Hi Brian,
The operations.d folder won't fix this issue but you still need it.
Since you can't ping the Tomcat server, it sounds like your Tomcat server is behind a firewall with Network Address Translation. Are you able to connect directly to the BI Launchpad running on your Tomcat from your client host? Is there any hostname you can use to connect to this server (IE a hostname that will forward you through the NAT to the Tomcat server)?
If not, you might need to run the BI Platform Support Tool from a host that can communicate directly to the Tomcat server (for example, one of your BI server hosts or a sandbox system)
Please confirm the situation and I can provide further guidance on how to workaround the firewall if this is the problem.
Regards
Toby