vRealize Log Insight

Installing & Configuring vCD Content Pack in vRLI via API

Manish Jha

In this post we will learn how to install vCD content pack in vRealize Log Insight via API. 

What is vCD Content pack?

As per VMware official documentation:

The VMware vCloud Director content pack provides you unparalleled visibility into your vCD environment from 5.5 to the new 9.x SP. Providing graphical representations of important log data, metrics of your vCD workloads and a robust set of alerts this content pack will allow you to better manage vCD utilizing Log Insight’s capabilities.

Installing content packs in vRLI is one of the day 2 operations that most VMware Admins do in their day to day job. In large datacenters where there are several instances of vRLI, configuring content packs & agents via UI is a very tedious and time consuming process. You can use API’s to automate these day 2 tasks to reduce time and to minimize human errors. So let’s get started.… Read More

Integrating vSphere & vROPs with vRLI via API

Manish Jha

In this post I will walk through steps of integrating vSphere and vROPs in vRLI via API.

Note: All GET & POST calls are done over port 9543 with JSON payloads. 

1: Obtain Auth Token: 

Response output is a sessionId  which is a opaque bearer token valid for a limited time, indicated by the ttl value in the response.

Note: Post obtaining Auth Token, sessionId is passed as type “Bearer Token” under Authorization for all subsequent requests.

2: Test vSphere Connection

… Read More

Upgrading Clustered vRLI Deployment

Manish Jha

In this post I will walk through steps of upgrading a clustered vRLI deployment. Before preparing for upgrade, make sure to read VMware documentation for the supported upgrade path.

One very important consideration before you start upgrading vRLI:

Upgrading vRealize Log Insight must be done from the master node’s FQDN. Upgrading using the Integrated Load Balancer IP address is not supported.

To start vRLI upgrade, login to the web interface of master node and navigate to Administration > Cluster and click on Upgrade Cluster button.

Note: In my lab I am upgrading vRLI from 4.5 to 4.6. Upgrade bundle for this version is available here

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Hit Upgrade button to start upgrade.

Note: Make sure you have taken snapshots of the master/worker nodes before starting the upgrade.

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Upload the .pak upgrade bundle file. 

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On accepting EULA, upgrade process starts. 

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Wait for 5-7 minutes for upgrade to complete. 

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Upgrade is performed in a rolling fashion.… Read More

Configuring AD Authentication in vRealize Log Insight

Manish Jha

vRealize Log Insight supports 3 Authentication methods:

  • Local authentication.
  • VMware Identity Manager authentication.
  • Active Directory authentication.

You can use more than one method in the same deployment and users then select the type of authentication to use at log in.

To AD authentication to vRLI, login to web interface and navigate to Administration > Authentication page

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Switch to Active Directory tab and toggle the “Enable Active Directory support” button.

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Specify your domain related details and hit Test Connection button to test whether vRLI is able to talk to AD or not. Hit Save button if test is successful. 

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Now we need to specify the users/groups who should have access to vRLI. To do so navigate to Access Control tab and select “Users and Groups” and click on New User to add an AD account.

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Select AD as authentication method and specify the domain name and the user who should have access to vRLI.… Read More

Scaling Up Standalone vRealize Log Insight Deployment

Manish Jha

vRealize log insight can be deployed as a standalone or as a clustered solution. In a clustered deployment the first node is the master node and the remaining nodes are termed as worker nodes. The process of scaling up is pretty straight forward and in this post I will walk through the steps of doing so.

Few things which you should consider before expanding a vRealize Log Insight deployment are:

  • vRealize Log Insight does not support WAN clustering (also called geo-clustering or remote clustering). All nodes in the cluster should be deployed in the same Layer 2 LAN. 
  • Configure a minimum of three nodes in a vRealize Log Insight cluster. 2 node cluster is not supported.
  • Verify that the versions of the vRealize Log Insight master and worker nodes are same. Do not add an older version vRealize Log Insight worker to a newer version vRealize Log Insight master node.
  • External load balancers are not supported for vRealize Log Insight clusters.
… Read More