Updating vROps Instance in vCloud Usage Meter

ByLinux Admin

Updated December 6th, 2018

On new deployments of VMware vCloud Usage Meter, sometimes the wrong vRealize Operations Instance (vROps) is propagated to Usage Meter on initial connection. Today, you cannot change or modify this vROps instance. This is frustrating for new users of Usage Meter.

Why?

Well, Usage Meter relies on the Managed Object Browser (MOB) to correlate to the connected vROps instance. In some cases, a VM Administrator may have a stale or older vROps instance still registered to the vCenter environment. For correct reporting and to remove any errors from Usage Meter, this needs to be resolved. 

How do I resolve this?

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Three steps to solving this:

  1. If applicable, remove the vCenter extension/registration from vRealize Operations.
  2. Remove the incorrect vROps instance from the vCenter MOB.
  3. Register the correct vROps instance and synchronize the inventory in Usage Meter.

Before, any of this is done, I suggest snapshotting your vCenter and Usage Meter appliance. Don’t forget to remove the snaps post-completion!

Step 1 – If applicable, remove the vCenter extension/registration from vRealize Operations

  1. If you have an operating vROps instance that needs to be removed/modified, let’s remove this registration from the vCenter(s).
  2. In the vROps UI, navigate to Administration -> Solutions -> Select VMware vSphere -> click Configure (the gear wheel) and click Manage Registrations – 
  3. From there, we need to put in the credentials and click the Unregister button to complete this request. 
  4. Again, if your vROps instance is not available, skip ahead.

Step 2 – Remove the incorrect vROps instance from the vCenter MOB.

    • Open your browser to “https://<vCenter-FQDN>/mob/?moid=ExtensionManager” – this is the direct link to the Extension Manager section. Type in administrative credentials to log in. 
    • Verify you see the extensionList[“com.vmware.vcops”] extension in the list. Click on it. We are going to verify that we see the incorrect vROps instance before we remove it. 
  • From here, click on “server.” We are going to verify that the incorrect vROps instance is showing up in the extension.
    • Verify you see the incorrect vROps instance. 
    • OK, press the back button twice and back to the original URL. Now we will unregister the incorrect vROps instance.
    • Click on the UnregisterExtension Method at the bottom – 
  • Now you’ll get a popup requesting the extension name that we will unregister. Type in “com.vmware.vcops” in the box and press the Invoke Method button. 
    • This may take a few seconds to run. However, you will see a void message. Close the popup and refresh the main browser tab that has the MOB information. We should see that the vcops extension has been successfully removed. 

Step 3  – Register the correct vROps instance and synchronize the inventory in Usage Meter.

  1. We are now ready to register the right vROps instance to vCenter.
  2. Log into the vROps web console and navigate to Administration -> Solutions -> select the VMware vSphere name. You might see it collecting, but we need to register the plugin into vCenter. 
  3. Click on the wheel icon right under Solutions to open up the Configuration section. We will now click on Manage Registrations to re-register it to vCenter.
  4. Check the box to “Use collection credentials” and click the Register button. 
  5. This might take a moment to register the plugin inside of vCenter, but a successful message will look like the following – 
  6. Going back to my vCenter MOB tab, I can now see vcops under the ExtensionManager section. 
  7. Almost complete! Hop over to the Usage Meter console and click “Synchronize All vCenter Inventories” button right under the vCenter Server section. Then, click the Rebuild button under vRealize Operations Manager. 
  8. There we go! We now see our vROps instance. Click on Edit to put in the correct credentials. Remember, you need to utilize a LOCAL vROps read-only or administrator account. AD/LDAP accounts do NOT work!
  9. Once you put in the credentials, you will see a message stating the credentials are correct. Complete! On the next hourly run, we should see it fully activated and the “Not yet discovered” message will be removed.
    1.  

Complete! Now, you’ll be able to monitor your vROps instance and bill based on the usage.

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