Performance Management of Business Critical

Applications using vCenter Operations Management

Vas Mitra, VMware

David Overbeek, VMware

VCM4891

#VCM4891

2 2

Key Takeaways

Application Architecture in vCenter Operations Manager

Super Metrics for Tier 1 Apps

Example dashboards for Exchange / SAP / Database – SQL Server

3 3

Agenda

Introduction

Resources & Dashboards

Microsoft Exchange

SAP

Database – SQL Server

4 4

vCenter Operations Manager and BCA Adapters

OpenVPN

Postgres DB

vSphere

WebApp

Custom

WebApp

Admin

WebApp

vCenter Operations Manager vApp

UI VM

Rolled up

capacity

data

Capacity Analytics

FSDB Postgres DB

Collector

ActiveMQ

Performance Analytics

Analytics VM

Metric

Data

VMware Cloud / vCenter

vSphere

VMware vSphere UI

vCenter

Communications

over SSL

Custom UI

vSphere Adapter

BCA Adapters

Data Sources

5 5

Performance Metrics Across the Stack

Example Application performance

counters

• SAP – Txn Response times

• Exchange - message queues + RPC traffic

• Database cache metrics (minimize I/O)

Guest OS counters

• SWAP, run queue, memory used/free

Virtual counters

• I/O latency (DAVG/KAVG): < 10-20 ms

• CPU usage, % ready vSphere

Guest OS

6 6

vCenter Operations Manager – Adapters

Application Primary Adapters Secondary Adapters

SAP SAP CCMS

none

Exchange Hyperic – Exchange Plugin SCOM

SQL Server Hyperic – SQL Plugin SCOM

SQL Loader

Oracle Hyperic – Oracle Plugin OEM (e.g. wait events)

SQL Loader

Guest OS Hyperic OS Plugin

SCOM

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Database VM

Example Adapter Setup

vCenter Operations Manager vApp

UI VM

Collector

Analytics VM

Custom UI

Windows OS

Server VM

Hyperic vApp

MBX

Hyperic Agent

Perf Mon

Windows OS

CAS-HT

Hyperic Agent

Perf Mon

RFC Layer

SAP

Adapter Guest OS

Hyperic Agent

SAP Java

Connector:

sapjco.jar

jdbc:oracle:thin:

@host:port:SID

Windows OS

Hyperic Agent

Perf Mon

Hyperic Solutions Pack

HTTP Post Adapter

Live HTTP Post of Metrics

OpenDataImporter

8 8

Resources + Dashboards

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Resources

Resources – monitoring entity

• e.g. SAP system, database, VM

Within vC Ops Navigate to Resource

• To access metrics

Single-pane-of-glass

• Mix metrics from different resources

Pay attention to resource naming

convention

• Can be confusing

• Auto generated by adapter

Custom GUI: Environment -> Environment Overview

Guest OS counters discovered by Hyperic

vSphere metrics for VM

SAP Adapter

Hyperic Adapter

vSphere Adapter

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Example: Create Dashboard to View a Resource

Custom GUI: Dashboards tab -> Edit

Select desired widget and drag over

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Dashboard to View a Resource

Filter on

resources

Select

individual

metric

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Dashboard: Widget Interactions

Custom GUI: Select Dashboard -> Interactions

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Microsoft Exchange

14 14

Exchange 2010 – Some Counters

Mailbox Server

Client Access Hub

Transport Server

RPC

Clients

Exchange counters:

Transport Server Sub Queue Length (# of messages in the queue waiting for categorization)

Mailbox Server RPC Requests: ~50 (# of client requests currently being processed or in the queue.)

Mailbox Server RPC Ops Per Min: (indication of Exchange activity)

Mailbox Server RPC Avg Latency: < 50 ms (the time taken for mailbox server to process a request)

RPC

SMTP/http/IMAP/POP3

database database

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Benefits of Application Design in vC Ops

Cross Silo Performance Troubleshooting

• One source of relative truth

• Common understanding of performance impact

IT Business Service Views

• Improved IT insight into what the Line of Business Owners care about

• Socializing IT via Application Health

• Critical Business applications focus

Integration of Disparate IT Data/Sources

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Exchange – Application Container

Application container = vC Ops construct , models multi-tier applications

Custom GUI: Environment -> Applications Overview -> create/edit

Exchange tiers

• Assign resources related to

Exchange Mailbox servers to

Mailbox tier

• Repeat for Client Access Hub

Transport Tier

• This allows alerts for any

metric to be rolled up the

application hierarchy Assign resources

to tier

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Benefits of Tags in vC Ops

Provides an elegant way to group resources along

logical boundaries

• Group resources by logical function: Departments, Organizations, Region, etc.

Tag Values become resources that can drive vC Ops Widgets

• Heat Map filters, Health Trees, Resource Selector, etc.

Tag Value Resources show Health and can have Alerts

• Receive Alerts by logical group, not just applications

Line of Business Region

New Tag Values

New Tag New Tag

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Exchange – Business Tagging

Tag Value = Logical Container or Group

Custom GUI: Environment -> Manage Tags

Chose Manage Tags

• Create new tags associated with Exchange

application

• Assigned Application, Tiers and objects to

appropriate Tag Values

Create New Tags

and Tag Values

Drag and Drop Exchange

Resources onto Tag Value

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Exchange Application Hierarchy -> Health Tree

Custom GUI: Environment -> Applications Overview -> select “Exchange 2010”

Double-click to

drill-down and

see Resource

objects

Tier

Application Container name

Business Tags

show Health

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Exchange Super Metric Example

Super metric = calculated from multiple individual metrics

Each Mailbox Server has counter “RPC Requests” (# of client requests in queue)

We want to measure Total RPC Requests across all Mailbox servers

“BCA-EXCH03 Exchange 2010” “BCA-EXCH04 Exchange 2010”

Tier

Application Container name

Resource etc

Metric “RPC Requests” “RPC Requests”

Super

Metric SUM [ “RPC Requests” of all Mailbox servers]

Mailbox Server 1 Mailbox Server 2

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Exchange Super Metric Example

Custom GUI: Environment -> Super Metrics… -> Add/Edit Super Metric

Super Metric

equation

Create a Super

Metric Package

Assign a Package

to a Resource

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Exchange – Example Dashboard

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SAP

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SAP Some Useful Counters + Example Values

SAP application performance

counters CCMS module

• Dialog response times: < 1 sec (OLTP)

• DB Response time: < 400 ms (OLTP)

• # of users by app server

• batch utilization

(measure of batch activity)

For Database drill-down

• See database example

App 1

Netweaver

Data

base

Tie

r

Ap

plic

ati

on

Tie

r

SQL Server, Oracle

+ others

App 2

Netweaver

Central

Services

Central Services is a lock

handling system:

• one per SAP system

• SPOF

• Installed in a separate VM

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Create SAP Application Container

Custom GUI: Environment -> Applications Overview -> Select “SAP System (PRD)”

Tiers

Double-click to drill-down

and see Resource objects inc

all the app server VMs

Resources

Virtual Machine

“PRD – 10.140..44.22”

etc..

SAP Resource name

Application Container name

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SAP Super Metric Example

Super metric = calculated from multiple individual metrics

SAP Adapter provides user count by app server (in this example we have two app servers)

We want to measure the total number of users across all app servers

“PRD – 10.140..44.22” Resource

Metric “PRD\sapapp1_PRD_00 Logged On Users” “PRD\sapapp1_PRD_01 Logged On Users”

App Server 1 App Server 2

Super

Metric “PRD\sapapp1_PRD_00 Logged On Users” + “PRD\sapapp1_PRD_01 Logged On Users”

SAP Resource name example

only. Manually entered during

adapter installation

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SAP Super Metric Example – Total User Count

Custom GUI: Environment -> Super Metrics… -> Add/Edit Super Metric

Super Metric equation

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vCenter Operations Manager – Example SAP Dashboard

Online Response Time

DB Response Time

App Srv 1 App Srv 2

DB CPU Read Latency

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Database

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Database – Some Useful Counters + Example Values

Other Memory Areas

Main DB memory

Oracle – SGA

SQL Server – Buffer Pool

Operating System

SOME SQL Server memory counters (note others available):

• Buffer Cache hit ratio: > 90 % (% of data requests satisfied by buffer cache)

• Memory Grants Pending: ~0 (processes waiting on memory)

• Page Life Expectancy: > 300 (how long pages are staying in the buffer pool)

• Lazy Writes/sec : < 20 (# of times dirty pages moved from buffer to disk to free up space)

VM

Co

nfi

gu

red

Mem

ory

DB memory caches data

blocks => can minimize

access to disk

App servers

Disk I/O

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vCenter Operations Manager – Example SQL Server Dashboard

vSphere Storage latency vSphere Active memory

SQL Server memory metrics

SQL Server CPU

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Summary

Many Application counters

• Few examples shown here, work with App owner for final selection

Hyperic Adapter

• Captures many applications with minimal app knowledge ( Exchange, SQL

Server, Oracle + guest OS)

• Use OEM adapter for Oracle wait events

• SCOM can be used if it is the standard in the datacenter

For SAP use SAP adapter (no SAP counters in Hyperic)

Use Application Containers for multi-tier apps

Pay attention to Resource names

• Adapters auto-generate resources

Super metrics can simplify metrics for complex multi-tier app

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Questions

34 34

Resources

Monitoring Business Critical Applications with VMware vCenter

Operations Manager – Technical Paper

http://blogs.vmware.com/apps/2013/08/monitoring-business-

critical-applications-with-vmware-vcenter-operations-manager.html

VMware vCenter Operations Manager Adapter Guide

https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vcops-adapter-guide.pdf

VMware vFabric TM vFabric Hyperic Plug-ins

http://www.vmware.com/products/application-platform/vfabric-

vFabric Hyperic/plugins.html

VMware vCenter Operations Manager Documentation

https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcops-pubs.html

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Other VMware Activities Related to This Session

HOL:

HOL-SDC-1301

Applied Cloud Operations

HOL-SDC-1317

vCloud Suite Use Cases - Business Critical Applications

Group Discussions:

VCM1002-GD, VCM1004-GD

Cloud Operations with Hicham Mourad or Sam McBride

VCM4891

THANK YOU

Performance Management of Business Critical

Applications using vCenter Operations Management

Vas Mitra, VMware

David Overbeek, VMware

VCM4891

#VCM4891