With every new release vROps brings new features and added functionality! vROps 8.0 featured the Troubleshooting Workbench, vROps 8.2 brought the vRNI Integration, and vROps 8.4 introduced Automation Central. vROps 8.6 has several new features, among them the newly designed UI and configurable email payload templates.
VMware Staff Cloud Solutions Architect Cosmin Trif has shown us around the new UI. In this blog, we'll take a look at the new email payload templates. There are several different things we can do with vROps Alerts, emailing them is still at the top of the list. Being able to configure the payload of that email has been on the roadmap for a while and now it's here!
The screenshots below show two emails: the top one represents an email generated using the new email payload template, the bottom one was generated by the default email payload template available in previous releases, which was not configurable.
All sorts of goodness here, but let's highlight a few things:
Subject line is now customizable! This is a major improvement over previous releases, which included far too much information in the subject line. I've configured mine to only include the criticality of the Alert and the object it's on. It looks like this:
You have the ability to enable your own input properties and different payloads for updated and canceled alerts.
Email body is now customizable! You can adjust text, font, include URLs, and more. Default parameters are listed on the far right and can be included in the body as you wish. I've adjust my payload template to only include what I want, including a link to vROps itself at the bottom.
We can create custom templates for particular objects as well. For example, I'd like all Critical VM related emails to include associated properties and metrics in the email itself, something like this.
We do this by creating a custom email payload template for just those alerts. Go to Home - Configure - Alerts - Payload Templates.
Once there you can start from scratch via the ADD button, Import one from another vROps environment via the three dots option, or Clone an existing one via the ellipses next to each existing template.
I created my first payload template by cloning the Default Email Template, it looks like this.
My second template, the one for Critical VM Alerts focuses on VM objects, adds texture with VM properties and metrics, and adjust formatting a bit. It looks like this.
You'll notice in the Object Content tab you can select your Object Type from the dropdown, then select the properties and metrics you'd like to have at your disposal in the Payload Details tab.
In the Payload Details tab, you have the default parameters (creation time, severity, etc) as well as the newly added properties and metrics. All of these are available to you for insertion into the Body.
This is one of several major enhancements in vROps 8.6, for more information check this blog: What’s New in vRealize Operations 8.6
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