Building the Management Stack for Your

Software Defined Data Center

Bernd Harzog, The Virtualization Practice

Mark Leake, VMware

VCM4869

#VCM4869

Bernd Harzog — Virtualization Performance and

Capacity Management Analyst

• Analyst and Consultant Focused upon: — Infrastructure Performance and Capacity Management of Virtualized Systems — Application Performance Management — Transaction Performance Management — End User Experience Management

• Clients include: — Enterprises seeking

virtualization performance management solutions

— Vendors offering solutions

• Key Findings — Virtualization introduces

sharing and dynamic behavior — Agile Development produces

rapidly changing applications — Both combine to require a new

tools, organizations and management processes

Key Trends

• The demand for business functionality implemented in software is infinite (therefore so is the backlog)

• More and more software – from different sources, from different tools, in different languages, on different run times

• Scaled out commodity deployment platforms

• Distribution of applications across data centers and private/public clouds

• Virtualization of business critical and performance critical applications

• More than one hypervisor in the enterprise

• Rapidly changing applications running on dynamic platforms

• The Software Defined Data Center will deliver dramatic benefits and create significant management challenges

Virtualization is Progressing – Business Critical

Apps are now VMware’s Focus

Your New World

• Agile Development creates rapidly changing applications

• Built in diverse languages and running on diverse language runtimes

• Running on next generation deployment platforms

• Deployed on multiple virtualization platforms

• Running on scaled out commodity hardware

• Located in multiple clouds with multiple owners

Your Cloud Public Cloud Hybrid Cloud

The Principles of the SDDC

Network Virtualization

What’s Different about a Software Defined Data

Center?

• Configuration, management, and some of the functional execution of CPU, memory, networking and storage is done in the SDDC software — Example – configuration of a virtual tunnel between two VM’s across clusters or

even virtual data centers

• Some of the services currently performed by dedicated hardware appliances will be performed by software plug-ins to the SDDC — Example – load balancing and security

• Almost all of the configuration for a VM or for an N-tier application system can be done in one place, and will follow that workload around

• Since all of this configuration will be done in the SDDC software layer, and since it will all be exposed via API’s, configuration changes will occur much more frequently and easily

• Private clouds will be able to address a broad range of business critical applications since the required resources will be able to be automatically marshaled by the Cloud Management platform from the SDDC

• An SDDC supporting a private cloud will be a highly dynamic computing platform using a high degree of automation to continuously execute a variety of actions on a highly automated basis

Management Principles for the Software Defined

Data Center

• Start Over – Start with a new Reference Architecture - do not assume that any tool you have purchased automatically makes the cut

• Insist upon easy to try, easy to buy, easy to manage, and results in production before purchase

• Organize for the successful virtualization of business critical applications

• Define Performance as Latency and Response time, not Resource Utilization

• Manage every application for performance, not just the 5% most painful and important ones

• Get Real Time, Deterministic and Comprehensive about Data Collection

• Design your management architecture for the distributed cloud case even if you are not there yet

If you Don’t Believe Me!

Statistics Collection & Telemetry

Another area of focus for an open networking ecosystem should be defining a framework for common storage and query of real time and historical performance data and statistics gathered from all devices and functional blocks participating in the network. This is an area that doesn’t exist today. Similar to Quantum, the framework should provide for vendor specific extensions and plug-ins. For example, a fabric vendor might be able to provide telemetry for fabric link utilization, failure events and the hosts affected, and supply a plug-in for a Tool vendor to query that data and subscribe to network events.

http://cto.vmware.com/open-source-open-interfaces-and-open-networking/

The Worse than Useless Test

Apply this test to every single management product in your company

1. Does it operate on a real-time, continuous, and deterministic basis? 2. Does it support workloads distributed across data centers (yours and

ones you rent (cloud))? 3. Does it work across your virtualization and cloud vendor

environments? 4. Can it re-configure itself every time you change something in the

environment or in the applications? 5. Can you support it and use it without the continuous presence of on

premise consultants from the vendor of the tool? 6. If it is a monitoring tool, does it focus upon response time and

latency? 7. Can you try it, for free, in production, before you buy it or more of it?

If the answer is not “Yes” to all seven junk the tool and start over

Starting Over – Rethink ITIL and the CMDB

• ITIL is designed to get you to document and slow down the rate of change

• Don’t tell the Change Control Committee about vMotion!

• Your CMDB will never be able to keep up with rate of change in a Software Defined Data Center

• Every configuration change needs to be tracked in real time, and cross-correlated with performance degradations and resource contention

Starting Over – Rethink ITIL Business Service

Management

There will be no time to “Design Services”. They will need to be discovered automatically as they are put into production

Starting Over – Legacy Management Solutions

will Never by able to Cope with the SDDC

= • A Software Defined Data Center changes too frequently for

legacy management solutions to be able to keep up.

• Legacy solutions cannot be incrementally modified to be able to cope with the SDDC

• Gluing a new product from an acquired startup to the side of a legacy management solution cannot fix a fundamentally broken approach.

• Put the dino in a cage and do not let him out – build a new management stack for your SDDC – isolate the dino to your legacy physical environment

Blind Dinosaur

Gartner is Not Going to Be Much Help Either

• Gartner used to cover “Operations Management” tools in its “IT Event Correlation and Analysis” Magic Quadrant

• That MQ was last published in December 2012, and was retired in 2013

• Gartner has not yet come up with a

replace MQ that includes legacy vendors like IBM, BMC, HP and CA, as well as newcomers like VMware vCenter Operations, Dell vFoglight, Microsoft SCVVM, VMTurbo, etc.

Insist upon the New Way of Trying,

Implementing, and Buying Management Software

The Old Way The New Way

• Rep takes the CIO to play golf

• Enterprise software deal gets signed

• Some products work, others don’t

• People go around the ELA to get the tools they need

• You get to download and use the software in production first

• You prove to yourself that it really does work and add value in your environment

• Then (and only then) do you buy it

Organize for Virtualization of Critical Applications,

Agility, and Success

Virtualization is Just One Team

Data Center Operations

LAN Team

Windows Server Team

Linux Server Team

WAN Team

Database Team

Java Server Team

Web Server Team

SAN Team

Storage Team

Programmer/Analyst Team

Virtual Operations

Tier 3 Support

Tier 2 Support

Tier 1 Help Desk

Application Operations Support

Systems Engineering

Virtualization and Application Operations are THE Teams

• The existing IT Operations Organization will not be able to cope with the SDDC or the clouds that run on it

• Virtualization pervades IT Operations, and becomes Virtual Operations

• Application Operations is responsible for the performance of every application in production (purchased and custom developed)

Performance ≠ Resource Utilization

Performance = Response Time & Latency

The Root of All Evil

• CPU and Memory are horrible indicators of performance

Latency is the appropriate measure of infrastructure performance

Response Time is the appropriate measure of application performance

Pick The Right Vendors

A Reference Architecture for your SDDC

Management Stack

App Performance Mgmt

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Infrastructure Perf. Mgmt

The SDDC Management Stack

Cloud Management

Security*

Operations Mgmt

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Data Protection*

* Not Covered in this Presentation

Surgeon Generals Warning

Trying to use software products that do not exist (or do not work yet) is bad for your health

Big Data Repository

Potential Vendors

• VMware (LogInsights)

• Splunk

• Cloudera (Hadoop)

• 10gen (MongoDB)

• NuOdb

• Pivotal (HVE)

We Need a Multi-Vendor Management Data Store!

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Self-Learning Analytics

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Key Functionality

• All management products should feed one data store

• One version of the truth as to the state of the SDDC

• Since the SDDC is one “Domain”

• The only feasible way to do “entire-Domain” root cause and reporting

• The only feasible way to do “entire domain” analytics

Operations Management

Key Features

1.Host and guest resource utilization monitoring

2.Capacity Mgmt & Planning

3.Used by IT Operations

Example Vendors

• Cirba

• CloudPhysics

• HP (VPV)

• ManageEngine

• Quest (vOperations)

• Reflex Systems

• Solarwinds

• Splunk

• Veeam

• VMTurbo

• VMware vC OPS

• Zenoss

Key Criteria for Resource Based Performance and

Capacity Monitoring

• Out of the box value – if it is not providing value in 10 minutes junk it and find something else (auto-discovery is key)

• Collect data from vCenter AND the other virtualization platforms that you support or plan to support

• Look for the integration of performance management, capacity management, and configuration management

• Collecting, dashboarding, alerting, and reporting on vCenter data is commodity functionality – look for value in analytics and automation

Infrastructure Performance (Latency)

Management

• Servers

• Storage

• SAN Fabric

Key Features

1. Understanding of end-to-end infrastructure performance

2. Capacity management and planning

3. Infrastructure response time is the key metric

4. Used by the team supporting the virtual infrastructure

Example Vendors

• AppNeta

• ExtraHop Networks

• Riverbed

• Sevone

• Virtual Instruments

• Xangati

• Network Fabric

Key Criteria for Infrastructure Response Time

Solutions

• Measure IRT – Monitor how long it takes the infrastructure to respond to requests for work, not how much resource it takes

• Deterministic – Get the real data, not a synthetic transaction, or an average

• Real Time – Get the data when it happens, not seconds or minutes later

• Comprehensive – Get all of the data, not a periodic sample of the data

• Zero-Configuration (Discovery) – Discover the environment and its topology, and keep this up to date in real time

• Application (or VM) Aware – Understand where the load is coming from and where it is going

• Application Agnostic – Work for every workload or VM type in the environment irrespective of how the application is built or deployed

Example - Infrastructure Performance

Management & Real Time Metrics

• Knowing whether performance is good or not all of the time, requires measuring performance in a comprehensive, deterministic, and real time manner

• Averaging good transactions with bad transactions obscures the true nature and impact of the bad transactions

VMware vCenter

5 Minute Average Data

Virtual Instruments VirtualWisdom

Real Time Data

Application Performance Management

Key Features

1. Understanding of app response time across the application system

2. Used by Operations and Application Support

Example Vendors

• AppEnsure

• AppDynamics

• AppFirst

• AppNeta

• BlueStripe

• Boundary

• Confio Software

• Correlsense

• Compuware (dynaTrace)

• ExtraHop Networks

• HP (Performance Anywhere)

• New Relic

• Quest (Foglight)

• Riverbed

Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent

APM is not just for Custom Applications

Apps Ops = Every Application!

• CA/Wily

• HP Diagnostics

• IBM ITCAM

• Precise

• AppDynamics

• AppNeta (TraceView)

• Compuware

• HP (Perf. Anywhere)

• New Relic

• Quest (Foglight)

• BMC Patrol

• NetIQ

• HP BAC

• CA Unicenter/Spectrum

• AppEnsure

• AppFirst

• BlueStripe

• Boundary

• Confio Software

• Correlsense

• ExtraHop

• Riverbed

Legacy Modern

Custom Developed Apps (DevOps)

Every App (AppOps))

Key Criteria for Application Response Time

Solutions

• Measure Actual Application Response Time – How long did it take, not how much resource it used

• Breadth of Application Support – Ideally support every application running in the environment automatically (conflicts with depth)

• Depth of Root Cause Diagnostics – Provide deep analysis into the application stack for root cause (conflicts with breadth)

• Deterministic – Get the real data, not a synthetic transaction, or an average

• Real Time – Get the data when it happens, not seconds or minutes later

• Comprehensive – Get all of the data, not a periodic sample of the data

• Application Discovery and Topology Mapping – Automatically discover new applications and their topology and keep this update to date automatically and continuously

• Analytics and Baselining – Avoid manual thresholds, learn normal behavior and alarm based upon deviations from normal

• Public Cloud Ready – Allow applications to be distributed across organizational boundaries, and have monitoring work with no firewall work

Examples – Dynamic, Continuous, Real-Time

Application Response Time

AppEnsure

AppDynamics

BlueStripe

dynaTrace

Cloud Management

Key Features

1. Automated Provisioning of Services

2. Presentation of Services in a Service Catalog

Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent

Example Vendors

• BMC CLM

• Cisco (Cloupia)

• Citrix (Cloud.com)

• CloudBolt Software

• Embotics

• Eucalyptus

• FluidOps

• Piston Cloud (OpenStack)

• ServiceMesh

• VirtuStream

• VMware vCAC

The Three Phases of Cloud Management

1) AWS Clone Phase (Self-Service from IT) – Let IT offer what AWS offers – Probably not as easy – Probably not as flexible – Probably not as cheap – Why the first generation of Cloud Management failed

2) Tactical IT Agility Phase (Automated Provisioning) – Automates provisioning of tactical and simple production applications – Does not address anything that really matters to the business – Where we are now

3) Enterprise Application Phase (Lifecycle Management) – Automate the management of the applications that matter (DevOps,

SAP) – Address the core of what IT does day in and day out – The strategy for the enterprise capable Cloud Management vendors

IT Automation in Your SDDC

Puppet Chef

vFabric AppDirector

Legacy Automation Process

Populate the Image

Assemble the Application

Self-Learning Analytics – The Only Way to Keep

up with your SDDC

Self-Learning

Analytics

• The right organization, the right tools, and the right data

• Combined with the right self-learning Analytics

• Leads to an automated “entire stack” Root Cause Analysis Process

App Performance Mgmt

Automation & Orchestration

Infrastructure Perf. Mgmt

Cloud Management

Security

Operations Mgmt

Big

Data

Rep

osit

ory

Data Protection

Real Time, Deterministic and Comprehensive Data

Prelert

Netuitive

VMW vC Ops

Before You Try to be Predictive….

• Instrument your infrastructure for end-to-end latency (Infrastructure Performance Management)

• Implement a real-time operational data store that can keep up with the rate of change in your virtual environment

• Implement a modern Developer focused APM solution for your critical custom developed applications

• Implement an Operations focused APM solution to measure response time for every application

• Get as real time, deterministic, and comprehensive as possible with all of your response time and latency metrics

• Reorganize and implement an Application Operations function staffed with application domain experts

• Operationalize finding and fixing problems in real time

• Then and only then – try to get truly predictive

Evaluation Criteria for Performance Analytics

• How automated is the learning (really)

• Diversity of accepted data (time series, events)

• Frequency and quantity of data inputs

• Breadth of plug-ins to the monitoring products you own, or are going to own

• Process for learning (handling) “normal” events

• Tradeoffs between false positives (false alarms) and false negatives (you missed something)

• Ease of implementation (time and cost)

• Quality of the Analysis (can you trust it?)

The Reference Architecture with VMware

Management Solutions

Partner Solutions

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Future Networking Instrumentation

vCloud Automation Center

vShield

vCenter Operations Manager

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VDP & SRM

App Performance Mgmt

Au

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Orc

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Infrastructure Perf. Mgmt

Cloud Management

Security

Operations Mgmt

Big

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Rep

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Self

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An

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Data Protection

The SDDC Management Stack The VMware Implementation

The first vendor of an SDDC (VMware) will be the first vendor of an SDDC Management Stack (VMware)

A Reference Architecture for your SDDC

Management Stack

App Performance Mgmt

Infrastructure Perf. Mgmt

The SDDC Management Stack

Cloud Management

Security*

Operations Mgmt

Big

Data

Rep

osit

ory

Self

-Learn

ing

An

aly

tic

s

Data Protection*

* Not Covered in this Presentation

Netuitive,

Prelert

Splunk

CloudBolt, Embotics, FluidOps

ServiceMesh, VirtuStream

AppDynamics, AppEnsure, AppFirst,

AppNeta, BlueStripe, Boundary,

Compuware, Correlsense, ExtraHop,

INETCO, New Relic, Riverbed

Confio, ExtraHop, GigaMon,

Virtual Instruments, Xangati

Cirba, CloudPhysics, Dell,

HP, Hotlink,

VMTurbo, Zenoss

Au

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Orc

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Puppet, Chef, Cloud Sidekick

Intigua

Candidate Vendors to Manage Your SDDC

Virtualization Platform (vSphere, vCloud, Hyper-V, KVM, XenServer)

Cloud Management Perf. & Cap Mgmt

Veeam

Xangati

AppDynamics

New Relic

BlueStripe

vCAC

Embotics

Riverbed

Zenoss

Piston Cloud

Infr. Perf. Mgmt App Perf. Mgmt

vC Operations

Virtual Instruments

Sevone

AppFirst

SolarWinds

Cisco/Cloupia

Eucalyptus

Reflex Systems

Quest (Foglight)

BMC CLM

Citrix (Cloud.com)

ExtraHop

VMTurbo

Confio Software

Compuware

Automation

App Director

Puppet

ScaleXtreme

Opscode (Chef)

Correlsense

Splunk

Self-Learning Analytics

vCenter Operations

Prelert

Netuitive

Cirba

VirtuStream

AppEnsure

AppNeta

Riverbed

CloudBolt

CloudPhysics

Intigua

MangeEngine

Quest

ExtraHop Networks

AppNeta

HP (Perf. Anywhere)

Boundary

ServiceMesh

FluidOps

HP (VPV)

Hotlink

One Final Point (Wrap Up)

• In this industry we are great at inventing things to solve problems that we did not know that we had

• The PC, the LAN, Client/Server, the Internet, Java, Server Virtualization, VDI, Clouds and Smartphones are all innovations that targeted previously unknown problems

• We are very good at propagating these innovations throughout enterprise organizations worldwide

• Every time we do this we forget about managing the innovation before we deploy it

• If you buy the right management products at the right time you can avoid repeating this mistake with your SDDC

Thank You

Building a New Management Stack for your

Software Defined Data Center (and your Cloud)

Bernd Harzog

Analyst, Virtualization Performance and Capacity Management

bharzog@virtualizationpractice.com

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Other VMware Activities Related to This Session

HOL:

HOL-SDC-1301

Applied Cloud Operations HOL-SDC-1313 vCloud Suite Use Cases - Infrastructure Provisioning (IaaS) HOL-SDC-1314 vCloud Suite Use Cases Application Provisioning (PaaS) HOL-SDC-1307 Enable Hybrid Cloud Automation & Governance with vCAC

Group Discussions:

VCM1002-GD, VCM1004-GD

Cloud Operations with Hicham Mourad or Sam McBride VCM1003-GD Cloud Automation with Naomi Sullivan

VCM4869

Building the Management Stack for Your

Software Defined Data Center

Bernd Harzog, The Virtualization Practice

Mark Leake, VMware

VCM4869

#VCM4869