Welcome to part 7 of the VCF-9 series. The previous post in this series discussed how to configure an online depot in VCF operations and download the product installation binaries. This post will discuss the steps of deploying an instance of VCF Operations for Logs and configuring vSphere and NSX integration for log forwarding.
If you are not following along, I encourage you to read the earlier parts of this series from the links below:
1: VCF-9 Architecture & Deployment Models
4: NSX Edge Cluster Deployment
5: ESXi Host Commission in VCF
6: Deploying a Workload Domain
7: Depot Configuration and Binary Management in VCF Operations
VCF Operations for Logs, formerly vRealize Log Insight, is a VMware solution for centralized log management and analysis within a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment. It provides deep visibility into operational issues, enabling faster troubleshooting and proactive issue detection. It offers features such as intelligent querying, content packs tailored to specific products, and the ability to create custom dashboards for enhanced monitoring and troubleshooting.
VCF Operations for Logs is not deployed automatically when you initially set up VMware Cloud Foundation. It is considered a Day-2 operation.
Deployment Modes
There are 2 deployment modes available:
- Standard: A single VCF Operations for Logs node is deployed. Availability is provided by the vSphere HA functionality within the vSphere cluster.
- High-Availability: This model features a three-node deployment behind an internal load balancer. This setup ensures resilience at both the application layer—via a clustered deployment—and the infrastructure layer, through vSphere HA and DRS capabilities.
Deployment Methods:
- Fleet Manager (Recommended): Within VCF Operations, you can use the Fleet Manager’s Lifecycle section to deploy a new VCF Operations for Logs instance or import an existing one. This method streamlines the process and integrates it with your VCF environment.
- Manual OVA Deployment: You can also deploy the VCF Operations for Logs appliance manually from vCenter using its OVA file and then import it into Fleet Manager for centralized management.
To deploy an instance of VCF Operations for Logs, login to the VCF Operations console and navigate to Fleet Management > Lifecycle > VCF Management > Overview.
Click the Add button for operations logs.
Select the “New Install” option and choose the desired deployment type.
For the certificates, select if you have any existing cert or click on Generate Certificate to create a new self-signed certificate.
Fill in the details and click Generate.
Select the newly created cert from the list and click Next.
Choose the deployment target for the install. This will typically be your management domain.
Fill in the DNS and NTP details. Any existing DNS/NTP server can be selected by clicking “Edit Server Selection.”
Specify the default gateway and netmask for the selected network and click Next.
Click on the Add Password option to add the appliance password to the locker. This password can be reused for other appliances that you deploy in the future.
Specify the username and password, as well as a password alias.
Select the node size and the certificate you generated previously. Other options are optional.
Select the password you created and added to the locker.
If you selected “Configure Cluster VIP” in the previous step, then provide the FQDN and IP address for the cluster VIP.
Specify the node details and click Next. This node is deployed behind the internal load balancer.
Click the Run Precheck button to start validating the supplied inputs.
Click submit to start the deployment. You can export the configuration in JSON format for reusability.
Wait for the deployment to complete.
After the deployment is finished, navigate to the overview tab and click manage for operations logs.
You can view the details under the components tab.
Enable Log Collection
To view and analyze logs from the VCF workload domains, you have to enable log collection first. Previously, this was done from the log insight consle, but now you can enable it directly from VCF Operations.
Navigate to Administration > Integration > Accounts tab and expand VMware Cloud Foundation.
Edit the VCF instance by clicking the three dots.
Go to the Domains tab and click “Activate Log Collection.” Repeat these steps for all workload domains from which you want to collect logs.
Click Save and ensure the collector status shows healthy.
Now, if you login to the VCF Operations for Logs appliance, you will see the vCenter server and ESXi hosts are auto-configured to forward logs.
Logs from NSX also start to appear.
And that’s it for this post.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Feel free to share this on social media if it is worth sharing.