Book Image

VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook

By : Abhijeet Shriram Janwalkar
Book Image

VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook

By: Abhijeet Shriram Janwalkar

Overview of this book

VMware vRealize Configuration Manager (VCM) helps you to automate IT operations, manage performance, and gain visibility across physical and virtual infrastructure. It is continuously being used by enterprises to audit the configurations of the VMware infrastructure as well as the Windows, Linux, and UNIX operating systems. This book is filled with practical recipes through which you will learn about the latest features of vRealize Configuration Manager 5.8.X, starting with installation of various tiers of VCM followed by configuration management across physical and virtual servers. Throughout this book, you will explore how VCM can perform tasks such as patch management, compliance assessment, and software package distribution along with Machine filters for new platforms such as RHEL 7 and Windows 10. This book will ease your troubles while upgrading from the existing VCM to the latest version by providing you with step-by-step instructions about the process of migration along with upgrade and maintenance support. This book will help you understand how to integrate vRealize Configuration with other applications along with schedule management and also guide you on how to handle security issues. After reading this book, you will have a clear understanding of how VCM fits in the overall picture of the data center design from a patching and compliance perspective.

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VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook
Abhijeet Shriram Janwalkar
Jul, 2016 | 408 pages
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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook
VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewer
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Installing VCM
Installing VCM
Introduction
Preparing our VCM deployment - installing SQL
Preparing our VCM deployment - installing and configuring IIS
Preparing our VCM deployment - configuring SSRS
Preparing our VCM deployment - installing other prerequisites
Installing VCM - single-tier deployment
Installing VCM - two-tier deployment
Installing VCM - three-tier deployment
VCM post-installation tasks - database fine tuning
2
Configuring VCM to Manage Your Infrastructure
Configuring VCM to Manage Your Infrastructure
Introduction
Adding a vCenter Server instance
Adding a vCloud Director and vShield instance
Collecting data from managed machines
Adding a discovery rule
Adding a network authority account to manage machines in multiple domains
Configuring a managing agent machine for virtual environment management
Installing an agent on Windows servers
Installing an agent on Linux servers
Creating machine groups
3
Linux Patching
Linux Patching
Introduction
Installing SCR prerequisites
Installing the SCR Tool
Setting up the SCR configuration file
Scheduling content downloads
Configuring Apache
Configuring patching repository options in VCM
Configuring staging options in VCM
Configuring the SCR Tool base path for the patching repository
Creating a patch assessment template
Deploying patches on Linux machines – on demand
Deploying patches on Linux machines – scheduled
4
Windows Patching
Windows Patching
Introduction
Configuring VCM to use Microsoft updates
An introduction to automated patching
Creating a patch assessment template
Windows patching – on demand
Windows patching – scheduled
Patching machines in multi-domain environments and workgroups
Patching VM templates
Patching reports
5
Software Provisioning for Windows
Software Provisioning for Windows
Introduction
Installing a software repository on Windows
Deploying additional components on agents
Creating software packages
Publishing software packages to a repository
Adding a repository to VCM 
Adding repository sources to package manager
Deploying a package
6
Compliance Management
Compliance Management
Introduction
Importing compliance packs
Creating compliance rule groups
Creating custom compliance rules for Windows
Creating custom compliance rules for Linux
Creating custom compliance rules for virtualization
Modifying the default filter set
Creating compliance templates
Checking the compliance of the infrastructure
Exporting compliance rules
Compliance reports
Creating compliance exceptions
7
Maintenance of VCM
Maintenance of VCM
Introduction
Upgrading VCM from a previous version – in place
Upgrading VCM from a previous version – parallel
Migrating VCM from another domain
Applying a new license key
Upgrading VCM agents
Changing service account passwords
Managing users
Decommissioning VMs – manual VM purge
Decommissioning VMs – scheduled VM record purge
8
Integration with vROps and Scheduling
Integration with vROps and Scheduling
Introduction
Installing and configuration of vROps Management Pack for VCM
Configuring vROps – VCM compliance mapping and scheduling
Scheduling OS and compliance data collection
Scheduling compliance
Scheduling reports
Scheduling vCenter collections
Scheduling vCenter discovery
9
Troubleshooting VCM
Troubleshooting VCM
Introduction
Troubleshooting tools – EcmDebugEventViewer
Troubleshooting tools – Job Manager | History
Troubleshooting tools – Machine Collection Status
Troubleshooting agent communication issues
Troubleshooting agent upgrade issues
Troubleshooting SCR download issues
Troubleshooting VCM console login failure
Troubleshooting vCenter and vCloud data collection issues
Troubleshooting the Recommended Action: Investigate Issue Linux server patch error
Troubleshooting not being able to see any jobs on the console
Troubleshooting not being able to see the Monthly option on the Schedule Job page 
10
Defining Naming Conventions
Defining Naming Conventions
Machine groups
Machine group filters
Patching templates
Scheduled patching jobs
Scheduled patch status collection
Scheduled patching assessment
Compliance templates
Compliance rule groups
11
Understanding VCM Console
Understanding VCM Console

Troubleshooting the Recommended Action: Investigate Issue Linux server patch error

When trying to patch a Linux server, you might get a message saying Recommended Action: Investigate Issue and hence are not able to patch the server.

Getting ready

The error will look like the following screenshot. The recommended action is Investigate Issue:

How to do it...

  1. To resolve the issue, follow these steps on the VCM database:

  2. Run this SQL query to know the machine_id for which it shows Investigate Issue:

           select machine_id, machine_name from ecm_dat_machines where 
       machine_name = '<Machine Name>'

  3. The machine name is the name of the service creating issues.

  4. Update the timestamp for that machine_id value using the following query:

           update ecm_sysdat_imd_machine_timestamp_xref set timestamp = 0 where 
       machine_id = <>

  5. Carry out another assessment on that machine, and it will tell you that patches are required.

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