VMware vCenter CapacityIQ - 1.5.1 Installation Manual
vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide
vCenter CapacityIQ 1.5.1
This document supports the version of each product listed and
supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced
by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this
document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
EN-000417-01
vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide
You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at:
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Contents
About This Book 5
About vCenter CapacityIQ 7
1
CapacityIQ Main Tasks 7
CapacityIQ Architecture 7
Administrator Process Overview for CapacityIQ 9
Licensing CapacityIQ 9
Installing the CapacityIQ Virtual Appliance 11
2
CapacityIQ Installation Requirements 12
Deploy the Virtual Appliance 13
Configure the Virtual Appliance 14
Configure Network and Time Zone Settings 15
Configure SMTP Settings 16
CapacityIQ Configuration 16
Grant Access to CapacityIQ 20
Verify the CapacityIQ Installation 20
Updating or Replacing a CapacityIQ Instance 21
3
Update CapacityIQ 21
Replace a Registered Instance of CapacityIQ 22
Post-Installation Tasks for CapacityIQ 23
4
Convert a CPU Evaluation License to a CPU Full License 23
Optimizing the CapacityIQ Setup 23
Troubleshooting the CapacityIQ Installation 25
5
DHCP Address Avoidance at Startup 25
Restarting the vSphere Client is Required After Registration 26
Registration Fails Because of Existing Registration 26
Data Unavailable During Initial Startup 26
Wrong Time Zone Setting 27
System Time Synchronization 27
Virtual Appliance Password Forgotten 28
No Volume Groups Found 28
DHCP Not Available Causes Network Connection Failure 29
Cannot Remove SSH Keys 29
CapacityIQ Update Fails 29
Index 31
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vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide
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About This Book
The vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide describes how to install the VMware vCenter™ CapacityIQ virtual
appliance.
Intended Audience
CapacityIQ is a capacity planning and management tool for VMware vSphere environments. This book is
intended for administrators of vSphere who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter
operations, and who are responsible for administering CapacityIQ. This book offers instructions for installing
CapacityIQ and information that helps resolve installation issues.
VMware Technical Publications Glossary
VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For definitions
of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
Document Feedback
VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have comments, send your
feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com.
VMware CapacityIQ Documentation
The documentation set for VMware CapacityIQ consists of the following documents.
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vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide. Explains installation of CapacityIQ.
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vCenter CapacityIQ Release Notes. Late-breaking news and descriptions of known issues and workarounds.
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vCenter CapacityIQ online help. Conceptual and procedural information to help you complete a task.
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vCenter CapacityIQ Administration Portal online help. Conceptual and procedural information to help
you complete an administrative task.
The vCenter CapacityIQ landing page provides release notes that contain current information about the release.
You can find the landing page, as well as documentation for vSphere, at
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
VMware, Inc.
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vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide
Technical Support and Education Resources
The following technical support resources are available to you. To access the current version of this book and
other books, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
Online and Telephone
Support
Support Offerings
VMware Professional
Services
To use online support to view your product and contract information, register
your products and submit technical support requests, go to
http://www.vmware.com/support.
Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support
for the fastest response on issues. Go to
http://www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html.
To find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs,
go to http://www.vmware.com/support/services.
VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands-on labs, case study
examples and course materials designed to be used as on-the-job reference
tools. Courses are available onsite, in the classroom and live online. For onsite
pilot programs and implementation best practices, VMware Consulting
Services provides offerings to help you assess, plan, build and manage your
virtual environment. To access information about education classes,
certification programs and consulting services, go to
http://www.vmware.com/services.
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About vCenter CapacityIQ 1
VMware vCenter™ CapacityIQ helps vSphere system administrators monitor and manage the capacity of
virtualized environments.
Install CapacityIQ as a vCenter Server plug-in. CapacityIQ ensures that virtualized infrastructure capacity is
efficient and predictable.
The what-if scenario feature allows administrators to model changes to the virtualized environment and assess
the effect of a change without implementation costs or time-consuming trial and error.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“CapacityIQ Main Tasks,” on page 7
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“CapacityIQ Architecture,” on page 7
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“Administrator Process Overview for CapacityIQ,” on page 9
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“Licensing CapacityIQ,” on page 9
CapacityIQ Main Tasks
CapacityIQ collects performance information about managed objects, such as hosts and virtual machines in
the virtual infrastructure. CapacityIQ stores the information in the CapacityIQ database.
You query the database to understand available capacity in the virtual infrastructure. CapacityIQ performs
these tasks.
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Collects performance statistics about managed objects in the virtual infrastructure.
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Stores the statistics in the CapacityIQ database and builds a performance history for each object.
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Collects and stores inventory history for each object, such as moving a virtual machine from one host to
another.
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Retrieves and presents the statistics on demand through the CapacityIQ user interface.
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Filters the information presented according to objects, time periods, or types of activity.
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Provides scenarios to model potential changes to the virtual infrastructure.
CapacityIQ Architecture
CapacityIQ is a virtual appliance that you install on vCenter Server. A virtual appliance is a virtual machine
image that contains software designed to run in a virtual machine.
CapacityIQ does not affect the performance of vSphere. The CapacityIQ virtual appliance processes the vCenter
Server data.
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vCenter
database
vCenter
Server system
CapacityIQ
administrative
server
SSH
Admin Portal HTTP
Admin Portal HTTPS
CapacityIQ HTTP
CapacityIQ HTTPS
SQL SQL
CapacityIQ
server
data
collector
database
server
CapacityIQ
plug-in
vCenter
License
Server
vCenter
Server
vSphere Client
data
disk
system
disk
vSphere
Client
vSphere
Client
vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide
You must have one vCenter Server instance for each CapacityIQ instance. If you have vCenter Server Linked
Mode groups in your environment, install a separate instance of CapacityIQ for each vCenter Server system.
The virtual appliance includes the following components as illustrated in Figure 1-1.
CapacityIQ
Administrative Server
The CapacityIQ administrative server provides the Administration Portal user
interface for the CapacityIQ system administrator to configure and maintain
the virtual appliance.
CapacityIQ Server
The CapacityIQ server hosts an operating system and the CapacityIQ
application. A monitoring feature called watchdog tracks whether CapacityIQ
processes are operating properly. The watchdog logs exceptions such as
services stopping and starting. Events are posted in the ciq_watchdog.log file.
Database Server
The CapacityIQ virtual appliance includes its own PostgreSQL database. The
database server stores data collected from objects managed in vCenter Server.
NOTE CapacityIQ does not support storing data in an external database.
Data Collector
The data collector collects inventory and performance data. Configure the data
collector to access vCenter Server through port 443 on vCenter Server.
Each instance of the vSphere Client installed on vCenter Server can use CapacityIQ. CapacityIQ does not
require changes to your vCenter Server setup, such as modifying the logging levels.
Figure 1-1. CapacityIQ Architecture Components
CapacityIQ begins collecting performance data shortly after installation. Updates to performance statistics in
the CapacityIQ database occur using standard vSphere APIs. Data collection remains continuous unless you
stop CapacityIQ.
CapacityIQ begins to populate the dashboard within an hour or so after you install the virtual appliance. To
generate meaningful information in views and reports, wait until you have collected at least three days of
performance data.
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Administrator Process Overview for CapacityIQ
The person administering CapacityIQ is responsible for installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
Setup
The initial setup includes the following tasks.
1 In the vSphere Client, import the CapacityIQ appliance.
2 Deploy the CapacityIQ appliance, which means that CapacityIQ completes an initialization sequence. This
process includes entering account credentials for the virtual appliance services and CapacityIQ
Administration Portal access.
3 Configure the network and time zone settings.
4 Open a browser and log in to the CapacityIQ Administration Portal.
5 Configure the settings to register CapacityIQ with vCenter Server.
6 Apply the CapacityIQ license.
7 Verify that CapacityIQ populates the dashboard with data.
The process of populating the dashboard might take a few hours.
Chapter 1 About vCenter CapacityIQ
If you already have an instance of CapacityIQ installed, you can update the virtual appliance to the latest
release.
Maintenance
After initial setup is complete, perform ongoing administrator tasks.
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Stop or restart CapacityIQ, for example, during a vCenter Server maintenance cycle.
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Check the status of CapacityIQ on the Status tab in the Administration Portal.
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Apply patches and updates to the CapacityIQ application.
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Manage license changes and renewals.
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Troubleshoot any problems and send diagnostic data to VMware technical support.
Licensing CapacityIQ
CapacityIQ supports license management through vCenter Server or through the CapacityIQ Administration
Portal depending on the license type and version of vCenter Server that CapacityIQ is registered to.
CPU Licenses for CapacityIQ
The Administration Portal supports the management of only CPU-based licenses for CapacityIQ. If you have
an existing CPU-based license, it will continue to function with vCenter Server 4.1.
Virtual Machine Licenses for CapacityIQ
If you obtain a virtual machine-based license for CapacityIQ, install and manage the license from
vCenter Server. Virtual machine-based licenses for CapacityIQ require vCenter Server 4.1 or later versions. For
information about assigning license keys to assets in vCenter Server, see the VMware vSphere documentation.
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vCenter CapacityIQ Installation Guide
Evaluation and Full Licenses
You can download a free evaluation version of CapacityIQ that offers a trial period. For more information
about licensing, see the VMware licensing portal.
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