CAPACITY MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES FOR VBLOCK INFRASTRUCTURE PLATFORMS

Transcription

1 CAPACITY MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES FOR VBLOCK INFRASTRUCTURE PLATFORMS August 2011 WHITE PAPER 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 1

2 Table of Contents Executive Summary... 3 Why is Capacity Management Important?... 3 Scope of This Paper... 3 Audience... 3 Terminology... 4 Capacity Management Overview... 5 What is Capacity Management?... 5 Guidelines for Implementing Capacity Management... 5 Choose the Right Toolset and Capacity Management Database (CDB)... 5 Select a Process Owner... 6 Define Resource Lifecycle Requirements... 6 Measure Key Performance Metrics... 6 Establish Baselines... 6 Collect Workload Forecasts From Consumers... 6 Analyze Results... 7 Establish Regular Metering and Chargeback (Optional)... 7 Establish Capacity Triggers... 7 Model Resource Requirements... 7 Guideline Summary... 7 What to Monitor... 8 Vblock Infrastructure Platforms... 8 Key Monitoring Metrics and Events... 9 VMware vsphere Virtualization Software... 9 EMC Storage Cisco Network Switches Cisco Unified Computing System Considerations for Choosing a Toolset Monitoring Tools Considerations Capacity Management Tools Considerations Conclusion References VMware vsphere Virtualization Software Cisco Nexus Switches Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) EMC Celerra EMC CLARiiON EMC Symmetrix VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 2

3 Executive Summary Why spend money unnecessarily? Effective capacity management makes efficient use of existing capacity, minimizes waste of computing resources, and plans for the need to accommodate any spikes in resource demands. To address the challenges of managing capacity in the virtualized data center, IT managers need endto-end visibility into their physical and virtual resources. In comparison to traditional data centers, managing capacity in the virtualized data center of today presents unique challenges for IT organizations. Exact measurement of available physical resources is difficult because the capacity is hidden behind a layer of virtualization. To uncover those physical attributes, IT managers need processes and toolsets that enable the necessary visibility into infrastructure capacity and performance. Why is Capacity Management Important? Understanding, forecasting, and fine tuning application and infrastructure component usage helps to improve performance and reduce consumption, which lowers costs and allows more consistent levels of IT services. With an effective capacity management strategy in place, IT operations can provide more efficient and comprehensive service levels, while making efficient use of the existing infrastructure. Effective capacity management allows IT operations to: Optimize use of existing infrastructure Lower capital expenses by accurately predicting future capacity resource requirements Properly and efficiently plan for new infrastructure purchases Improve service quality Eliminate redundant work Ensure consistent reporting of performance and capacity Provision capacity efficiently and in a timely manner Uncover bottlenecks before business services are adversely affected Scope of This Paper This white paper provides guidance to organizations that have not yet implemented capacity management in Vblock Infrastructure Platforms. This white paper includes: General guidelines for implementing capacity management on Vblock Infrastructure Platforms A closer look at what to monitor for Vblock Infrastructure Platforms for capacity management purposes Guidelines for evaluating and choosing an effective toolset for your specific virtual environment Audience Directors of IT, Operations Managers, and technical staff looking to integrate or implement capacity management for Vblock Infrastructure Platforms will benefit from reading this paper VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 3

4 Terminology Table 1 defines terms used in this document. Table 1. Terminology Term Alert Capacity Management Capacity Planning Event Performance Monitoring Vblock Infrastructure Platform Definition A warning that a threshold has been reached, something has changed, or a failure has occurred. Alerts are often created and managed by System Management tools and are managed by the Event Management Process. Discipline that ensures IT infrastructure is provided at the right time in the right volume at the right price, and ensuring that IT is used in the most efficient manner. Estimating the space, computer hardware, software and connection infrastructure resources that will be needed over some future period. Providing satisfactory service levels to users in a cost- effective manner. Any detectable or discernable occurrence that has significance for the management of the IT infrastructure or the delivery of IT service and the evaluation of the impact a deviation might cause to the services. Ongoing monitoring and analysis of system performance to ensure appropriate levels of capacity have been provisioned and resources are optimally tuned. Engineered, pre-tested, and validated units of IT infrastructure guaranteed to perform at a defined level. Vblock Infrastructure Platforms are the industry s first completely integrated IT offering that combines high quality networking, computing, storage, virtualization, management, and security technologies with end-to-end vendor accountability VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 4

5 Capacity Management Overview Virtualization technologies help IT managers utilize infrastructure resources more efficiently, but virtualization also makes physical resource requirements harder to determine because the virtual servers are abstracted from the physical hardware. However, the right capacity management solution can help assure high performance of business-critical virtualized applications, while saving time and money. The following sections define capacity management in the context of this paper and provide some guidelines for developing an effective capacity management strategy. What is Capacity Management? The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL ) defines capacity management as a discipline or system of rules that ensures the sufficient, timely, and cost-effective provision of IT infrastructure resources to maximize IT operational efficiency. Effective capacity management requires input from many different areas of the business to identify which services will be required, what IT infrastructure will be required to support these services, what level of contingency will be needed, and how much this infrastructure will cost. Guidelines for Implementing Capacity Management Efficient and cost-effective capacity management on a virtualized, converged infrastructure such as Vblock Infrastructure Platforms requires a dynamic, agile strategy that incorporates processes and methodologies based on business needs. The following are guidelines for developing an effective capacity management strategy: Select a Capacity Management Database (CDB) Select a Process Owner Define Resource Lifecycle Requirements Measure Key Performance Metrics Choose the Right Toolset Establish Baselines Collect Workload Forecasts from IT Service Consumers Analyze Results Establish Regular Metering and Chargeback (Optional) Establish Capacity Triggers Model Resource Requirements Choose the Right Toolset and Capacity Management Database (CDB) Once you have moved to a converged and virtualized infrastructure, it is necessary to re-evaluate your monitoring and capacity planning strategy. When selecting an approach, ensure that it can scale across the enterprise and can import a wide variety of data sources. The tool or toolset must provide end-to-end visibility throughout the Vblock infrastructure. Refer to Considerations for Choosing a Toolset for more information about choosing the best toolset for the environment VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 5

6 ITIL recommends establishing a CDB as a subset of a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). A CDB can be constructed manually, for example, through a spreadsheet-based process, or can be purchased as part of a capacity management toolset that maintains a relational database. The CDB is the cornerstone of a successful capacity management process because it organizes all the business, financial, technical, and service information received and generated by capacity management processes in relation to the capacity of the infrastructure and its elements. When selecting or building a CDB, ensure that it supports input from a variety of systems and external sources. Capacity management is an ongoing process, and therefore, the CDB must be kept current and up to date. Select a Process Owner Next, select an owner for the capacity management process who understands all aspects of the company s business and is able to communicate effectively with all business units. It is critical for the process owner to verify that accurate data is entered into the CDB to ensure the credibility of the capacity plan. This process owner is accountable for designing, implementing, and maintaining the overall capacity management process. Define Resource Lifecycle Requirements After selecting a CDB and a process owner, next define the processes, workflows, approvals, and schedules associated with the workloads in your virtualized environment. In particular, it is important to understand resource provisioning and decommissioning processes to avoid virtual machine (VM) sprawl and to manage resources efficiently. Measure Key Performance Metrics The next step is to populate the CDB with critical infrastructure resource IDs and associated metrics. Start by determining which services, servers, and devices are critical to meeting future capacity needs, and subsequently identify the key metrics that should be measured. Focus on collecting metrics that are critical to performance and capacity management. This activity is the focus of the second part of this paper, What to Monitor for Vblock Infrastructure Platforms. Establish Baselines Once the new environment is deployed, it is recommended that you measure the current performance of Vblock resources. The results, which should be recorded in the CDB, will provide: A baseline from which future trends can be projected and analyzed An indication of currently available capacity and potential performance bottlenecks Understanding the performance of individual components and the system as a whole makes capacity planning and management easier and more efficient. Collect Workload Forecasts From Consumers Capacity planning output depends on accurate workload forecasting input. This activity will require detailed conversations with consuming business units and/or customers. After the workload forecasts are collected, the associated current and future resource requirements to meet those forecasts are then established. This information consumer mapping to resources, targets and forecasts should then be entered into the CDB VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 6

7 Analyze Results Once you have carried out the above steps, the information contained in the CDB can be used to: Assess utilization Review resource demands Determine peak users, sessions, and processes Identify performance bottlenecks Run what-if analysis Forecast capacity resources Establish Regular Metering and Chargeback (Optional) Metering and chargeback data can provide valuable input to the capacity management process, as driven by your business model. Chargeback systems based on allocated or actual resource usage complement capacity management by accounting for the operational costs involved in providing and maintaining an IT infrastructure, including the costs for IT services and applications. Refer to Vblock Infrastructure Platforms Guidelines For Metering And Chargeback Using VMware vcenter Chargeback ( for more information. Establish Capacity Triggers Next, you will want to identify when and under what circumstances changes to your environment are required. This exercise will involve reviewing the metrics in your CDB and identifying thresholds for each. For instance, detecting an alarming trend for a particular CPU s usage will allow you to determine what to do about it incur performance degradation or increase the resource capacities required to eliminate bottlenecks or other perceived issues. Model Resource Requirements Now that you have carried out the steps described above, you are in a position to model the forecasted resource requirements. Typically, this is carried on a semi-annual or annual basis. This information provides you with management insight and justification to the business or IT related expenditures. Guideline Summary Without proper capacity management, infrastructure resources may not be used optimally and unnecessary investments are made resulting in unnecessary costs. Worse still, not enough resources are available, leading to degraded quality of service or loss of business. A capacity management strategy based on the guidelines described above can ensure that the right resources are available at the right time at the right price VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 7

8 What to Monitor Once the CDB is ready for use, populate it with critical infrastructure resource IDs and associated metrics. Start by determining which services, servers, and devices are critical to meeting future capacity needs, and subsequently identify the key metrics that should be measured. Focus on collecting metrics that are critical to performance and capacity management. The following sections describe key infrastructure components and metrics critical to efficient capacity management. Vblock Infrastructure Platforms Before examining key metrics to monitor, it is important to understand the components of Vblock Infrastructure Platforms with which those metrics are associated. Vblock Infrastructure Platforms provide pre-engineered, production-ready (fully tested) virtualized infrastructure components, including the best of breed cloud offerings from Cisco, EMC, and VMware. Vblock Infrastructure Platforms are designed and built to satisfy a broad range of specific customer implementation requirements. Refer to the following for detailed information: Table 2 describes the Vblock platforms. Table 3 describes the key components of each Vblock platform. Table 2. Vblock Infrastructure Platforms Platform Vblock Series 300 Vblock Series 700 Description Designed to address a wide spectrum of virtual machines, users, and applications. Ideally suited to achieve the scale required in both private and public cloud environments. Scales from smaller to mid sized deployments of CRM and SCM, , file and print, and collaboration. Deployed for massive scaling with ERP, CRM, and virtual desktops in configurations that are extensible to meet the most demanding IT requirements of any enterprise or service provider. Utilizes a SAN storage medium. UCS local boot disks are optional. Table 3. Vblock Components Category Vblock Series 300 Vblock Series 700 Compute Cisco UCS B200M2 B250M2 B440M1 B230M1 Cisco UCS B200M2 B250M2 B440M1 B230M1 Network Cisco Nexus 1000V Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches Cisco MDS 9000 Series SAN switch Cisco Nexus 1000V Cisco MDS 9000 Series SAN switch Storage 300 HX EMC VNX GX EMC VNX MX EMC Symmetrix VMAX Drive Types EFD 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 8

9 Category Vblock Series 300 Vblock Series FX EMC VNX EX EMC VNX 5300 Drive Types EFD SAS NL-SAS Fibre Channel SATA Virtualization Compute/Networking Management VMware vsphere 4 Enterprise Plus Suite Cisco UCS Manager/Cisco Fabric Manager Storage Management EMC Unisphere EMC Symmetrix Management Console Orchestration EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager (UIM) 2.1 Advanced Management Pod (AMP) (optional) Security Individual component security tools and protocols RSA envision, RSA SecurID (both optional) Key Monitoring Metrics and Events The following sections list key metrics and events to monitor for capacity management purposes, as determined by industry and vendor best practice guidelines. These metrics and events are associated with the following major components of the Vblock platform: VMware vsphere virtualization software EMC storage Cisco switches Cisco compute blades VMware vsphere Virtualization Software The virtualization elements to monitor within the VMware vsphere environment are: Virtual Machines ESX Hosts Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Clusters Resource Pools To manage capacity, performance categories associated with each of these elements must be tracked. As you read these sections, pay special attention to these critical areas: CPU Ready Indicates how much time a virtual machine has been waiting for space to run on a physical CPU. The higher the ready time is, the slower the virtual machine is performing. Memory Balloon Indicates how much memory the hypervisor is taking from a virtual machine to keep it under a limit or to be reallocated. Ideally, this value is close to zero. A higher value indicates that a virtual machine has a limit preventing it from getting all the memory it needs to run VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 9

10 Memory Swapped Indicates how much memory the host is forced to push to disk storage because of a memory shortage. This metric should also be close to or at zero in an environment that is performing well with enough memory for all the virtual machines. For more information, refer to the documents listed in the References section of this paper. Virtual machine metrics A virtual machine is a tightly isolated software container that can run its own operating systems and applications as if it were a physical computer. A virtual machine behaves exactly like a physical computer and contains it own virtual (that is, software-based) CPU, RAM, storage, and network interface card (NIC). A virtual machine is composed entirely of software and contains no hardware components whatsoever. Attribute Metric Category CPU CPU Usage CPU Usage in MHz CPU Used CPU Ready CPU System CPU Wait Memory Memory Memory Balloon Memory Balloon Target Memory Usage Memory Active Memory Granted Memory Consumed Memory Swapped Disk Disk Read Rate Disk Write Rate Disk Usage Disk Read Requests Disk Write Requests Network Network Usage Network Data Transmit Rate Network Data Receive Rate 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 10

11 ESX host metrics VMware ESX and VMware ESXi are bare-metal hypervisor architectures, meaning they install directly on top of the physical server and partition it into multiple virtual machines that can run simultaneously, sharing the physical resources of the underlying server. Attribute Metric Category CPU CPU Usage CPU Usage in MHz CPU Used Memory Memory Balloon Memory Usage Memory Active Memory Granted Memory Consumed Memory Swapped Used Memory Shared Common Disk Disk Read Rate Disk Write Rate Disk Usage Disk Read Requests Disk Write Requests Network Network Usage Network Data Transmit Rate Network Data Receive Rate Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Cluster metrics VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is one of the technologies you can use to configure vsphere resources and improve vsphere management. DRS clusters represent the aggregate computing and memory resources of a group of ESX hosts, and act and can be managed much like ESX hosts. Attribute Metric Category CPU CPU Usage in MHz Cluster Services Effective CPU Resources Effective Memory Resources Current Failover Level Memory Memory Balloon Memory Usage Memory Active Memory Granted Memory Shared Common Memory Swapped Used 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 11

12 Resource Pool metrics Resource pools are another control to help with vsphere resource management. Resource pools allow systems administrators to divide and allocate CPU and memory resources to virtual machines and other resource pools within a standalone ESX host or DRS cluster. By defining shares, reservations, and limits for a resource pool or virtual machine, the systems administrator controls the guaranteed amount, both minimum and maximum, of CPU and memory to allocate. Attribute Metric Category CPU CPU Usage in MHz Memory Memory Balloon Memory Balloon Target Memory Usage Memory Active Memory Granted Memory Consumed Memory Swapped EMC Storage The following are key events to monitor for EMC storage systems. These events provide an effective balance of events relating to the performance of the EMC storage system, as well as its overall availability and capacity. Pay close attention to monitoring thin pools and their used and free capacity. It is vital that thin pools contain available data device capacity to avoid a pool full condition, which occurs when thin devices bound to an oversubscribed thin pool have free capacity but the underlying thin pool is full. For more information, refer to the documents listed in the References section of this paper. Component Storage Processors/Directors Event Utilization (%) Total Throughput (I/O/sec) Read Throughput (I/O/sec) Write Throughput (I/O/sec) Read Bandwidth (MB/s) Write Bandwidth (MB/s) LUN Performance Metrics Response Time (ms) Total Throughput (I/O/sec) Read Throughput (I/O/sec) Write Throughput (I/O/sec) Read Bandwidth (MB/s) Write Bandwidth (MB/s) Average Busy Queue Length Utilization (%) 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 12

13 Component Event Disk Utilization (%) Response Time (ms) Total Throughput (I/O/sec) Read Throughput (I/O/sec) Write Throughput (I/O/sec) Read Bandwidth (MB/s) Write Bandwidth (MB/s) Average Busy Queue Length Thin Pools Percent Full (%) Percent Subscribed (%) Available Capacity (GB) Subscribed Capacity (GB) Oversubscribed By RAID Groups Free Capacity (Blocks) Logical Capacity (Blocks) Raw Capacity (Blocks) Number of LUNs (Count) Cisco Network Switches The following are key metrics to monitor on Cisco switches. For more information, refer to the documents listed in the References section of this paper. Component Metric CPU CPU Utilization (%) Memory Memory Utilization (%) Interface Interface Utilization (%) 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 13

14 Cisco Unified Computing System In a Cisco UCS, a fault is a mutable object that is managed by Cisco UCS Manager. Each fault represents a failure in the Cisco UCS instance, or an alarm threshold that has been raised. Refer to the Cisco UCS Manager Configuration Guide for information on how to set up UCS system monitoring. The following are key components in a Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) where faults may arise. Components Chassis Fabric Interconnect I/O Module Memory Network Processor Server Service Profile 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 14

15 Considerations for Choosing a Toolset Conventional monitoring and capacity management tools struggle in the virtual world. Many considerations need to be taken into account when evaluating capacity management toolsets for virtualized, converged infrastructures like Vblock Infrastructure Platforms. The following sections provide some considerations to keep in mind when evaluating and choosing toolsets. Monitoring Tools Considerations Over the past few years, organizations have realized the benefits of virtualization, but have been reluctant to move too swiftly. This was due in part to the lack of available tools to efficiently monitor a virtualized environment. Today however, most Enterprise Monitoring Solutions offer feature-rich applications for monitoring virtual machines that can include security, backups, reporting, alerting, or automation. The virtualized environment is dynamic, with complex features such as VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler, vmotion, and High Availability (HA). A monitoring solution that is capable of monitoring and managing change is vital to avoid and control VM sprawl. Whether choosing a native solution or selecting a third party tool, it is important to understand your environment and your future needs. One deciding factor for many organizations when choosing a toolset is the integration into an existing solution. Most organizations have invested in a monitoring solution and do not necessarily want to redesign their entire monitoring environment. Any new complementary toolset that is introduced into this environment must be able to integrate seamlessly into an existing product. In addition, consider the following when evaluating and choosing a monitoring toolset. A monitoring toolset should: Have end-to-end visibility into both the physical and virtual stacks including physical servers, storage, and network; and virtual machines (VMs), virtual disks, virtual networks, and applications. Provide auto-discovery, a beneficial feature in a virtualized environment with limited resources and time. Perform (or collaborate with existing tools on) root cause analysis. Provide reporting at different levels of granularity to suit various types of users. Capacity Management Tools Considerations In addition to monitoring, other aspects of capacity management are impacted by virtualization. For example, it is not only important to have the necessary infrastructure to support your business needs; it is just as important to be able to plan. The main goal is to find the right balance to avoid either over-provisioning or under-provisioning your environment. Properly sizing for maximum efficiency can be a daunting task; however much focus from vendors in recent years has been on designing solutions to facilitate the process of capacity management since this process has become even more important in a virtualized world. Interaction with monitoring tools is a key deciding factor, as accurate performance data is needed to perform the proper analysis of your current environment. This "complete picture" is also important to enable performing precise what-if scenarios, and correctly forecasting if additional infrastructure is necessary to support future business. Consider the following when evaluating and choosing a capacity management toolset. A capacity management toolset should: Consolidate historical performance data from all the different data center infrastructure stacks into a single CDB from all the different stacks in the data center. Perform trending and forecasting, which are critical components of the capacity management process and important features in a capacity management toolset. Enable performing what-if scenarios related to business requirements. Analyze workloads and identify unused or over-allocated capacity, in order to eliminate waste VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 15

16 Be able to accurately report the outcome of capacity requirement modeling in business terms to the various stakeholders. Manage or interact with a tool that audits changes to your converged infrastructure VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 16

17 Conclusion In a virtualized environment, all resources must be shared, which presents some new and unique challenges to the data center when determining actual resource requirements. Ensuring that every virtual server and virtualized business-critical application has the resources it requires when it requires them presents a complex resource allocation challenge. To achieve consistent, acceptable service levels, at a known and controlled cost, define a capacity management strategy that includes: Defining the processes, workflows, approvals, and schedules associated with the workloads in your virtualized environment Identifying and collecting metrics critical to managing the performance and capacity of the resources in your environment Measuring current performance and establishing baselines Collecting and using workload forecasts from consumers to establish current and future resource requirements Following the guidelines for implementing capacity management for Vblock Infrastructure Platforms outlined in this paper will enable the development of a cost-effective capacity management strategy that assures high performance of business-critical applications and prevents performance bottlenecks. Choosing the right monitoring and capacity management toolsets for the specific environment is critical to the success of a capacity management strategy. The considerations for evaluating and choosing toolsets given in this paper can assist in making the right choice VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 17

18 References For additional information, see the documents listed below. Note: Documents on the EMC Powerlink site may require an EMC Powerlink user ID and password. VMware vsphere Virtualization Software e_metrics.html Cisco Nexus Switches Cisco Nexus 5000 and Nexus 2000 MIBs Reference ef.html Cisco MIB Locator MIBS Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Cisco UCS Manager Configuration Guide, Release 1.3(1) onfiguration_guide_1_3_1.html Cisco UCS Faults Reference EMC Celerra Configuring Celerra Events and Notifications v pdf EMC CLARiiON EMC Navisphere Event Monitor Administrator s Guide Version 5.x 0.pdf EMC Symmetrix Monitoring EMC Symmetrix Using the Solutions Enabler Event Daemon Technical Notes pdf 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 18

19 ABOUT VCE VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment Company formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that dramatically reduce the cost of IT while improving time to market for our customers. VCE, through the Vblock platform, delivers the industry's first completely integrated IT offering with end-to-end vendor accountability. VCE's prepackaged solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating and managing IT infrastructure. For more information, go to Copyright 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Vblock and the VCE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company, LLC. and/or its affiliates in the United States or other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 19