This document discusses using vCenter Operations Manager to monitor the performance of business critical applications. It provides examples of dashboards and metrics for Microsoft Exchange, SAP, and SQL Server. Key topics covered include application architecture in vCenter Operations Manager, example performance metrics across application tiers, and how to create dashboards and super metrics to monitor applications.

1. Performance Management of Business Critical
Applications using vCenter Operations Management
Vas Mitra, VMware
David Overbeek, VMware
VCM4891
#VCM4891

2. 22
Key Takeaways
 Application Architecture in vCenter Operations Manager
 Super Metrics for Tier 1 Apps
 Example dashboards for Exchange / SAP / Database – SQL Server

3. 33
Agenda
 Introduction
 Resources & Dashboards
 Microsoft Exchange
 SAP
 Database – SQL Server

4. 44
vCenter Operations Manager and BCA Adapters
OpenVPN
Postgres DB
vSphere
WebApp
Custom
WebApp
Admin
WebApp
vCenter Operations Manager vApp
UI VM
Rolled up
capacity
data
Capacity Analytics
FSDBPostgres DB
Collector
ActiveMQ
Performance Analytics
Analytics VM
Metric
Data
VMware Cloud / vCenter
vSphere
VMware vSphere UI
vCenter
Communications
over SSL
Custom UI
vSphere Adapter
BCA Adapters
Data Sources

5. 55
Performance Metrics Across the Stack
 Example Application performance
counters
• SAP – Txn Response times
• Exchange - message queues + RPC traffic
• Database cache metrics (minimize I/O)
 Guest OS counters
• SWAP, run queue, memory used/free
 Virtual counters
• I/O latency (DAVG/KAVG): < 10-20 ms
• CPU usage, % ready
vSphere
Guest OS

6. 66
vCenter Operations Manager – Adapters
Application Primary Adapters Secondary Adapters
SAP SAP CCMS none
Exchange Hyperic – Exchange Plugin SCOM
SQL Server Hyperic – SQL Plugin SCOM
SQL Loader
Oracle Hyperic – Oracle Plugin OEM (e.g. wait events)
SQL Loader
Guest OS Hyperic OS Plugin SCOM

7. 77
Database VM
Example Adapter Setup
vCenter Operations Manager vApp
UI VM
Collector
Analytics VM
Custom UI
Windows OS
Server VM
Hyperic vApp
MBX
Hyperic Agent
Perf Mon
Windows OS
CAS-HT
Hyperic Agent
Perf Mon
RFC Layer
SAP
Adapter Guest OS
Hyperic Agent
SAP Java
Connector:
sapjco.jar
jdbc:oracle:thin:
@host:port:SID
Windows OS
Hyperic Agent
Perf Mon
Hyperic Solutions Pack
HTTP Post Adapter
Live HTTP Post of Metrics
OpenDataImporter

8. 88
Resources +
Dashboards

9. 99
Resources
 Resources – monitoring entity
• e.g. SAP system, database, VM
 Within vC Ops Navigate to Resource
• To access metrics
 Single-pane-of-glass
• Mix metrics from different resources
 Pay attention to resource naming
convention
• Can be confusing
• Auto generated by adapter
Custom GUI: Environment -> Environment Overview
Guest OS counters discovered by Hyperic
vSphere metrics for VM
SAP Adapter
Hyperic Adapter
vSphere Adapter

10. 1010
Example: Create Dashboard to View a Resource
Custom GUI: Dashboards tab -> Edit
Select desired widget and drag over

11. 1111
Dashboard to View a Resource
Filter on
resources
Select
individual
metric

12. 1212
Dashboard: Widget Interactions
Custom GUI: Select Dashboard -> Interactions

13. 1313
Microsoft Exchange

14. 1414
Exchange 2010 – Some Counters
Mailbox Server
Client Access Hub
Transport Server
RPC
Clients
Exchange counters:
Transport Server Sub Queue Length
(# of messages in the queue waiting
for categorization)
Mailbox Server RPC Requests: ~50
(# of client requests currently being
processed or in the queue.)
Mailbox Server RPC Ops Per Min:
(indication of Exchange activity)
Mailbox Server RPC Avg Latency: < 50 ms
(the time taken for mailbox server to process
a request)
RPC
SMTP/http/IMAP/POP3
database database

15. 1515
Benefits of Application Design in vC Ops
 Cross Silo Performance Troubleshooting
• One source of relative truth
• Common understanding of performance impact
 IT Business Service Views
• Improved IT insight into what the Line of Business Owners care about
• Socializing IT via Application Health
• Critical Business applications focus
 Integration of Disparate IT Data/Sources

16. 1616
Exchange – Application Container
Application container = vC Ops construct , models multi-tier applications
Custom GUI: Environment -> Applications Overview -> create/edit
Exchange tiers
• Assign resources related to
Exchange Mailbox servers to
Mailbox tier
• Repeat for Client Access Hub
Transport Tier
• This allows alerts for any
metric to be rolled up the
application hierarchyAssign resources
to tier

17. 1717
Benefits of Tags in vC Ops
 Provides an elegant way to group resources along
logical boundaries
• Group resources by logical function: Departments, Organizations, Region, etc.
 Tag Values become resources that can drive vC Ops Widgets
• Heat Map filters, Health Trees, Resource Selector, etc.
 Tag Value Resources show Health and can have Alerts
• Receive Alerts by logical group, not just applications
Line of Business Region
New Tag Values
New TagNew Tag

18. 1818
Exchange – Business Tagging
Tag Value = Logical Container or Group
Custom GUI: Environment -> Manage Tags
Chose Manage Tags
• Create new tags associated with Exchange
application
• Assigned Application, Tiers and objects to
appropriate Tag Values
Create New Tags
and Tag Values
Drag and Drop Exchange
Resources onto Tag Value

19. 1919
Exchange Application Hierarchy -> Health Tree
Custom GUI: Environment -> Applications Overview -> select “Exchange 2010”
Double-click to
drill-down and
see Resource
objects
Tier
Application Container name
Business Tags
show Health

20. 2020
Exchange Super Metric Example
Super metric = calculated from multiple individual metrics
Each Mailbox Server has counter “RPC Requests” (# of client requests in queue)
We want to measure Total RPC Requests across all Mailbox servers
“BCA-EXCH03 Exchange 2010” “BCA-EXCH04 Exchange 2010”
Tier
Application Container name
Resource etc
Metric “RPC Requests” “RPC Requests”
Super
Metric
SUM [ “RPC Requests” of all Mailbox servers]
Mailbox Server 1 Mailbox Server 2

21. 2121
Exchange Super Metric Example
Custom GUI: Environment -> Super Metrics… -> Add/Edit Super Metric
Super Metric
equation
Create a Super
Metric Package
Assign a Package
to a Resource

22. 2222
Exchange – Example Dashboard

23. 2323
SAP

24. 2424
SAP Some Useful Counters + Example Values
 SAP application performance
counters CCMS module
• Dialog response times: < 1 sec (OLTP)
• DB Response time: < 400 ms (OLTP)
• # of users by app server
• batch utilization
(measure of batch activity)
 For Database drill-down
• See database example
App 1
Netweaver
Database
Tier
Application
Tier
SQL Server, Oracle
+ others
App 2
Netweaver
Central
Services
Central Services is a lock
handling system:
• one per SAP system
• SPOF
• Installed in a separate VM

25. 2525
Create SAP Application Container
Custom GUI: Environment -> Applications Overview -> Select “SAP System (PRD)”
Tiers
Double-click to drill-down
and see Resource objects inc
all the app server VMs
Resources
Virtual Machine
“PRD – 10.140..44.22”
etc..
SAP Resource name
Application Container name

26. 2626
SAP Super Metric Example
Super metric = calculated from multiple individual metrics
SAP Adapter provides user count by app server (in this example we have two app servers)
We want to measure the total number of users across all app servers
“PRD – 10.140..44.22”Resource
Metric “PRDsapapp1_PRD_00 Logged On Users” “PRDsapapp1_PRD_01 Logged On Users”
App Server 1 App Server 2
Super
Metric
“PRDsapapp1_PRD_00 Logged On Users” + “PRDsapapp1_PRD_01 Logged On Users”
SAP Resource name example
only. Manually entered during
adapter installation

27. 2727
SAP Super Metric Example – Total User Count
Custom GUI: Environment -> Super Metrics… -> Add/Edit Super Metric
Super Metric equation

28. 2828
vCenter Operations Manager – Example SAP Dashboard
Online Response Time
DB Response Time
App Srv 1 App Srv 2
DB CPU Read Latency

29. 2929
Database

30. 3030
Database – Some Useful Counters + Example Values
Other Memory Areas
Main DB memory
Oracle – SGA
SQL Server – Buffer Pool
Operating System
SOME SQL Server memory counters (note others available):
• Buffer Cache hit ratio: > 90 % (% of data requests satisfied by buffer cache)
• Memory Grants Pending: ~0 (processes waiting on memory)
• Page Life Expectancy: > 300 (how long pages are staying in the buffer pool)
• Lazy Writes/sec : < 20 (# of times dirty pages moved from buffer to disk to free up space)
VMConfiguredMemory
DB memory caches data
blocks => can minimize
access to disk
App servers
Disk I/O

31. 3131
vCenter Operations Manager – Example SQL Server Dashboard
vSphere Storage latency vSphere Active memory
SQL Server memory metrics
SQL Server CPU

32. 3232
Summary
 Many Application counters
• Few examples shown here, work with App owner for final selection
 Hyperic Adapter
• Captures many applications with minimal app knowledge ( Exchange, SQL
Server, Oracle + guest OS)
• Use OEM adapter for Oracle wait events
• SCOM can be used if it is the standard in the datacenter
 For SAP use SAP adapter (no SAP counters in Hyperic)
 Use Application Containers for multi-tier apps
 Pay attention to Resource names
• Adapters auto-generate resources
 Super metrics can simplify metrics for complex multi-tier app

33. 3333
Questions

34. 3434
Resources
 Monitoring Business Critical Applications with VMware vCenter
Operations Manager – Technical Paper
http://blogs.vmware.com/apps/2013/08/monitoring-business-
critical-applications-with-vmware-vcenter-operations-manager.html
 VMware vCenter Operations Manager Adapter Guide
https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vcops-adapter-guide.pdf
 VMware vFabric TM vFabric Hyperic Plug-ins
http://www.vmware.com/products/application-platform/vfabric-
vFabric Hyperic/plugins.html
 VMware vCenter Operations Manager Documentation
https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcops-pubs.html

35. 3535
Other VMware Activities Related to This Session
 HOL:
HOL-SDC-1301
Applied Cloud Operations
HOL-SDC-1317
vCloud Suite Use Cases - Business Critical Applications
 Group Discussions:
VCM1002-GD, VCM1004-GD
Cloud Operations with Hicham Mourad or Sam McBride

36. THANK YOU

38. Performance Management of Business Critical
Applications using vCenter Operations Management
Vas Mitra, VMware
David Overbeek, VMware
VCM4891
#VCM4891