Automated Health Reporting for VMware Cloud Foundation Using PowerShell

As IT environments grow increasingly complex, ensuring the health of your VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment is more critical than ever. Regular monitoring through health and system alert reports enables proactive issue detection and remediation, safeguarding your infrastructure against potential disruptions.

The PowerShell Module for VMware Cloud Foundation Reporting provides an efficient way to generate HTML-based daily reports for VCF. These reports help administrators stay informed about the current state of their environment and address issues as part of routine operational practices.

Key Reports for VCF Health Monitoring:

Health Report - Provides an overview of the health status of all components in the VCF environment.

System Alert Report - Highlights system-level alerts requiring immediate attention to ensure smooth operations.

Upgrade Precheck Report - Validates the readiness of your environment for upgrades, ensuring compatibility and compliance.

What’s Covered in This Blog Post?

In this blog, we will discuss end-to-end steps to generate an HTML-based Health Report using the PowerShell module.

Pre-requisites:

• PowerShell 7.2 or later installed.

• Install the PowerShell Module for VMware Cloud Foundation.

  
  

  # Install-Module -Name PowerVCF -RequiredVersion 2.4.0.1011

  
  

Procedure:

1. Prepare the PowerShell script, make sure REPLACE the values with your values before run the commnand. You can save it locally on your Jump/virtual machine.

   
   

   $sddcManagerFqdn = "sddc-l-01a.xxx.xxx"

   $sddcManagerUser = "administrator@vsphere.local"

   $sddcManagerPass = "Password"

   
   

   $sddcManagerLocalUser = "vcf"

   $sddcManagerLocalPass = "Password"

   
   

   $reportPath = "F:\vcf_health_report"

   
   

   Invoke-VcfHealthReport -sddcManagerFqdn $sddcManagerFqdn -sddcManagerUser $sddcManagerUser -sddcManagerPass $sddcManagerPass -sddcManagerLocalUser $sddcManagerLocalUser -sddcManagerLocalPass $sddcManagerLocalPass -reportPath $reportPath -allDomains -failureOnly

   Invoke-VcfAlertReport -sddcManagerFqdn $sddcManagerFqdn -sddcManagerUser $sddcManagerUser -sddcManagerPass $sddcManagerPass -reportPath $reportPath -allDomains

   Invoke-VcfUpgradePrecheck -sddcManagerFqdn $sddcManagerFqdn -sddcManagerUser $sddcManagerUser -sddcManagerPass $sddcManagerPass -reportPath $reportPath -workloadDomain $workloadDomain

   
   

2. I prepared & saved the script "vcf_health_report.ps1" to F drive. I started to run the script.

   

   
   

   Once, script started It would take 10 to 20 minutes, based on the size of VCF environment.

   
   

   

For me, it took 6 to 8 minutes, as was an small environment.

3. Upon completion, it generated the "html" and "JSON" health report, as can see in below screenshot. The HTML report is now ready for your review.

   
   

   

   
   
   
   

Conclusion:

We've successfully generated the VCF Env report, that can be pretty handy and used for review for daily operational management, pre-checks and alerts.

This comprehensive guide will empower you to automate health monitoring in your VCF setup, saving time and reducing manual effort.