Virtualization is what allows companies like Dropbox and Spotify to operate internationally with ever-growing customer bases. From virtualizing desktops, applications, and operating systems to creating highly-available platforms that enable developers to quickly host operating systems and entire content delivery networks, this book centers on the tools, techniques, and platforms that administrators and developers use to decouple and utilize hardware and infrastructure resources to power applications and web services.

Key pointers

• vCenter, vSphere, VMware, VM, Virtualization, SDDC
• Counters, key counters, metric groups, vRealize, ESXi
• Cluster, Datastore, Datastore Cluster, Datacenter
• CPU, Network, Disk, Storage, Contention, Utilization, Memory
• vSwitch, vMotion, Capacity Management, Performance Management, Dashboards, vC Ops

What the book covers

Content-wise, the book is split into two main parts. The first part provides the foundation and theory. The second part provides the solutions and sample use cases. It aims to clear up the misunderstandings that customers have about SDDC. It explains why a VM is radically different from a physical server, and hence a virtual data center is fundamentally different from a physical data center. It then covers the aspects of management that are affected. It also covers the practical aspects of this book, as they show how sample solutions are implemented. The chapters in the book provide both performance management and capacity management.

How the book differs

Virtualization is one of the biggest shifts in IT history. Almost all large enterprises are embarking on a journey to transform the IT department into a service provider. VMware vRealize Operations Management is a suite of products that automates operations management using patented analytics and an integrated approach to performance, capacity, and configuration management. vCenter Operations Manager is the most important component of this suite that helps Administrators to maintain and troubleshoot your VMware environment as well as your physical environment.

Written in a light and easy-to-follow language, the book differs in a way as it covers the complex topic of managing performance and capacity when the datacentre is software defined. It sets the foundation by demystifying deep rooted misunderstanding on virtualization and virtual machine.

How will the book help you

• Master the not-so-obvious differences between a physical server and a virtual machine that customers struggle with during management of virtual datacentre
• Educate and convince your peers on why and how performance and capacity management change in virtual datacentre
• Correct many misperceptions about virtualization
• Know how your peers operationalize their vRealize Operations
• Master all the key metrics in vSphere and vRealize Operations
• Be confident in performance troubleshooting with vSphere and vRealize Operations
• See real-life examples of how super metric and advance dashboards make management easier
• Develop rich, custom dashboards with interaction and super metrics
• Unlearn the knowledge that makes performance and capacity management difficult in SDDC
• Master the counters in vCenter and vRealize Operations by knowing what they mean and their interdependencies
• Build rich dashboards using a practical and easy-to-follow approach supported with real-life examples

Summary

The book would teach how to get the best out of vCenter Operations in managing performance and capacity in a Software-Defined datacenter. The book starts by explaining the difference between a Software-Defined datacentre and classic physical datacentre, and how it impacts both architecture and operations. From this strategic view, the book then zooms into the most common challenge, which is performance management. The book then covers all the key counters in both vSphere and vRealize Operations, explains their dependency, and provides practical guidance on values you should expect in a healthy environment. At the end, the book puts the theory together and provides real-life examples created together with customers.

This book is an invaluable resource for those embarking on a journey to master Virtualization.

Resources for Article:

Further resources on this subject:

• Backups in the VMware View Infrastructure [Article]
• VMware vCenter Operations Manager Essentials – Introduction to vCenter Operations Manager [Article]
• An Introduction to VMware Horizon Mirage [Article]