Best Practices for Monitoring VMware
with System Center Operations Manager
Pete Zerger Cameron Fuller Alec King
CEO of
WinWorkers USA
Principal consultant for
Catapult Systems
Director, Product
Management @Veeam
Administrative points on this webinar
Questions ● Can use the virtual Q&A panel.
● This webinar is recorded and available for replay after a few days.
● At the end of the webinar, we can raise virtual hand for dialog
questions.
● Stick around until the end of the webinar!
− We will ask one question on the webinar content…
− First 10 to answer will receive a choice of books!
About Veeam
Veeam Software develops innovative products
for virtual infrastructure management
and data protection.
Reduce costs, mitigate risk, and fully realize the promise
of virtualization with Veeam.
Agenda
Topic overview
● Six key concepts− Monitor with the ―virtualization stack‖ in mind
− Consider data sources and solution architectures
− Sort actionable alerts from alert noise
− Understand override behavior and best practices
− Create a dynamic user experience
− Provide Reporting for Trending, Capacity Planning and
Forecasting
Questions and answers
Drawing and wrap-up
Monitor with the “virtualization stack” in mind
Four Datasources for vSphere monitoring -
● SNMP
● Syslog
● vmcontrol-based APIs
● Web Service SDK
Bottom Line: Web Service SDK provides most
complete picture of infrastructure and application
performance and health with the best scalability
Consider data sources and solution architectures
● Override Precedence in OpsMgr 2007 R2
− Most specific wins:
Group over Class
Instance over Group
− Enforced over non-enforced
− Unsealed over sealed
− Class overrides from contained or hosted over class
overrides of an instance
− Instance overrides of a higher depth over instance overrides
of a lower depth
− Random!
Understand override behavior and best practices
● Use classes where possible
● Target to a group versus an entity
● Use Dynamic Groups
● Follow MS best practices
● Create Groups for entities not just servers
Best Practices for Overrides
OpsMgr ―Catch-22‖ –
Too Noisy versus Doing it‘s job
● Not all alerts need to email
● What is critical – Environment specific
● Proper tuning with groups: Webinar & WhitePaper:
How To Manage System Center Operations
Manager Using Groups
http://www.veeam.com/whitepapers.html
http://www.veeam.com/videos.html
Sort actionable alerts from alert noise
Create a dynamic user experience
● Types of groups: Dynamic & Static, Subgroups
● Group best practices:
− Use a naming convention
− Create groups for a business need
− Limit the number of groups
− Keep dynamic memberships simple
− Have a strategy for how to use groups in your environment
Provide Reporting for Trending,
Capacity Planning and Forecasting
● Using the OpsMgr Data Warehouse
● Forecasting using OpsMgr
● Veeam Reporter
● Applications & Services
● Operating Systems
● Physical hardware
● Virtualized servers
● Hypervisors
Clear benefits to a common management framework
● Operational efficiency
● Streamlined IT processes
● Lower costs and meet SLAs
The Management Challenge (the big picture)
Microsoft System Center
● Operations Manager
− Best of Breed for Microsoft OS & Applications
− Extensible framework
− Rich partner ecosystem
● Virtual Machine Manager
− Manage both Hyper-V and VMware
− Self-healing systems with PRO Tip automation
The Management Solution
● Microsoft natively integrates Hyper-V
Veeam nworks - integrate VMware into System Center
The Management Solution
Version 1
• nworks MP for MOM 2005
• The only VIAPI-based VMware
solution for MOM
Version 2
• Support for VI3
• MP added to Microsoft System Center Catalog
• Charter members of Ops Mgr TAP program
Version 3
• nworks MP for Ops Mgr 2007
• Announced at MMS 2007
• One of the very first ISV MPs
• Charter members of MS SCA
• TAP API co-dev with VMware
Veeam acquires
nworks!
Version 4
• SMASH Hardware
monitoring
• Charter members of
VMware Ready program
Version 5.0
• nworks Management Center & UI
• High-availability & Load-balancing
• Support for vSphere
• MP added to Microsoft Pinpoint Catalog
Ongoing innovation: nworks MP firsts & history
2006 H1 2007 H2 2007 July 2008 Dec 2008 July 2009 August 2010
Version 5.x
• Veeam made MS Gold Partner
• Finalists at Microsoft WPC
• VMware Ready updated for vSphere
• Finalists at Best of VMworld 2010
• nworks MP installed in all MTCs
Enterprise strength
Complete integration
Proven architecture
Key features of the Veeam nworks MP
Horizontal ―no-limits‖ scalability● Distributed architecture
● Configurable data collection and delivery
Centralized management● Administration of multiple collectors
● Pre-deployment planning and ongoing analysis
Fault tolerant● Automatic failover and load balancing
● Continuous delivery of monitoring data
Enterprise strength
Enable all Ops Mgr functionality
– Targeted Alerting
– Diagrams & Dashboards
– Reporting & Auditing
– Notifications & Responses
Complete integration
Standard VMware metrics:
● Cluster memory %
● Host CPU %
● VM CPU ready %
Unique Advanced metrics:
● Memory pressure
● Memory swap file I/O
● Disk IOPS
● Total network traffic
Complete Integration - Detailed health model
150+ vCenter events:
● Cluster status
● vMotion issues
● Storage connectivity
Agentless Hardware alerts:
● Power supply failure
● Temperature sensors
● Fan status
● RAID disks
VMware
―expert in a box‖
Elevates front-line
monitoring staff,
without additional
training
Ensures correct
escalation path
and reduces
time to resolution
Complete Integration - Knowledge base
Connect the dots!Complete Integration – End-to-end topology
‗Metal to App‘ visibility:● Hardware to hypervisor
● Hypervisor to VM
● VM to application
Enable root-cause
analysis
Ensure correct escalation
path
21
Agentless● Leverages the vSphere API , aka Web Services SDK
● Eliminates agent ―tunnel vision‖ for VMware aspects
Mature● Version 5.x
● Extensive production use—1000+ customers, large-scale deployments
Certified● VMware Ready for vSphere 4 and VI3 – vSphere 5 in progress
● Microsoft Management Pack Catalog, Pinpoint site
Proven architecture
nworks MP architecture
Microsoft System Center
Operations Manager 2007
Operations Manager 2012
MOM 2005
nworks
Management Pack
VMware
vSphere 4 and VI3
vSphere 5.0
Agentless
Scalable
Centrally managed
Fault-tolerant
Ops Manager Agent
nworks Collector
nworks PRO-enabled MP architecture
Microsoft System Center nworks
Management Pack
Microsoft System Center
Operational
monitoring
and alerting
OpsManager2007
Automated management and optimization
VirtualMachineManager2008 R2
and PRO Pack
PRO Tips
Correctiveactions
VMware
vSphere 4 and VI3
Full topology diagram of the VMware environment
● See all dependencies and relationships
● Sophisticated staged & cascaded discoveries
Efficient ‗cooked-down‘ datasources
● Each Collector can deliver data for ~500 VMs and their Hosts
Optimized performance data publication
● Minimize Ops Mgr DB footprint
Advanced Ops Mgr features
Demo
Q&A
Questions and Answers Winners receive a choice of the following books
Thank you for attending!
Resources:Twitter :@Veeam Blog: http://www.veeam.com/blog Eval: www.Veeam.com
