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Why performance management is crucial in virtual infrastructures

Virtualization offers new flexibility in terms of infrastructure capacity management. However, as the deployment of server virtualization in production environments increases, so does the complexity of managing disparate virtual technologies. Significant new problems arise which make managing virtual environments fundamentally different from managing physical servers:

Increasingly complex server infrastructure
Move from a static to a dynamic, unpredictable environment
Virtual machine proliferation

How the Sysload solution adds immediate value to virtualized environments

In order to fully capitalize on the benefits offered by virtualization, Sysload solutions support the virtualization project's full life cycle, from conception to completion and allow:

Unified view of the data center (physical and virtual resources)
Early detection of VM micro saturations
Avoidance of virtual machine proliferation

Sysload relies on a unique light-footprint technology that allows the monitoring of hundreds of VMs without generating any significant load on the host server.

Base lining host/guests CPU load for one month on a VMware ESX server

Solution features

Single view of all virtual and physical servers
Evaluation of application resource utilization
Identification of servers that can be consolidated/virtualized
In-depth analysis of server capacity

Solution benefits

Reduced down-time
Optimum workloads
Easy installation (no consulting services required)
Quick learning curve

Manage server virtualization with Sysload

Keeping a unified view of the data center

A wide variety of hardware platforms and a wide variety of operating system combinations - e.g. Windows, VMware, HP-UX, AIX, XenSource, Linux - combined with a variety of virtualization solutions provide complex environment management challenges.

Sysload maintains a comprehensive view of the infrastructure based upon its cross OS’s and cross VM capabilities, providing a better understanding of the relationships between the physical and virtual servers as well as between host capacity and guest utilization.

Anticipating performance degradation due to VM saturations

A virtualized architecture leads to more complex saturation problems. Saturation peaks can be the result of usage on a single VM or the dynamic resource allocation between VMs. They can also result from simultaneous saturation peaks on different VMs.

Sysload offers an agent-based solution that performs real-time simultaneous monitoring of both virtual machines and host systems. With collection intervals as low as 1 second and a CPU load of less than 1%, Sysload agents provide a granularity of data which is ideally suited to managing virtualized environments.

Avoiding Virtual machine proliferation

Virtual machines are breaking the classical “provisioning cycle”: new servers can be created in minutes and never deleted. Companies that are well prepared to manage physical assets may not be ready to manage these “virtual assets”. This could lead to a proliferation of virtual machines which could cause the waste of resources by unused VMs, negating the cost savings brought about by virtualization and reducing agility.

Sysload performance and capacity management features provide a rapid identification of over- and under-utilized servers. Sysload easily identifies idle VMs, knows what applications are running in the VMs, and returns enough information to determine whether a VM can safely be removed or not.

Main functions

Real-time data collection and event management
Customizable alert management allowing user defined thresholds and actions
Server health reports (physical or virtual)
Measurement of applications’ impact on servers
Ranking of servers (usage, saturation,etc.)

Technical specifications

250+ metrics (raw metrics, complex metrics, diagnostic metrics) allowing the monitoring and diagnostic of Processors, Disks, Memory, Processes, etc.
Data collection intervals as low as 1 second
Data aggregated for historical reporting and trending
Less than 1% CPU utilization

Platforms supported

Measuring the performance of both physical hosts and virtual guests, SP Analyst is a key tool for planning virtualization projects. Sysload supports the following virtualization platforms:

Virtualization Platforms Supported

VMware ESX Server 2.5.2, 2.5.3, 3.0.0 & 3.0.1 on x86 (32-bit) platforms
AIX 5.3 LPAR (32 & 64-bit)
Solaris X (SPARC and x86 platforms)
i5/OS LPAR (OS/400 V5R3 & OS/400 V5R4)

Guest Systems Supported

OS: UNIX, Linux, OS/400, NetWare, VMware, Microsoft, Xend, LPAR, Zoning
DB: Oracle, SQL Server, Informix, Sybase, DB2
App: Exchange, IIS, Citrix, Active Directory, Lotus

Sysload for VMware

Dedicated Sysload agents provide real-time monitoring of Servers running VMware VI-based operating systems. The metrics collected allow monitoring and analysis of hardware resource utilization by the entire ESX system or by individual virtual machines, as well as the utilization of resource pools. For more accurate incident monitoring and analysis, we recommend installing a Sysload agent for each operating system installed on the different virtual machines.

CPU load on a Virtual Machine: comparing the measurement made by the Sysload agent installed on the ESX server
and the one made by the agent installed on the operating system running in the VM

Sysload agents correct the "time keeping" problem on ESX in real-time

The ESX hypervisor distributes CPU times sequentially to each virtual machine (VM1, then VM2, then VM1, etc.) Meanwhile, a virtualized OS doesn’t “know” that it is in a virtual environment. Therefore, it doesn’t recognize the “micro pauses” brought about due to sharing the CPU with other machines. This causes incoherence when measuring performance from the VMs. Sysload agents correct this problem by means of a real-time recalculation of CPU time specific to each VM. Sysload is the only supplier currently offering this functionality.

Sysload for IBM LPARs

These Sysload agents let you monitor partitioned environments on AIX and i5/OS in LPAR mode. The agent can be used to check not only that logical partitions are running correctly, in real time, but also to validate consolidation scenarios by providing 24/7 monitoring of consolidated and/or virtualized production environments.

Sysload for Solaris X

The Sysload for Solaris agent lets you monitor partitioned zones on Solaris X. The agent can be used to check that the different zones are running correctly, in real time, and also to validate consolidation scenarios by providing 24/7 monitoring of consolidated and/or virtualized production environments.