VMTurbo released Operations Manager Lite, a free product for small environments to assure application performance.
If your VMware environment has just one VMware vCenter cluster with up to four hosts, the Lite version prerequisites are fulfilled and the product can be used to assure application performance while utilizing the infrastructure as efficiently as possible.
To download Operations Manager Lite, please click here.
Operations Manager tasks
VMTurbo allows the administrators to perform the following tasks:
- Continuously assure workload performance with real-time sizing, placement and provisioning decisions
- Maximize infrastructure utilization by 30%+ without degrading performance
- Manage workload onboarding, performance assurance and capacity planning with one unified platform
- Easy deployment, be up and running in less than 15 minutes, see value in less than an hour
Download the latest release of the product from VMTurbo website. The Operations Manager appliance is the same used also for bigger environments, the applied license makes the difference.
vCenter privileges for Operations Manager access
Since VMTurbo recommends the use of a dedicated AD account to run Operations Manager, the account must be granted of the following permissions in vCenter Server in order to perform actions based on the configured desired state.
From vSphere Web Client go to Home > Roles section.
Select Roles item on the left pane then right click the Read-only role and select Clone option.
Give a Role name field a name and assign the permissions based on the list here above. Click OK when done.
Select the vCenter Server and go to Manage tab. Select Permissions section and click the green plus icon to add a new user.
Add the AD account to use and assign the role selecting the previously created role (i.e. VMTurbo). Click OK to confirm.
The new account has been added to the list.
Deploy VMTurbo
Using the vSphere Web Client, deploy the VMTurbo appliance to the cluster entering the correct parameters.
When the appliance has been deployed, power on the VM.
Change IP address
To change the IP address you need to access the VMTurbo console. From VMware Web Client right click the installed appliance and select the option Open Console.
Login as root typing the following credentials.
user: root
password: vmturbo
To change the IP address of the server, type the command ipsetup and enter the parameters as requested.
If you use a Proxy, fill the listed fields then press F10 to save the settings.
The new network parameters are being applied.
Configure Operations Manager
Using your favorite browser, type the address http://VMTurbo_IP_address and use administrator/vmturbo as default credentials to login.
At first login you must change the default password. Click Confirm to save the new password.
When the Setup Wizard window opens, click Next to start the setup.
Since we want to run the Lite version of VMTurbo, select the option I would like to request a license for the free Operations Manager Lite then click Next.
To get the Lite license key, click on Submit Request link to make the request.
From VMTurbo website enter your info and click on Submit Request button. You will receive an email with the license file attached.
Copy and paste the license in the box and click Save.
Click Next to continue with configuration.
Click Add to add the vCenter Server to the system. Remember that only one vCenter Server can be added using the Lite version.
Since we are using the Lite version, select the only available item Hypervisor as Target Type. The vCenter option is automatically selected.
Enter the Address, Username and Password of the vCenter Server then click Add to add the new target. Click Apply to save the configuration.
Click the Rediscover button to scan the environment.
The environment is being discovered.
When completed, click Next to continue.
Select the Cluster to control and enter an account to log this instance of Operations Manager Lite. Click Next to continue.
Configure the email notification and click Next.
Click Finish to save the configuration.
Login the system using the account previously specified then click Login.
The main screen is shown. Click the X to get rid of help window.
Select your preference to continue.
Let the system run for some minutes in order to collect the information of the infrastructure. After a while VMTurbo will start notifying the actions to perform to assure best application performance.
Click the Dashboard and select Assure Service Performance to check suggestions.
In this example the move of a virtual machine will avoid the risk of mem congestion on a lab-esxi01 host.
To apply the suggestion, select the VM to move and click Apply.
From the vSphere Client, you can see the VM being migrated.
After you applied all the the suggestions made by VMTurbo, the system is fully optimized.
For small environments, VMTurbo Operations Manager Lite is a good solution to keep the highest optimization of the virtual infrastructure simplifying the administration and reducing the IT load.
Of course most interesting features and automation are available with the full license only. During the download of the product a 30-day trial license is given without any limitation in order to test all the features of VMTurbo.
