to get into that. But it is essentially the same concept as what we just talked about.
Now you have a Custom Group. Next we need to create a View to feed our report.
Creating a Custom View:
Go to Home -> Content -> Views. You should see a screen like this:
Click on the green plus sign in order to create a new view. Give it a name and a description. Then click on "Presentation".
Choose which type of presentation you want to present. I am putting a list for this demonstration. Then select "Subjects".
For subjects you want to make sure to select "Virtual Machine" as the subject. We don't need to add any at this point. Select "Data" next.
Now you need to pick your metrics on the left-hand side and drag-and-drop them to the right. I would also suggest changing the label to something more readable as that will show up in the column headers for your report. I forgot to change the "Transformation" on this image, but you can select Average, Maximum, etc for each metric depending on your needs. It defaults to "Last" which is the last reported value for each metric. Next click on "Visibility" to choose where this view is going to be seen/used.
I am just checking the box for "Reports" but you can use this view for dashboards as well. Click save and you are done.
Now that we have created the view we need to add it to a report. Luckily this is the easiest part of the whole process.
Creating a Custom Report:
Go to Home -> Content -> Reports. You should see a screen like this:
Click on the green plus sign in order to create a new custom report. Give it a name, description and click on "Views".
Filter on the name of your view by typing it in the search box. Then Drag your view over to the right pane. Click on "Formats".
I usually just keep both PDF and CSV checked because you never know when you are going to use either. Click on "Layout Options".
Now you can add a cover page, table of contents, and footer. I don't usually include these but if you wanted to have a custom branded report you would just upload an image here to make it look all fancy. Click "Save" and you are done with your report.
Finally we just need to schedule the report.
Scheduling a Report:
Navigate to Home -> Environment Overview. Notice that when "Custom Groups" is selected your custom group shows up. Click on your Custom Group in the main pane.
Now that your custom group is selected, click on the "Reports" tab on the right-hand side of the page. Type in the name of your custom report in order to filter out the others. Then click on the link labeled "Schedule" to create a schedule for your report. Then click on the green plus sign in the window that opens up (not pictured).
Choose how often you would like your report to be generated. And at the bottom if you have Email setup for your vROPs instance already (I don't because I'm lazy), you can click on the "Email Report" checkbox and type in the email addresses of those you would like to receive your scheduled report.
Okay this turned out to be alot longer than I was expecting. But if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will be on later to answer.
Cheers,
Jeff