vfoglight formerly vcharter Pro New Feature Overview

Transcription

1 vfoglight formerly vcharter Pro New Feature Overview

2 1 Overview As vfoglight is a vast departure from previous versions of vfoglight, every aspect of the new product can be considered new. In the interest of clarity (and brevity) only the main features will be discussed in this document. 2 VirtualCenter Integration 2.1 Why? Simply put, VirtualCenter (VC) integration is a basic requirement for any VMware specific solution. The most obvious initial benefit of VC integration is that the entire virtual environment can be enumerated automatically, eliminating the need to manually configure each host. In addition, data for each VirtualCenter object (Datacenter, Cluster, Host, etc.) is pulled directly from VirtualCenter, eliminating the need for direct connections to the Hosts. Changes to the environment can be easily captured, and new hosts are monitored automatically without any additional administration effort. 2.2 How does it work? vfoglight features a data collector engine that integrates with VirtualCenter via VMware APIs. The data is collected at user configurable intervals and written to the vfoglight database using an advanced model-based schema. 2.3 What does it mean? VirtualCenter Integration brings the following things to vfoglight Scalability: By eliminating the connections to the host and pulling data directly from VirtualCenter, vfoglight Pro can now scale AT LEAST as well as VirtualCenter. Intelligence: vfoglight pulls Host and VM data from VirtualCenter, but also identifies each objects position in the infrastructure. Datacenters, Clusters, and Resource Pools are all identified and membership in these groups is recorded for use in topology construction. Because of this, vfoglight can show detailed views for each level of virtual infrastructure, with specific rules and alarms for each level. Security: vfoglight no longer needs to connect to each host, and uses standard Active Directory authentication to connect to VirtualCenter. In addition, vfoglight captures and logs all changes to the virtual environment so that unauthorized activity can be easily identified. 2

3 3 Infrastructure Views 3.1 Why? Simple Host and VM views are no longer enough to represent the true operation of a virtual environment. A key feature of vfoglight has always been the ability to drill down from a top level to easily identify problem areas. vfoglight takes this feature to the next level with complete infrastructure dashboard views tailored to each level of infrastructure. 3.2 How does it work? Simply scroll down the topology view and click on any object to view the dashboard. A couple of examples are displayed below: Datacenter Views: Cluster Views: 3

4 3.3 What does it mean? By providing data in the appropriate context, vfoglight takes the leap from showing metrics to providing valuable information. In previous versions and in other monitoring solutions, the administrator was required to have a high level of virtualization knowledge to understand the meaning behind the metrics. With vfoglight, the knowledge is built into the application, allowing any level administrator to understand and react to performance data. 4 Intelligent Rules and Alarms 4.1 Why? Most rules and alarms are built simply on a threshold model. Once a preconfigured value is reached for a preconfigured amount of time, an alarm is triggered. While these do provide a basic value, they require extensive configuration and offer little in terms of predictive analyses. vfoglight s Rules and Alarms are based on the statistical analysis of environmental performance rather than rigid thresholds. This allows problematic trends to be identified before they reach a critical threshold value. 4.2 How does it work? While the rules are different for each metric at each infrastructure level, the example below shows a common rule. While the method for calculating a standard deviation is outside the scope of this document, the basic principal is clear. Performance data is captured and analyzed for trends. A significant variance from that trend will be identified and if significant enough, can trigger an alarm. Rule Definition Conditions state Action The network usage is no more than 2.3 standard deviation (NumSTDevs) from the mean network usage Normal The network usage is more than 2.3 but no more Warning none than 2.8 standard deviation from the nean network usage The network usage is more than 2.8 standard Critical none deviations from the mean network usage All preconfigured alarms and rules can be adjusted and new rules and alarms can easily be created through the UI. Not only is vfoglight fully functional out of the box, but this customization ability allows vfoglight to keep pace with today s changing businesses. 4.3 What does it mean? These rules and alarms are a very real way in which customers can get value out of vfoglight. The out-of-the-box configuration includes built in intelligence to continually evaluate performance metrics and automatically identify configuration errors without user interaction. The custom options allow for vfoglight to fit into any environment and still provide maximum value. 4

5 5 Custom Configurations 5.1 Why? One of the key lessons we have learned is that every customer will use our product in a slightly different way, and some in configurations that we never intended. While we try and provide an easy, user-friendly way to maximize the value of our products, the key to maximum functionality is to build in flexibility. 5.2 How does it work? vfoglight offers the ability to create custom rules and alarms, custom dashboards, and custom reports. While all of these are achieved via the UI, some processes may be a bit more complex than others. Vizioncore Product Management will provide a series of demonstration videos that illustrate how to customize each of the above outputs. To illustrate, the process for creating a custom dashboard is summarized below: 1) Select Create Dashboard from the control pane on the RIGHT side of the UI. 2) Name the dashboard and configure the security settings. 3) Drag data contents onto Dashboard 5

6 4) The graphs populate automatically Although the above dashboard consists of randomly selected metrics, the creation of a meaningful dashboard would be no more complex. Custom reports can be configured in a very similar fashion to provide exactly the data desired. One note: creating custom rules is a bit more complicated, and requires some level of scripting knowledge even though the process is entirely GUI driven. 5.3 What does it mean? Essentially, this means that customers, with a little effort can get exactly the data they want in exactly the format they want. On a larger scale, it opens the door for a community of dashboards, reports and rules that can be created and shared among vfoglight users as well as potential PSO engagements. Vizioncore Inc Vizioncore Inc. and all product names are Vizioncore trademarks. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners REV 09/12/08 6