HP Integrity Essentials Virtualization Manager and HP Capacity Advisor: an introduction An extract from the book, The HP Virtual Server Environment: Making the Adaptive Enterprise Vision a Reality in Your Datacenter, by authors Dan Herington and Bryan Jacquot
Management of the HP Virtual Server Environment—integrated planning, management, and automation of virtual resources for improved server utilization Introducing HP Integrity Essentials Virtualization Manager and HP Capacity Advisor Hewlett-Packard Company and Pearson Education are pleased to offer this extract of two chapters of the new book, The HP Virtual Server Environment: Making the Adaptive Enterprise Vision a Reality in Your Datacenter, by authors Dan Herington and Bryan Jacquot.
17 Virtualization Manager Chapter Overview Every year approximately 8 million commercial airline flights transport more than 500 million passengers across the United States.1 The aircraft form a web of traffic across the skies, congregating at various hubs throughout the country. At every intersection in the web of airline traffic are the air traffic controllers, who see to it the airline passengers and cargo are safely sent on their way and received without incident.
22 The HP Virtual Server Environment Virtualization Manager is integrated into the HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) product that has been available for several years. Because of Virtualization Manager tight integration with HP SIM, this chapter discusses several features of HP SIM in concert with the discussion of Virtualization Manager. This chapter begins by discussing the most commonly used terminology relating to HP SIM and the VSE management suite.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Virtualization Manager Overview Virtualization Manager is a web-based system administration tool that is tightly integrated with HP SIM. All of the VSE technologies discussed in this book will be supported by Virtualization Manager. The purpose of Virtualization Manager is to provide a consolidated monitoring and administration point for all VSE technologies. Graphical views of system configurations are one of the primary features of the tools.
424 The HP Virtual Server Environment Overview of Architecture of the Management Software Figure 17-1 shows the management domains relevant to the Management Software. The outermost box indicates the set of systems in HP SIM’s management domain. This domain includes a variety of system types such as HP NonStop servers, HP 9000 servers, HP Integrity servers, IA-32 servers, IA-32 workstations, printers, and network switches.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite The VSE Management Software’s management domain is a subset of HP SIM’s management domain. HP 9000 and HP Integrity servers are the focus of the VSE Management Software, and thus the management domain for the VSE Management Software is restricted to those hardware platforms. As the diagram indicates, the CMS itself can be part of the management domain.
426 The HP Virtual Server Environment HP Systems Insight Manager CMS VSE Management Software CMS Daemons VSE Management Software GUI SSH & WBEM Clients Managed System A VSE Agents WBEM Server SSH Server VSE WBEM Providers VSE Commands Figure 17-2 Architecture of HP Systems Insight Manager and VSE Managed Systems Virtualization Manager Tour This section provides a high-level tour of Virtualization Manager.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Figure 17-3 HP Systems Insight Manager are specific to a particular user. This allows each administrator to have a customized management environment. Immediately below the banner that extends across the top of the screen is the action menu. A vast array of tasks can be invoked from this menu. Tasks such as installing software, generating inventory reports, and launching Virtualization Manager are all available from this menu.
428 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 17-4 Setup of HP Systems Insight Manager Automatic Discovery users tailor the discovery process according to the requirements of an environment. For example, the protocols used to discover systems and gather system information can be tuned according to each environment’s requirements. In general, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and WBEM are the two services used to gather system information.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Figure 17-5 HP Systems Insight Manager System List are available by default. While these default lists make the first use of the application easy, customization of the system lists allows administrators to group systems more logically based on business function. For example, a system list can be created that contains each of the systems in a three-tiered application.
430 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 17-6 HP Systems Insight Manager Customizable System Lists The system list shown in Figure 17-5 displays all of the systems in the All Servers folder. When the name of one of the systems in the list is selected, the System Page for the selected system is displayed. An example System Page is shown in Figure 17-7. The page shown in this example is for the rex04 nPartition that has been used in several examples throughout this book.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Figure 17-7 HP Systems Insight Manager System Page simply disallowing the use of the root account would render most system administrators ineffective because many system administration tasks require root privileges. However, the userbased security facility in HP SIM provides non-super-users with the ability to execute a specific set of privileged tools on a specific set of systems.
432 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 17-8 HP Systems Insight Manager User Based Security toolbox, and the system group into an authorization that allows the selected user to run the selected tools on the selected systems. Virtualization Manager Tour All of the topics discussed in relation to HP SIM apply directly to Virtualization Manager.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Figure 17-9 Virtualization Manager System View tions is further divided with Integrity Virtual Machines. Each virtual machine is drawn within the containing nPartition. The same approach is applied for virtual partitions, Secure Resource Partitions, and VSE management workloads. This approach makes it simple to determine which systems are affected by a system configuration change, and the systems that may suffer side effects from the changes are readily visible.
434 The HP Virtual Server Environment System view; thus allowing centralized management and visualization for all of the VSE technologies. Beyond the configuration and status of the systems in Virtualization Manager System view, the resource utilization is also displayed for all the workloads in the VSE management domain.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Figure 17-10 Virtualization Manager Historical Utilization Report system where the workload is running, whether the workload is being managed by gWLM, workload utilization metrics, and several other informational pieces of data. An important difference between the Workload and System views is that the Workload view only shows systems that are directly running workloads. In other words, the Workload view is filtered to remove nodes that aren’t directly running applications.
436 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 17-11 Virtualization Manager Workload View By default, Virtualization Manager Workload view shows workloads at the operating system, PSET, or FSS group level. This means that all of the processes running in each operating system are treated as a single workload unless gWLM PSETs or FSS groups are in place, in which case the utilization data is available at finer levels of granularity.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Figure 17-12 Virtualization Manager Create Workload Definition monitoring capabilities. No resource control is provided with Virtualization Manager workload definitions. However, after you monitor the workloads for a period of time to understand the workloads’ utilization patterns, you can associate a gWLM policy with the workload that will enforce utilization limits or allocate resources to ensure that all workloads receive the necessary resources.
438 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 17-13 Global Workload Manager Shared Resource Domain View domain, or even modify the policies associated with the workloads contained in a shared resource domain. The gWLM portion of the VSE Management Software is described in detail in Chapter 19, “Global Workload Manager.” The final top-level view of Virtualization Manager is shown in Figure 17-14. The Capacity Advisor tab shows all of the capacity advisor scenarios which have been defined.
chapter 17 VSE Management Suite Figure 17-14 Capacity Advisor View Summary Air traffic controllers depend on the Final Approach Spacing Tool to ensure that the airways are safely and efficiently used. FAST brings together many systems in one tool to provide air traffic controllers with the capabilities they need to more effectively use the airport and airspace. In fact, initial tests showed that FAST has increased arrival rates and departure rates, while ensuring passenger and aircraft safety.
440 The HP Virtual Server Environment existing resources to be utilized more effectively while ensuring that workloads are allocated adequate hardware to meet their service-level objectives. In addition to Virtualization Manager’s visualization and configuration capabilities, gWLM and Capacity Advisor are both seamlessly integrated.
18 Capacity Advisor Chapter Overview Each of the technologies in HP’s Virtual Server Environment provides environments with unique characteristics for hosting workloads. nPartitions, virtual partitions, virtual machines, and Secure Resource Partitions provide varying degrees of workload isolation, ranging from complete hardware isolation using nPartitions to resource isolation within an operating system using Secure Resource Partitions.
442 The HP Virtual Server Environment workload consolidation. In the consolidation example, three workloads running in separate nPartitions are evaluated to determine whether a single nPartition with fewer total resources is able to host the workloads. The goal of the scenario is to reduce the hardware necessary for the workloads while increasing resource utilization. It should be noted this chapter was written using prototypes of the Capacity Advisor.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Editing of the baseline is performed using the Capacity Advisor baseline editor. Unless you made modifications, Capacity Advisor derives the baseline directly from historic information. In some cases the baseline does not require modification. However, most of the time workloads are event driven or cyclical in nature and adjusting the baseline results in a much more accurate and reliable model for capacity-planning purposes.
444 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 18-1 First Workload’s Resource Utilization for the Month of January The graph shown in Figure 18-1 depicts the resource utilization for the first workload to be examined in HP’s internal IT department. The graph shows the CPU utilization for the month of January. The scale of the y-axis is based on CPU shares, with 100 shares equaling one physical CPU. This workload consumed roughly seven CPUs at its highest peaks.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Figure 18-3 Combined Utilization for Both Workloads After seeing these two graphs, the question arises, “How much hardware, if any, can I save by consolidating these workloads?” The initial answer from looking only at the previous two graphs could be “None.” The first workload requires seven CPUs and the second requires eight CPUs, so the consolidated system must have 15 CPUs. However, Figure 18-3 shows the aggregation of the two consolidated workloads.
446 The HP Virtual Server Environment Workload: Web 1 Cell in nPartition 4 CPUs, 8 GB Workload: Payroll 1 Cell in nPartition 4 CPUs, 8 GB Workload: Backup 1 Cell in nPartition 4 CPUs, 8 GB Available for Other Workloads 1 Cell, 4 CPUs, 8 GB Workloads: Web, Payroll, Backup 2 Cells in nPartition 8 CPUs, 18 GB Figure 18-4 Example Scenario Workload Consolidation Table 18-1 lists the workloads to be consolidated in this example scenario.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Editing the Web Workload Historic Profile The screen shown in Figure 18-5 is the Workload area of the VSE management suite. This view shows all of the workloads and several of their respective properties. From this view, the capacity advisor action for modifying the workload profile is available. The web workload is selected and the edit workload profile action is taken from the VSE management suite menu. Figure 18-6 shows the historic profile in the workload profile viewer.
448 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 18-6 Capacity Advisor Historic Profile Viewer The screen shown in Figure 18-7 provides a mechanism to modify a workload’s historic profile. This can be performed in one of two ways. First, all data points over a given threshold can be marked as invalid. This operation flattens the peaks of a workload that are unusually high. The second way to modify a workload’s historic profile is to mark data as invalid during specific date ranges.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Figure 18-7 Capacity Advisor Historic Profile Editor The next step is to edit the forecast. By default, the forecast is generated directly from the historic profile. The screen shown in Figure 18-8 is the default forecast for the workload. Notice that this view is based on historic data but will not take data points that have been marked invalid into account. In many cases, the forecasts require customizations such as incorporating expected growth rates and usage patterns.
450 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 18-8 Capacity Advisor Forecast Viewer In addition to specifying growth rates, Capacity Advisor allows specific events to be added to the forecast. Any event affecting the workload that occurs in the future can be added to the forecast. Examples of such events are mergers or reorganizations that change the scope or nature of the workload.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Figure 18-9 Capacity Advisor Forecast Editor The workload’s baseline can now be tailored using the Capacity Advisor Baseline Editor. The screen shown in Figure 18-10 is the default baseline for the web workload. This baseline is derived directly from the historic profile for the workload. If the historic profile accurately represents the workload’s profile, then the default baseline may not need to be altered.
452 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 18-10 Capacity Advisor Baseline Editor The interface shown in Figure 18-11 allows the baseline for the workload to be customized. In this case, the option to use the past four weeks is selected. This option modifies the baseline so it reflects the past four weeks of historic utilization data. Workloads that have regular usage patterns over a weekly basis can be modeled accurately using this type of baseline.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Figure 18-11 Capacity Advisor Baseline Editor for Web Workload Editing the Payroll Workload Profile The next workload profile to be edited is the payroll workload. As with the web workload, the screen shown in Figure 18-5 is the launching point for the workload profile customization. Similar to the web workload, the historic profile for the payroll workload will not be modified to remove outlying data points.
454 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 18-12 Capacity Advisor Baseline Editor for Payroll Workload The customization of the payroll workload is complete at this point. The historic profile did not require manipulation and the forecast was not altered as there is no expected growth in the workload over the next year. Finally, the baseline has been customized to incorporate the resource usage pattern of the workload.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor services. Therefore, as shown in Table 18-1, the expected growth rate of 5% is reflected in the forecast editor for the workload. The workload’s baseline will be tailored according to the workload’s resource usage patterns. Every day of the year is the same for this workload. As a result, the workload’s baseline will be based on a single day. The screen shown in Figure 18-13 illustrates a change in the baseline to reflect a single day of the workload’s historic profile.
456 The HP Virtual Server Environment Creating a Capacity Advisor Scenario In order to perform what-if experiments with Capacity Advisor, a scenario must be created. The scenario defines the set of systems that will be used in the experiments. Hypothetical workloads and systems can also be added to scenarios to assist in the planning process.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Figure 18-15 Specify Scenario Name and Description in Create Scenario Wizard After selecting the systems, the name and description of the scenario must be specified as shown in Figure 18-15. This text is used as an identifier for the scenario and is displayed on the Scenario view of Capacity Advisor.
458 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 18-16 Capacity Advisor Create Hypothetical System Before performing experiments using this scenario, the simulation interval should be set to reflect the time period to be used for performing the capacity-planning analysis. In this situation, the interval has been set two years in the future. Using a time interval in the future allows the workloads’ forecast to be taken into account.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Figure 18-17 Capacity Advisor What-If Move Workload In this case, the three workloads are selected to be moved to the hypothetical system. The upper portion of the screen shows each of the workloads and their resource profiles. The middle of the screen shows the current nPartition servers where the workloads are currently running. Finally, the bottom of the screen shows the hypothetical system as the target for the workloads.
460 The HP Virtual Server Environment Figure 18-18 Capacity Advisor Scenario Report Generator As with the simulation interval for the what-if scenarios, the date range for generating system reports should generally be set to a point in the future. In this case, the time interval for the report has been set to the entire month of March two years in the future. This takes the forecast for the workloads into account.
chapter 18 Capacity Advisor Figure 18-19 Capacity Advisor Workload Consolidation Report handled by the target system, you should also examine other system resources to ensure that memory and I/O resources will be able to handle the consolidated load. The graphs and data provided in the Capacity Planning reporting facilities are extensive. These reports provide a wealth of information that is based on historic data and workloadspecific baselines.
462 The HP Virtual Server Environment Summary The Capacity Advisor component of the VSE management suite provides the data, tools, and reports necessary to make informed decisions regarding workload placement, migration, and consolidation. Using this product, capacity planners are able to analyze each workload’s utilization profile. With data in hand, they can create baselines as the foundation for performing what-if scenarios.
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