This post speaks about creating a Custom Dashboard in vCOps using Super Metrics. Please read the Part 1 of this series to ensure that you know the context.
Now since we have the Super Metric from the previous post, we will go ahead and use it to create a Custom Dashboard which reflects this metric and helps you to monitor the Datastore Usage %. Here is how you do it:-
1- Login to vCOps Custom UI with a user with appropriate access rights.
2- Click on Dashboards -> Add
3 - Drag and Drop a Heat-map widget from the left pane to the right pane. (To know more about custom dashboards in vCOps, read this Guide.)
4- Give a Name to the Dashboard, Select the number of Columns as 1 and click on OK. (refer to screen shot below.)
5- Now lets configure this widget. Re-size the widget as per your viewing requirement and then click on Edit widget to configure the heat map.
6- Here is how you will configure the Heatmap.
7- And once you click on OK, you have you Heat Map which you can start monitoring to ensure you never run out of space on your datastores.
You can hover over these objects and you will see 2 metrics for each object - Total Capacity & Usage in %age
Here you can clearly see that some of my datastores in my primary DC are actually reaching the 100% usage and I have some work to do to ensure I have enough free space to keep them green. Since this heat map is auto refreshing, it will ensure that your datastores are continuously monitored for the thresholds you have set for utilizing space on datastores.
If you want to see me present other tips and tricks on vCOps at VMworld 2013, please vote the session which I have submitted.
For the past few weeks, I have been working on vCenter Operations Manager as a part of a project. As always, I am here to share my experience around the work I have been doing and hopefully help the larger VMware community.
As we all know, one of the basic rule of thumb is to ensure that you have a certain percentage of space always available on your datastores to ensure that you cater to the need of all the virtual machines which are a part of these datastores. For example, you would always want your datastores to be around 10% free to ensure that you have enough space for snapshots or any other unplanned requirement. At the same time, you would want to keep an eye what percentage of space is available in your datastores so that you can provision VMs accordingly, of-course I am assuming that you are not using Storage DRS ;-)
Okay so let's quickly jump into action with our use case. We will use vCOps custom dashboard to create a heat-map which would change colors according to free space remaining and would help you to monitor and plan things accordingly in your Virtual Datacenter.
Since, vCOps pulls all the metrics from vCenter, it will be able to pull the Datastore Total Capacity and Used space. Using these 2 metrics, we would create a super metric which would give us the usage %. Using simple math:
Datastore Used % = (Used Capacity/Total Capacity)*100
So how do we create this super metric.
Note:- For someone new to super metric concept, I would recommend you read this white paper from VMware.
1- Login to vCOps Custom UI with a user with appropriate access rights.
2- Click on Environment -> Super Metrics
3- Click on the Add New icon on this window to create a new super metric.
4- Configure your super metric as shown in figure below
Your super metric will now reflect in the list of available super metrics. Now we need to create a super metric package to attach the same with all the datastores, so that the system automatically can calculate the usage percentage for every datastore which exists or will be added to vCOps, in the future for monitoring. Here is how you create a package and attach it.
1- On the same screen click on -> Super Metric Package -> Add Super Metric Package.
2- Give it a name and select the super metric which we create above. Refer to the screen shot below.
3- Put a Check-mark against the given thresholds to make this super metric a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) - I just left the setting to default and clicked on OK.
Now we need to add this Super Metric to all the datastores. This will enable vCOps to calculate this new metric for all the datastores which exist and would be added in the future. This can be done by adding this Super Metric will the Resource Kinds - Datastore. Let's see how we will do it.
1- Click on Environment -> Configuration -> Resource Kind Defaults
2- On this Screen, select the Adapter Kind as VMware Adapter, Select Datastore as the Resource on the left pane and under super metric package select the super metric package which you created before.
Well now you need to wait for the next collection and performance calculation cycle which is usually 5 minutes. In another 5 minutes we will be able to use this super metric for creating custom dashboards.
We now create a custom dashboard to display this Metric in Part 2.
Time of the year when VMware has opened the flood gates for votes on sessions you would like to see at VMworld - The flagship industry event by VMware. Its been 10 long years that VMware has been running the show and this year its gonna be as big as always.
It is a great opportunity for customers, partners and industry experts to get together and share how they have made a difference in their workplace and industry verticals by using the solutions available today with VMware and the partner ecosystem. To read more about the event and the dates you can see this link.
A few weeks back, VMware requested the industry experts to share their experiences and technical know-how by delivering sessions at VMworld through its Call for Papers Program. I feel it is a great initiative as this allows collaborative learning to play a big role at the event. Given an opportunity, I would love to present at this AWESOME event and I have done my bit by submitting for a couple of sessions.
As the title of my post suggests, these sessions need support from the VMworld audience, who can vote for the sessions which they want to see during the event. The most popular and in demand sessions would make it to the final rounds of presentation sessions, demos or panel discussions.
Here are the sessions which I have submitted. Have a look, and if you think they will help the larger audience and would address the issues I am trying to solve, then vote for them. Of-course I would also encourage you to vote for other great sessions which are listed out there.
SESSION 1
Breakout Session
vSphere performance best practices are the key
for a successful operation of a VMware vSphere Environment. Although it is easy
to build an environment keeping Best Practices in mind, it is difficult to
sustain them as the environment grows. This session would not only help you
learn about the top 10 best practices, but also help you understand how you can
leverage vCenter Operations Manager to ensure that these Best Practices are
being followed at all the times in your VMware Virtual Infrastructure.
This session would be in a
discussion and presentation mode between a Professional Services Consultant who
ensures that vSphere Best Practices are applied in every infrastructure
designed by him. At the same time, he urges VMware customers to maintain these
best practices as the infrastructure grows. On the other hand with each best
practice being discussed and explained by the Consultant, the VMware vCOps
Subject Matter Expert would talk about how these best practices can be
monitored using Out of the Box and Custom features of vCenter Operations
Manager.
Both
Top 10 vSphere Best Practices which
would help you maintain the health of your vSphere Environment. This would
range around the key technology areas of CPU, Memory, Disk & Network
Making it easy to ensure the
application and monitoring of vSphere Best Practices in your virtual
infrastructure using vCenter Operations Manager.
Creating Customer Reports and
Dashboards on vCenter Operations Manager and understanding how they can help.
Technical
Management
SESSION 2
Session Type:
Breakout Session
This session gives a deep dive into the nuts
and bolts of vSphere Replication. It further discusses on how vSphere
Replication can be leveraged with VMware Site Recovery Manager to Protect and
Recover workloads in case of a disaster. The session would also have a demo on
how to configure vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager. Lastly, it will
list down the considerations and use cases where vSphere Replication has helped
VMware customers for Disaster Recovery enablement using SRM.
This would be a deep dive technical
presentation discussing how vSphere Replication works behind the scenes. Then
the presentation would talk about integration of vSphere Replication with
VMware Site Recovery Manager. The session would conclude with a quick demo, use
cases and best practices around using vSphere Replication for Site Recovery
Manager.
Both
Learn to leverage vSphere
Replication as your DR replication Technology
Best Practices and Caveats of using
vSphere Replication with Site Recovery Manager
Learning about Nuts & Bolts of
vSphere Replication and integration with SRM, through a Demonstration
