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Deploy Zenoss Cloud

Deploying Zenoss Cloud is a collaborative process between your IT department and Zenoss Professional Services personnel. The following sections outline the process and include links to the resources that will help you get up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible. Deployment starts immediately after we sign a contract together.

1. Exchange information

Zenoss Professional Services requests user and infrastructure information and files a Zenoss Support ticket to record and track the information, including:

  • Support accounts — Zenoss Support personnel create an account in our support system for your technical lead, and your technical lead creates accounts for additional team members as required.

  • Training system accounts — The names and email addresses of the initial group of users to train. Once the users are added to the Zenoss Learning Center, the self-directed Zenoss Cloud Operator class can be started immediately.

  • Initial Zenoss Cloud users — The full names and email addresses of the initial (administrative) Zenoss Cloud users. Zenoss Operations creates accounts for these users with the native identity management feature of Zenoss Cloud.

    If you plan to integrate your own identity management service, you can skip this.

  • List of initial devices — A list of the devices and applications that have the biggest impact on your business.

    This is the first step of an iterative, ongoing process.

  • Infrastructure names — Names for your Zenoss Cloud tenant, Collection Zones, and collectors.

    Please take time to consider these names; once chosen, they cannot be changed.

2. Create infrastructure

Zenoss Operations creates your Zenoss Cloud tenant, Collection Zones, and collectors using the names you provide.

3. Prepare devices

With our help, you begin the process of preparing devices for use in a Collection Zone. This process ensures that the devices to monitor can, for example, send SNMP data or are otherwise configured for the access required to gather model and metric data.

Keep in mind, you don't need a collector to send data! Use one or more streaming data clients to begin sending data to Zenoss Cloud immediately.

4. Conduct kickoff meeting

Whenever possible, we gather at your facility to hold the project kickoff meeting. Zenoss personnel attend either in person or through teleconference.

5. Install collector appliances

With our help, you create virtual machines with a Zenoss Cloud Collector virtual appliance package.

6. Integrate identity service

With our help, you can integrate your own identity management service such as Active Directory or LDAP, if desired. This is an alternative to the native identity management features of Zenoss Cloud and is not required.

7. Broaden the scope

This part of the deployment process involves more devices and people in your organization:

  • Load and configure devices — With our help, you add devices to Zenoss Cloud to begin modeling and monitoring them. This process continues throughout deployment and beyond.

  • Attend training — Your team attends instructor-led, online training sessions, along with your Zenoss deployment consultant.

  • Optional: Begin custom ZenPack development — Unique devices or integrations may require custom ZenPacks, which Zenoss Professional Services can develop at your request.

  • Optional: Begin integrating CMDB or Incident Management — If your environment includes these products, the process of integrating with Zenoss Cloud would begin.

8. Transition to Zenoss Support

When the initial device load is complete and the system is working as designed, Zenoss deployment consultants bow out and hand off to Zenoss Support.