Deploying the VCF Operations for Logs Appliance in VCF 9
Last week I completed my VCF 9 lab, which I will explain in more detail later, including hardware and overall lab design. Now I want to deploy VCF Operations for Logs in my home lab.
Deploying VCF Operations for Logs is pretty straightforward. You first need to download the binary file and then start the workflow. This is typically a day 2 operation task using VCF Operations.
There are two type of deployment model:
| Model | Availability | Use Case |
| Simple | Single node deployment. Availability relies on vSphere HA in the event of an ESX host failure. Supports scale-up and scale-out. | Recommended primarily for Test/Dev Environments |
| High Availability | A three-node cluster (one primary node and two worker nodes) behind an integrated internal load balancer. This provides application service availability through the Cluster VIP and resiliency at the application level. Supports scale-up and scale-out. | This is the recommended deployment model as it satisfies most use cases. |
Before deploying VCF Operations for Logs, I would like to point out that the correct approach is to start with the Planning and Preparations Workbook. This workbook ensures that all underlying resources and network configurations are properly planned from the beginning to support the later deployment.
You fill in all the required information and details once, and then you can reuse them during the actual deployment process. In my case, I first updated my Planning and Preparations Workbook (Excel sheet) with the necessary information and then proceeded with the deployment.
1- Log into your VCF Operation as admin local.
2. In the navigation pane on the left, click Fleet Management, then Lifecycle.
3- As you can see in the the screenshot, there are currently no Operations for logs installed. To add this component, go to Binary Management to download binary files. Click Binary Management tab, then click Install Binaries and then select operations-logs, and finally click Download.
wait until the download is complete.
4- When download is completed, click Components tab, then ADD COMPONENT and select operations-logs.
5- On the Deployment wizard, select the installation type as New install and Deployment Type Standard. Since this is a lab environment, I am using the standard type.
6- On Certificate page, click + to generate a certificate for VCF operations for logs. I will replace it later with active directory certificate.
7- Fill out the details and then click Generate.
Then from the Select Certificate drop-down menu, choose the newly created certificate.
8- On Infrastructure page, select infrastructure including vCenter, Cluster, Network, Datastore and other settings. I selected Thin disk mode, because it saves disk space make it ideal for home labs or test environments.
9- Enter network parameters such DNS and NTP and then click Next.
10- Now it is time to configure deployment specific parameters such as:
- Node Size (Small, Medium, Large)
- FIPS Mode
- Admin Email & Credentials
11- Click RUN PRECHECK to verify that all the prechecks are completed without errors. The precheck process automatically tests your configuration settings — such as network connectivity, DNS resolution, available storage, credentials, and certificates — to ensure the deployment can proceed without issues.
12- Click NEXT and review all configuration details. If everything looks good, SUBMIT to start the deployment process.
The deployment takes about 60 minutes and you can monitor the deployment status under Tasks.
For me, the deployment took about 41 minutes to complete, which is faster than I expected.
Now, let me try to login and verify if the credential is working correctly and the VCF Operations for Logs is accessible.
As expected my login works and now I have a VCF Operations for Logs in my home lab. However, I still need to perform some configurations to start collecting logs from VCF components. In the next post, I will explain how to replace self-signed certificate and configure log collection.
My takeaway for you:
- For production environments, the High Availability model is recommended. It uses a three-node cluster (one primary, two workers) with an integrated load balancer to prevent single points of failure.
- All nodes must be identical in size, and any future expansion requires adding the same resources to each node.
