SolarWinds. Virtualization Manager. Getting Started Guide. Version 7.0

Transcription

1 SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Version 7.0 Getting Started Guide Last Updated: February 17, 2017 Retrieve the latest version from:

2 2016 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced by any means nor modified, decompiled, disassembled, published or distributed, in whole or in part, or translated to any electronic medium or other means without the prior written consent of SolarWinds. All right, title, and interest in and to the software and documentation are and shall remain the exclusive property of SolarWinds and its respective licensors. SOLARWINDS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS OR OTHER TERMS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, ON SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION FURNISHED HEREUNDER INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL SOLARWINDS, ITS SUPPLIERS, NOR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER ARISING IN TORT, CONTRACT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY EVEN IF SOLARWINDS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. The SolarWinds and other SolarWinds marks, identified on the SolarWinds website, as updated from SolarWinds from time to time and incorporated herein, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other SolarWinds trademarks may be common law marks or registered or pending registration in the United States or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks contained and/or mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Getting Started Guide, Version 7.0 SolarWinds Virtualization Manager, Version 7.0 SolarWinds Virtual Infrastructure Monitor, Version 7.0 Revised: 2/17/2017 2

3 Table of Contents Welcome to the VMAN Getting Started Guide 6 VMAN and the Orion Platform 6 How VMAN works 8 Deploy Virtualization Manager 10 Plan for a VMAN deployment 10 Virtualization Manager appliance system requirements 10 Orion Platform integration system requirements 11 Port requirements 13 Virtual machine and server requirements 13 Deployment checklist 13 Configure VMAN and VM account permissions 14 Configure VM permissions 14 Create a VMAN appliance account 15 Configure Orion Web Console account permissions 15 Deploy and integrate VMAN 17 Deploy VMAN appliance on VMware vsphere 5.x or later 18 Deploy VMAN appliance on Hyper-V Server 2012 or later 19 Install the Orion Platform with VIM and integrate VMAN 21 Integrate VMAN in an existing Orion Platform 23 Deploy an evaluation 25 Deploy a VMAN evaluation 25 Navigate your environment 26 Explore your VMAN environment 26 VM management tools 28 Manage VM resources 29 Resource management with VMAN 29 3

4 How recommendations work 29 Strategies 30 Types of recommendations 30 Recommendation actions 31 Active recommendation: solve a memory utilization issue 31 Predictive recommendation: solve a storage capacity issue 36 Best practices for recommendations 40 Alerts 42 How alerts work 42 Best practices for alerts 44 Create an alert copy 44 Customize thresholds 46 How thresholds work 46 Edit a VM global threshold 47 Edit a VM specific threshold 48 Reports 51 Best practices for reports 51 Customize the recommendations report 52 Review the recommendations report 54 Resource optimization 55 Optimize VM resources 55 Sprawl dashboard 55 AppStack 57 Evaluate VMs using the Sprawl dashboard 57 Manage snapshots 60 Manage orphan VMDK files 62 Manage and troubleshoot VMs using AppStack 63 VMAN features 68 VMAN and NPM VM monitoring 68 4

5 VMAN and SAM AppStack 70 VMAN and SRM VM storage management 71 Get connected 73 Access the Customer Portal 73 Create your user profile 73 Explore the Customer Portal 74 Set up additional Customer Portal user accounts 74 Engage with the SolarWinds community 75 Create a THWACK account 75 Explore the THWACK site 75 5

6 Welcome to the VMAN Getting Started Guide Welcome to the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN) Getting Started Guide. This guide takes you from installation to implementation and includes the following sections: 1. Production deployment. Recommended system requirements and how to deploy and integrate VMAN into an existing or standalone SolarWinds Orion environment. 2. Navigate your environment. Look over the Virtualization Summary and key tools to access VM clusters, hosts, and resources. 3. Manage VM resources. How to manage your VM resources using recommendations and alerts. 4. Manage alerts. Best practices for creating and managing alerts. 5. Customize thresholds. If alerts and recommendations trigger, you may need to review and modify thresholds globally and per VM. 6. Manage reports. Best practices for creating and managing reports. 7. Optimize resources. How to right-size your virtual environment and troubleshoot VM resources in your environment. 8. VMAN features and benefits. Learn more about how VMAN works and integrates with the Orion Platform. 9. Get connected. Access your Customer Portal and THWACK the SolarWinds community. Ensure your long term success with SolarWinds VMAN by following the guidelines described in this guide. Depending on your workload, getting started with VMAN should take you one week or less. Existing customers: Following the recommendations in this guide ensures your system capabilities are appropriate and your production environment is sized correctly. Minimum system requirements used during evaluation are not sufficient for a production environment. Access your licensed software from the SolarWinds Customer Portal. If you need implementation help, search our Success Center or contact our support geeks. Evaluators: If you are evaluating SolarWinds VMAN, download a free 30-day evaluation. The evaluation version of SolarWinds VMAN is a full version of the product, functional for 30 days. After the evaluation period, you can easily convert your evaluation license to a production license by obtaining and applying a license key. If you need assistance with your evaluation, search our Success Center or contact sales@solarwinds.com. VMAN and the Orion Platform VMAN includes the Orion Platform through the Virtual Infrastructure Monitor (VIM) installation. When you deploy and install, you will: 1. Deploy the VMAN appliance 2. Install VIM for the full Orion Platform 3. Integrate VMAN into your Orion Platform 6

7 Have an existing Orion Platform? You can integrate the VMAN appliance directly into your existing Orion Platform. 7

8 How VMAN works Maintaining a virtual or hybrid environment requires using native tools to review mountains of data. Virtualization Manager integrated with the Orion Platform provides intensive metrics gathering and data breakdowns into dashboards and details pages so you can easily evaluate environments and react to issues. Use VMAN to manage your sprawling VM environment through a single console, the Orion Web Console, with account management and direct VM tool capabilities. Add additional SolarWinds products to enhance monitoring, management, alerting, and reporting across hybrid environments. Gain visibility into every level of your resources within each VM, to the application level, and across all devices. When integrated, the Orion Platform automatically collects and displays virtual environment data. Virtual nodes (vnodes) do not require discovery or management as other nodes in the Orion Web Console. To use discovery, see Discover your network using SolarWinds NPM. Virtualization Manager The Virtualization Manager (VMAN) appliance connects directly to your vcenters or Hyper-V hosts, clusters, datastores, network, and VMs to collect and provide detailed metrics. Deploy VMAN onto VMware or Hyper- V hosts. VMAN cannot be installed on a Windows system or on the same server with the Orion Platform. Integration with the Orion Platform VMAN integrates with the Orion Platform through Virtual Infrastructure Monitor (VIM). VMAN provides access to your virtual environment, allowing VIM and the Orion Platform to collect and calculate data. 8

9 Orion Platform Orion Platform products is a platform and suite of products providing a single pane of glass for many SolarWinds products. This software is installed on Microsoft Servers and is included with NPM, SAM, and NCM. Don't have NPM, SAM, or NCM? See the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Administrator Guide to install VMAN as a standalone product with the Orion Platform. 9

10 Deploy Virtualization Manager Learn more about installing and integrating Virtualization Manager: Plan for a VMAN deployment Configure VMAN and VM account permissions Deploy and integrate VMAN Plan for a VMAN deployment Before you install SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN), prepare your environment. When installing VMAN, review the requirements for the appliance and integration. This Getting Started guide provides instructions for integrating with an existing Orion platform. After deploying the VMAN appliance, you must integrate with the Orion Web Console to fully access all VMAN features, including recommendations. Install and integrate as a stand-alone VMAN and Orion Platform VMAN comes with the Orion Platform for a fully stand-alone application. When you unzip the installation file, you receive: VMAN-Appliance-Install-1st.ova - deploys the VMAN appliance. Run this file first when deploying the VMAN appliance to Hyper-V or vsphere servers. A Hyper-V zip file is also available for those servers. VMAN-Orion-Install-2nd.exe - installs the Orion Platform and Virtual Infrastructure Monitor (VIM) for virtualization monitoring. This stand-alone installation provides all of the VMAN, VIM, and Orion Platform features through one Orion Web Console. Integrate with an existing Orion Platform If you have an existing SolarWinds environment, you can integrate the VMAN appliance with that environment. The Orion Platform comes with VMAN and is automatically installed with SolarWinds products such as Network Performance Monitor (NPM), Server & Application Monitor (SAM), or Network Configuration Manager (NCM). This type of installation gives you access to all VMAN features and integrates VMAN with other Orion products. Virtualization Manager appliance system requirements Install VMAN on a VM that meets the following requirements. You cannot install VMAN on the same server as the Orion Platform. 10

11 SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE Virtualization software VMware vsphere 5.x or later REQUIREMENTS VMware ESX or ESXi 5.x or later, managed or unmanaged hosts Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2* Virtualization Manager only supports the default, English localization of Hyper-V. CPU Virtual CPUs Memory 2 GHz quad-core 4 vcpus 8 GB or more The table below provides the scaling memory recommendations based on the number of monitored ESX hosts and VMs. NUMBER OF ESX HOSTS NUMBER OF VMS MEMORY GB GB GB GB GB > 200 > 2000 Contact Support Disk space 200 GB or more recommended At the default collection interval, a virtualized environment containing 1000 VMs and 100 hosts requires 40 GB of storage during the first month, and an additional 60 GB of storage over the next five years. Virtual NIC 1 Gigabit Orion Platform integration system requirements Before you integrate VMAN, make sure the Orion Platform server meets the following requirements. 11

12 SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE REQUIREMENT Operating System Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2 Windows Server 2016 For evaluation only: Windows 7 SP1 Windows 8 (except Standard edition) Windows 8.1 (except Standard edition) Windows 8.1 Update 1 (except Standard edition) Windows 10 CPU Memory 3.0 GHz 8 GB VMAN Recommendations also require an additional 8GB. HDD 20 GB.NET Framework.NET 4.0 and 4.5 SQL Server SQL Server 2008 without SP SQL Server 2008 SP1, SP2, SP3, SP4 SQL Server 2008 R2 without SP SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1, SP2, SP3 SQL Server 2012 SQL Server 2012 SP1, SP2, SP3 SQL Server 2014 SQL Server 2014 SP1 SQL Server 2016 Browser Internet Explorer version 11 and Edge Mozilla Firefox two latest versions Google Chrome two latest versions 12

13 Port requirements The following ports are required for the VMAN appliance. If you use a federated collector as a proxy, see the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Administrator Guide for port requirements. Required inbound ports on the master appliance INBOUND PORT USAGE 443 or 80 Performs auto-upgrade or version upgrade on federated collectors if federated collectors are configured 8983 Access from federated collectors to the master appliance during initial setup 443 HTTPS access to the Virtualization Manager user interface 5480 HTTPS access to the Management Console Active MQ master-collector communication 22 SSH access to the virtual appliance Required outbound ports on the master appliance OUTBOUND PORT USAGE 162 Sends SNMP traps 25 Sends s through SMTP 389 Active Directory authentication 3268 LDAP authentication Communicates with the SolarWinds Orion server if the integration with Orion is enabled If you use Virtualization Manager integrated with NPM or SAM in an environment with multiple polling engines and federated collectors, open TCP port from the primary collector to every polling engine that is used to poll virtualization data. 123 Uses the NTP service Virtual machine and server requirements The VMAN appliance can be installed on VM servers. The virtual machine requirements are identical to the physical server requirements. Deployment checklist Verify the following pre-installation steps to prepare for your VMAN deployment. 13

14 Verify account permissions. Set matching account credentials for the Orion Platform, the VMAN appliance, and vcenter, VMware, and Hyper-V systems. Credentials must match to support full communication across the virtual environment for polling and reporting data, applying recommendations, and monitoring status. Check for antivirus software. To ensure the best performance for VMAN and the Orion Platform, you may need to exclude specific file paths and directories from anti-virus software scans. See the article Files and directories to exclude from antivirus scanning for an explanation of directories and files to exclude. Confirm that your deployment environment meets the recommended system requirements. Use the Local Administrator Account for installation. The Local Administrator Account is not the same as a domain account with local admin rights. A domain account is subject to your domain group policies. Ensure you have the correct version of the deployment. The deployment files are available in the Customer Portal, including versions for the appliance, the evaluation, and versions for additional polling engines and additional web servers. Obtain access and credentials to the Orion SQL Server for your Orion Platform environment. Contact your SQL Database Administrator for this information. Configure VMAN and VM account permissions Virtualization Manager uses a set of credentials created in the appliance, in the Orion Web Console, and your VMs to issue commands and monitor data. These credentials must match to provide communication between VMAN and all VMs (VMware and Hyper-V) and VCenter. Configure VM permissions To properly install your products and monitor VMs, you need to set up the following accounts and permissions: ACCOUNT TYPE VMAN account Orion Platform administrator account ACCOUNT PERMISSIONS To enable VMAN communication with your virtual environment, create your VMAN account using the same credentials for vcenter for VMware and Hyper-V. See instructions below for creating an appliance account. You need an Orion Platform account that matches credentials with your VMware or Hyper-V installation. Without matching credentials, you will encounter communication and configuration issues. If you lose access to the admin account, you can read this article Recover an Orion Web Console admin password. 14

15 ACCOUNT TYPE VMware VCenter ACCOUNT PERMISSIONS We recommend having your VMware VMs managed by the VCenter. When integrating with VMan, use the VCenter account credentials. All metrics will pull through the VCenter into VMAN for VCenter and all managed VMs. The VMware user account needs the following permissions: For data collection, at least Read-Only permissions for the host and VMs you want to monitor For data store collection, the Browse Datastore permission Hyper-V The Hyper-V account used for data collection must have the Enable Account and Remote Enable permissions. For more information about enabling account privileges in WMI, see Configuring Distributed Component Object Model and User Account Control. Create a VMAN appliance account You can use an existing account if it matches the virtual environment and Orion Web Console accounts. If the account does not match, create a new account matching that information. 1. Log in to the VMAN appliance. 2. Click Setup and expand Advanced Setup. 3. Click Users. A list of user accounts displays. 4. Click Add to create a new account, using the credentials currently used for your VMs. For the Role, select Admin. 5. Click Save. This account must match the virtual environment and Orion Web Console accounts. Configure Orion Web Console account permissions With the account connections between VMs and the Orion Platform completed, create and manage account permissions for administrators and users as needed for your environment. For example, you may want to limit feature access for network administrators and general IT staff. Each user or group account can have different privileges applied to it, such as the ability to modify alert definitions or delete snapshots. You need administrator access to the server to install and integrate VMAN. 1. Click Settings > All Settings. 2. Click Manage Accounts in the User Accounts section. 3. Select an existing user account, and click Edit. 4. Modify account information, login options, and tasks as needed. 15

16 5. To restrict users access to Orion Web Console features, expand the Virtual Infrastructure Monitor Settings. 6. Select the views to display for VM data in the Orion Web Console. Typically, you do not need to hide VM views from users. These options only affect seeing VM data in the Orion Web Console. The available options include view names, default, and none. If you select none, the view is hidden from the user. 16

17 7. Select an option to allow or disallow users from VM management tools and functions. These permissions provide native tool features through the Orion Web Console. For example, general IT staff should not have the capability to delete snapshots or VMs. For those user accounts, select Disallow for Snapshot Management and Delete virtual machines and datastore files. 8. Click Submit. Deploy and integrate VMAN A full Virtualization Manager installation and integration requires installing the appliance on your VM and integrating with an existing Orion Platform. These instructions walk-through: Deploying the VMAN appliance on VMware vsphere or Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 Installing and integrating with the Orion Platform and VIM (comes with VMAN) Integrating VMAN in an existing Orion Platform If you need to install the appliance on Hyper-V Server 2008, integrate with a standalone Orion Platform using Virtual Infrastructure Monitor (VIM), or install federated collectors, see the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Administrator Guide. Before installing and integrating: Review the system requirements, prepare the VM server for the appliance, and set account permissions. 17

18 You need administrator access to the server to install and integrate VMan. Deploy VMAN appliance on VMware vsphere 5.x or later STEP Download the zip from the Customer Portal Extract the deployment files from the zip DESCRIPTION Log in to the Customer Portal and download the Virtualization Manager installation file. Extract the contents of the vsphere.zip file. This file includes two installers: VMAN-Appliance-Install-1st.ova - deploys the VMAN appliance. Use this file in your deployment. VMAN-Orion-Install-2nd.exe - installs the Virtual Infrastructure Monitor for a standalone Orion Platform. If you do not have an existing Orion Platform, VIM provides all Orion and additional VMAN features through the Orion Web Console. Connect the VMWare server and deploy 1. Run the VMware vsphere Client. 2. Click File > Deploy OVF Template, browse for the OVA file, and click Next. 3. On the following screens, name the virtual appliance, select a location, and click Next. 4. Select a resource pool, the provisioned format, and a network. Thin provisioning lets you install with less than 100 GB of free disk space. 5. Specify whether you want to use DHCP to determine the IP address of the appliance or you want to use a fixed IP address. 6. Provide the required details, and click Finish. Access the VMAN appliance Accept the license 1. Open a browser to where IP_address is the address of the virtual appliance server. 2. Log in with the default credentials: user: admin, password: admin. Accept the license agreement. If you need to add a license: 1. Click Setup > License Information. Detailed information for the license displays if available. 2. Click Activate License. 18

19 STEP DESCRIPTION 3. Enter the License Key. You can locate your VMAN license code through the Customer Portal. 4. Click Send Activation Request. VMAN connects to verify the license key with SolarWinds. You can also upload a license file for systems without a connection to SolarWinds, being offline or behind a firewall. You can also download this file using the Unique Machine Configure network access Click Network > Address. If you use DHCP to determine the IP address of the appliance, verify that it is selected. If you use a static IP address, provide the required details, and save the settings. Enter proxy server information if necessary, and save the settings. Integrate with the Orion Platform To install the Orion Platform and Virtual Infrastructure Monitor (VIM), see Install the Orion Platform with VIM and integrate VMAN below. You will use the file VMAN- Orion-Install-2nd.exe. To integrate with an existing Orion Platform, see the section Integrate VMAN with an existing Orion Platform. VIM 7.0 includes Orion Platform If you install SAM 6.3, you also receive VIM 7.0 and do not need to install VIM 7.0. Deploy VMAN appliance on Hyper-V Server 2012 or later These instructions detailed deploying VMAN on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 or later. For instructions for Hyper-V Server 2008, see the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Administrator Guide. STEP Download the zip from the Customer Portal Extract the deployment files from the zip DESCRIPTION Log in to the Customer Portal and download the Virtualization Manager installation file. Extract the contents of the Hyper-V.zip file. This file includes two installers: VMAN-Appliance-Install-1st - deploys the VMAN appliance. Use this file in your deployment. 19

20 STEP DESCRIPTION VMAN-Orion-Install-2nd.exe - installs the Virtual Infrastructure Monitor for a standalone Orion Platform. If you do not have an existing Orion Platform, VIM provides all Orion and additional VMAN features through the Orion Web Console. Connect the Hyper-V server and deploy 1. Start the Hyper-V Manager, and connect to the Hyper-V server. 2. Click Action > Import Virtual Machine, and browse to the extracted ZIP file. The default file name is Virtualization-Manager-HyperV-version. 3. On the import screen, select Virtualization-Manager, copy the virtual machine with a new unique ID, and click Next. 4. Specify the location of the VM files, review your selections, and click Finish. 5. Right-click the virtual appliance, and configure the network settings of the virtual machine. Using a Legacy Network Adapter might cause degradation in network connection. 6. Start the virtual machine, and connect to it. 7. Set the Virtualization Manager appliance to the same time zone as the Hyper- V host server. Configure network access Access the VMAN appliance Accept the license 1. Click Network > Address. If you use DHCP to determine the IP address of the appliance, verify that it is selected. If you use a static IP address, specify the necessary details, and save the settings. 2. Enter proxy server information if necessary, and save the settings. 1. Open a browser to where IP_address is the address shown in the console. 2. Log in with the default credentials: user: admin, password: admin. Accept the license agreement. If you need to add a license: 1. Click Setup > License Information. Detailed information for the license displays if available. 2. Click Activate License. 3. Enter the License Key. You can locate your VMAN license code through the Customer Portal. 4. Click Send Activation Request. VMAN connects to verify the license key with SolarWinds. 20

21 STEP DESCRIPTION Integrate with the Orion Platform To install the Orion Platform and Virtual Infrastructure Monitor (VIM), see Install the Orion Platform with VIM and integrate VMAN below. You will use the file VMAN- Orion-Install-2nd.exe. To integrate with an existing Orion Platform, see the section Integrate VMAN with an existing Orion Platform. VIM 7.0 includes Orion Platform If you install SAM 6.3, you also receive VIM 7.0 and do not need to install VIM 7.0. Install the Orion Platform with VIM and integrate VMAN If you have an existing Orion Platform, integrate using these instructions. Use the file VMAN-Orion-Install-2nd.exe to install the Orion Platform and VIM. When installed, you can integrate into VMAN into this Orion Platform. You should have this file from the downloaded zip file. STEP Save and run the install file on the Orion Platform server DESCRIPTION 1. Log in as an administrator to the SolarWinds server where you want to install the SolarWinds Virtual Infrastructure Monitor. 2. Save VMAN-Orion-Install-2nd.exe to a dedicated Orion Platform/VIM server, or main polling engine. 3. Run the file VMAN-Orion-Install-2nd.exe. 4. If you are prompted to install required components, click Install, and complete the component installation. Downloading and installing Microsoft.NET Framework may take more than 20 minutes. If a reboot is required, click Install after restarting the computer to resume the installation. 5. Review the Welcome text and whether you want to send data about the application usage, and click Next. 6. Select a language, and click Next. 7. If another SolarWinds Orion product is already installed, enter YES to indicate that you are aware of the recommendation to back up your existing Orion product database before installing VIM, and click Next. 8. Accept the license agreement, and click Next. 9. Select the installation folder, and click Next. 10. Click Next on the Start Copying Files window. 11. Click Finish to close the installation wizard. 12. The SolarWinds Configuration Wizard is launched automatically. Complete the Configuration 1. Click Next on the Welcome window to continue the basic configuration. 2. If prompted to stop services, click Yes. 21

22 STEP DESCRIPTION Wizard 3. On the Database Settings dialog box, select an SQL Server and authentication method, and click Next. Use SQL Server Authentication to ensure the SolarWinds Orion server can always access SQL Server, even when hosted remotely on a separate server. 4. On the Database Settings dialog box, select a database from Use an existing database, and click Next. 5. On the Database Account dialog box, create a new account or use an existing account that the polling engine and Web Console use to access the database, and click Next. 6. On the Website Settings dialog box: a. Select All Unassigned unless your environment requires a specific IP address for the Orion Web Console. b. Specify the Port and the Website Root Directory where the system will install the web console files. If you specify any port other than 80, include that port in the URL used to access the Web Console. c. To use this function, click Yes - Enable automatic login using Windows Authentication. 7. If prompted to create a new directory or website, click Yes. 8. Review the list of services to install, and click Next. 9. Click Yes if prompted to disable the SNMP Trap Service and enable the SolarWinds Trap Service. 10. On the Completing the Orion Configuration Wizard dialog box, click Next. 11. When completed, click Finish to launch the Orion Web Console. Integrate VMAN with the Orion Platform 1. Log in to the SolarWinds Web Console as an administrator. Until you change your account, you can log in with the username, Admin without a password. 2. Click Settings > All Settings > Virtualization Settings > Setup Virtualization Manager Integration. 3. Enter the host name or IP address of the Virtualization Manager server. To access the network settings for the Virtualization Manager appliance server, use a browser to navigate to address: Enter the port number on which Virtualization Manager serves web requests. The default port is

23 STEP DESCRIPTION 5. Enter the VM credentials. For VMware, we recommend using the VCenter credentials with your VMs managed in VCenter. For Hyper-V, enter the Hyper-V account credentials. 6. Click Integrate. Integration complete You are done and ready to monitor your virtual environment! The Orion Web Console verifies access and integrates VMAN and monitored VMs. Click My Dashboard > Virtualization to access VMAN data and options. Integrate VMAN in an existing Orion Platform With the VMAN appliance installed, you can integrate with an existing Orion Platform. You do not need a separate license for VMAN in the Orion Platform. STEP Log in to the Orion Web Console Open Virtualization Settings Configure connections for the VMAN appliance DESCRIPTION Log in to the SolarWinds Web Console as an administrator. Until you change your account, you can log in with the username, Admin without a password. Click Settings > All Settings > Virtualization Settings > Setup Virtualization Manager Integration. 1. Enter the host name or IP address of the Virtualization Manager server. To access the network settings for the Virtualization Manager appliance server, use a browser to navigate to 2. Enter the port number on which Virtualization Manager serves web requests. The default port is Enter the VM credentials. For VMware, we recommend using the VCenter credentials with your VMs managed in VCenter. For Hyper-V, enter the Hyper-V account credentials. 4. Click Integrate. Integration complete You are done and ready to monitor your virtual environment! The Orion Web Console verifies access and integrates VMAN and monitored VMs. 23

24 STEP DESCRIPTION Click My Dashboard > Virtualization to access VMAN data and options. 24

25 Deploy an evaluation Learn more about deploying Virtualization Manager evaluations: Deploy a VMAN evaluation Deploy a VMAN evaluation The evaluation version of Virtualization Manager is a full version of the product, functional for 30 days. After the evaluation period, you can easily convert your evaluation license to a production license by obtaining and applying a license key. The VMAN license supports the appliance and integration with the Orion Platform. To install an evaluation version of VMAN, you follow the requirements, installation steps, and configurations used for a full license version: The VMAN evaluation can be integrated with an existing Orion Platform environment The existing environment must have a full or evaluation version of NPM, SAM, or NCM installed Create or modify accounts and permissions as required for VMAN For evaluations only, you can integrate a VMAN appliance to Orion Platform installed on the following OS versions: EVALUATION AND PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENTS Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2 Windows Server 2016 EVALUATION ENVIRONMENTS ONLY Windows 7 SP1 Windows 8 (except Standard edition) Windows 8.1 (except Standard edition) Windows 8.1 Update 1 (except Standard edition) Windows 10 To evaluate and experience VMAN in a standalone Orion Platform, deploy the VMAN appliance and Virtual Infrastructure Monitor (VIM) standalone installation. VIM is a standalone Orion Platform included with the VMAN evaluation installation file. For instructions to deploy an evaluation using Virtual Infrastructure Monitor, see the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Administrator Guide. 25

26 Navigate your environment Learn more about your Virtualization Manager environment: Explore your VMAN environment VM management tools Explore your VMAN environment All VM data displays through VMAN into the Orion Web Console in a set of dashboards including the Virtualization Summary, Sprawl dashboard, VM specific dashboards, and more. These examples show how to drill-down and manage VM resources in details pages. Each page displays specific resources and options for clusters, hosts, datastores, networks, and virtual machines. You do not need to add all VMs as monitored nodes in the Orion Platform. VMAN collects and displays data for all VMs in your environment. Use the Virtualization Summary as a stepping off point to review monitored VMs, manage resources, and respond to recommendations and alerts. Getting Started resource Provides immediate options to integrate and configure recommendations. You can remove this resource anytime after getting started to reuse the space. 26

27 Virtualization Assets and Asset Summary Recommendations resource All Active Virtualization Alerts resource Expand to select VMs within your environment. The virtual environment includes virtual centers (VMware), clusters, hosts, datastores, networks, and VMs. The Asset Summary provides an overall breakdown information of VMs per VMware and Hyper-V. Lists all active and predictive recommendations listed per VM host or cluster. Select the recommendations link to troubleshoot all recommendations. Lists all active alerts triggered per VMwith a detailed message and triggering resource. Select alerts to review details and troubleshoot the issue. Expand Virtualization Assets to drill-down into your VM environment. Selecting a VM at any level opens a details page displaying status resources, management tools, alerts, and recommendations. For example, selecting a VMware virtual center provides a details page with an expandable virtualization assets view, an AppStack view, alerts, and supported management tools. This example displays a VM within a host. Selecting the VM opens a details page with specific resource usage data. The Resource Utilization resource provides key data over time for your VMs. Moving your mouse across the line graphs displays a tooltip with percentages for CPU, memory, network upsage, IOPs, and latency. 27

28 VM management tools VMAN includes native VM management tools directly through the Orion Web Console to troubleshoot, manage VM status, manage snapshots, and more. Credentials entered at deployment connect the management tools to vcenter and Hyper-V native tools. To access the tools, select a cluster, host, datastore, network, or VM in the Virtualization Assets environment tree. The details page opens with a Virtualization Manager Tools resource, providing different options based on the VM server type. If an option is not accessible, make sure that your account has the necessary permission levels. The availability of the options also depends on the current state of a virtual machine. For example, if the virtual machine is offline, the Power off VM option is not displayed. 28

29 Manage VM resources Learn more about Virtualization Manager resource management: Resource management with VMAN How recommendations work Active recommendation: solve a memory utilization issue Predictive recommendation: solve a storage capacity issue Best practices for recommendations Resource management with VMAN Resource management is a constant evaluation and allocation of storage and resources across a virtual environment. With vcenter and Hyper-V systems, you review historical data and use native tools to properly size and manage virtual resources. Virtualization Manager and the Orion Platform provide a single console to take action with integrated management tools, alerts, and one-click recommendations to resolve issues without manual steps. Using VMAN, you can: Verify and balance allocations for VMs. Over-allocated systems can be rebalanced to provide resources to under-allocated systems. Determine and resolve issues with performance and allocated resources for clusters, hosts, datastores, and VMs to handle performance-intensive CPU and memory loads. Review and redistribute VMs across the entire environment to balance storage and performance for hosts and clusters. You can view triggered recommendations and alerts through the Orion Web Console to manage resources: Recommendations provide resolutions to active issues in your environment and predictive optimizations to resolve potential issues. Each recommendation includes a detailed list of automated actions when applied, such as moving VMs and reallocating resources for CPU contention or critical levels of CPU usage. Alerts identify immediate issues and system status in your environment, comparing condition triggers against polled data and thresholds. As recommendations and alerts trigger, you can further customize triggers by customizing virtualization thresholds. How recommendations work After you have deployed and configured VMAN, begin monitoring your virtual environment for active or potential bottlenecks, allocation needs, or performance issues. Depending on the size of your virtual environment, the amount of data to review can be staggering. To help pinpoint problems and optimization opportunities, VMAN lists recommendations for VM balancing, troubleshooting, and issue resolution. 29

30 As you monitor your entire environment, you can review your recommendations through My Dashboard > Virtualization > Recommendations. Recommendations trigger for vcenter and Hyper-V hosts, ESX hosts, clusters, and VMs. Every recommendation includes: Description of the active or predictive recommendation with metrics Steps of actions the Orion Web Console completes when applied, without requiring manual steps using VM tools Detailed statistics and charts show the before and after results based on the steps to take and issue determined Further information on affected virtual systems, with links to drill down into the data Through one page, you can investigate the issue, review the recommended resolutions, and apply the solution. Strategies Recommendation strategies look at the environment to solve specific issues and adjust allocations, performance, and storage. The strategies help manage VM sizing, host storage, and performance: VM right sizing optimizations - Identifies and recommends changes for under- and over-allocated VM resources. Host Performance and Capacity Assurance - Identifies hosts with resource and capacity issues. Storage Capacity Assurance - Identifies datastores with storage capacity issues. Balancing VMs on hosts - Identifies VMs to redistribute to new hosts for balanced resources, capacity, and performance. Migrating VMs is only possible between hosts that are in the same cluster and have shared storage. Types of recommendations VMAN provides to types of recommendations: active and predictive. 30

31 Active recommendations provide immediate resolutions for triggered alerts and issues that have already occurred on your system. An active recommendation requires a minimum of 1 hour of historic data to trigger. Example: You receive a memory utilization recommendation flagged as NOW on a host. The active recommendation immediately resolves the active issue when applied, properly balancing VMs to remove consumption issues. Predictive recommendations provide advised actions based on historical data and usage trends. These actions require a minimum of 7 days of monitored VM data to trigger. Example: You receive a space utilization recommendation. A predictive resolution indicates reallocation steps for resources to resolve the issue for the affected VM and any linked datastores. The key to predictive recommendations is compiled data over time. Optimal recommendations trigger with over 4 weeks of accumulated data. Recommendation actions You can take one of the following actions for a recommendation: Perform Now: immediately resolves the issue. Schedule Recommendation: select a date and time to complete the steps. The Recommendation moves from the Current tab to the Scheduled tab. You may want to schedule the changes for maintenance times. Ignore Recommendation: if you do not want to take the recommended actions, you can click More Actions and select Ignore Recommendation. This creates a short term exclusion policy for the VM for the recommendations with a custom amount of time. Active recommendation: solve a memory utilization issue Active recommendations trigger for alerts and issues that occur in your environment and cause issues for your users. Recommendations display with a NOW flag and a clear set of resolution steps and data so you can respond quickly to verify and resolve the issue. For example, a VM host machine in your environment triggers an active recommendation due to high memory usage. The total used memory of all the VM's on the host machine reached a critical point. To resolve, you need to move VMs to a new host. The following example solves a memory utilization issue actively triggered and alerted in your environment: 1. Click My Dashboard > Virtualization > Virtualization Summary. A list of recommendations is displayed in the dashboard. The Tokyo ESX cluster shows a critical recommendation. 31

32 2. Select All Recommendations to open the Recommendations page. The Recommendations page shows a critical alert that triggered with a NOW flag. The memory utilization on host stp-esx-02.lab.tex has reached critical threshold. 32

33 3. Click the NOW recommendation. In this example, the VM host stp-esx-02.lab.tex has reached 95% memory consumption. Using data compilations, the recommendation identifies the VM lab-2k8-fc-02 requires far more memory than provided by the host. Move this VM to a larger host to resolve the memory issues. 4. Select the Power off option in the step to perform. The steps update to power down, move, and power up to migrate the server. 33

34 5. Click Statistics to review the affects of the trending issue and recommended solution. Each step includes an expandable chart with detailed metrics that show the tracked usage and calculated resolution. The memory and CPU load is excessive and overwhelming the current host. Expand stp-esx-02.lab.tex to view details and the affects of applying the resolution. By moving stp-esx-02.lab.tex to a new host, the usage reduces within normal limits from 95% to 70%. 34

35 6. Expand stp-esx-01.lab.tex to review the change and ensure they do not adversely affect the new host. Recommendations calculate the affects of moving VM stp-esx-02.lab.tex to the new host based on trending data over 4 weeks. The image below shows the that moving the VM does not overwhelm the target host. It remains within normal limits of 65% usage for CPU and memory, a 25% increase from trending usage data for the host. See the predicted usage marked in the image below. 35

36 7. Click Perform Now and Apply this Recommendation. The resolution steps begin immediately. Because this issue affects the VMs and users, scheduling the changes is not recommended unless necessary for a maintenance window. Predictive recommendation: solve a storage capacity issue Recommendations solve issues before they occur. As trends calculate for CPU, memory, and capacity usage, network traffic fluctuation, and other VM resource metrics, recommendations tracks the trends and determines areas of potential issues. For example, a VM trends with a rising and consistent spike of capacity usage in a week. A recommendation triggers with a critical alert due to the speed and consistent usage and decline of free capacity. It provides a severity, message, steps to resolve, and statistics. The recommendation message provides the severity, steps to resolve, and VM statistics. Move the VM to a larger datastore to allow the VM additional disk space. VMs on the critical datastore have additional disk space available. 1. Click My Dashboard > Virtualization > Virtualization Summary. The Tokyo ESX cluster shows a critical recommendation. 36

37 2. Select the Tokyo ESX 4.1 Cluster or All Recommendations to open the Recommendations page. 37

38 3. Select the recommendation "The space utilization on datastore tok-esx-01:localstorage02 has reached critical threshold." In the image below, the kmiele-vman is overwhelming the smaller datastore. Move the VM to a larger datastore (LocalStorage01). LocalStorage02 receives more capacity for other assigned VMs and kmiele-vman VM continues service without capacity issues. 4. Select the Power off option in the step to perform. The steps update to power down, move, and power up to migrate the server. 38

39 5. Click Statistics to review the effects of the trending issue to show the recommended solution. Each step includes an expandable chart with detailed metrics that show the tracked usage and calculated resolution. In the image below, the capacity dramatically increases for the VM when the datastore moves to a larger host. LocalStorage02 regains about 22 GB of space for other VMs, giving the larger kmiele-vman VM a better datastore for usage needs. To investigate further, expand and review the space utilization expectations for LocalStorage01 and details pages on each VM, including kmiele-vman, through More details links. 39

40 6. Click Schedule Recommendation and select a date and time. You may be unable to take the servers down during production hours. This option allows you to run the recommendation during a maintenance window. 7. Click Apply This Recommendation. The recommendation moves to the Scheduled tab on the Recommendations page. The recommendation runs at the configured date and time. Best practices for recommendations Recommendations provide intelligent resolutions for active and predictive issues in your environment. Depending on the issue and resolution steps, recommendations may be inter-linked or affect each other after every resolution and polling. For example, allocation warnings and CPU contention could have related underlying issues. To better apply and manage recommendations: Apply active recommendations quickly as possible. The NOW flag indicates the issue has occurred in the environment. These issues actively affect users. Use alerts until recommendations have collected enough data to effectively resolve issues. Active recommendations require 1 hour of data. Predictive recommendations require a minimum of 7 days of data, providing better resolutions and trend tracking with 4+ weeks of data. Select power cycle steps when moving VMs. Hot swapping a VM could cause potential issues if under heavy, constant load during business hours. Schedule virtual system moves during maintenance hours. Moving VMs may require power cycling the VM or interrupting service. Complete these moves during off-peak hours. Monitor environment performance before issuing additional recommendations. Recommendations may affect multiple clusters, hosts, datastores, and other recommendations when allocating resources and moving VMs. Monitor your environment and recommendations as changes and polling completes. 40

41 Review alerts with active recommendations. If available, recommendations provide links to related alerts. Predictive recommendation may have related potential virtualization alerts, without a displayed link. Recommendations trigger based on: Alerts that occurred on a cluster, host, datastore, network, or VM in your virtual environment Not all alerts have triggered recommendations. If a recommendation has an associated alert, it is linked in the recommendation. VM resource allocations and performance trends and data that project potential issues Enabled strategies for recommendation settings: VM right sizing optimizations, host performance and capacity assurance, storage capacity assurance, and balancing VM workloads on hosts Configured virtualization threshold settings for VMs If not enough data has been collected, a message displays on the page: Recommendations do not trigger for VMs with assigned exclusion policies. 41

42 Alerts Learn more about VMAN alerts and monitoring: How alerts work Best practices for alerts How alerts work Alerts notify you when an issue or error occurs in the virtual environment. The Orion Platform provides alerts for all monitored nodes and applications, including alerts for integrated products. VMAN provides over 40 virtualization alerts to identify common issues in virtual environments including clusters, hosts, datastores, and VMs. These alerts include: Threshold-based alerts: monitor network utilization, CPU load, memory usage, IOPS, latency, and capacity. Activity-based alerts: monitor specific actions in an environment including authentication failures, syslog, changes in network configurations, and events. Network-based alerts: monitor connections between networked servers and devices including latency, connection state, and IOPS. Monitor alerts after deployment to troubleshoot and maintain your environment. Virtualization alerts trigger for real-time monitored data and events using virtualization thresholds (global and specific to VM). Recommendations require collected data over 1 hour for active to 7 days for predictive to effectively trigger. Until the Orion Web Console collects the required data for recommendations, monitor alerts through the Virtualization Summary. Issues bubble up through the Recommendations and Alert resources. 42

43 Recommendations Lists all triggered active and predictive recommendations. If available, active recommendations include a link to a related alert: All Active Virtualization Alerts Potential Virtualization Issues Lists all triggered alerts for active issues in your virtual environment. Alerts display in order: critical, serious, and warning. Lists triggered informational virtualization alerts. 43

44 Informational alerts indicate trends in status, usage, and capacity. For example, an informational alert triggers when VM management tool access times out between the Orion Platform and a VM. Alert categories without triggered issues display as green. Best practices for alerts All alerts for virtualization and the Orion Platform are enabled by default in the Orion Web Console. To reduce noise, you can refine or disable unused alerts. To modify existing trigger conditions and actions, SolarWinds recommends you create a copy of an alert and customize the copy. To better monitor issues with alerts: Adjust thresholds. (recommended) Alerts trigger when monitored usage exceeds global or specific VM thresholds. Critical active alerts indicate spikes in usage and capacity. Potential alerts indicate trends that can lead to an issue. Disable alerts. If an alert is not helpful for your monitoring needs, you can disable it. SolarWinds recommends you create a copy, modify the settings, and disable the original. Create and customize alerts. The out-of-the-box alerts cover a range of issues you may want to customize. You can create a copy of an existing alert, disable the original and customize the copy. If you edit an out-of-the-box alert, a message warns what data can be modified or added. To create alerts, see the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Administrator Guide. Set notification actions for specific alerts, not all alerts. For large environments, notification actions on every alert can overwhelm your staff. Set notifications for specific alerts. Monitor the Virtualization Summary. Use the Virtualization Summary to continuously monitor all alerts. The alerting resources update with every polling. Triggered alerts display in order of severity. Create an alert copy To quickly create new alerts, duplicate an existing alert and customize the copy. You cannot edit existing conditions and actions for out-of-the-box alerts. For these alerts, you can enable, disable, and add triggers and actions. Use out-of-the-box alerts as an example for defining triggers and actions. Use the Alert Manager to create and edit the alert copy. Review the best practices to ensure good performance. 44

45 1. Click Alerts & Activity > Alerts, click Manage Alerts. 2. Select Object Type from the Group By drop-down menu. All virtualization alerts are under Virtual Cluster, Virtual Datastore, Virtual Host, and Virtual Machine. 3. To edit, locate and select an alert you want to modify, and click Edit Alert. To create, click Add New Alert. For detailed information on creating and editing conditions and actions, see Create new alerts to monitor your environment. Conditions: set the triggers for alerts. Create as many conditions as needed for multiple scenarios where one or all conditions are met. Example: Trigger alert when CPU usage and capacity spikes above 90%. Reset conditions: configure the event that resets the alert. Example: If an alert triggers when the power state is off, set it to reset when the VM is power state is on. Actions: set the actions and escalation steps completed by the Orion Web Console when an alert triggers. Create as many actions and escalations as needed. Example: Send an notification every 10 minutes until the alert is acknowledged. If the alert is not acknowledged within 10 minutes, send an escalation to management. Reset Actions: configure the actions completed when the alert is reset. Example: Write an event and data to the log when the alert actions complete. 45

46 Customize thresholds Learn more about Virtualization Manager and Orion Platform thresholds for alerts and recommendations. How thresholds work Alerts and recommendations are triggered when a monitored value exceeds a threshold. Thresholds set the trigger levels for warning and critical alerts and recommendations. Thresholds include global Orion Platform thresholds, global virtualization thresholds, and specific VM thresholds. As the Orion Web Console collects and calculates data for VM performance, resource consumption, and status, all thresholds are compared against the data to pinpoint active and potential issues. Thresholds include: Orion Platform thresholds - The Orion Platform comes with predefined static thresholds for Orion product modules at the node level including average CPU load, disk usage, percent memory used, percent packet loss, and response time. Virtualization Manager thresholds - VMAN uses a set of virtualization thresholds for triggering virtual system specific alerts and recommendations. These thresholds include network utilization, CPU load, memory usage, IOPS, latency, and capacity. You can configure these thresholds globally or override per cluster, host, datastore, or VM. Specific thresholds support only CPU load, memory usage, and network utilization. If you want to change the predefined value for a threshold, you use a static threshold or a dynamic baseline threshold. Static threshold This threshold is a constant value that you set for your threshold. The value does not change unless edited. Example: You may enter a static value for the response time threshold as warning 500 ms and critical as 1000 ms. Dynamic baseline threshold Data for a threshold is collected for a week and used to calculate mean and standard deviation. The warning and critical threshold values are defined as 2 and 3 standard deviations above the mean, respectively. Dynamic baseline thresholds are the most accurate way to define thresholds for a specific device. You can recalculate baselines on demand after making threshold changes. Example: If the mean value for packet loss for a specific node is 0%, the warning threshold for packet loss would be 3% (+2 standard deviations) and the critical threshold would be 4% (+3 standard deviations). 46

47 Edit a VM global threshold Recommendations and alerts trigger based on global and specific VIM thresholds in the Orion Web Console. If the global settings are not appropriate for your environment, you can adjust them. Additionally, you can set specific thresholds for VMs that handle vital business applications or services to warn staff prior to performance bottlenecks or issues. In the following scenario, a virtual environment supports multiple heavy load applications and jobs including Microsoft Exchange, the Orion Platform, and automated database backups and snapshots. The VMs fill to capacity, the Exchange servers encounter issues, and new backups and snapshots cannot be saved. To avoid potential storage and capacity issues for Microsoft Exchange, backups, and snapshots, the global threshold for Storage Capacity Usage needs to be reduced. A lower setting triggers alerts and recommendations before an issue occurs. 1. Click Settings > All Settings > Product Specific Settings > Virtualization Global Thresholds. The Virtualization Global Thresholds page displays the global settings for all VMs. 2. Locate the Storage Capacity Usage threshold. The default amounts are 80% warning and 90% critical. 3. Enter a lower threshold amount to receive alerts earlier. Enter 70% warning and 80% critical. 4. Click Submit. 47

48 Edit a VM specific threshold As recommendations and alerts trigger, the default global thresholds may need to be adjusted for the baselines of your environment. In some cases, alerts may constantly trigger or cause false positives depending on factors including the amount of network traffic, capacity usage, and intended use of the cluster, host, datastore, or VM. For this example, the CPU load for Microsoft Exchange VM servers can greatly differ than the load by normal application and storage VMs. The default thresholds for CPU load may trigger false positive alerts for the Exchange servers. To better monitor and generate alerts, create specific VM thresholds for the Exchange servers using Dynamic Baselines. 1. Click Settings > All Settings. 2. In the Product Specific Settings section, click Virtualization Settings. 3. In the Virtualization Settings section, click Virtualization Thresholds. The Virtualization Thresholds page displays with a list of VMs. 4. Locate and select the checkboxes your Microsoft Exchange VMs, and click Edit Thresholds. An Edit Properties page displays with thresholds to override and edit. 48

49 5. For the CPU load and Memory Usage, click Override Global Orion Threshold or Set Dynamic Threshold. For this example, Microsoft Exchange VMs undergoes consistent, heavy CPU load, memory usage, and capacity usage. Setting a specific warning or critical amount could still generate false positives. Due to the constant fluctuation, using dynamic baselines allows the system to calculate the correct baselines based on actual tracked usage and metrics for the VM. 49

50 6. Click Latest Baseline Details to review the latest metrics tracked for the VM. The following example gives you insight to how the baselines are generated. Metric over Time tracks the full bandwidth of CPU load, indicating the actual average CPU usage. A spike in usage as noted in the tooltip shows the above average usage compared to the baseline. VMAN creates a baseline of normal, warning level, and critical level of CPU usage directly from this captured data. Click Cancel to close. 7. Click Use Dynamic Baseline Thresholds. This option calculates and sets baselines based on monitored metrics over time for the Exchange servers, providing more accurate alerting and recommendations. 8. Click Submit. 50

51 Reports Learn more about VMAN reports: Best practices for reports Customize the recommendations report Review the recommendations report Best practices for reports Create and modify custom reports to through the Orion Web Console for virtual environment historical use, alerts, and recommendations. Orion reporting includes over 40 predefined virtualization reports accessible through My Dashboards > Virtualization > Reporting. Click Manage Reports to review the full list of available reports or create a new report. Run reports on-demand or schedule for specific systems and times. As you create reports, assign them to an existing schedule or create a new schedule. Every schedule can have different configurations for frequency to run and actions after completion: Frequency: run the report on a specific date or daily, weekly, or monthly. Example: Run the report daily at 6 a.m., after overnight maintenance hours. Action: steps to complete when the report runs including sending a report in (CSV, HTML, PDF, or XLS format), print, or save to disk. Add multiple actions as needed. Example: a PDF to a network admin mailing list and save a copy in all file types to a snapshot VM. For more information to create reports, see View, create and schedule reports in the Orion Web Console. To better create and run reports: Test reports before scheduling. To test performance and format, run your report for a limited date/time range after you customize it. Verify data, table columns, chart content, and performance of the report during peak times. Limit data by time and filter. To refine and speed up report results, modify the data displayed in the report content to filter and limit data. Every report section can be formatted as a chart, graph, table, gauge, and resource available in views and dashboards displaying only selected data available to objects and resources. Schedule reports after maintenance. If you have a nightly maintenance, schedule reports to run after the maintenance window ends. Snapshots and recommendations run during the maintenance that can greatly change the virtual environment. Generating reports after maintenance ends provides immediate updates based on completed VM moves and resource allocation. Schedule heavy load reports after business hours. If a report pulls a large amount of data, or you have multiple larger reports, schedule them to run during off-peak hours. 51

52 Create copies of reports. Use copies of existing reports to quickly customize reports to gather data per configured objects, resources, and conditions. Report copies give you the flexibility to create multiple versions for specific data gathering and schedules. Create reports for specific virtual objects and date ranges. Create multiple reports for specific virtual systems or data sets for better performance when you generate reports and refine content. Configure a report for specific VM objects (cluster, host, datastore, or VM), the Dynamic Query Builder per object properties (example all VMware or all Hyper-V), or database queries to further restrict virtual objects. Customize the recommendations report The Recommendations provides historical data for completed recommendations and actions in the last 30 days. The report provides detailed tables of results: Recommendations current, scheduled, and finished: list all active and predictive recommendations completed with a status of FinishedWithSuccess or FinishedWithError. Actions current, scheduled, and finished: list actions completed in active and scheduled recommendations. If available, you can select a recommendation to power down, move, and power up a VM. Using reporting best practices, create a copy of the Recommendations report. Modify the report to collect data in the last 24 hours, for a specific cluster, with added charts of Effective CPU Load and Effective Memory Load. This report details VM movements and resource allocations with resource status. Schedule the report daily after maintenance. In this scenario, create a copy of a report and customize the recommendations report for a specific host. 1. Select the Recommendations report, and click Duplicate & Edit. 2. Modify the name of the report. 3. For each recommendation content section, select Last 24 Hours for the time period. 4. Click Add Content. 5. Select Feature in the Group By drop-down menu, and click Virtualization. All virtualization resources display. 52

53 6. Select Effective CPU Load, and click Select and Continue. 7. Select the cluster for the report, and click Add to Layout. For this scenario, select vim-hyperv-cluster-01. To modify the chart format, click Edit Chart. 8. Click Add Content. 9. Select Feature in the Group By drop-down menu, and click Virtualization. All virtualization resources display. 10. Select Effective Memory Load, and click Select and Continue. 11. Select use previously specified objects, and click Add to Layout. The cluster vim-hyperv-cluster-01 should be selected by default. To modify the chart format, click Edit Chart. 12. Click Next to preview the report. To make additional changes, and click Back. 53

54 13. Click Next to enter specific properties for the report including description, report category, and comments. 14. Click Next to set a schedule. For this example, select No schedule needed. 15. Click Next to review the Summary, and click Submit. Review the recommendations report In this scenario, a customized Recommendations report with added memory and CPU charts for vimhyperv-cluster-01 runs on a daily schedule after maintenance at 6 a.m. Any recommendations requiring VM movements are scheduled during this maintenance window, including actions to move VMs between hosts. Review the report to verify the recommendation is completed. In this report, an error occurred with the recommendation. 1. Open the report ed to you after the report runs for the night. A failed recommendation and action have a status of FinishedWithError. 2. To troubleshoot the reported recommendation, click My Dashboards > Virtualization > Recommendations. 3. On the Recommendations page, click the History tab. A list of completed recommendations displays, including the failure. The failed recommendation displays with a critical error, time, and message. 4. Select the recommendation to open the issue and identify which step failed. In this example, the kmiele-vman VM could not be moved due to the management tools for responding. Troubleshoot the possible timeout or account access issues with the native tools to resolve the issue for future recommendation actions. Take additional actions as necessary. 54

55 Resource optimization Learn more about VMAN resource optimization and troubleshooting: Optimize VM resources Evaluate VMs using the Sprawl dashboard Manage snapshots Manage orphan VMDK files Manage and troubleshoot VMs using AppStack Optimize VM resources Your virtual machine environment can quickly grow in size and number of resources, becoming unmanageable or difficult to monitor over time. To help manage your environment, Virtualization Manager provides tools to easily evaluate current usage, locate possible allocation issues, and manage resources. Recommendations help review and manage VMs with predictive actions for pinpointed trends and metrics for VMs that could cause or encounter issues. VMAN provides additional historical data and metric reporting through dashboards to locate and manage stale, zombie, and rogue VMs. With this continuously polled and collected data, you can better understand and troubleshoot: Active usage of your VMs Allocated resources to over and under utilized systems, requiring balancing Stale, zombie, and rogue VMs costing your company in unused or overused resource Sprawl dashboard Virtualization Manager provides a consolidated view through the Sprawl dashboard to help monitor and manage VMs through resources using specific queries and events. The Sprawl dashboard tracks the vital issues that occur in a sprawling environment: resource allocations, snapshots, alerts, and VM resource status. Using the dashboard, you can reclaim wasted VM resources including idle and stale VMs, optimize performance by right-sizing under- and over- allocated VMs, remove orphaned VMDK files, and manage snapshots. As you review these options, you can click on linked VMs to review additional information. To directly access the VM, use the Virtualization Manager Tools in the node view. Depending on your configured recommendations, some of these resources may not display data when first installed. You can add additional resources by editing the page. The Sprawl dashboard includes the following options for reviewing and managing resources: 55

56 RESOURCE Top 10 VMs by Underallocated vcpus DESCRIPTION Displays powered on VMs with an average CPU load over 70% in the last 7 days. These systems may need additional resources, constantly under heavy load and usage. Top 10 VMs by Overallocated vcpus Displays powered on VMs with two or more CPUs with a peak sum of CPU load has not exceeded 30% in the last 7 days. These systems have resources better balanced and used by underallocated VMs. Top 10 VMs by Underallocated Memory Displays powered on VMs with an average memory consumption over 80% in the last 7 days, ballooning in usage. These systems may need additional resources, constantly under heavy load and usage. Top 10 VMs by Overallocated Memory Displays powered on VMs with 2 or more MBs of memory and the average memory usage has not exceeded 30% in the last 7 days. These systems have resources better balanced and used by underallocated VMs. Top 10 VMs by Snapshot Disk Usage Displays the latest snapshots taken of the VMs with details on location and size. You can review these snapshots and delete as needed to reclaim space and clear out older snapshots. VMs Idle for the Last Week Displays the VMs idle over the past 7 days with an option to power off the VM. The data includes the average CPU, IOPS, and Net throughput, helping identify zombied VMs. Idle VMs are not actively in use, best used by under-allocated VMs needing more CPU load, memory, and space. VMs Powered Off for More Than 30 Days Displays VMs not powered up or in use for over 30 days. These are stale VMs. These VMs are lost space, best removed or reallocated to under-allocated VMs needing more CPU load, memory, and space. VMs that might benefit from decreasing vcpus Displays VMs over-allocated with CPUs compared to the tracked load and usage. Reducing the CPUs can help in costs without degrading performance. 56

57 RESOURCE DESCRIPTION Do not reduce the amount of CPUs below the recommended amounts for the OS. Orphaned VMDKs Displays orphaned VMDK files: VMDK files with an associated datastore and without a connected VM. You can delete the datastore through the resource to directly manage the VMDK files. If you monitor only a part of your virtual environment in the Orion Web Console, the datastore files that are displayed in this resource might be in use by other, unmonitored hosts. Deleting datastore files that are still in use will irreversibly damage the virtual machine the datastore file belongs to, and you will lose data. AppStack You have access to a powerful troubleshooting tool called AppStack. The AppStack displays a visual representation of the entire environment to quickly scan for warning and critical status issues. As you hover over each item, you can review additional status data for at-a-glance insight into issues. Click a monitored node to drill down into additional details pages to further investigate and resolve problems. Some issues deeper in the environment can bubble up through higher layers. With the visual map of the environment with tooltip status and details, you can clearly pinpoint the originating issue and VM. Evaluate VMs using the Sprawl dashboard While the AppStack provides troubleshooting of VMs through visual review, the Sprawl dashboard breaks down top issues into resource views with captured metrics. With the ease and scalability of VMs, these environments tend to sprawl over time causing overallocation of resources, systems overwhelmed with snapshots, stale or zombie VMs misusing resources, and orphaned VMDK files. The Sprawl dashboard helps solve these issues by: Pinpointing key areas of VM resource usage and metrics Providing options to directly manage VMs This example resolves issues with over and under allocated systems: 1. To open the Sprawl dashboard, click My Dashboard > Virtualization > Sprawl. The Sprawl dashboard populates with VM data giving a historical view into the environment. 57

58 2. Examine the Top 10 VMs by Over-allocated vcpus resource to determine which VMs have overallocated CPU amounts. This resource displays powered on VMs with two or more CPUs with a peak sum of CPU load that has not exceeded 30% in the last 7 days. You can directly balance CPU allocation, freeing resources for under-allocated systems. 58

59 3. To free up CPUs, click Change CPU/Memory Resources for a virtual system. A recommended amount of CPUs is listed based on usage. The VM AF_Storage has 3 CPUs over-allocated based on the historical CPU load data. 4. Enter 1 for the Number of processors. Select the option to power off and make changes to the VM. 5. Click Save. 6. Examine the Top 10 VMs by Over-allocated Memory resource to determine which VMs have overallocated memory amounts. This resource displays powered on VMs with 2 or more MBs of memory and the average memory usage has not exceeded 30% in the last 7 days. You can directly balance the Memory allocation, freeing resources for under-allocated systems. 59

60 7. To free up memory, click Change CPU/Memory Resources for a virtual system. A recommended amount of CPUs is listed based on usage. The VM lab-vmtools-win10-32bit has 3 GB over-allocated that could be used by under-allocated systems. 8. Select 1024 MB (1 GB) from the drop-down menu. The drop-down menu provides multiple options based on the allocated amount or Custom Value. 9. Click Save. After the next polling, the sprawl dashboard updates with under and over-allocated systems. The released resources on the host can be allocated to other VMs on those hosts. Manage snapshots Snapshots copy the entire VM including configurations and applications, creating large files that require storage in your environment. Over time, snapshots can overwhelm servers or take up space best used by active processes. You can manage snapshots using AppStack, the VM Details page, or with the sprawl dashboard. To manage VMs that are losing capacity to snapshots, SolarWinds recommends using the Sprawl dashboard. The following example shows you have to determine if any snapshots need to be removed from your database backup VM. Reducing these snapshots provides additional capacity for automated database backups: Prior to deleting the snapshot, verify if the snapshot should be deleted or stored. When deleted, the snapshot cannot be recovered. 60

61 1. Click My Dashboard > Virtualization > Sprawl. 2. Locate the Top 10 VMs by Snapshot Disk Usage resource. This resource lists the largest snapshots per VM. In this example, syd-hyv-vman-01 holds a number of database backups as snapshots. 3. To remove snapshots, click Delete Snapshots for syd-hyv-vman-01. A page opens with a list of snapshots and their children. The flag icon shows where you are in the list of VMs and snapshots. 4. Select a snapshot to delete. You can only select one snapshot at a time to delete. For this example, you determine Snapshot 3 and all children can be deleted safely. Select the top most Snapshot 3 and the option to delete all children. 5. Click Delete. The snapshots are deleted from the VM, reclaiming space. The updated capacity and storage usage totals for the VM display during the next polling. 61

62 Manage orphan VMDK files VMAN continues tracking VMDK files, listing all located orphan VMDK files with detailed information. You can select the datastore to review more information and determine if the VMDK should be deleted. If you do not monitor all virtual systems as nodes in the Orion Web Console, the listed datastore files could be used by unmonitored hosts. Prior to deleting these datastores, verify if the VMDK file can be cleanly deleted. In this example, you may review all orphaned VMDKs once a month to reclaim misused resources and remove obsolete data. With VMs removed, you no longer require these VMDK files. In this example, you review these VMDK files and remove those determined obsolete. 1. Click My Dashboard > Virtualization > Sprawl. 2. Locate the Orphaned VMDKs resource. This resource lists the orphaned VMDKs per VM, including all associated VM datastore info, the size, and an option to delete the datastore. Reviewing this information, the rio-vcenter and riovcenter VMDKs should be removed. The VMs were deleted at the beginning of the month, leaving these files taking up a large amount of space with an associated VM. 62

63 3. To delete the orphans, click Delete datastore file for rio-vcenter. A message displays verifying if you want to delete the VMDK. 4. Click Delete. Repeat the process for the Riovcenter VMDK. VMAN deletes the orphaned VMDK files from the environment. Manage and troubleshoot VMs using AppStack With VMAN integrated with Server & Application Monitor (SAM) and the Orion Platform, the AppStack maps your entire environment with a visual representation of objects and status. Every node and application, through VM clusters down to datastores, is displayed with icons indicating warning and critical issues. At-a-glance, you can troubleshoot issues by reviewing the mapped applications and underlying infrastructure. Selecting an icon highlights related servers, to better track down and resolve the root cause. Regardless of your sprawling environment size, AppStack allows you to immediately detect issues and locate the source. With the expanded features of VMAN, you can further restart or suspend VMs, delete snapshots, and more. In this example, a datastore encounters performance issues displaying a critical alert in the environment: 1. To view the entire network in the AppStack, click My Dashboard > Environment. For this example, we find one of the datastores encountering an issue, possibly causing additional issues up through the AppStack. By resolving this issue, we could solve others. The tooltip displays 63

64 limited free space compared to the capacity. This could lead to latency issues. 64

65 2. The AppStack highlights all connected servers to help pinpoint potential issues and related servers. The overview shows the VM has 3 critical and 6 servers offline. Only the related servers display with the datastore selected. 65

66 3. Click the server from this overview to open the details page and further troubleshoot. A server-specific AppStack is also displayed in this page. As you resolve the issues, you can view this AppStack for locating associated issues throughout the environment. 4. Further reviewing the details page, you locate the captured alerts for the specific datastore, related servers, and additional performance metrics. Based on reviewing this data, the datastore shows: A related VM with old snapshots Datastore Overallocation and High Latency alerts for this VM 66

67 Using management tools and options in the VM details page, resolve these issues to clear the alerts. When resolved, the AppStack updates with the next polling to displays the latest status. If additional alerts are captured, use the AppStack to troubleshoot and drill down into the VMs as with this example. 67

68 VMAN features Learn more about Virtualization Manager, integration benefits with the Orion Platform: VMAN and NPM VM monitoring VMAN and SAM AppStack VMAN and SRM VM storage management VMAN and NPM VM monitoring Network Performance Monitor (NPM) provides extensive monitoring of managed nodes in your environment. Virtual machine monitoring provides general information in NPM. You would need to continue using native VM tools to locate and compile detailed usage metrics, performance, and health monitoring. VMAN monitors and reports this data automatically into NPM VM nodes without using native tools. Virtualization Manager integration provides: Virtual node (vnode) monitoring without needing to manage VMs as a node Status and information details for clusters, hosts, datastores, networks, and VMs Data details for all VMs in your environment even if not managed Additional VM management tools for monitored VM nodes to power on and off and moving a VM Options to allocate resources and manage VMs through the Orion Web Console Resource utilization and load monitoring for CPU, memory, network, IOPS, and latency Alerts, events, and recommendations for managing VMs and resolving issues These products work together to provide deeper monitoring and alerting for virtual environments: 68

69 1. Click My Dashboards > Home > Summary. 2. Expand the All Nodes view to locate and select a VM. In this image, hover over the VM syd-esx-01.lab.tex to view additional information. 69

70 3. Click syd-esx-01.lab.tex to open the details page. Integrated with VMAN, the node details page displays with virtualization resources and collected VM data. The node page for ESX host syd-esx-01.lab.tex provides additional information including an expandable virtual environment, resource usage, and virtualization alerts. The following image displays historical resource usage data for a VM in the ESX host. VMAN and SAM AppStack Server & Application Monitor (SAM) monitors and reports on the applications in your environment as nodes. An integral feature of SAM is the AppStack, a visual representation of your environment from the top most layers of groups and applications, down through to the lowest layers of pools, servers, and storage arrays. Orion Platform products integrated with SAM add additional data to the AppStack. With Virtualization Manager integrated, you can view virtual machines in your environment including hosts, clusters, datacenters, virtual centers, and more. Review the AppStack to locate issues and drill-down through the environment layers to determine the root cause Gain at-a-glance status for all objects Hover over objects to display additional information Select represented nodes to access details pages for additional info and troubleshooting 70

71 VMAN and SRM VM storage management When integrated with Storage Resource Manager (SRM), the Orion Platform provides visibility into all levels of storage layers and servers in your environment, enabling you to locate issues and manage resources at every layer of your infrastructure. SRM works together with VMAN to provides additional storage details at every VM environment level. Every VM includes far more information than total capacity and free space. With SRM and VMAN, you see: 71

72 Detailed storage summaries and information from the host to the LUN level Every data array and LUN Detailed LUN data through the Storage Summary page Storage troubleshooting alerts and information Predictive storage usage and depletion based on trending data These products work together to enhance the depths of data and server status monitored and reported into the Orion Platform. 1. Click My Dashboards > Virtualization > Virtualization Summary. 2. In the Virtualization Assets resource, expand and click an object in the virtual environment. In this image, select the cluster tex-2k8-2luns to open the virtual details page. 3. In the details page, click Storage. The Storage Details page provides in-depth status data for the VM. The following image displays the Storage Data resource with links to related servers in the environment, total and used capacity, IOPS information, and hover over tooltip information. 72

73 Get connected This section contains information on accessing the SolarWinds Customer Portal and engaging with THWACK, the SolarWinds community of IT pros: Access the Customer Portal Set up additional Customer Portal user accounts Engage with the SolarWinds community Access the Customer Portal The SolarWinds Customer Portal provides access to license and maintenance information, support cases, and product downloads, as well as live and instructor-led virtual classroom training. Create your user profile To create a user profile, you must know the SolarWinds customer ID (SWID) issued to your company. If you are a SolarWinds customer but do not have a SWID, contact SolarWinds Customer Support. Users with multiple SWIDs require only one user profile. Your user profile can be linked to multiple SWIDs. 1. Go to customerportal.solarwinds.com. 2. Click the Register tab. 3. Enter your organization's SWID and your address. If you have multiple SWIDs, enter any SWID to create your profile. Later, use the User Profile menu to link the other SWIDs to your profile. The account administrator will review the request, and you will receive an when it is approved. For more information about creating an account, see this FAQ page. 73

74 Explore the Customer Portal Manage licenses and access license keys. Download purchased products. Open a new support case and monitor existing cases. Download free trials of integrated products. Sign up for training. Set up additional Customer Portal user accounts If you are an account administrator for the SolarWinds Customer Portal, you can add additional user accounts and define each user's access level. Set up additional accounts to allow other users to view information in the portal, create a support case, access information about existing support cases, or sign up for training. 74