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Support VMware vROPS as (direct) Topology Observer

See this idea on ideas.ibm.com

Large VMWare customers typically use vRealize Operations Manager (vROPS) to federate their VMWare / vCentre deployments. One of the functions vROPS provides is centralised inventory management.

Having an AIOps Topology Observer capability to retrieve inventory data from vROPS provides several benefits over polling individual vCentre deployments with the VMWare Observer: 

  1. Reduced complexity/management - a single connection, observer job and credentials is required to retrieve the entirety of the managed estate's inventory into Topology 
  2. Reduced load - vCentre servers are "front line" in providing production management capabilities and it is important to minimise the overheard imposed on these systems. Because VMWare is a dynamic environment, Observer Jobs are typically set to run at relatively short polling intervals (10-30 minutes). Doing this once from a central vROPS server (which is not, typically, "mission-critical" in itself) reduces the load on mission-critical systems
  3. Consistency of view. Polling of multiple vCentre servers necessarily takes time and can lead to point-in-time discrepancies in the current managed estate compared to a vROPS centralised view. Having AIOps use the same view eliminates this possibility.
Idea priority Medium