VCF Operations Plugins#

The VCF Operations plugins provide comprehensive observability and metrics monitoring capabilities for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environments within Backstage. These plugins enable teams to monitor infrastructure performance, analyze resource utilization, and visualize operational metrics through an intuitive interface integrated with VCF Operations (vRealize Operations).

Features#

Performance Metrics Monitoring: Real-time visualization of CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics
Categorized Metrics: Organized metric selection with categories for CPU, Memory, Storage, Network, System Health, and Alerts
Multi-Resource Support: Support for VMs (standalone and non-standalone), Supervisor Namespaces, projects, and Kubernetes clusters
Interactive Charts: Time-series charts with customizable time ranges and aggregation options
Automatic Resource Detection: Intelligent detection of VCF Operations resources based on entity metadata
Auto-refresh Capabilities: Configurable automatic refresh with manual refresh options
Multi-Instance Support: Support for multiple VCF Operations instances with instance selection
Permission Controls: Access control integration with Backstage permissions
Dark Mode Support: Full compatibility with light and dark themes
Collapsible Categories: Organized metric categories with expand/collapse functionality
Resource-Specific Metrics: Tailored metric sets for different resource types (VMs, projects, clusters, namespaces)

Architecture#

The VCF Operations plugin suite consists of three complementary packages:

Frontend Plugin (`vcf-operations`)#

VCFOperationsExplorer Component: Main metrics visualization interface
Categorized Metrics Selection: Left panel with organized metric categories
Interactive Charts: Right panel with scrollable time-series charts
Smart Controls: Top control bar with time range, aggregation, and refresh options

Backend Plugin (`vcf-operations-backend`)#

VCF Operations API Integration: Direct communication with VCF Operations APIs
Authentication Management: Token-based authentication with automatic refresh
Resource Discovery: Intelligent resource lookup and mapping
Metrics Data Processing: Time-series data retrieval and transformation
VCF 9 Support: Compatible with VCF Operations v9 (any-apps tenants only)

Common Library (`vcf-operations-common`)#

Permission Definitions: Shared permission model for access control
Type Definitions: Common interfaces and types across plugins

Screenshots#

Metrics Explorer Interface#

VCF Operations Metrics Explorer

The main interface features: - Top Control Bar: Time range, aggregation, and refresh controls - Left Panel: Categorized metrics with select/deselect capabilities - Right Panel: Interactive charts with real-time data visualization

Category-Based Metric Selection#

Features organized metric categories with collapsible sections (all collapsed by default): - CPU Metrics: Usage %, MHz, Ready time, Co-Stop, Demand, Entitlement - Memory Metrics: Usage %, Consumed KB, Contention, Swap rates, Workload - Storage Metrics: Disk Usage %, Datastore Usage %, Latency metrics - Network Metrics: Usage KBps, Transmit/Receive rates, Dropped packets - System Health: Health scores, badges (compliance, efficiency, health, risk, workload), availability - Alerts & Monitoring: Alert counts by severity (critical, warning, info, immediate) - Capacity Analytics: Remaining capacity %, time remaining, recommended sizes (clusters only) - Cost Metrics: MTD costs, metering, billing information (projects only) - Power & Environment: Power usage (VMs only)

Real-Time Performance Charts#

Interactive time-series visualization with: - Configurable time ranges (1 hour to 30 days) - Multiple aggregation options (Average, Min, Max, Sum, Latest) - Responsive charts with zoom and tooltip capabilities - Automatic data refresh options

Supported Resource Types#

Virtual Machines#

Standalone VMs: Resources with kind:virtualmachine and standalone-resource tags
Non-Standalone VMs: Resources with kind:virtualmachine tag (extracts VM name from console links)
Metrics: CPU, memory, storage, network, system health, alerts, power consumption
Query Method: Direct API search by VM name with VMWARE adapter filter

Supervisor Namespaces#

CCI Namespaces: Components with spec.type: "CCI.Supervisor.Namespace"
Alternative Detection: Resources with terasky.backstage.io/vcf-automation-cci-namespace-endpoint annotation
Metrics: Health badges, hardware config, CPU/memory usage, pod/VM counts, alerts
Query Method: Property-based search or URN-based lookup

VCF Automation Projects#

Project Domains: Domain entities with spec.type: "vcf-automation-project"
Metrics: Health badges, cost tracking (MTD costs, metering), resource usage, alerts

Query Method: POST query to VCF Operations with ProjectAssignment search

{
  "name": ["projectName"],
  "adapterKind": ["VCFAutomation"], 
  "resourceKind": ["ProjectAssignment"]
}

Kubernetes Clusters#

Cluster Components: Resources with kind:cluster tag
Standalone Support: Removes "(Standalone)" suffix if standalone-resource tag present
Metrics: Health badges, capacity analytics, CPU/memory workload, VM summaries

Query Method: POST query to VCF Operations with ResourcePool search

{
  "name": ["clusterName"],
  "adapterKind": ["VMWARE"],
  "resourceKind": ["ResourcePool"] 
}

Planned Support#

VCF Automation 8 based entities Support: Legacy VCF Operations v8 compatibility (in development)
VM-Apps Tenants: VCF 9 vm-apps tenant support (in development)
Deployments: VCF Automation Deployments support (future enhancement)

VCF Version Compatibility#

Currently Supported#

VCF 9: Any-apps tenants only
VCF Operations v9: Full API compatibility

Limitations#

VCF 8: Not currently supported (in development)
VCF 9 VM-Apps Tenants: Not currently supported (in development)

The plugin is specifically designed and tested for VCF 9 environments with any-apps tenant configurations. Support for VCF 8 and VCF 9 vm-apps tenants is being actively developed.

Configuration Example#

vcfOperations:
  instances:
    - name: vcf-ops-prod
      baseUrl: 'https://vcf-ops.company.local'
      majorVersion: 9  # VCF 9 with any-apps tenants
      relatedVCFAInstances:
        - vcfa-instance-name
      authentication:
        username: 'admin'
        password: 'VMware123!VMware123!'
    - name: vcf-ops-dev
      baseUrl: 'https://vcf-ops-dev.company.local'
      majorVersion: 9  # VCF 9 with any-apps tenants
      authentication:
        username: 'monitoring'
        password: 'SecurePassword123!'

Component Usage#

As a Tab Component#

Add the VCF Operations Explorer as a tab to entity pages:

import { VCFOperationsExplorerComponent } from '@terasky/backstage-plugin-vcf-operations';

// In your entity page
    <EntityLayout.Route path="/vcf-automation" title="VCF Automation">
      <VCFAutomationCCIResourceDetails />
    </EntityLayout.Route>

Key Benefits#

Unified Observability: Single interface for monitoring VCF infrastructure metrics
Context-Aware: Automatically detects and displays relevant metrics for each entity
User-Friendly: Intuitive categorized interface with smart defaults
Flexible: Supports multiple time ranges, aggregation methods, and refresh options
Scalable: Multi-instance support for complex VCF environments
Integrated: Seamless integration with Backstage catalog and permission systems

Getting Started#

Install the plugins following the installation guides for each component
Configure VCF Operations instances in your app-config.yaml
Set up permissions to control access to metrics data
Add the component to your entity pages or create dedicated routes
Start monitoring your VCF infrastructure with real-time metrics

The VCF Operations plugins provide a powerful foundation for infrastructure observability within your Backstage portal, enabling teams to make informed decisions based on real-time performance data.