Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Arrow up icon
GO TO TOP
VMware vRealize Operations Performance and Capacity Management

You're reading from   VMware vRealize Operations Performance and Capacity Management A hands-on guide to mastering performance and capacity management in a virtual data center

Arrow left icon
Product type Paperback
Published in Dec 2014
Publisher
ISBN-13 9781783551682
Length 276 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Arrow right icon
Author (1):
Arrow left icon
Iwan 'e1' Rahabok Iwan 'e1' Rahabok
Author Profile Icon Iwan 'e1' Rahabok
Iwan 'e1' Rahabok
Arrow right icon
View More author details
Toc

Table of Contents (10) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Virtual Data Center – It's Not a Physical Data Center, Virtualized FREE CHAPTER 2. Capacity Management in SDDC 3. Mastering the Key Counters in SDDC 4. CPU Counters 5. Memory Counters 6. Network Counters 7. Storage Counters 8. Dashboard Examples and Ideas Index

Management disciplines impacted by virtualization

We covered all the changes introduced by virtualization. Virtualization changes the architecture of IT, turning operation as usual from best practice to dated practice. The following table now summarizes from the pillar of management, so that we can see the impact from a specific discipline:

Area impacted

Why is it impacted?

Performance management

This gets harder as the performance of ESXi/VM/Datastore can impact one another. The entire environment is no longer static. VM activities such as vMotion, Storage vMotion, provisioning, power on, and so on also add to the workload. So, there is VM workload and infrastructure workload. Performance issues can originate from any component.

Troubleshooting something that is dynamic is difficult. Unlike a physical data center, the first thing we need to check is the overall health because of the interdependency. Only when we are satisfied that the problem is not wide-spread that we zoom in to a specific object (for example, VM, ESXi, and datastore).

Performance degradations can also be caused by configuration changes. These configuration changes occur more frequently than a physical data center as many of them can be done live.

QoS becomes mandatory due to shared resources.

A new requirement is application visibility. We can no longer troubleshoot in isolation without knowing which applications run inside that VM.

Availability management

vCloud Suite relies heavily on shared storage. The availability of this storage becomes critical. Enterprise should consider storage as an integral part of the platform, and not a subsystem managed by a different team.

Clustering software is mostly replaced with vSphere.

Backup is mostly agentless and LAN-free.

DR becomes a service provided by the platform.

Capacity management

Capacity management becomes a complex process. You need a tool that understands the dynamic nature of vCloud Suite.

Compliance management

Compliance becomes more complex due to the lack of physical segregation.

vCloud Suite itself is a big area that needs to be in compliance.

Security

Access to vCloud Suite needs to be properly controlled.

Configuration management (related to Change management)

vCloud Suite became the new source of truth, displacing the CMDB (as it is detached from the environment it manages). The need for another database to manage the virtual environment has to be weighed in as there is already a de facto database, which is vCenter. For example, if vCenter shows a VM is running, but there is no record in CMDB, do you power off and delete the VM? Certainly not. As a result, CMDB becomes less important as vCloud Suite itself provides the data.

VM configuration changes need to be tracked. Changes happen more often and faster.

vSphere becomes another area where configuration management needs to be applied.

Patch management

The data center itself becomes the software, which needs to be patched and upgraded. This can be automated to a large extent.

Because it is software, it needs to have a non-production copy.

Financial management

Chargeback (or showback at the minimal) becomes mandatory as the infrastructure is no longer owned by the application team. Shared resources means users do not expect to pay the full price.

Asset management

Drastically simplified as the VM is not an asset. Most network and storage appliances become software.

ESXi is the new asset, but it can't be changed without central management (vCenter) being alerted. The configuration is also standardized.

Stock-take is no longer applicable for the VM and top-of-rack access switch. Inventory is built-in in vSphere and NSX.

Operations management

Although ITIL principles do not change, the details of a lot of processes change drastically. We covered some of them previously.

You have been reading a chapter from
VMware vRealize Operations Performance and Capacity Management
Published in: Dec 2014
Publisher:
ISBN-13: 9781783551682
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at $19.99/month. Cancel anytime
Banner background image