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vCenter Operations Manager and

the Quest for the Missing Metrics

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Agenda

Introduction

What will you learn?

Why analytics matter

About vCenter Operations Manager

Custom UI and Default vSphere Dashboards

Metrics and Super Metrics

Widgets and Custom Dashboards

Integration

Customer reference

Questions?

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Introduction

Duco Jaspars – vConsult

Independent Virtualization Consultant

Twitter: @vConsult

http://blog.vConsult.nl

Eric Sloof – NTPRO.NL

Freelance VMware Certified Instructor

Twitter: @esloof

http://www.ntpro.nl

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What will you learn?

Which vCenter Operations Manager version do I need to be able to

customize?

What customization options do I have?

How will this help me to improve the visibility in to my

environment?

How do others use customization in their environment?

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Why analytics matter

Gain comprehensive visibility into the health, risk and efficiency

of your infrastructure and applications.

Proactively manage the health of vSphere, virtual machines and

applications.

Spot potential performance bottlenecks early on and remediate

before end users notice.

Right-size and reclaim overprovisioned capacity to increase

consolidation ratios.

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About vCenter Operations Manager

vCenter Operations Manager collects performance data from each

object at every level of your virtual environment.

It stores and analyzes the data, and uses that analysis to provide

real-time information about problems, or potential problems,

anywhere in your virtual environment.

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About vCenter Operations Manager

vCenter Operations Manager is available in four editions:

•Foundation •Standard •Advanced •Enterprise

To customize vCenter Operations Manager, you need to have the

Advanced or Enterprise version.

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Custom UI and Default vSphere Dashboards in Custom UI

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Custom UI

• Accessible via:

https://<vcops server>/vcops-

custom

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Default vSphere Dashboards

The vSphere group in the Custom UI Dashboards menu contains several default dashboards for managing virtual objects in a vSphere environment.

Troubleshooting

VM Utilization and Performance

Host and Cluster Utilization

Datastore Performance and Space

Heatmaps and Alerts

Host Memory

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Default vSphere Dashboards

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Metrics and Super Metrics

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Metrics and Super Metrics

A metric is an entity that describes the performance of a resource.

A super metric is a formula that contains a combination of one or

more metrics for one or more resources.

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Super Metrics Example

Memory ballooning is a VM metric, is there any ballooning

happening in my Cluster?

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Super Metrics Example

Create a Super Metric to show the total amount of ballooning for all

VM’s in a

vSphere Cluster.

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Super Metrics Example

Create a Super Metric Package

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Super Metrics Example

Attach the Super Metrics Package to a resource kind (both clusters

in this case)

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Super Metrics Example

Show the Super

Metric Output

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Dashboard based on Super Metric

A simple dashboard that shows ballooning per vSphere Cluster

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Widgets and Custom Dashboards

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Custom Dashboards

The panes on a dashboard are called widgets.

A widget is a collection of related information about attributes, resources, applications, or the overall processes in your environment.

Each dashboard contains one or more widgets.

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GEO Dashboard Widget

With the The GEO Dashboard Widget, you can group resources by GEO location.

First create Tag Value and pinpoint a location:

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GEO Dashboard Widget

Assign a Resource to a GEO Location Tag Value

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GEO Dashboard Widget

The GEO widget shows a map with all the assigned resources. You can add the GEO widget to any dashboard.

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GEO Dashboard Widget

When resources are grouped according to their physical location, you can see the health of all of the resources in a particular place.

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Metric Weather Map Widget

The Metric Weather Map widget provides a graphical display of the

changing values of a single metric for multiple resources over time.

The color of an icon changes to show changes in the value of the

metric over time.

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Metric Weather Map Widget

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Integration

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Adapters

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Third party adapters

Third party adapters can be downloaded from: ftp.integrien.com

Or nowadays from http://solutionexchange.vmware.com

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Commercial third party adapters

EMC Storage Analytics:

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Third party adapters

Stratusphere UX provides properly related KPIs for over 40 critical

desktop metrics.

These metrics can be fed by the Stratusphere UX Adapter into

vCenter Operations.

Demo

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Generic Adapters

Generic adapters are designed to connect to standard data sources. They typically require field customization to accommodate site-specific environments.

Port Adapter

SNMP Adapter

Text File Adapter

HTTP Post Adapter

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Port Adapter

The port adapter monitors the availability state and response time of ports on hosts.

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SNMP Adapter

The SNMP collects metrics from devices that support SNMP.

These devices typically include routers, switches, servers, workstations, and printers.

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Text File Adapter

The Text File adapter collects performance data from delimited text files in real time.

You can create multiple instances of the Text File adapter.

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HTTP Post Adapter

The HTTP Post Adapter exposes a subset of the functions of the vCOps OpenAPI through an HTTP interface, send a POST request to the HTTP URL at: https://vCops-Server/HttpPostAdapter

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Integrating local weather data

Tomas Baublys has created a script to Integrate local weather data in vCops using the HTTP Post Adapter. You can find the complete script at:

http://wiegehtdasmitdemcloud.de/

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Integrating local weather data

The script receives weather data from openweathermap.org and sends a POST request to the vCops HttpPostAdapter.

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Integrating local weather data

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Integration of Log Insight

Log Insight delivers automated log management through log aggregation, analytics and search.

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Integration of Log Insight

Log Insight can be configured to send alerts to vCops about vCenter Server objects.

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Integration of Log Insight

In the vSphere UI, vCops displays links to launch Log Insight in-context from the alerts details page and from the objects details page.

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Customer reference

Dashboards used by a Dutch Government IT organization

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Availability is calculated using the following Super Metric:

((This Resource: summary|number_running_hosts/This

Resource: summary|total_number_hosts)*100)

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Several ways to show Datastore latency, to figure out which

version is preferred by the end users.

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• Dashboard to search for resources and select metrics.

• Shows rolling view graph for quick overview.

• Shows normal graphs to pinpoint issues, zoom in and out, and export

graphs.

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Resources

Training courses:

vCops Fundamentals

vCops Analyze and Predict

vCops Advanced Usage and Dashboard Design

VMware vSphere with Operations Management: Fast Track

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Resources

Free Instructional Videos:

10 instructional videos http://vmwarelearning.com/vcenter/

Websites:

http://Jume.nl

http://blogs.vmware.com/management

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Questions?

Duco Jaspars – vConsult

Independent Virtualization Consultant

Twitter: @vConsult

http://blog.vConsult.nl

Eric Sloof – NTPRO.NL

Freelance VMware Certified Instructor

Twitter: @esloof

http://www.ntpro.nl