Monitoring my Blog & Printer w/vRealize Operations (vROps)

Categories Home Lab, Monitoring, vRealize Operations, vRealize Suite
Remote Monitor Metrics

This is a quick write up that outlines how to leverage vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) to monitor a website with an “HTTP Check” Method and the Endpoint Operations Management Agent (EPOPS).  Below are two specific use cases that made this solution relevant for me.

Use Case 1 – Monitoring my Blog with vROps

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine asked me something specific about my home lab.  I pointed him to a previous blog post of mine (here) that answered his question only to find out that my blog was down.  This made me wonder if my blog was offline more often than I vRealized… see what I did there?  I implemented a vROps HTTP Remote Check to keep an eye on the blog.  I am still waiting to see how often the site is down before I approach my hosting provider.  Having empirical data in a fancy looking vROps report will be a powerful tool when negotiating a refund or discount. ?

Blog Down

Use Case 2 – Keeping my Printer Online with vROps

First off, let me just say that I love my HP Color LaserJet MFP M277dw!  The print quality is fantastic, the functionality is great, and the size is perfect.  The only thing I absolutely hate about this printer is that the Energy Settings do not allow for an “Always On” option.  This means that occasionally when someone in the house needs to print… they can’t.  Which of course results in a formal complaint sent directly to me; the IT dad in the house.  The HP firmware has several options:

Sleep/Auto Off After Inactivity – 1 Minute, 5 Minutes, 15 Minutes, 30 Minutes, or 1 Hour
Shut Down After Inactivity – 2 Hours, 4 Hours, 8 Hours
Delay when ports are active – Toggle On/Off

HP Printer Energy Settings

I have found that a vROps HTTP Remote Check every 5 minutes will keep the printer online indefinitely!

The Process

Prerequisites

  • vRealize Operations Manager (Advanced or Enterprise)
  • At least one system being monitoring with a Endpoint Operations Management Agent (EPOPS)

The official vRealize Operations Manager documentation is located here.

Step 1: Login to vROps and browse to “Environment” –> “Remote Checks”, then click on the “Remote Checks World” object.

vROps Remote Checks World

Step 2: Click on the “Actions” drop-down menu and choose “Monitor this Object Remotely”.

vROps Monitor this Object Remotely

Step 3: Give it a Name, choose which EP Ops Agent you want to monitor from, select “HTTP Check” from the Check Method drop-down, and enter the website you want to monitor.  Enter credentials if needed.

vROps Remote Monitor Options

Step 4: There are also some Advanced settings you can leverage for your specific use case.

vROps Remote Monitor Advanced Settings

Step 5: Wait a few minutes and you should begin to see metrics for your new object.  From here you can create Alert Symptoms/Definitions based on these new metrics (Availability, Response Time, Response Code).

vROps Remote Monitor Metrics

Step 6: Crack open a cold beer and take the rest of the day off!

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