VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide vCenter Operations Manager Advanced 5.0 This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at: http://www.vmware.com/support/ The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates. If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com Copyright © 2012 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws.
Contents VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 5 1 vCenter Operations Manager Features 7 Main Concepts of vCenter Operations Manager 7 Metric Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager Planning 8 2 Preparing to Monitor a vCenter Operations Manager Virtual Environment 11 Object Type Icons in the Inventory Pane 11 Badge Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager Planning 12 Major Badges in vCenter Operations Manager 12 Working with Metrics and Charts on the All Metrics Tab 20 3 Pla
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Maintaining vCenter Operations Manager Alerts 52 6 Customizing vCenter Operations Manager Configuration Settings 57 Customize the Badge Thresholds for Infrastructure Objects 57 Customize the Badge Thresholds for Virtual Machine Objects 58 Default Badge Threshold Values 58 Edit Configuration Settings to Receive Notifications When a Badge Crosses a Threshold 61 Index 63 4 VMware, Inc.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide The VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide provides information about the ® VMware vCenter™ Operations Manager planning process. Intended Audience This guide is intended for administrators of VMware vSphere who want to familiarize themselves with planning workflow tasks to monitor and manage the performance of the vCenter Operations Manager virtual environment. VMware, Inc.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 6 VMware, Inc.
vCenter Operations Manager Features 1 vCenter Operations Manager collects performance data from each object at every level of your virtual environment, from individual virtual machines and disk drives to entire clusters and datacenters. 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. vCenter Operations Manager works with existing VMware products to add the following functions.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Dynamic Thresholds vCenter Operations Manager defines dynamic thresholds for every metric based on the current and historical values of the metric. The normal range of values for a metric can differ on different days at different times because of regular cycles of use and behavior. vCenter Operations Manager tracks these normal value cycles and sets the dynamic thresholds accordingly.
Chapter 1 vCenter Operations Manager Features Table 1-1. Major Metric Concepts Metric Description Provisioned Amount of a resource that the user configures. The provisioned metric might apply to the amount of physical memory for a host or the number of vCPUs for a virtual machine. Usable Actual amount of a resource that the object can use. The usable amount is less than or equal to the provisioned amount.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Table 1-1. Major Metric Concepts (Continued) Metric Description Reservation Guaranteed amount of resources for an object. The object does not start without this reserved amount. The default amount is 0. Entitlement 10 Amount of a resource that a virtual machine can use based on the relative priority of that consumer set by the virtualization configuration.
Preparing to Monitor a vCenter Operations Manager Virtual Environment 2 Preparing to monitor the vCenter Operations Manager virtual environment involves understanding the vCenter Operations Manager badges and the key metric concepts.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide By default, objects in the inventory pane are grouped by hosts and clusters. You can select Datastores from the drop-down menu at the top of the inventory pane to switch the way objects are grouped. Badge Concepts for vCenter Operations Manager Planning vCenter Operations Manager uses badges to illustrate derived metrics to provide an overview of the state of the virtual environment or an individual object.
Chapter 2 Preparing to Monitor a vCenter Operations Manager Virtual Environment Table 2-2. Object Health States (Continued) Badge Icon Description User Action The object might have serious problems. Check and take appropriate action as soon as possible. The object is either not functioning properly or will stop functioning soon. Act immediately. No data is available for any of the metrics for the time period. The object is offline.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Using the Anomalies Badge Under the Health Badge The vCenter Operations Manager Anomalies badge measures the extent of abnormal behavior for an object based on historical metrics data. A high number of anomalies might indicate a potential issue. A low Anomalies score indicates that an object is behaving in accordance with its established historical parameters.
Chapter 2 Preparing to Monitor a vCenter Operations Manager Virtual Environment Table 2-5. Object Faults States Badge Icon Description User Action No faults are registered on the selected object. No attention required. Faults of low importance are registered on the selected object. Check and take appropriate action. Faults of high importance are registered on the selected object. Check and take appropriate action as soon as possible.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Using the Time Remaining Badge Under the Risk Badge The vCenter Operations Manager Time Remaining badge measures the time before a resource associated with an object reaches capacity. This badge indicates the available timeframe to provision or load balance the physical or virtual resources for a selected object.
Chapter 2 Preparing to Monitor a vCenter Operations Manager Virtual Environment The Capacity Remaining score ranges between 0 (bad) and 100 (good). The badge changes its color based on the badge score thresholds that are set by the vCenter Operations Manager administrator. Table 2-8. Object Capacity States Icon Description User Action The object is not expected to reach its capacity limits within the next 120 days. You can deploy a large number of virtual machines on the selected object.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Table 2-9. Stress States Badge Icon Description User Action The Stress score is normal. No attention required. Some of the object resources are not enough to meet the demands. Check and take appropriate action. The object is experiencing regular resource shortage. Check and take appropriate action as soon as possible. Most of the resources on the object are constantly insufficient. The object might stop functioning properly.
Chapter 2 Preparing to Monitor a vCenter Operations Manager Virtual Environment Using the Reclaimable Waste Badge Under the Efficiency Badge The vCenter Operations Manager Reclaimable Waste badge accounts for resource types such as CPU, memory, or disk, and measures the extent of excessive provisioning for an object. It also identifies the amount of resources that you can reclaim and provision to other objects in your virtual environment. The Reclaimable Waste score ranges between 0 (good) and 100 (bad).
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Table 2-12. Object Density States (Continued) Badge Icon Description User Action The resource consolidation is extremely low. Select Planning > Views to identify resource consolidation opportunities. No data is available for any of the metrics for the time period. The object is offline. A vCenter Operations Manager administrator can change the badge score thresholds.
Chapter 2 Preparing to Monitor a vCenter Operations Manager Virtual Environment The Metric Chart Pane The Metric Chart pane displays the graphs of the metrics you select from the Metric Selector pane. You can view as many graphs as you want. You can control the appearance of metric graphs and create screenshots by using the buttons in the Metric Chart pane.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Button Tooltip Icon Description Retrieve complete metric values In zoom mode, displays the values of the selected metric when you move the mouse pointer over the graph. Enable X-axis zoom Allows you to enlarge the selected area of the graph only on the X axis while the Y axis remains static. Enable Y-axis zoom Allows you to enlarge the selected area of the graph only on the Y axis while the X axis remains static.
Planning the vCenter Operations Manager Workflow 3 Planning your workflow in a vCenter Operations Manager virtual environment involves reacting to day-today problems and initiating ways to proactively prevent problems and find opportunities for resource optimization and cost savings. Use the vCenter Operations Manager badges to help guide your workflow.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Monitoring Day-to-Day Activity in vCenter Operations Manager Monitoring day-to-day activity in the vCenter Operations Manager virtual environment involves evaluating the overall health of the system and reacting to potential problems at the current time. Identify an Overall Health Issue The Health badge is the indicator of a potential problem in the virtual environment that vCenter Operations Manager monitors.
Chapter 3 Planning the vCenter Operations Manager Workflow Prerequisites In the vCenter Operations Manager interface, verify that the Dashboard tab is open. Procedure 1 In the Health pane, check whether the Weather Map of Health displays colors other than green. (The weather map is most appropriate for grouped objects such as the World, vCenters, and Datacenters.) Colors that dominate the map over the past six hours indicate a larger trend. 2 If a trend exists, click the Health badge.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide What to do next On the Details tab under the Operations tab, you can check metric values to identify the resource that might be causing the high Anomalies score. Depending on which resource indicates abnormal operation, check the Key Metrics pane for further information.
Chapter 3 Planning the vCenter Operations Manager Workflow Procedure 1 In the inventory pane, select the object that you want to inspect. 2 If the color of the Health badge is other than green, click the Events tab under the Operations tab to see events that occurred as far back as a month. Use the buttons above the badge score graph to control what you see on the Events tab.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Determine When an Object Might Run Out of Resources The Time Remaining pane under the Risks badge provides a summary of when an object in the virtual environment might run out of resources such as disk space, memory, CPU, or network. Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client and that vCenter Operations Manager is open. Procedure 1 In the inventory pane, select the object that you want to inspect.
Chapter 3 Planning the vCenter Operations Manager Workflow 5 Identify the top transient resource consumers, click the Scoreboard tab under the Operations tab, and select the Workload badge. 6 To filter the objects and related objects by Workload, click the Status Filter buttons to view only the red, orange, and yellow states. You can prioritize the virtual machines with high Workload scores and move them to a less resourceconstrained object.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 6 Examine the Events graph to see if the guest operating system change events or vSphere events caused the problem. The guest change events will have a different icon shape. Address a Problem with a Specific Datastore Identifying the cause of a problem with a specific datastore involves investigating the I/O intensive virtual machines that adversely affect the disk space.
Chapter 3 Planning the vCenter Operations Manager Workflow What to do next Assign less work to the virtual machines or reconfigure the capacity appropriate to the virtual machine load. Identify Stressed Objects with vCenter Operations Manager Identify the stressed or undersized hosts and clusters to assign more capacity to those objects and optimize the load. Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client and that vCenter Operations Manager is open.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Identify the Underlying Memory Resource Problem for a Virtual Machine When you navigate through a vCenter Operations Managerworkflow and identify a virtual machine with a potential problem, you can resolve the underlying problem by using the memory metric data. The CPU graphs for clusters and hosts show the Provisioned metric. The CPU graphs for virtual machines show the Entitlement metric.
Chapter 3 Planning the vCenter Operations Manager Workflow 5 VMware, Inc. On the Views tab, you can switch views to find aggregate information for used and total capacity, and capacity trends.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 34 VMware, Inc.
Preparing Proactive Workflows in vCenter Operations Manager 4 vCenter Operations Manager supports workflows for assessing both current issues and risks to future capacity for mission-critical objects as well. Planning for capacity risk involves analyzing, optimizing, and forecasting data to determine how much capacity is available and whether you make efficient use of the infrastructure.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 5 If a color other than green indicates a potential problem, click Details in the pop-up window to investigate the resources for the cluster or datacenter. What to do next Identify the green clusters with the most capacity to store virtual machines.
Chapter 4 Preparing Proactive Workflows in vCenter Operations Manager 3 Click Datastore Space Contention Sized By Total Space Grouped By Datacenter. 4 In the heat map, point to each datacenter area to view the space statistics. 5 If a color other than green indicates a potential problem, click Details for the datastore in the pop-up window to investigate the disk space and disk I/O resources. What to do next Identify the datastores with the largest amount of available space for virtual machines.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 2 In the heat map gallery, narrow the scope from the drop-down menu to display the virtual machines with waste across datastores. Option Action Focus Area Select Storage. Smallest Box Shows Select VM. Description Select VM Sized by Space Usage Grouped By Datastore. 3 Click the VM Sized by Space Usage Grouped By Datastore view. 4 In the heat map, point to each virtual machine to view the waste statistics.
Chapter 4 Preparing Proactive Workflows in vCenter Operations Manager Optimizing Data for Capacity Optimizing data for capacity in vCenter Operations Manager involves finding opportunities for resource optimization and cost savings. Determine How Efficiently You Use the Virtual Infrastructure Determining the efficiency of the vCenter Operations Manager virtual infrastructure involves investigating the optimal, waste, and stressed virtual machines.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client and that vCenter Operations Manager is open. Procedure 1 In the inventory pane, select the object that you want to inspect. 2 Click the arrow under the Efficiency badge to expand the detailed view. 3 In the Reclaimable Waste pane, identify the CPU, memory, and disk resources that are underused and click the Reclaimable Waste badge.
Chapter 4 Preparing Proactive Workflows in vCenter Operations Manager 3 Examine the Total Virtual Machines, Powered-Off Virtual Machines, Undersized Virtual Machines, Oversized Virtual Machines, and Idle Virtual Machines values to determine how many machines assigned to this object can be optimized. Table 4-1.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 5 Select theOversized Virtual Machines - List view to evaluate candidate objects that can receive more work. Identify Oversized Virtual Machines to Optimize Data To optimize and right-size the capacity for your virtual environment, identify the oversized virtual machines and assign less capacity to those virtual machines. Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client and that vCenter Operations Manager is open.
Chapter 4 Preparing Proactive Workflows in vCenter Operations Manager Forecasting Data for Capacity Risk Forecasting data for capacity risk in vCenter Operations Manager involves creating capacity scenarios to examine the demand and supply of resources in the virtual infrastructure. A what-if scenario is a supposition about how capacity and load change if certain conditions are changed, without making actual changes to your virtual infrastructure.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 6 Set the virtual machine count and the configuration for the virtual machine. Option Description vCPU Configuration Number of virtual CPU cores that a target virtual machine will have, followed by the target processor core speed, in GHz or MHz. vCPU Utilization Expected average CPU use for this virtual machine. vCPU Reservation Required minimum of CPU resources that the virtual machine must have.
Chapter 4 Preparing Proactive Workflows in vCenter Operations Manager Prerequisites In vCenter Operations Manager, verify that the Summary tab under the Planning tab is open. Procedure 1 Select the destination object in the inventory pane. The destination object is a cluster or host where you locate the new virtual machines if you implement your scenario. 2 Click the New what-if scenario link. The What-If Scenario wizard opens. 3 Select a view for the scenario and click Next.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 5 Use the buttons to add, remove, or restore hosts in the host list. Actions are applied only to hosts that you selected using the check boxes in the hosts list. 6 Click host rows to change the physical resources and click Save. You can use the text boxes and drop-down menus to modify the CPU capacity and the memory size of the selected host.
Chapter 4 Preparing Proactive Workflows in vCenter Operations Manager 5 Select Remove virtual machines and click Next. 6 On the Configuration page, select the virtual machines to remove from the selected host or cluster and click Next. 7 On the Ready to Complete page, check the parameters of your what-if scenario and click Finish to view the outcomes. vCenter Operations Manager applies the scenario to the view that you selected. The forecasted capacity appears in the chart as a gray dotted line.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Delete a Scenario from the What-If Scenarios List You can remove scenarios in the What-If Scenarios pane if you do not need them. The list of scenarios that you created appears in the What-If Scenarios pane under the Legend pane. When you finish examining a what-if scenario, you can delete it. Prerequisites In vCenter Operations Manager, verify that the Views tab under the Planning tab is open.
Planning vCenter Operations Manager Workflow with Alerts 5 Planning your workflow in a vCenter Operations Manager virtual environment involves identifying alerts to respond to, maintaining alerts, and identifying alert trends. Alerts in vCenter Operations Manager are available for all of the minor badges. Alert messages provide an alternate path to identify and resolve issues.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Types of Alerts vCenter Operations Manager generates several types of alerts. Double-click alerts in the list to view the alert details. Badge Score Alerts Badge score alerts are triggered when a badge changes its color. Badge colors change based on the hard thresholds that you set in the Configuration dialog box. Alerts can be triggered for the Workflow, Anomalies, Time Remaining, Capacity Remaining, Stress, Waste, and Density badges.
Chapter 5 Planning vCenter Operations Manager Workflow with Alerts 3 In the Alerts list, filter the alerts by columns or select an alert icon. Option Action To view the most critical alerts that need immediate attention. Select the Criticality column. To filter badge alerts in the object. Select the Type column. To filter sub-badge alerts in the object. Select the Sub-Type column. To view the most recent alerts in the object. Select the Start Time column.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 2 Click the Alerts tab to view a list of active alerts. 3 To view the alert distribution across the last seven days, check the Alert Volume graph. A trend in alerts typically indicates a problem to investigate. Over time, you might also want to customize alert settings, which will be reflected in the trend display.
Chapter 5 Planning vCenter Operations Manager Workflow with Alerts Release Ownership of an Alert If you are no longer responsible for an alert or want to let other users take ownership of that alert, you must release the ownership. Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client, and vCenter Operations Manager is open. Procedure 1 Click the Alerts tab. 2 In the Alerts list, click one of the alerts that you own.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Suspend an Alert You can hide an alert from the Alerts list for a specific number of minutes. When you suspend an alert, you take ownership of the alert. NOTE You can suspend only alerts that are not owned by another user. Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client, and vCenter Operations Manager is open. Procedure 1 Click the Alerts tab. 2 In the Alerts list, click the alert you want to suspend.
Chapter 5 Planning vCenter Operations Manager Workflow with Alerts The canceled fault alert is removed from the Alerts list and vCenter Operations Manager updates the Fault badge score and the Health Score. NOTE Badge scores are not refreshed in real time. These values are refreshed on each data collection cycle. The data collection interval is five minutes by default. VMware, Inc.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 56 VMware, Inc.
Customizing vCenter Operations Manager Configuration Settings 6 Customization of configuration settings include assigning operational responsibilities and receiving notifications when badges cross thresholds.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 5 Click OK to save your settings and close the Configuration dialog box. Badge thresholds are updated. The badge colors will change when the next collection cycle begins. NOTE Depending on your selection in the Alert Management section of the Configuration dialog box, new badge thresholds might affect the number of alerts that vCenter Operations Manager generates.
Chapter 6 Customizing vCenter Operations Manager Configuration Settings Table 6-1. Default Badge Threshold Values Badge Health Workload Anomalies Faults Risk Time Remaining VMware, Inc.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide Table 6-1.
Chapter 6 Customizing vCenter Operations Manager Configuration Settings Edit Configuration Settings to Receive Notifications When a Badge Crosses a Threshold Administrators of the vCenter Operations Manager virtual environment set notifications when a badge crosses a threshold, to identify and troubleshoot a problem immediately after it occurs. Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in to a vSphere Client as an administrator, and vCenter Operations Manager is open.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 62 VMware, Inc.
Index A about VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 5 address, virtual machine problem 29 address, datastore problem 30 alert cancel 52 release ownership 52 suppress 52 suspend 52 take ownership 52 alert types, overall trend 51 alerts canceling faults 54 capacity related 51 critical 51 definition 49 ownership 52 releasing ownership 53 suppressing 53 suspending 54 types 49 analyzing data, capacity risk 35 anomalies determining expected behavior 25 noise line 25 normal values 25 as
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide determine chronic problem 28 object capacity 28 transient problem 28 dynamic threshold, concept 7 E efficiency density 19 waste 19 events, determining performance problems 26 exhaust resource 28 F faults 14 filter alerts 50 forecasting capacity 43 forecasting data, capacity risk 43 G graph buttons 21 graphs 20 H hardware scenarios 45 health anomalies 14 defining 12 sub-badges 12 timeframe 24 transient or chronic 24 workload 13, 14 health
Index S scores 12 settings infrastructure anomalies levels 57 infrastructure badge colors 57 infrastructure capacity levels 57 infrastructure density levels 57 infrastructure efficiency levels 57 infrastructure faults ranges 57 infrastructure health levels 57 infrastructure risk levels 57 infrastructure stress levels 57 infrastructure time levels 57 infrastructure waste levels 57 infrastructure workload levels 57 vm anomalies levels 58 vm badge colors 58 vm capacity levels 58 vm density levels 58 vm effici
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Advanced Getting Started Guide 66 VMware, Inc.
