In this post I will manually deploy the VMware Cloud Proxy Appliance from vRealize Operations which I need in order to monitor applications and operating systems with Telgraf.

Cloud Proxies

A Cloud proxy is required to collect and monitor data from remote data centres. The Cloud Proxy collects from that data centre and uploads it to the vRealize Operations Manager Analytics cluster. Typically there would be at least one Cloud Proxy per data centre but that appliance can support multiple vCenter accounts.

Deployment

As always there are a number of prerequisites required before you can deploy an appliance. Ensure that such things as IP addresses are selected, DNS entries (A+PTR) created and any firewall is configured if required. With those in place we can proceed to the vROPS UI. In my lab I am using vROPS 8.6.

There are a number of ways to deploy Cloud Proxies. You can, within vROPS, from the left menu click Data Sources > Cloud Proxy, which takes you to the Cloud Proxy page and then click New.

In my case as I am trying to deploy an agent you will see that the prerequisite is to have a deployed Cloud Proxy. In the screenshot below you can see I dont yet have one. Click the Configure Cloud Proxy button

This brings you to the Cloud Proxy page which for me is currently empty. So I click New

Now within the Install Cloud Proxy Page I see a wizard promoting me to download the Cloud Proxy OVA. This link takes me to the correct version page at VMware. Download the OVA to a local directory.

Step 2 tells you to import that OVA to vCenter which I will do in a second. First I copy the one-time key from the dialogue in step 3 using the copy icon to my clipboard.

Jumping across to vCenter I find the appropriate place to install my Cloud Proxy, Right click and select Deploy OVA template. Within the Wizard I can now browse to the OVA I downloaded previously and click upload files.

Step 2 and 3 of the wizard are simple. Type the name of the VM as it will appear in the vCenter inventory and select the location of where this should be deployed – cluster and folder. Click next and review those details.

Step 4 Review the details and click next.

Step 5 Agree to the License Agreement in order to proceed.

Now in Step 6 we can select the sizing for our Cloud Proxy. A small appliance can handle upto 8000 VMs, more than enough for my lab. A standard appliance can handle upto 40000 VMs. For a more detailed look into Cloud Proxy sizing check VMware KB 78491 to check the guidelines.
Select the appropriate size and click next.

Step 7. Select the appropriate datastore for your environment.

Step 8
Place the Cloud Proxy onto the desired network. In my lab this is my mgmt VLAN.

Step 9
In the Customise template section pay attention to all the fields.
You must paste the one-time key from earlier into the One Time Key field.
Select a friendly name for the cloud proxy node that will appear in vROPS.
Select the time zone (I use UTC to match my VROPs analytic cluster)
Input NTP
I am not using IPv6 so I leave that unchecked.

Scrolling down the dialogue, type the required network information for the Cloud Proxy node. When complete click next.

The node will now be deployed. Once complete power it on from the vCenter UI and give it 5 to 10 minutes to configure and appear within vROPS.

As you can see in the next 2 screenshots the new Cloud Proxy will appear. It should show itself going online and then a status of ready when complete. If this does not happen then check your previous steps to ensure the correct one time key and network details were used.

Once the node is online I can click on the Cloud Proxy itself to view details. As you can see it is online and displays information about whether or not it is receiving from endpoints. As I haven’t yet deployed any that is why I see No Data Sending. In the next post I will deploy the Telegraf agent and complete this check.

Documentation

Configuring Cloud Proxies in vRealize Operations from the VMware website

***Update***

You can deploy Cloud Proxies using vRealize Life Cycle Manager since version 8.6.
See the post Cloud Proxy Deployment via vRSLCM for that procedure.