Creating tag based custom groups in vROPS

vCenter tags are a great way of categorizing your VM in vCenter and it will allow you to all kinds of wonderful things on the reporting front. You can search the vCenter inventory based on tags or you could use them with PowerCLI for your reporting needs. Tags also integrate with other VMware products and one of these is vROPS.

One of the things I use tags for is to create custom groups in vROPS. Custom groups will allow me to group all VM in a service and saves me from remembering the VM name and searching the vROPS inventory.

I assume you know how to create vCenter tags but in case you don't here is how you can go about it:

• Select VM and right click. Select Tags and Custom attributes
• Click assign tag
• Click the tag with green plus sign
• Enter name and select a category. 
• Select the service and click OK

In vROPS, undertake the following steps

• Go to Environment > Groups and Applications > Custom Groups
• Click Green plus sign.
• Enter name and set policy to environment.
• Check "Keep group membership up to date"
• Set object type to vCenter Adapter | Virtual Machine
• Select Properties and Summary|vSphere Tag. Specify "is" from 3rd dropdown box
• Select your tag
• Click OK
  
  
  

You will now notice that your custom group is available which you can use for monitoring purposes and the likes.

If you happen to find that you cannot select your tags in vROPS then ensure that the credentials you use for your collector has read-only permissions at a global level.

Nutanix on Huawei x86 platform

Just recently it was announced that Huawei has been certified as a platform to run the Nutanix AOS software. With this the end user gets yet another platform to choose from if they want to run software only. Huawei joins the likes of Dell, Lenovo, HP, Cisco, Fujitsu, Inspur and then some. For those not familiar with software only it really is a bit like how we used to deploy vSphere in the old days.
You buy the software and pick any hardware you like as long as it is on the compatibility list.

It is is still early days in the Huawei\Nutanix relationship and right now only one model had been certified, the 2288 V5 with a 12 LFF disk configuration. This model is suitable for .storage heavy and server virtualization workloads.
Another model, comes with a 25 SFF disk configuration and is suitable for VDI, Exchange and SQL. I imagine that before too long other models will be available.
Huawei uses these models for their own HCI solution and the package is marketed as the Fusioncube 2000.

Software wise you have the same options as you do with OEM solutions. Pick whatever suits your needs; Starter, Pro, Ultimate. In addition you can by the add-on licenses you require.

So how do you go about support when your Huawei Nutanix cluster is up and running? Thanks for asking. Basically you will contact Nutanix support for anything software related and Huawei for anything hardware related. If you are not sure you can just call your trusted Nutanix SRE's.

Why would I consider anything other than NX knowing it has been treating me very well and rarely misses a beat? The main thing is that money is always tight and if I can get a few more nodes for the same price than I really need to look at it. A high level investigation showed me that the Huawei solution was overall cheaper than any other software only solution I looked at and it also came in cheaper than the trusted NX solution. In saying that, a decision should never be made just on cost. As Benjamin Franklin said, the bitterness of poor quality will remain long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. Does this mean that Huawei (or any other non-oem vendor) is poor quality? Absolutely not!

I was lucky enough to visit Huawei's factories in Shenzen and Chengdu earlier this year and I have to say that I was amazed by what I saw. With an research and development force of 80,000 strong and a reinvestment of 10% of their profits into R&D nothing is going to stop them. Huawei is a freight train coming your way and I don't think it will be stopped.

Am I going to implement Nutanix on Huawei X86? Not at this point but I will keep a very close eye on further developments and who knows, it may happen down the line. For now though, I will stick with NX and here are my reasons why:

• Support. Never have I experienced the support I get from Nutanix. I don't want to deal with 2 different channels. Some time ago I opened a P1. Probably was more a P2 but hey, I am paying for support so I thought I would test it out. From logging SR to having a webex session going it took 6 minutes. 6 minutes!! That is unprecedented. I want this support across the board.
• Lifecycle Manager: This tool has come such a long way and it is still getting better with each release. It is one of my favorite features and I am not willing to give it up. I assume  LCM on non-oem will get more parity as times goes by. This is not just an issue on Huawei but on the other vendors too.
• I love the density I get from the NX series and we are always short on rack space.
• I cannot extend my existing NX clusters with other platforms and want to limit silos.

These are my thoughts anyway. Have a look at Huawei's technologies if you have the chance, they do it all, or visit China when the opportunity comes up. It was an eye opener for me and left pleasantly surprised.