This article provides a rundown of the VMware products and versions hitting EOS in the specified period, along with a summary table for quick reference.

Update as of September 15, 2025: This article includes the latest product lifecycle details from VMware's official records, focusing on EOS dates between September 15, 2025, and December 31, 2025.

Key VMware EOL Dates in 2025

VMware’s lifecycle policies include a General Support phase (full updates and assistance) followed by a Technical Guidance phase (limited support). Once both are done, it’s EOS or EOL. Here are the key products reaching EOS from September 15, 2025, onward:

Although I manually checked all the data, some entries may be incorrect. Please always do your own checks.

September 2025

• VMware vCenter Converter 6.6.0: EOS on September 22, 2025. This tool for converting physical machines to virtual ones reaches the end of its service life.
• vSphere Kubernetes releases VKr 1.30: EOS on September 28, 2025. Part of VMware's Kubernetes integrations; upgrade to VKr 1.31 or later to maintain support.

October 2025

• VMware vSphere 7.x (including ESXi, all editions: Scale-Out, Standard, Essentials Plus, Essentials, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise, Desktop): EOS on October 2, 2025. Extended from April; this major virtualization platform, including vSAN-included variants, requires an upgrade to vSphere 8.x or later. Impacts many core infrastructure components.
• VMware vSAN 7.x: EOS on October 2, 2025. Aligns with vSphere 7.x; upgrade to 8.x to continue hyper-converged storage support.
• VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5.2: EOS on October 2, 2025. The SDDC stack needs migration to a newer release like 5.x or 9.x
• VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.2.x (all sub-versions: 3.2.0.1 to 3.2.3.2, 3.2.4, 3.2.4.1): EOS on October 2, 2025. Networking and security platform; upgrade to 4.x series. Also affects integrations like Container Networking with Antrea, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition, Telco Cloud Platform, vDefend Firewall, and vDefend Firewall with Advanced Threat Prevention.
• VMware vCenter Server 7.0 (all updates: 7.0.0 to 7.0U3p): EOS on October 2, 2025. Migrate to 8.x.
• VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.2.4.2: EOS on October 4, 2025. Latest patch in the 3.2 series; same upgrade recommendations as above.
• VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.x (8.6.0 to 8.8.0.3, including patches): EOS on October 11, 2025. Disaster recovery solution under VMware Live Recovery; upgrade to 9.x.
• VMware vSphere Replication 8.x (8.6.0 to 8.8.0.3, including patches): EOS on October 11, 2025. Replication component; align with SRM upgrade.
• VMware Aria Operations 8.16.x and 8.17.x (8.16.0 to 8.17.2): EOS on October 31, 2025. Monitoring and operations tool; affects VCF Automation, Operations, Aria Suite, Cloud Foundation, Telco Cloud Platform. Upgrade to 8.18+.
• VMware Aria Operations for Logs 8.16.x (8.16.0 to 8.16.1): EOS on October 31, 2025. Log management; affects multiple suites. Upgrade to newer versions.
• VMware Cloud Provider Lifecycle Manager 1.6 and 1.7: EOS on October 19, 2025. Cloud provider management; plan for alternatives or newer tools.
• VMware Tools 11.2.x (11.2.0 to 11.2.6): EOS on October 15, 2025. Guest OS optimization tools; update to newer releases bundled with vSphere 8+.

November 2025

• VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.8: EOS on November 1, 2025. Usage tracking for cloud providers; upgrade to 4.9+.
• VMware Workstation Pro and Player 17.x (all sub-versions: 17.0.0 to 17.6.4, for Windows and Linux): EOS on November 17, 2025. Desktop hypervisor; includes personal use editions. Upgrade to 18.x.
• VMware Fusion 13.x (all sub-versions: 13.0.0 to 13.6.4, for Intel and Apple silicon Macs): EOS on November 17, 2025. Mac hypervisor; includes Pro for personal use. Upgrade to 14.x.
• VMware Telco Cloud Automation 3.0: EOS on November 30, 2025. Telco-specific automation; upgrade path to 4.x.
• VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform 3.1.0: EOS on November 30, 2025. Bare metal provisioning; align with Telco Cloud updates.
• VMware Horizon 8 2206: EOS on November 30, 2025. Mid-cycle Horizon; aim for 2312 or later.

December 2025

• VMware HCX 4.11.x (4.11.1 and 4.11.2): EOS on December 24, 2025. Hybrid cloud extension; upgrade to 4.12+.
• VMware Aria Automation Config 8.17.0: EOS on December 31, 2025. Configuration management (formerly SaltStack); affects Aria Suite, SaltStack, Tanzu Platform Services.
• VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform 4.0: EOS on December 31, 2025. Latest bare metal tool; plan for 5.x.
• VMware Aria Operations for Logs 8.12: EOS on December 31, 2025. Ex-Log Insight; upgrade to 8.14+.

Summary Table

VMware Support, if you're out of support?

If you're already out of support and need assistance, be sure to check out the Broadcom Community Forums for community support.

This year, we’ve got a mix of products and versions reaching the end of their lifecycle, from virtualization staples to Tanzu-related offerings. Whether you’re an IT admin, a virtualization enthusiast, or just someone who likes to keep their infrastructure humming, here’s what’s on the chopping block in 2025. Plus, I’ve thrown in a handy table to summarize it all.

Key VMware EOL Dates in 2025

VMware’s lifecycle policies typically include a General Support phase (full updates and assistance) followed by a Technical Guidance phase (limited support, mostly self-help). Once both are done, it’s game over—EOS or EOL. Here are the big ones to watch in 2025:

VMware Data Services Manager

First up, VMware Data Services Manager 2.0.3 kicked off the EOL party on February 3, 2025. If you’re using this to wrangle data services in your VMware environment, you’re already cutting it close. No more support or patches after this date, so start eyeing a newer version pronto—February’s not messing around.

VMware Tanzu Data Services Pack & Data Suite (v2.0.3)

Next, VMware Tanzu Data Services Pack 2.0.3 also bit the dust on February 3, 2025. Tanzu fans, this one’s part of your data management toolkit, and it’s joining the early-year EOL club. You’ve got less than a month if you’re reading this fresh—don’t sleep on it.

Rounding out the February trio, VMware Tanzu Data Suite 2.0.3 hit EOL on February 3, 2025, too. Another Tanzu data player, this one’s exit means you’ll need to hustle to a supported release if you’re still running it. Three strikes in one day—February’s ruthless!

VMware Aria Automation (8.11.x)

Fast forward to March, and VMware Aria Automation 8.11.x (the artist formerly known as vRealize Automation) reaches EOS on March 31, 2025. This automation workhorse needs an upgrade to 8.13+ to keep the lights on—plenty of time to plan, but don’t dawdle.

VMware Aria Operations

Also on the March chopping block, VMware Aria Operations 8.10.x (ex-vRealize Operations) sees its EOS on March 31, 2025. If you’re monitoring your VMware world with this, aim for 8.12+ to stay in the game. Spring cleaning’s coming early.

VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle

Keeping the March 31, 2025, theme, VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.11.x hits EOS alongside its siblings. This one manages your Aria/vRealize deployments, so sync it up with newer versions to avoid a lifecycle management limbo.

VMware Telco Cloud Automation (2.3)

Still in March, VMware Telco Cloud Automation 2.3 wraps its support run on March 31, 2025. Telco folks, this automation tool’s upgrade path from 2.0 hops through 2.1 and 2.2—plan carefully, especially since 2.1’s got its own EOL later this year.

VMware vRealize Network Insight

Another March 31, 2025, casualty, VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.8 goes EOS. This network visibility gem’s been superseded by newer Aria-branded releases—time to migrate if you’re still peering through this lens.

VMware vRealize Log Insight

Logs get the axe too, with VMware vRealize Log Insight 8.10.x hitting EOS on March 31, 2025. Superseded by Aria Operations for Logs, this one’s got a clear upgrade path—don’t let your log management go silent.

VMware Horizon 8 (DEM)

Horizon fans, VMware Horizon 8 Dynamic Environment Manager 2111 ends support on March 31, 2025. Part of the Horizon 8 2111 suite, this user environment tool needs a newer home—keep it tied to a supported Horizon release.

VMware Horizon 8 (App Volumes)

Same deal for VMware Horizon 8 App Volumes 2111, going EOS on March 31, 2025. This app delivery piece is another chunk of the 2111 suite—bundle your upgrade plans to stay smooth.

VMware Horizon 8 (ThinApp)

Completing the Horizon 2111 trifecta, VMware Horizon 8 ThinApp 2111 also hits EOS on March 31, 2025. App virtualization’s still kicking, but not on this version—shift to a newer Horizon build.

VMware NSX-T Data Center

Networking’s not spared, as VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.1.x reaches EOS on March 31, 2025. Time to jump to 3.2.x or 4.x if you’re still virtualizing your network with this release.

VMware Site Recovery Manager

Disaster recovery takes a hit with VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.6.x going EOS on March 31, 2025. Align this with a newer vSphere-compatible version to keep your DR plans intact.

VMware vCloud Usage Meter

Service providers, VMware vCloud Usage Meter 4.6 stops counting on March 31, 2025. Usage tracking successors are out there—don’t let this one leave you guessing.

VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated

Kubernetes fans, VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated 1.13.x hits EOS on March 31, 2025. Older TKG needs a lift to newer Tanzu releases—keep those clusters humming.

VMware vRealize Business for Cloud

Cost management’s out too, with VMware vRealize Business for Cloud 7.6 going EOS on March 31, 2025. Replaced by Aria Cost offerings, this one’s a relic worth retiring.

VMware Aria Automation (8.12.1)

Jumping to May, VMware Aria Automation 8.12.1 reaches EOS on May 23, 2025. A mid-year cutoff for this automation tool—8.13.x is your next stop to stay supported.

VMware Telco Cloud Automation (2.1)

Mid-summer brings VMware Telco Cloud Automation 2.1 to its EOS on July 31, 2025. Another Telco step (preceding 2.3’s March exit)—hop to 2.2, then 2.3, but watch those overlapping deadlines.

VMware vSphere

The big one lands in fall: VMware vSphere 7.x (including ESXi and vCenter) hits EOS on October 2, 2025. Extended from April, this gives you decent runway to hit 8.x—don’t miss it, it’s the backbone of many a setup.

VMware vSAN

Tied to vSphere, VMware vSAN 7.x also goes EOS on October 2, 2025. Same deal—upgrade to 8.x alongside your vSphere move to keep your storage virtualized and safe.

VMware Horizon 8 (2206)

Late in the year, VMware Horizon 8 2206 reaches EOS on November 30, 2025. A mid-cycle Horizon release—aim for 2312 or later to keep your VDI rolling.

VMware Aria Operations for Logs

Finally, VMware Aria Operations for Logs 8.12 (ex-Log Insight) closes out 2025 with an EOS on December 31, 2025. Upgrade to 8.14+ to log into 2026 with support intact.

Full-Year 2025 EOL/EOS Table

Final Thoughts

2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for VMware users. The vSphere 7.x extension is a nice reprieve, but those deadlines are looming large. Don’t sleep on this - start planning now to keep your virtual world spinning smoothly. Got questions or a specific VMware EOL concern? Drop a comment below or reach out on X.com.

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Depending on which products you have as part of your infrastructure, and personal interests, everyone will have their own choices.

For me, I like to pick some deep dives into products I have and also a few sessions on products I am considering or simply have an interest in outside of the workplace.

So what are my top 5 picks for VMware Explore US 2023?

Increasing Availability and Resilience with VMware vSAN Stretched Clusters [CEIB1099LV]

Availability and resilience are top of mind for everyone involved in providing a platform for business services. VMware offers a great solution to increase resilience and availability through the VMware vSAN stretched cluster functionality. Over the past few years, new features and enhancements have been introduced to vSAN stretched clusters to increase availability and resilience as well as improve operational efficiency. We will discuss a typical implementation, share best practices, and explain why vSAN Express Storage Architecture is preferred for VMware-based stretched cluster solutions.

Speakers: Duncan Epping & Vivek Pamadi

More info..

What's New with VMware + NVIDIA AI-Ready Enterprise Platform [CEIB3051LV]

NVIDIA and VMware have partnered to democratize AI/ML for all enterprises. VMware+NVIDIA AI-Ready Enterprise Platform delivers best-in-class AI/ML software, NVIDIA AI Enterprise, optimized and certified for the industry's leading enterprise workload platforms, VMware Cloud Foundation & VMware vSphere. Join this talk to hear Justin Murray, Frank Denneman, and an NVIDIA speaker and learn more about this VMware & NVIDIA AI initiative. Watch out for updates to this abstract for some new announcements.

Speakers: Justin Murray & Frank Denneman

More info..

Keep the Attackers Out: Infrastructure Security Hardening and Auditing [CEIB1975LV]

Protecting IT infrastructure components from attacks and ransomware is different than protecting workloads. There are ways to use the security features built into VMware vSphere+ to harden an environment against attacks while also keeping it easy for IT staff to do their jobs and make compliance audits faster, too. Join us as we talk about what's new for infrastructure security, and how to incorporate those into design and implementation strategies so that your environment is secure in the face of changing threats.

Speakers: Bob Plankers & Joshua Solomin

More info..

State of Union for VMware Home Labs [CODEB2757LV]

In this session, you will learn about all the latest and greatest options in building a VMware home lab for learning, development and testing purposes. In addition to the hardware and software build of material for a VMware home lab, we will also deep dive into all the different ways you can configure and leverage your home lab to run the latest VMware products and services, including VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware NSX, VMware Aria, and VMware Tanzu to just name a few. You will learn about the different techniques and tricks that will allow you to deploy and exercise the maximum number of products and/or feature workflows. This will be a session you do not want to miss if you are looking to expand your skillset or simply learn about new ways to leverage VMware software.

Speaker: William Lam

More info..

Delivering Application Monitoring Services in Cloud [CEIB2296LV]

Every cloud offering needs complete end-to-end monitoring services for applications, whether they are in private, sovereign, hybrid or public cloud. For VMware Cloud Services Provider partners, VMware Aria Operations, either standalone or integrated into a cloud-smart multi-cloud solution with VMware Cloud Director, can deliver simple virtual data center monitoring and advanced application monitoring services.

Speakers: Amith Vijayanand & Brandon Gordon

More info..

VMware Explore 2023 Backpack Reveal

If you're attending the US conference in person, be sure to pickup your backpack!

There are a few steps to get this to all work. You can read through this guide in order or use the links in the contents section (above) to skip out sections you already have working.

Deploy a vROps Cloud Proxy and connect to your vROps cluster

The vROps proxy allows you to connect many thousands of VMs to vROps via this middle-layer. This is necessary for scalability purposes by limiting the number of direct connections to the vROps cluster. As you can imagine, there is also a security benefit of deploying and using a vROps Cloud Proxy.

If you already have a suitably located Cloud Proxy setup in vROps, you can skip this step.

Deploy a vROps Cloud Proxy

From within the vROps User Interface, navigate to Data Sources > Cloud Proxies

Select New

Deployment is as simple as following the on-screen instructions.

Preferably, use the copy option next to the Download Cloud Proxy OVA button and deploy the new OVA from within the vCenter server by using this URL. This will save you the time to download and re-upload to vCenter Server later.

Power on the Cloud Proxy

After you have deployed the OVA (Specifying the required information such as network information and the OTK (See above screenshot) then power on the appliance from vCenter Server.

I like to watch the VM console while the Cloud Proxy is powering on, once ready it will look like the following:

Check the Cloud Proxy is connected to vROps

After the Cloud PRoxy is deployed, within vROps navigate back to Data Sources > Cloud Proxies and you should see the new Cloud Proxy listed on the page. It usually takes 5 minutes to show up in the vROps UI.

Before continuing ensure the Cloud Proxy status is "Online"

Deploy the Telegraf agent on a Management VM

We now need somewhere for the SSL checks to run from. Ideally, this would be a Windows VM that is listed within your vROps environment. I'm calling this the Management System. This system will need to be able to communicate to the webservers you wish to monitor the SSL certificates for.

Install Telegraf onto a Virtual Management Machine (VM)

If your management system VM is monitored by vROps via the vCenter Server adapter, then you can automatically deploy, upgrade and manage the entire lifecycle of the agent directly from the vROps UI.

To do this, navigate to Environment > Applications > Manage Telegraf Agents

Select the VM to deploy the Telegraf agent onto.

Then select the three dots (...) to select the Install option

Select the correct Cloud Proxy in the next window and Done.

Provide Telegraf Agent Credentials

We now need to select or provide credentials for the agent installation

Since we are only installing one agent we can just choose to enter the virtual machine credentials.

You are now presented with some information about the credentials.

In this lab I will be installing the Telegraf agent onto a Windows machine with an administrator user account, UAC being already disabled but you should follow the guidelines accordingly for your environment and specific circumstances and security policies.

So for my lab environment, all I need to do is download the file and add my administrator account user and password towards the end of the line, under the correct heading:

You'll notice that the VM Resource ID and other details are already pre-populated.

• Save the file and go back to the UI to upload it.
• Permanently delete the CSV file.
• Select Install Agent in the UI.

After a few moments and a refresh of the vROps UI, you will see the Last operation status of the agent change to Install in Progress. Wait for it to complete.

And complete:

Copy the PowerShell script to the Management system

Once the Agent is installed, copy the provided PowerShell script to the system, I have copied it into C:\Scripts\vrops-ssl-check.ps1

Add-Type @"
	using System.Net;
	using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
	public class TrustAllCertsPolicy : ICertificatePolicy {
		public bool CheckValidationResult(
		ServicePoint srvPoint, X509Certificate certificate,
		WebRequest request, int certificateProblem) {
			return true;
		}
	}
"@
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::CertificatePolicy = New-Object TrustAllCertsPolicy

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Ssl3, [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls, [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls11, [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
$Website = $args[0]

try {
	$WebRequest = [Net.HttpwebRequest]::Create($Website)
	$WebRequest.Timeout = 5000
	$WebRequest.GetResponse() | Out-Null
	$SSLCertificateExpirationDateString = $WebRequest.ServicePoint.Certificate.GetExpirationDateString()
	$SSLCertificateDateTime = [Datetime]::ParseExact($SSLCertificateExpirationDateString, "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss", $null)
	$SSLCertificateDaysRemaining = ($SSLCertificateDateTime - $(Get-Date)).Days
	
	Write-Host $SSLCertificateDaysRemaining
}

catch {
	Write-Host "ERROR|$error"
}

Test the script is working

Open a PowerShell terminal on the Management System VM

Try the following:

• C:\Scripts\vrops-ssl-check.ps1 https://virtualg.uk 443
• Change the FQDN and Port as necessary

The script should return the number of days left before the SSL certificate expires:

In my case, the number 83 is returned. We can confirm this by looking at the SSL certificate of the website:

A quick check via an online "Days until" calculator suggests the number of days until 13th January 2023 (when the certificate expires) is 83 days, so the script is working correctly.

Setup the Custom Script

Back in the vROps UI, Open Applications > Manage Telegraf Agents

Locate your Management System and select the dropdown icon to the left of the VM Name

Select the three dots (...) next to Custom Script and press Add.

On the pane on the right of the page, enter the following details:

• Display Name SSL Check virtualg.uk
  • For the Display Name (I suggest you use the FQDN of the domain you wish to monitor the SSL certificate expiry for here)
• File Path C:\Scripts\vrops-ssl-check.ps1
• Prefix powershell
• Args https://virtualg.uk 443
  • For the Args, the first arg should be the address of the web server with the SSL cert to monitor and the second should the SSL port, ie 443
• Timeout 1 minute

Save the Custom Script

Add additional scripts, one per webserver to monitor

Test the script is working in vROps

Within the vROps UI, navigate to Environment> Object Browser > All Objects > VMware vRealize Application Management Pack > Custom Script > and select "Custom Script on (Your VM name here)"

This will open up a summary tab:

Select the Metrics Tab on the top

Expand Metrics > Scripts > SSL Check virtualg.uk on (Your VM Name) or equivilent

Now you can see the number of days until expiry for the corresponding SSL certificate in a standard metric picker.

If your Custom Script is not showing, wait 5 minutes and try again.

With this data now in vROps, you can create Symptoms, Alerts, Views, Metrics, and Reports based on this metric. You could of course modify the script to output different data but be aware that each script can only output one metric value. You can create multiple scripts and add them as Custom Scripts against your Management System to bring them into vROps.

Don't forget that for each website you wish to monitor, you'll need to create a new Custom Script entry against the VM. Recall that you do this under Environment > Applications > Manage Telegraf Agents > Select the dropdown next to the VM with the agent installed, then the three dots next to Custom Script and Add.

Installing the vROps SSL Dashboard

Download the Dashboard I created over at the official VMware Developer Portal (No login required to download) https://developer.vmware.com/web/dp/samples?id=8001

Navigate to Visualize > Dashboards within the vROps UI

Select Manage > (three dots) > Import

Upload the Dashboard JSON file which we downloaded earlier

Open the new dashboard with the name SSL Certificate Expiry Dashboard

Action > Edit

You can delete the Instructions Widget at the top of the page

On the SSL Certificates Widget, select the pencil to edit it

Under Scoreboard > Configuration change Self Provider to On

Under Input Data select Metrics Then the plus + icon

Use the search on the left side for "Custom Script" and select the correct Management System from earlier:

Now on the right side expand Metrics > Scripts

Select all the scripts to show on the dashboard. You can use the CTRL key to select more than one.

Save the dashboard, or make further cosmetic changes to the scoreboard widget as required (For example changing the values to Yellow, Orange, or Red depending on the number of days until SSL certificate expiry)

You can also add a link for each SSL certificate check to go to the appropriate site by clicking the metric in the dashboard.

Save the Dashboard

Now you have a simple way to monitor your SSL Certificate expiry dates. Remember you can also make Symptoms, Alerts, and Reports based on this data.

Feedback

If you found this guide useful, consider subscribing to my mailing list or following me on Twitter @Virtualg_UK for more useful guides and updates.

You can use those platforms to contact me about any issues or suggestions for this guide.

I also upload various VMware-related content on YouTube.

Recently I've been working again with the API in my lab and thought to share how you can quickly get started with reading vROps data directly from the REST API within PowerShell:

Authentication

The most challenging part of working out how to use the API was how the authentication works. Essentially, you need to form the authentication URL, create a JSON formatted credential then obtain a session ID for the subsequent requests.

I have put all of this together in the below sample PowerShell code.

You'll probably not want to store credentials in the script, so be sure to find an alternative way to obtain the password (via Read-Host or a call to your password database API

## Global Variables
$vrops_server = ""
$vrops_username = ""
$vrops_password = ""

## Ignore SSL Certificates
add-type @"
    using System.Net;
    using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
    public class TrustAllCertsPolicy : ICertificatePolicy {
        public bool CheckValidationResult(
            ServicePoint srvPoint, X509Certificate certificate,
            WebRequest request, int certificateProblem) {
            return true;
        }
    }
"@
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::CertificatePolicy = New-Object TrustAllCertsPolicy

## vROps API Strings
$rest_url_base = "https://" + $vrops_server + "/suite-api/api/"
$rest_url_authenticate = "https://" + $vrops_server + "/suite-api/api/auth/token/acquire"

## Create JSON for Authentication
$json_authentication =
"{
  ""username"": ""$vrops_username"",
  ""password"": ""$vrops_password""
}"

## Authenticate with vROPs REST API
Try {
    $rest_authenticate = Invoke-RestMethod -Method POST -Uri $rest_url_authenticate -Body $json_authentication -ContentType "application/json"
}
Catch {
    $_.Exception.ToString()
    $error[0] | Format-List -Force
    exit
}

## Get Session ID from response
$rest_authentication_session_xml = @{"Authorization"="vRealizeOpsToken "+$rest_authenticate.'auth-token'.token 
"Accept"="application/xml"}

Get Email Plugins

Once you have authenticated to the API, you can use the $rest_authentication_session_xml variable, containing the Session ID for subsequent requests.

The next code snippet will output all configured vROps email plugins

$rest_url_email_plugins = $rest_url_base+"alertplugins"
Try {
  $ResourcesXML = Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -Uri $rest_url_email_plugins -Headers $rest_authentication_session_xml
  $plugins = $ResourcesXML.'notification-plugins'.'notification-plugin'


  Write-Host "Available Email Plugins:" -ForegroundColor Blue
  $plugin_id_array=@()
  foreach ($plugin in $plugins ) {
   
    if($plugin.pluginTypeId -ne "StandardEmailPlugin"){
      continue;
    }
   
    $plugin_id_array += $plugin.pluginId
    Write-Host "Plugin Name:" $plugin.name " | Plugin ID" $plugin.pluginId  -ForegroundColor White
  }
}
Catch {
  $_.Exception.ToString()
  Write-Host "Error getting email plugins. Exiting" -ForegroundColor Red
  exit
}

$rest_url_remote_collectors = $rest_url_base+"collectors
Try {
  $ResourcesXML = Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -Uri $rest_url_remote_collectors -Headers $rest_authentication_session_xml

  $collectors = $ResourcesXML.'collectors'.'collector'

  Write-Host "Available Remote Collectors:" -ForegroundColor Blue
  $collector_uuid_array=@()

  foreach ($collector in $collectors) {
    $collector_uuid_array += $collector.uuId
    Write-Host  "Remote Collector Name:" $collector.name " | Collector ID" $collector.uuId
  }
}
Catch {
    $_.Exception.ToString()
    Write-Host "Error getting remote collectors. Exiting" -ForegroundColor Red
    exit
  }

Get Notification Rules

As with the other code snippets, you can use the API to obtain all the notification rules:

$rest_url_notification_rules = $rest_url_base+"notifications/rules"

Try {
  $NotificationXML = Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -Uri $rest_url_notification_rules -Headers $rest_authentication_session_xml
  $notification_rules = $NotificationXML.'notification-rules'.'notification-rule'
  Write-Host "Available Notification Rules:"  -ForegroundColor Blue

  foreach ($notification_rule in $notification_rules) {
    Write-Host  $notification_rule.name
  }
}

Catch {
    $_.Exception.ToString()
    Write-Host "Error getting notification rules. Exiting" -ForegroundColor Red
    exit
}

Official Documentation

Once you have tried the above examples, check out the official documentation by appending /suite-api/doc/swagger-ui.html to the end of your vROps install FQDN.

This will open the vRealize Operations Manager API site and give you all the available API commands which you can substitute in the above code examples.

Software releases drop out of support all the time and it's easily missed to be sure to check them frequently. A quick search of this page will identify some of the core VMware solutions sieht support aspiring within the next 12 months, enabling you to prepare ahead of time for upgrades.

The most notable solutions on this list are ESXi and vCenter Server 6.5 and 6.7 which are commonly deployed at this time.

Upgrade vCenter Server to 7.0

Upgrade ESXi to 7.0

You can find the complete lifecycle matrix here

One of the best features in vROps is the ability to extend way beyond traditional VMware solution management.

In previous versions, a subscription to the True Visibility Suite was necessary to manage 3rd party solutions which VMware did not support, however in vROps 8.6, customers can now extend the monitoring and management of 3rd party solutions at no extra cost.

Extending vROps beyond native ability is achieved by downloading and installing .pak files. These .pak files add monitoring capability of other solutions, extra metrics and dashboards to encompass all of your other platforms into a single management solution.

To see all supported 3rd party applications, see the official support page here

Getting started is incredibly easy:

Prerequisites

Before we start, we need to ensure we are running a supported IIS version and that the required ports are open. We will also need to create credentials.

You can find the IIS management pack requirements here

• For IIS you'll need an Access token, instructions for this are here The setup only takes a few minutes and adds an API to IIS for vROps to communicate with it via an access code.

All other supported management packs are here

Installing the Management Packs

• Launch the vROps UI
• Navigate to Data Sources > Integrations
• Select Add

• Browse for your IIS management pack file

• Upload the management pack
• Select Next
• Accept the EULA
• Select Install to complete the installation

Reviewing all available Integrations

Once the .pak files are installed, you will see all the integrations which vROps now supports.

It's worth a browse through as VMware are adding new native integrations all the time.

You can find this from the Data Sources > Integrations page:

Setting up the Integration

Every Integration will have different requirements. For the IIS integration, select Add Account from the Integrations page

In the Add Account page, we need to connect vROps to the IIS server.

• Name: Give the instance a name
• Description: A meaningful description for the IIS instance
• Host: The FQDN of the IIS server
• Credential: Use the + icon to add a new credential. You'll need to enter the access token created in the prerequisites
• Collector / Group. This will vary depending on your environment topology. For basic vRops deployments, simply add it to the default. You can change this later.

Validate connection to ensure the access token and host are correct. This will also ensure the port is open on the IIS server for API requests. You can change this under the Advanced Settings toggle.

Once the validation is successful, ensure you hit the Add button to continue.

Validation

Check the notification icon on the top right of the vROps UI for any issues.

In my environment, there was an Object down alert for the collector. Select the name of the integration.

Expand Microsoft IIS to ensure the Name is displayed

Hover over the Warning to see the issue:

Here you can clearly see that the issue is due to a license problem.

To resolve this issue, navigate to:

• Administration > Licensing
• Select Add
• Select the correct vRealize True Visibility Management Pack
• Enter your TVS license key followed by Save

To trigger the start of the collector, navigate to the previous page with the warning

• Select the 3 dots
• Choose Stop Collecting
• Wait for the collector to stop
• Then hit the 3 dots again and start collecting

After a few minutes, the alert should dismiss automatically.

Reviewing the new functionality

Wait 15 minutes for a full collection to complete before inspecting the new functionality.

Dashboards

• You can now navigate the Dashboards from the Visualise > Dashboards > All > Microsoft IIS panel

Here you can see everything from the Overview, Webservers and even data on the specific websites which your IIS server is hosting.

Metrics

• Open Environment > Object Browser and find your new IIS objects
• You'll find them under the Microsoft IIS folder

Once you have opened an object, you can select it's metrics and properties. This is useful for troubleshooting.

You can then use these metrics and properties to  build your own dashboards, alerts and scheduled reports

Reports

• Open Visualize > Reports
• Use the search for IIS
• Select the Microsoft IIS KPIs Report and use the dots to run the report. Note hos you can edit them and schedule them to run automatically.
• After the report has been generated, select the number under the "Generate reports" column to open the reports list.
• Next to the report of interest, hit the PDF or CSV  to open the report.

Alerts

• Navigate to Configure > Alerts
• Select Alert Definitions and use the search for IIS

You can see a few default alerts are already setup. You can create additional alert symptoms and definitions and add them to your alert notifications as required.

That's it. You can also use all of the other built-in vROps functionality with the new IIS management pack.

Be sure to check the other management packs here

I've created a dashboard that shows you which of your virtual machines are getting backed up by your backup software and which are not.

Note that while it can be adapted, these dashboards will not show the backup status of your virtual machines, however, if your backup software takes snapshots of virtual machines it will tell you which virtual machines the backup software is intending to backup. From this data, we can identify the virtual machines which are not touched by your backup software and investigate from there.

Prerequisites

• Your backup software needs to be taking snapshots of virtual machines for this to work. This is because the script provided below will scan virtual machine events, looking for snapshot operations. If it finds one, it will add the date and time of the snapshot creation task (if created by your backup service account user) to a property against the virtual machine in vROps.
• Your backup solution needs to be logging into vCenter Server with a dedicated service account, this account cannot be shared with other systems or users.
• You need to be running vROps Advanced or Enterprise to import and modify these customer dashboards.
• You should create a new vROps and vCenter account for the script to log in to the respective systems. The vROps account will need modify permissions to your virtual machine objects. The vCenter account can be read-only on all virtual machines.

The script

You can download the script from GitHub here https://github.com/VirtualgUK/vROps-Dashboards/blob/main/VM%20Backup%20Snapshots%20vROps%20Dashboard.zip

Once downloaded, edit the variables in the script as commented.

Read through the full script as there are a bunch of variables that you can change.

A note on security. The script has plaintext credentials listed within, this is to test the script is working. I do not suggest you leave the script like this. Please encrypt your credentials, or better make a call to your password manager for the credentials securely.

Install PowerCLI

If you do not have PowerCLI already installed:

Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI

And if running in a lab, optionally:

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

Create a scheduled task

• Create a new scheduled task on a system with PowerCLI installed:

• Specify how frequently the task should run, I recommend daily for most environments.

• Specify the start time for the task, you should set this to after your backups complete

• For the action, select start a program

• For the program set: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
• For the arguments you can use something similar to: -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Scripts\vrops-vm-backup-properties.ps1"

• Save the task and go back in to edit it.
• Ensure the script will run regardless if the user is logged in or not.

Specify the user account password when prompted.

Test the script

The next thing to do is to run the script. Rather than waiting for the scheduler to do this for you, right-click the task in task scheduler and select Run.

After a few minutes, (depending on the variables set within the script and the size of your environment) the script should complete.

If it does not, run the script in Powershell ISE or similar and review the Powershell output for any issues to resolve.

Review the data in vROps

If everything has gone well, you should see a new property within vROps.

• Login to vROps and search for a virtual machine that is backed up.
• Go to metrics and expand the Properties section
• Locate the Backup > LastBackupSnapshot property
• Double click this property to add it to the right pane

As the VM keeps getting backed up and the script runs, you'll start to see additional data points:

The vROps Dashboard

Unzip the files from GitHub, there will be a view.zip and dashboard.zip file, do not unzip these unless you are inspecting the files.

• Within vROps navigate to Dashboards > Views > Manage Views > Import

• Browse to the view.zip file and import it
• Next, navigate to Dashboards > Manage Dashboards > Import
• Browse for the dashboard zip archive and import this too.
• Now, under the Dashboard list, you should see the VM Backup Snapshots dashboard, feel free to edit the dashboard and share any improvements you make.

Dashboard Preview

From the dashboard, you can easily use the ascending and descending ordering options on the headings to see which VMs have snapshots created by the backup solution and when the last one was taken:

You could get inventive and create a symptom and alert based off the new property, be sure to test before relying on the alert.

Also, if you want a more accurate approach, you could always customise the script to hook into your backup solution's API. This way you could get backup success status and other information from your backup solution into vROps.

I hope this helps!

Be sure to sign up to the mailing list to be notified of updates to this and other useful tools and solutions.

• vRealize Operations
• vRealize Automation
• vRealize Business for Cloud
• vRealize Log Insight

Typically you would install each of the vRealize solutions separately, management of this and patching/upgrading is time-consuming so a dedicated solution to manage all of this for us is most welcomed.

In this post, we will use the vRealize Easy Installer to deploy vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (VRLCM) which will, in turn, be able to deploy and manage vRealize Automation, Log Insight, Operations Manager etc.

Before we begin, note that you'll need a VMware vRealize Cloud Suite license.

Downloading the vRealize Easy Installer

Much like the VCSA, the deployment of VRLCM is via a simple wizard; vRealize Easy Installer

The installer is available from https://my.vmware.com

Preparing the environment

As with the deployment of any solution, ensure you have appropriate DNS A and PTR records in place for the desired hostname for the VRLCM appliance.

You will also need to make available at least the following for VRLCM

You'll need additional resources for the vRealize components such as vRealize Automation, Log Insight and Operations Manager, depending on what you want to deploy later

• 6 GB memory
• 2 vCPUs
• 78GB Disk space (if using thick provisioning)

You can find more information about supported solutions and other requirements here

I also recommend reading this short KB before commencing as I've been hit by it multiple times: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/78541

Launching the vRealize Easy Installer

• Once downloaded, mount the ISO and open the vrlcm-ui-installer folder
• Open the correct folder for your system (win32 in my situation)
•  Find and launch installer.exe

Select Install

Read the Introduction & Accept the EULA

Enter the vCenter Server details which you wish to deploy the VRLCM appliance to

Accept the SSL warning prompt

Choose a target data centre or folder without your vCenter Server

Select a cluster to deploy to

Choose a datastore with at least 75GB free space.

Optionally enable thin disk mode to provision the VRLCM appliance with thin provisioning

Enter the core network settings which will be used to deploy VRLCM and all other products later. Add A and PTR records to DNS as required.

Specify a password that will be used as the default password for all components & accounts listed at the top of the page

For the VRLCM configuration, enter VM name, IP address and hostname (Ensure these are added to your DNS server as A and PTR records). The other settings are optional at this stage but can be entered as desired.

Setup identity manager here or choose to skip now and deploy a custom version later

If you wish to deploy vRealize Automation, you will need Identity Manager installing either now or later via the VRLCM UI

I will be deploying Identity Manager as part of this demo.

If you wish to deploy it now, enter the required details for deploying the VMware Identity Manager appliance, ensure your DNS A and PTR records are in place.

Finally, enter the required details for the vRealize Automation virtual machine, ensuring once again that all records are stored within DNS.

Review the summary and hit submit to commence the deployment.

You can monitor the progress of the installation from the installer UI.

If you encounter any issues through the deployment process, you can review the log at the location displayed.

Managing vRealize Lifecycle Manager

Once vRSLCM is deployed, you can log in to. Use the username admin@local and the password you set earlier.

Common Deployment Issues

VRA VM does not deploy "No host is compatible with the virtual machine"

In my lab, my hosts are limited to low cores per socket. The VRA VM will need 12 cores to deploy successfully. If it failed, you will see an error in the vSphere client as below:

If this is the case, edit the VRA VM to reduce the core count and power back on the Virtual Machine

Log into the Lifecycle Manager VM.

You'll be able to retry the deployment.  To do this, open the Dashboard, click the request that failed.

From here you can select the stage that failed "Error Details" and hit the retry button.

Ensure you set "Delete VM" to false, to ensure the existing VM is used.

Upgrading vRealize Lifecycle Manager

Once the environments and solutions are deployed, you would consider upgrading the system.

To check for updates, log in to your VRLCM system with the default admin@local user account. USe the password you created at the time of installation.

Once you are logged in, navigate to System > System Upgrade (Or Lifecycle operations > Settings > System Upgrade if you are running a later version)

Here, you can specify a URL or CD-ROM. However, if the system has internet access, you can use this as the easiest option.

Select your desired repository type and hit Check for Upgrade

Once the check completes, any available versions will be displayed.

Hit the Create Snapshot button before continuing any further. VRLCM should have connectivity to your vCenter Server so it has the ability to create snapshots without having to manually log in and create them!

Once the snapshot is created, you can proceed with the upgrade.

You'll start to see the upgrade packages getting downloaded immediately.

After successful completion of the system upgrade, you'll be able to log back in.

Renaming a VRLCM environment

As you'll see in the UI under Lifecycle Operations > Environments you can create environments, each containing a mixture of different vRealize solutions. These can all be deployed in the same vCenter server or in different ones.

After the deployment process, I rename my VRA Environment to "Lab" as I'm going to deploy a series of vRealize solutions into my lab, in conjunction with vRA which we deployed earlier:

Deploying vRealize Operations Manager using Lifecycle Manager

In the Lab environment, I only have vRA deployed, so let's also deploy vRealize Operations by using VRLCM.

Select the 3 dots on the target environment and then add product

Select the checkbox on the top right of the vRealize Operations box (or whichever product you wish to add) You can select more than 1 product as required.

In this demonstration, you can see that there is no product binary mapped within VRLCM, hit the here link to do this.

On the Binary Mapping page, select Add Binaries and then select the desired location type to where the product binaries are located. For most customers, this will be from My VMware.

To use My VMware, you'll need to hit the Click here link under the top banner to add a VMware account.

If you need to upload binaries (.ova files) from another location, then download them and upload them via a tool such as WinSCP to the /data folder (or subfolder) on the VRLCM VM.

Then specify Local and the path to the folder the binary is located such as /data in this demonstration.

Back on the VRLCM UI, hit the Discover button to load up supported products in the bottom pane.

Select the products to add and press the Add button.

Now press the click here link to be redirected to the add binary mapping task status.

Once the add product binary task is complete, go back to adding a product to the environment.

Now that vRealize Operations (8.2.0) in this case has been added as a binary, you can select it. Don't forget to hit the top right checkbox and the correct version from the dropdown.

Choose your other deployment options and then Next

Now simply follow the wizard as you would for any deployment:

Licensing: You'll need to Add a license, then hit the Select button to choose it. Finally, press Validate Association to add it to the deployment.

Next, you'll need to either import a certificate or create a new one. In this demonstration, we're simply going to create one.

Once generated, select it from the dropdown and move onto the next page.

On the Infrastructure page, enter your typical deployment options.

For the Network options, enter as required. Note that the installer tries to make things easy by suggesting the common network values as used n the VRLCM deployment earlier.

On the Products page, enter the product specific information such as VM Name, FQDN etc

Finally, run the precheck.

This will validate things like DNS & VM name conflicts prior to actually deploying the product.

On completion of the checks, complete the wizard and watch the deployment process in the VRLCM UI

If you encounter invalid password issues at stage 2, you can add new passwords to the system from the bottom left icon:

After adding a new password, you can retry the installation by selecting Error Details and specifying the new password, followed by Submit.

With Operations Manager now deployed, we can use the product as usual.

Patching vRealize Components with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

The power of Lifecycle manager comes in when we want to patch a bunch of environments.

Go back to the Environment page and see the products listed under each environment.

Select View Details under your environment.

Here you can see products listed along the top row

Before patching a product, be sure to take a snapshot. You can do this from within the UI (Select product > Snapshot > Create Snapshot)

Next, select the product to patch.

On the next page, select the patch to install.

As with upgrades, you'll need to have added the relevant product binaries before you can select them.

Now simply follow the wizard. The patching wizard will differ depending on the product being patched.

Upgrading vRealize Components with vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager

As with VRLCM itself, you can also upgrade vRealize products from within Lifecycle Manager.

Follow the same process as for patching, except when listing the products within the environment, select Upgrade.

Wrap-up

That's it for the getting started guide, there is a lot more to Lifecycle Manager such as configuration & content management, identity management and the Marketplace, however, I hope this post has been a useful introduction to what vRealize Lifecycle Manager has to offer.

Don't forget to subscribe to the mailing list for more VMware solution guides and updates.

Create a Slack workspace

First, create your slack workspace (if you don’t already have one)

• You can signup to Slack for free: https://slack.com

Create a Slack Channel

Once you are set up with Slack, create a channel for the alerts within your Slack workspace.

• Log in to your Slack Workspace
• Create the Channel and invite members as necessary

Create a Slack App

• Log in to Slack and open https://api.slack.com/apps
• Select Create an App

• Specify the App Name and the Workspace to assign the App to

• Choose the option for Incoming Webhooks

• Activate the Webhooks option

• Add a new Webhook

• Allow the  Webhook access to the Channel

• Copy the Webhook URL. We will need this for the vROps configuration later

Creating the vROps Outbound settings

Login to vROps

• Navigate to: Administration > Management > Outbound Settings
• Add a new outbound setting

• Select the Slack Plugin type
• Enter a meaningful name for the Instance
• The connection count is the number of open connections per vROps node to the webhook. The default is 20
•  Paste the Webhook URL which we copied from Slack previously
• Hit the Test button

To confirm that the test is successful, check the Slack Workspace Channel, you should see something similar to the below screenshot:

• Save once the test is successful

Creating the alerts

Now that we have everything set up to send alerts to Slack, we need to tell vROps which alerts we want to send to the Slack Channel.

We do this via Alert Notifications.

• Within vROps, navigate to Alerts > Configuration > Notifications
• Click Add

There are numerous ways to configure alerts, and it will depend on what you want to do.

You could set up all critical alerts to send notifications to Slack, or choose particular objects or a single alert definition.

For this demo, I am going to request that vROps to send alerts to Slack when any Critical alert is triggered for any of my AWS EC2 instances. You can be as granular or high level as you like. You could of course, setup alert notifications based on any alert definition or object which vROps is aware of; Virtual Machines, Datastores, ESXi Hosts etc..

Don’t forget to further narrow down what alerts you wish to receive by using the advanced filters (for example allowing only sending Alerts with a status of New to avoid too much notification spam in your Channel)

Also, don’t forget to use the same Webbook URL as we used in the test when setting up the vROps outbound setting earlier.

• Once everything is configured, save the alert

Testing the vROps integration with Slack

Finally, we need to trigger an alert based on your criteria.

For my example, I am going to force 100% CPU usage on one of my test EC2 instances, this should trigger a critical alert for the EC2 instance, hence meeting all the criteria of the alert.

We can see the alert and all relevant information in the Slack Channel, including a direct link to the alert within vROps to begin troubleshooting.

Sidenote: AWS monitoring is now native in vROps, to set this up I have a setup guide here: https://virtualg.uk/monitoring-aws-services-with-vmware-vrealize-operations-8-1

Happy alerting!