VIN 2.0 Supports New Export to CSV & Maps Feature

VMware just released the new vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.6 this evening which includes all new updates to the following products:

• vCenter Operations Manager 5.6 
• vCenter Configuration Manager 5.6
• vFabric Hyperic 5.0
• vCenter Infrastructure Navigator 2.0
• vCenter Charge Back Manager 2.5

There are too many cool new features in each of these products to list them all out (I recommend you check out the release notes for each product). Though, two new features that I would like to point out is from latest vSphere Infrastructure Navigator 2.0 release (also known as VIN) which allows you to export the VIN data to CSV output as well as exporting the maps to PNG.

You have the option of exporting all virtual machines from a given vCenter Server or filter out a subset of the virtual machines by navigating to a specific object using the object navigator in the vSphere Web Client. In the screenshot below, I would like to export all virtual machines that VIN is collecting for a particular vSphere Cluster, so I select the Virtual Machines in that Cluster on the left and then select the Manage tab and then click on Application Services.

The export to CSV button is located right next to the filter box and this will export the entire table view that is seen to a CSV file which you can then save onto your local desktop. The filename will automatically be saved as vin-inventory.csv and here is a screenshot of the output file:

Note: If you filter the list of virtual machines using the Filter box, the export will still capture all virtual machines under this view. If you wish to capture a specific set of VMs, you will need to use the object navigator to filter out the specific objects before exporting.

To export the application dependency maps from VIN, you will need to be in the context of an individual virtual machine and again under Manage tab and then click on Application Services. The map export button is located right next to the zoom in/out option in the upper right corner as shown in the screenshot below.

I really like map export feature as you can sit back and let VIN do all the hard work of mapping out all the applications and VM dependencies for us in a graphical manner and then just export the picture which can then be used with documentation, CMDB diagrams, auditing, etc. These are just two out of the many new features found in the latest release of VIN 2.0. I highly recommend you give VIN a try if you are not already using it in your vSphere environment!

One additional note that I would like to point out, the data being exported to CSV does not capture all the application details such as the services, ports, processes, etc. that you might see from the VIN UI. If you wish to extract all this information from VIN for your own use, you can do so by taking a look at the following articles:

• Extracting Information from VIN (vSphere Infrastructure Navigator) Part 1
• Extracting Information from VIN (vSphere Infrastructure Navigator) Part 2
• Alternative Way of Extracting VIN (vSphere Infrastructure Navigator) Information