If you are not familiar with CapacityIQ (a.k.a. CapIQ or CIQ), it is an add-on management product for vCenter Server that assists in planning and managing virtualization resources.

CapIQ is very easy to deploy since it ships as a virtual appliance in OVF format — just load it onto an ESX host and perform a few simple configuration steps. It’s also simple to use since the user interface is a vSphere Client plug-in.  That means no additional web interfaces or user accounts to deal with — just a single pane of glass.

To learn more, check out the Evaluator’s Guide and other documentation.

Installation Experience

For those curious about the installation experience, here is an overview of the very simple procedure.

Upload the CapacityIQ VM using vSphere Client

Configure Credentials

The CapacityIQ appliance has two user accounts: root and ciqadmin.  When you first power on the VM, you will be prompted to enter passwords for those accounts.  Unlike some VM appliances, there are no default passwords involved.

Connect CapacityIQ to vCenter Server

After the appliance is finished booting, a URL will be shown on the console.  Open that with your browser and log in using the ciqadmin account.

Enter the address and credentials needed to connect to your vCenter Server:

vSphere Client Interface

After CapacityIQ is registered with your vCenter Server, restart your vSphere Client.  Verify that the plug-in has been installed automatically.

If everything is in order, you’ll find a new icon on the vSphere Client Home screen:

Views and Reports

CapacityIQ comes with a number of preconfigured views and reports, as seen here:

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