Table of Contents - VMware · Table of Contents Lab Overview ... and remediation platform. vSphere...

Table of ContentsLab Overview - Components ............................................................................................. 2

Business Critical Applications - About this Lab........................................................ 3Infrastructure Components - VMware vCenter ........................................................ 5Infrastructure Components - VMware ESXi hosts .................................................... 6Infrastructure Components - Virtual Machines ........................................................ 7Application Components - Microsoft SQL server ..................................................... 8Infrastructure Components - VMware vSphere App HA ...........................................9Infrastructure Components - vCenter Operations Manager...................................12

Module 1: High Availability for Business Critical Applications .........................................13M1.1 - Preparation................................................................................................. 14M1.2 - Test Policy................................................................................................... 24M1.3 - Summary.................................................................................................... 30

Module 2: CPU Contention Situation on the MS SQL Virtual Machine (CPU Limit in VirtualMachine Settings) ........................................................................................................... 31

M2.1 - Preparation................................................................................................. 32M2.2 - Analysis ...................................................................................................... 38M2.3 - Remediation ............................................................................................... 42M2.4 - Summary.................................................................................................... 47

Module 3: Memory Contention Situation on the MS SQL Virtual Machine (Memory Limit inVirtual Machine Settings) ................................................................................................ 48

M3.1 - Preparation................................................................................................. 49M3.2 - Analysis ...................................................................................................... 54M3.3 - Remediation ............................................................................................... 58M3.4 - Summary.................................................................................................... 59

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Lab Overview -Components

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Business Critical Applications - Aboutthis LabVMware vCloud Suite Business Critical Applications Lab

This lab demonstrates the use of VMware technology such as vSphere App HA andVMware vCenter™ Operations Manager™ to successfully operate and monitor businesscritical applications (BCAs).

The two most important considerations for virtualizing business critical applications arehigh availability and performance management. This lab provides hands-on experiencein using VMware solutions to manage availability and performance for business criticalapplications.

Availability

vSphere HA protects against hardware failures, while VMware vSphere® vMotion® andVMware vSphere® Distributed Resource Scheduler™ (DRS) protect against downtimeduring planned maintenance activities. These aspects are covered in lab HOL-SDC-1310.These features protect business critical applications during unplanned and plannedhardware related downtimes.

Many business critical applications have single points of failure such as load balancers,central queue and lock management services, and so on, that have a small computefootprint and can fit within one vCPU. These critical components can leverage VMwarevSphere Fault Tolerance for protection and instantaneous always-on recovery.

To protect against application level failures, there is a need for an app aware monitoringand remediation platform. vSphere APP HA with vFabric Hyperic provides applicationaware monitoring and remediation. This lab will provide hands-on experience withcreation of application protection policies and remediation.

Performance Management

Performance management is critical for business critical applications. The ability tomonitor, troubleshoot and resolve performance related problems quickly is veryimportant. vCenter operations provides the capability to monitor, troubleshoot, andmanage performance problems. In this lab vCenter Operation Managers will beshowcased to troubleshoot and perform a quick root cause analysis on a CPU relatedproblem and a memory related problem. The traditional IT manager dashboard will beused for infrastructure visibility. The SQL dashboard that comes with the vCenterOperations Management pack will be used to look at database level performancecriteria.

Modules in this lab

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Module 1: High Availability for Business Critical Applications

Module 2: CPU Contention Situation on the MS SQL Virtual Machine (CPU limit in virtualmachine settings).

Module 3: Memory Contention Situation on the MS SQL virtual machine (memory limit invirtual machine settings).

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Infrastructure Components - VMwarevCenterIn this lab VMware® vCenter™ manages a 3-node VMware vSphere® Cluster andseveral virtual machines.

Overview of the vCenter Environment Used for theVMware vCloud Suite BCA Lab

This screenshot shows that a relatively small environment is used for this lab. VMwarevCenter Server™ is built using the appliance.

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Infrastructure Components - VMwareESXi hostsOverview of VMware ESXi™ resources used.

vSphere Hosts

The lab consists of three ESXi servers.

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Infrastructure Components - VirtualMachinesListing of All Virtual Machines Contained in the Lab Setup

The lab is built on the following four virtual machines:

One Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 running SQL Server 2008R2.

Two SLES 11 virtual machines running tc Server 2.8.

One SLES 11 virtual machines running htproxy as an HTTP load balancer.

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Application Components - MicrosoftSQL serverMicrosoft SQL Server Management Studio

This lab uses Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 to host the databases that run the SpringTrader application.

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Infrastructure Components - VMwarevSphere App HA

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vSphere App HA

Helps Minimize Downtime from Application Failure

vSphere App HA is a new feature that complements the functionality of VMware vSphereHigh Availability with application-level monitoring and automated remediation. App HAimproves application uptime through:

• Policy-based application monitoring and remediation.• Integration with vSphere HA to provide multiple recovery options (such as

restarting the application service or restarting the virtual machine).

Reduces Complexity

App HA eliminates the need for application-specific clustering solutions, reducing thecomplexity involved in managing infrastructure silos and the associated cost. App HAprovides:

• Uniform protection and support for many commonly used, off-the-shelfapplications.

• Simple, centralized management through app-health visibility from vCenterServer.

Architecture Overview

vSphere App HA leverages VMware vCenter Hyperic® to monitor applications.Deploying App HA begins with provisioning two virtual appliances (per vCenter Server):App HA and vCenter Hyperic. The App HA virtual appliance stores and manages App HApolicies, and vCenter Hyperic monitors applications and enforces App HA policies.

After the simple process of deploying the vCenter Hyperic and App HA virtualappliances, vCenter Hyperic agents are installed in the virtual machines containingapplications that will be protected by App HA.

App HA Policies

App HA policies are easily configured in the Administration section of the vSphere WebClient. Policies define items such as the number of times App HA will attempt to restarta service, the number of minutes it will wait for the service to start, the option to resetthe virtual machine if the service fails to start, and the option to reset the virtualmachine when the service is unstable.

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Infrastructure Components - vCenterOperations ManagerIntroduction to vCenter Operations Manager

vCenter Operations Manager is the key component of the vCenter OperationsManagement Suite. It provides a new and simplified approach to operationsmanagement of vSphere physical and cloud infrastructure. Using patented, self-learninganalytics and an open, extensible platform, vCenter Operations Manager includesoperations dashboards that provide insights and visibility into health, risk and efficiencyof infrastructure, performance management, and capacity optimization capabilities.

Using vCenter Operations Manager, you can do the following:

• Gain comprehensive visibility into the health, risk, and efficiency of yourinfrastructure and applications.

• Proactively manage the health of vSphere, virtual machines, and applications.• Spot potential performance bottlenecks early and remediate before they affect

end users.• Right-size and reclaim overprovisioned capacity to increase consolidation ratios.• Manage thousands of virtual machines, physical servers, and applications across

multiple data centers from a single console.• Automatically correlate and analyze monitoring data across infrastructure and

applications silos to gain a holistic view of root cause and effect.

vCenter Operations Manager and the vCenter Operations Management Suite areessential tools for infrastructure teams and operations teams who want to enablequality of service, operational efficiency, and continuous compliance of dynamic cloudinfrastructure and business critical applications.

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Module 1: HighAvailability for Business

Critical Applications

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M1.1 - PreparationACME requires that the SQL database server for its business critical application behighly available. There is a requirement for SQL to be protected against hardware andapplication failures.

Log In to the vCenter Web Client

Log in to the vSphere Web client:

User name: administrator

Password: VMware1!

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Go to the Administration Menu and Select vSphere App HA

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Create a New Policy by Clicking +

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Select SQL 2008 R2 as the Application Service

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Set Up Remediation Parameters for the Service As Shown

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Ignore Alarm Setup and Click Next

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Finish Creating Policy

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The New Policy is Displayed

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Enable Policy

The created policy needs to be assigned to services for it to be enabled. Browse to thevCenter server and click the Monitor tab. Select vCenter App HA. All the compatibleapplications for App HA in the environment are displayed. Select the MS SQL 2008 R2and then right-click and select Assign Policy.

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Assign Policy to MS SQL Application

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M1.2 - Test PolicyThis section shows how to verify that newly created App HA policy is working.

Use Remote Desktop to Access SQL Server

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Stop the SQL Service

Launch the services view by clicking Start and entering services.msc in the prompt.Browse to the SQL server service. Right-click and select Stop.

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View the App HA Alert in vCenter Hyperic Console

Log in to the vCenter Hyperic console and look at the dashboard. The dashboard willshow an alert, and the SQL server is automatically restarted.

Application HA Maintenance Mode (Optional)

Browse to Application Availability under the Monitor tab in vCenter and put the MSSQL 2008 R2 service in maintenance mode.

Manually Stop the SQL Service

You can now go back to your RDP session for SQL Server and shut down the SQL serviceagain.

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Wait for a few minutes and confirm that the SQL service is not restarted. This shows thatif a service is in App HA maintenance mode it can be brought down without App HAreacting to it.

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Restart SQL Server

Restart SQL Server manually from the services console.

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Exit App HA Maintenance mode

Browse to Application Availability under the Monitor tab vCenter and exitmaintenance mode for the MS SQL R2 server instance. Right-click and select ExitMaintenance Mode.

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M1.3 - SummaryThis module demonstrated the workings of vSphere App HA and its ability to protectfrom application level failures. vSphere App HA works with vCenter Hyperic to monitorand remediate supported applications. vSphere App HA is simple to configure and is setup with a few mouse clicks.

Using App HA along with vSphere HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance can protect businesscritical applications from hardware and software related failures. vSphere vMotion andDRS help address planned downtime.

The VMware HA components improve SLA and availability metrics for business criticalapplications, with reduced planned and unplanned downtime.

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Module 2: CPU ContentionSituation on the MS SQL

Virtual Machine (CPULimit in Virtual Machine

Settings)

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M2.1 - PreparationThis use case puts parts of the application into a resource contention situation for CPUresources. This simulates a scenario in which the Microsoft SQL Server does not getsufficient CPU resources and shows how this issue appears when vCenter OperationsManager is used.

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Generate Resource Contention Situation - Log In tovSphere Web Client

Note: For your convenience, you can use the file named HOL-SDC-1317 Cheat Sheet.txtto cut and paste commands and other information used in this lab. This file is located onthe desktop of the ControlCenter.

Using the bookmark shortcuts in Internet Explorer, add a new tab and choose thebookmark for vSphere Web Client.

Log in as follows:


Password: VMware1!

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Browse to the MS SQL Server Virtual Machine

Click VMs and Templates.

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Browse to the MS SQL Server Virtual Machine (cont.)

1. Click Related Objects.2. Click Virtual Machines.3. Click sql-w8-01a.

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Manage the MS SQL Server Virtual Machine

1. Click Manage.2. Click Edit.

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Set CPU Limit

1. Click to expand the virtual machine CPU settings.2. Change Limit from Unlimited to 250 MHz.3. Click OK.

Note: It takes a while for the effects to be visible in vCenter Operations Manager orvCenter Hyperic.

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M2.2 - AnalysisACME is running into a resource contention situation on Microsoft SQL Server. Observethe IT Manager dashboard to see whether this can be observed.

Note: It can take a few minutes for the actual behavior to be shown in the UI.

Log In to vCenter Operations

Using the bookmark shortcuts in Internet Explorer add a new tab and choose thebookmark for Custom UI vCenter Operations. Log in with credentials:

User name: admin

Password: VMware1!

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Observe CPU Alerts in vCenter Operations

Select the IT Manager tab on the vCenter Operations Manager screen.

Sort the active alerts in descending order by start time. Locate the SQL Server alert anddouble-click.

Examine the Alerts More Closely

Under the Root Cause tab, explore the message event and the related change eventthat caused this alert. This is useful to correlate alerts to potential change events in theenvironment.

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Troubleshooting

Click Troubleshoot(see previous screenshot) and select Mashup to look at graphicaldetails of the alert for analysis.

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Alert Metrics and Anomalies

Go to the Metric Charts tab which shows the anomaly relating to the alert with CPUReady above normal threshold.

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M2.3 - RemediationRemediate Resource Contention Situation - Log In tovSphere Web Client

Log in as follows:

User name: Administrator

Password: VMware1!

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Remove CPU Limit

1. Click to expand the virtual machine CPU settings.2. Change Limit from 250 MHz to Unlimited.3. Click OK.

Note: It takes a while for the effects to be visible in vCenter Operations Manager orvCenter Hyperic.

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M2.4 - SummaryThis module demonstrated how to use vCenter operations for troubleshooting CPUrelated problems at the VM level and performing root cause analysis that ties it back tochanges made in the environment. vCenter Operations Manager also provides metricsand anomaly data that speed up the troubleshooting process. This is important forbusiness critical applications to avoid or minimize downtime. This also demonstratesthat setting limits on CPU can be dangerous.

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Module 3: MemoryContention Situation on

the MS SQL VirtualMachine (Memory Limit inVirtual Machine Settings)

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M3.1 - PreparationGenerate Resource Contention Situation - Log In tovSphere Web Client

Note: For your convenience, you can use the file named HOL-SDC-1317 Cheat Sheet.txtto cut and paste commands and other information used in this lab. This file is located onthe desktop of the ControlCenter.

Log in as follows:


Password: VMware1!

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Configure Memory Limit to Simulate a ResourceContention Issue

1. Click Memory to expand.2. For Limit,enter 250 MB and enter 0 for Reservation.3. Click OK.

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M3.2 - AnalysisACME is experiencing memory resource contention on Microsoft SQL Server.

Note: It can take a few minutes for the actual behavior to be shown in the UI.

Observe the IT Managers Dashboard

Browse to the Alerts Overview tab to look at the initial alerts generated. Alerts forMemoryContention are displayed in the Active Alerts pane.Double-click the one ofthe memory related alerts for the SQL server.

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Detailed View of the Memory Alert

The more detailed view shows that multiple KPIs are breaching for memory contentionin the mashup pane.

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Root Cause Analysis

Further examining the change events shown in the Root Cause pane, you willeventually find the resource allocation change you did in the preparation section.

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What Can the SQL Administrator Observe?

Select the SQL Server Overview tab on the vCenter Operations Manager screen. Thisdashboard shows how the SQL administrator can observe the issue surfacing. Due to thememory contention, swapping would go up (2). This leads to higher disk I/O (1) andhigher CPU usage (3).

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M3.3 - RemediationThe resource contention can be remediated by reversing the change regarding memorylimits.

Note: Reversing the change in the context of this lab will not necessarily produce anyresults in a timely manner. This is because it could take hours for the pages that havebeen swapped out due to the memory shortage to go back into real memory based onthe usage characteristics of the SQL server.

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M3.4 - SummaryThis module showed how to use vCenter operations for troubleshooting memory relatedproblems at the VM level and at the SQL server application level. The SQL ServerManagement pack for vCenter Operations Manager provides the ability to collect andlook at SQL level metrics from vCenter Operations Manager and correlate events acrossthe entire infrastructure stack. Application specific management packs for vCenterOperations Manager can help the infrastructure and application team memberscollaborate in problem resolution.

This module also demonstrated that setting limits on memory can be dangerous.

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ConclusionThank you for participating in the VMware Hands-on Labs. Be sure to visithttp://hol.vmware.com/ to continue your lab experience online.

Lab SKU: HOL-SDC-1317

Version: 20141126-112055

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http://hol.vmware.com/

Table of Contents - VMware · Table of Contents Lab Overview ... and remediation platform. vSphere...

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