Automating VMware vRealize Operations (vROps) with Ansible
In the world of IT operations, automation is the key to efficiency and consistency. VMware’s vRealize Operations (vROps) provides powerful monitoring and management capabilities for virtualized environments. Integrating vROps with Ansible, an open-source automation tool, can take your infrastructure management to the next level. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to achieve this integration and demonstrate its benefits with a practical example.
What is vRealize Operations (vROps)?
vRealize Operations (vROps) is a comprehensive monitoring and analytics solution from VMware. It helps IT administrators manage the performance, capacity, and overall health of their virtual environments. Key features of vROps include:
• Performance Monitoring: Continuous tracking of VMs, hosts, and other resources.
• Capacity Management: Planning and optimizing resource usage.
• Troubleshooting: Identifying and resolving issues promptly.
• Automated Actions: Responding to specific events with predefined actions.
Why Integrate vROps with Ansible?
Integrating vROps with Ansible allows you to automate routine tasks, enforce consistent configurations, and rapidly respond to changes or issues in your virtual environment. This integration enables you to:
• Automate Monitoring Setup: Configure monitoring for new virtual machines or environments automatically.
• Trigger Remediation Actions: Automate responses to alerts generated by vROps.
• Generate Reports: Automate the creation and distribution of performance and capacity reports.
• Maintain Configuration Compliance: Ensure consistent vROps configurations across environments.
Setting Up the Integration
Prerequisites
Before you start, ensure you have:
1.vROps Environment: A running instance of VMware vRealize Operations.
2.Ansible Installed: Ansible should be installed on your control node.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Configure API Access in vROps
First, ensure you have the necessary API access in vROps. You’ll need:
• vROps Host: The URL of your vROps instance.
• vROps Username: A user with API access permissions.
• vROps Password: The password for the above user.
Step 2: Install Ansible
If you haven’t installed Ansible yet, you can do so by following these commands:
sh
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible
Step 3: Create an Ansible Playbook
Create an Ansible playbook to interact with vROps. Below is an example playbook that retrieves the status of vROps resources.
Note: to use the other api end points you will need to acquire the token and set it as a fact to pass later.
Example
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—
If you want to acquire the auth token:
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– name: Authenticate with vROps and Check vROps Status
hosts: localhost
vars:
vrops_host: “your-vrops-host”
vrops_username: “your-username”
vrops_password: “your-password”
tasks:
– name: Authenticate with vROps
uri:
url: “https://{{ vrops_host }}/suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire”
method: POST
body_format: json
body:
username: “{{ vrops_username }}”
password: “{{ vrops_password }}”
headers:
Content-Type: “application/json“
validate_certs: no
register: auth_response
.
– name: Fail if authentication failed
fail:
msg: “Authentication with vROps failed: {{ auth_response.json }}”
when: auth_response.status != 200
.
– name: Set auth token as fact
set_fact:
auth_token: “{{ auth_response.json.token }}”
.
– name: Get vROps status
uri:
url: “https://{{ vrops_host }}/suite-api/api/resources”
method: GET
headers:
Authorization: “vRealizeOpsToken {{ auth_token }}”
Content-Type: “application/json“
validate_certs: no
register: vrops_response
.
– name: Display vROps status
debug:
msg: “vROps response: {{ vrops_response.json }}”
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Save this playbook to a file, for example, check_vrops_status.yml.
Step 4: Define Variables
Create a variables file to store your vROps credentials and host information.
Save it as vars.yml:
vrops_host: your-vrops-host
vrops_username: your-username
vrops_password: your-password
Step 5: Run the Playbook
Execute the playbook using the following command:
sh
ansible-playbook -e @vars.yml check_vrops_status.yml
This above command runs the playbook and retrieves the status of vROps resources, displaying the results if you used the first example.
Here are some of the key API functions you can use:
The Authentication to use the endpoints listed below, you will need to acquire the auth token and set it as a fact to pass to other tasks inside ansible to use with the various endpoints below.
• Login: Authenticate and get a session token.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire
Resource Management
• Get Resources: Retrieve a list of resources managed by vROps.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/resources
• Get Resource by ID: Retrieve details of a specific resource.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/resources/{resourceId}
• Create Resource: Add a new resource to vROps.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/resources
• Update Resource: Update information for an existing resource.
◦ Endpoint: PUT /suite-api/api/resources/{resourceId}
• Delete Resource: Remove a resource from vROps.
◦ Endpoint: DELETE /suite-api/api/resources/{resourceId}
Metrics and Data
• Get Metrics for a Resource: Retrieve metrics for a specific resource.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/resources/{resourceId}/stats
• Get Metric Definitions: List available metrics for a resource kind.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/resources/kind/{resourceKindKey}/statkeys
• Get Historical Metrics: Retrieve historical metric data for a resource.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/resources/{resourceId}/stats/historical
Alerts and Notifications
• Get Alerts: Retrieve a list of alerts.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/alerts
• Get Alert by ID: Retrieve details of a specific alert.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/alerts/{alertId}
• Acknowledge Alert: Acknowledge a specific alert.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/alerts/{alertId}/acknowledge
• Cancel Alert: Cancel a specific alert.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/alerts/{alertId}/cancel
• Generate Notifications: Send notifications based on specific conditions.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/notifications
Policies and Configurations
• Get Policies: Retrieve a list of policies.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/policies
• Get Policy by ID: Retrieve details of a specific policy.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/policies/{policyId}
• Create Policy: Add a new policy.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/policies
• Update Policy: Update an existing policy.
◦ Endpoint: PUT /suite-api/api/policies/{policyId}
• Delete Policy: Remove a policy.
◦ Endpoint: DELETE /suite-api/api/policies/{policyId}
Dashboards and Reports
• Get Dashboards: Retrieve a list of dashboards.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/dashboards
• Get Dashboard by ID: Retrieve details of a specific dashboard.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/dashboards/{dashboardId}
• Create Dashboard: Add a new dashboard.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/dashboards
• Update Dashboard: Update an existing dashboard.
◦ Endpoint: PUT /suite-api/api/dashboards/{dashboardId}
• Delete Dashboard: Remove a dashboard.
◦ Endpoint: DELETE /suite-api/api/dashboards/{dashboardId}
• Get Reports: Retrieve a list of reports.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/reports
• Generate Report: Generate a new report based on a template.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/reports/{reportTemplateId}/generate
• Get Report by ID: Retrieve details of a specific report.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/reports/{reportId}
Capacity and Utilization
• Get Capacity Remaining: Retrieve remaining capacity for a specific resource.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/resources/{resourceId}/capacity/remaining
• Get Capacity Usage: Retrieve capacity usage for a specific resource.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/resources/{resourceId}/capacity/usage
Additional Functionalities
• Get Custom Groups: Retrieve a list of custom groups.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/groups
• Create Custom Group: Add a new custom group.
◦ Endpoint: POST /suite-api/api/groups
• Update Custom Group: Update an existing custom group.
◦ Endpoint: PUT /suite-api/api/groups/{groupId}
• Delete Custom Group: Remove a custom group.
◦ Endpoint: DELETE /suite-api/api/groups/{groupId}
• Get Recommendations: Retrieve a list of recommendations.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/recommendations
• Get Recommendation by ID: Retrieve details of a specific recommendation.
◦ Endpoint: GET /suite-api/api/recommendations/{recommendationId}
These are just a few examples of the many functions available through the vROps REST API.
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