VBLOCK INFRASTRUCTURE PLATFORMS GUIDELINES FOR MONITORING WITH HP OPERATIONS MANAGER (HP OPENVIEW)

August 2011

2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................3 The Challenge .......................................................................................................................................3 The Solution ..........................................................................................................................................3 Technology Overview .................................................................................................................................6 HP Technologies ...................................................................................................................................6 Vblock Infrastructure Platforms .............................................................................................................8 Vblock Monitoring with HP Operations Manager .................................................................................. 10 Key Vblock Components to Monitor ................................................................................................... 11 Setting Up Monitoring on Vblock Components................................................................................... 13 Setting Up Your HP Operations Manager Containers ........................................................................ 21 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 23 References ................................................................................................................................................ 24

2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Executive Summary
With Vblock Infrastructure Platforms, VCE delivers the industrys first completely integrated IT offering that combines best-in-class network, compute, storage, management, virtualization, and security technologies with end-to-end vendor accountability. Organizations that use HP Operations Manager (formerly HP OpenView Operations Manager) will require an understanding of how Vblock platforms interoperate with enterprise management frameworks to monitor performance, capacity, and availability. This paper provides a high-level approach to monitoring Vblock platforms with HP Operations Manager by identifying the monitoring requirements for each Vblock component and mapping out a set of recommended configurations for meeting these requirements. By leveraging a combination of industry standard SNMP protocol and third party Smart Plug-ins for HP Operations Manager, organizations can effectively integrate Vblock platforms into their existing HP Operations Manager framework, allowing them to introduce Vblock converged infrastructure to their data centers while maintaining current data center monitoring methodologies.

The Challenge
Organizations have made sizeable investments in automated monitoring and management infrastructures like HP Operations Manager. With these monitoring infrastructures in place, they require the information necessary to integrate Vblock technologies effectively and efficiently to maximize their return on investment.

The Solution
IT decision makers and data center managers can address this challenge by configuring HP Operations Manager to monitor Vblock platforms using the following: HP Network Node Manager to act as the SNMP management station SNMP v2 to monitor the network, compute, and storage components of Vblock Third-party Smart Plug-in from Veeam to monitor the virtualization components of Vblock Scope This paper contains guidelines for using HP Operations Manager to monitor Vblock platforms. The scope is on monitoring rather than configuration and provisioning. It is strongly recommended that you use the following tools as specified by VCE for configuration and provisioning: Cisco

Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager

EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager (UIM) EMC Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) EMC Unisphere VMware vCenter Assumptions This paper assumes a basic understanding of the following: HP Operations Manager and HP Network Node Manager Vblock platforms, including component technologies from VMware, Cisco, and EMC Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

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Audience Directors of IT, Operations Managers, and technical staff looking to integrate the day-to-day monitoring of VCE Vblock technologies into existing data center management solutions will find this information useful; especially those who have invested in HP Operations Manager as their single view for event and system monitoring and alerting. Sales engineers, field consultants, professional services, IT managers, infrastructure architects, partner engineers, and customers may also find the content useful when working to integrate Vblock platforms into other existing monitoring products. Terminology The table below defines terms used in this paper.

Term
Alert Converged infrastructure

Definition
A system event requiring administrative attention. These events may be severe enough to cause a system error or disrupt user access. A converged infrastructure packages multiple information technology (IT) components into a single, optimized computing solution. Components of a converged infrastructure solution include servers, data storage devices, virtualization, networking equipment and software for IT infrastructure management, automation, and orchestration. Alerts or notifications created by an IT Service, Configuration item, or Monitoring tool. Events are typically written to an event log or trigger an event notification via email or SNMP. Business Technology Optimization is the name HP uses to refer to all its IT management capabilities, including all the products previously branded under the HP OpenView name. BTO is both an approach to IT management and a category of software and services supporting that approach. The BTO product suite includes HP Operations Manager and HP Network Node Manager, both of which are key to this paper. A component product of HP Operations Center; formerly named HP OpenView Network Node Manager. Network Node Manager is the authoritative discovery source for network configuration items and their relationships for the universal configuration management database (UCMDB). HP Operations Manager tool used to build a hierarchical tree layout of Vblock platforms and its components. A component product of HP Operations Center; formerly named HP OpenView Operations Manager. Operations Manager provides a single management console for the heterogeneous IT environment. Hierarchical database maintained by an agent that a network management station can query, using a network management protocol such as SNMP. Actions taken in response to a particular event. An action could be an SNMP trap. There are two types of notifications: event notifications, which are notifications, based on predefined system events such as a temperature being too high, and resource notifications, which are notifications based on user-specified resource usage limits or thresholds. A numeric string used to identify an object uniquely. OIDs are used with MIBs to set specific traps via SNMP. An Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks. Method used to communicate management information between the network management stations and the agents in the network elements.

Event HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO)

HP Network Node Manager

HP Node Editor HP Operations Manager

Management Information Base (MIB) Notification

Object Identifier (OID) Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

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Term
SNMP Agent

Definition
Software module in a managed device such as a UCS Server or a CLARiiON storage system that maintains local management information and delivers that information to a manager using SNMP. Defines a group of SNMP devices and management stations. Assists in defining where SNMP information and traps are sent. The system used to control and monitor the activities of network devices using SNMP. In this paper, the SNMP Management Station is the host running the HP Network Node Manager software. The trap message is the way an SNMP agent communicates with the SNMP manager, notifying the manager of an event, such as a crash, a restart, or a network interface card failure. Smart Plug-in is an HP term and method for integrating a device or component into HP Operations Manager for sending alerts and events for monitoring. HP or a third party can provide a Smart Plug-in. HP Universal Configuration Management Database, which is HPs implementation of a CMDB.

SNMP Community SNMP Management Station

SNMP Trap

Smart Plug-in (SPI)

UCMDB

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Technology Overview
Data center monitoring is vital to ensure optimal resource and service utilization. IT must provide for the availability, performance, and optimal capacity of the enterprise, from the virtualization layer to the underlying components. At its simplest, IT must be able to know the following: Systems and devices are up, functioning, and not experiencing hardware or software issues or failures Resources are being used appropriately and are operating at proper performance levels There are no mission-critical events that could impact the business This is a manageable operator task for environments with only one or two servers, a network switch, a router, and a firewall; however, multiply the components by thousands or tens of thousands and the need for automated monitoring of the enterprise becomes abundantly clear. Larger organizations commonly turn to enterprise management systems to provide complete frameworks for monitoring, managing, reporting, and analyzing the many heterogeneous devices and systems in their data centers. Data center monitoring is a critical factor in ensuring that business applications maintain maximum availability and performance and that the capacity required by those applications is available. This monitoring enables either proactive avoidance of problems or timely detection and resolution when reacting to any problems that occur. When considering monitoring Vblock platforms with HP Operations Manager, it is important to understand the following key technologies: HP enterprise management components, specifically the HP Operations Manager SNMP standard protocol for device management and monitoring Smart Plug-ins for HP Operations Manager Vblock architecture

HP Technologies
HP Operations Manager is a product for monitoring and management of data centers and is part of the HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) product suite. It leverages customized and product-specific Smart Plugins and SNMP to provide consistent and consolidated collection of information for use in monitoring operations and events. HP Operations Manager provides a hierarchical containerization feature that lets you monitor elements both individually and as a whole. This feature is especially valuable to a converged infrastructure environment as it provides the monitoring view needed to monitor and sustain its unified resources.
Note: HP Operations Manager requires that each individual Vblock component be set up and configured to communicate with HP Operations Manager Console.

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The following HP BTO components are important to Vblock monitoring: HP Operations Manager HP Network Node Manager (NNM) HP Operations Manager provides the core-alerting viewpoint for the HP BTO product suite. It allows you to view alerts on a per node, device, and container basis. HP Network Node Manager provides Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) v2 compatibility for SNMP-enabled devices. It also allows alert forwarding and integration to the HP Operations Manager Console. Figure 1 shows a high-level overview of HP Operations Manager and how the monitoring information aggregates (or feeds up) from the devices, servers, and virtual machines for monitoring.

Figure 1.

HP Operations Manager Architectural Overview

Integrated into most network devices and operating systems is the ability to send and receive device specific information via SNMP, the industry standard network management protocol used to connect to devices, collect their information, and bring it back to SNMP management stations. A Management Information Base (MIB) file, which is specific to the device or system itself, contains a listing of objects to be monitored and various parameters associated with each. This paper looks at using SNMP traps sent to the SNMP management stations for monitoring. The ability to send SNMP traps is essential to communicate with the HP Network Node Manager host, which ultimately allows integration of Vblock platforms with HP Operations Manager. Smart Plug-ins (SPIs) are a method of integrating monitoring functionality for a specific device or application. HP or a third-party vendor such as Veeam can publish them. This paper recommends using Veeams nworks Smart Plug-in to provide the monitoring of the virtualization layer of the Vblock platform.

2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Vblock Infrastructure Platforms

Vblock Infrastructure Platforms provide pre-engineered, production-ready (fully tested) virtualized infrastructure components, including the best of breed technologies from Cisco, EMC, and VMware. Vblock Infrastructure Platforms are designed and built to satisfy a broad range of specific customer implementation requirements. The available Vblock platforms are:

Vblock Platform
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. Designed for deployments of very large numbers of virtual machines and users. Ideally suited to meet the higher performance and availability requirements of an enterprise's business critical applications.

Vblock Series 300

All the layers compute, network, SAN switches, storage, and virtualization need to be effectively monitored. Organizations with existing investments in HP BTO want to receive alerts and event notifications for monitoring through their existing data center management tool HP Operations Manager. Each Vblock platform consists of slightly different components. The table below highlights the various components that are important to monitor, including what is common between Vblock platform types and what components differ by type.

Category
Compute

Vblock Series 300

Cisco UCS B200M2 B250M2 B440M1 B230M1 Cisco Nexus 1000V Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches Cisco MDS 9000 Series SAN switch

Vblock Series 700

Cisco UCS B200M2 B250M2 B440M1 B230M1 Cisco Nexus 1000V Cisco MDS 9000 Series SAN switch

Network

Storage

300 HX EMC VNX 7500 300GX EMC VNX 5700 300FX EMC VNX 5500 300 EX EMC VNX 5300 Drive Types EFD SAS NL-SAS

700MX EMC Symmetrix VMAX Drive Types EFD Fibre Channel SATA

Virtualization

VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus Suite

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Note: This paper examines monitoring the infrastructure components of the Vblock platform (compute, network, storage, and virtualization).

2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Vblock Monitoring with HP Operations Manager

Successful integration of Vblock Infrastructure Platforms with the monitoring function of HP Operations Manager is accomplished by leveraging a combination of the following: Standard SNMP management protocol Smart Plug ins (SPIs) available for HP Operations Manager Native Vblock management consoles Command Line Interface (CLI) for setting up and integrating the monitoring of Vblock platforms with HP Operations Manager This section takes a closer look at the compute (Cisco UCS), network (Cisco Nexus), storage (EMC Celerra, EMC CLARiiON, EMC Symmetrix, and Cisco MDS), and virtualization (VMware vSphere) components of the Vblock platform by discussing: The key events to monitor to maintain maximum performance, availability, and capacity of Vblock resources running your critical business application HP Operations Manager integration method (SNMP or SPI) used for each component Implementation of Vblock platform container within HP Operations Manager to complete the view of the data center Figure 2 shows the architecture for monitoring Vblock platform with HP Operations Manager.

Figure 2.

High-level View of HP Monitoring Integration

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For the Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus, Cisco MDS, EMC Celerra, EMC CLARiiON, and EMC Symmetrix components, it is recommended that you leverage the industry standard SNMP protocol and set SNMP traps to send information to HP Operations Manager for monitoring. Depending on the device, you can accomplish this using either of the following methods: The respective device GUI management interface CLI command line interface For the VMware vSphere virtualization component, it is recommended you use Veeam nworks Smart Plug-in, a Smart Plug-in for HP Operations Manager readily available from Veeam Software. This plug in provides: Full feature and function monitoring for the VMware vSphere components, including the ESX server and guest virtual machines Direct integration to HP Operations Manager To facilitate monitoring Vblock platform converged infrastructure; organize each Vblock platform in the data center as a holistic unit using the HP Operations Manager container functionality. The premise behind the container is to create a hierarchy where individual Vblock components appear under a top-level Vblock platform. This allows maximum operational visibility for all Vblock components and the unit as a whole. To deploy the architecture shown in Figure 2 for monitoring Vblock platform with HP Operations Manager, you must take several high-level steps. Figure 3 highlights these steps.

Figure 3.

High-level Process for Monitoring Vblock Platform with HP Operations Manager

Key Vblock Components to Monitor

Vblock components (compute, network, storage, and virtualization) are monitored for both error conditions and threshold events relating to performance, availability, and capacity. Components are monitored for conditions relating to their state and resource threshold limits. You can monitor many types of event categories for each of the various components that comprise Vblock Series 300 and 700. Different events and levels of alerts are generated for each event category critical/emergency, error condition, warning, and informational.

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The following table provides a high-level overview of the various Vblock component categories and the respective key items to monitor.

Component
Compute (Cisco UCS)

Monitoring Method
SNMP

Item to Monitor
CPU availability CPU utilization Buffer allocation CPU memory Power (chassis and blades) Temperature Link state Chassis faults Critical services

Network (Cisco Nexus)

SNMP

Link state Bandwidth utilization Packet loss Packet loss rate

Storage (EMC Celerra, EMC CLARiiON, EMC Symmetrix, Cisco MDS)

SNMP

RAID controllers Physical disks Logical disks Volume availability Storage processor(s) Thin provisioning utilization

Virtualization (VMware vSphere)

SPI (Veeam nworks Smart Plug-in)

Hosts Clusters Virtual machines (VM) Resource pools Host processor (CPU) usage Host memory usage Host state Virtual machine processor (CPU) usage Virtual machine memory usage Virtual machine state Virtual machine heartbeat

Note: The purpose of this paper is to outline the key components to monitor and events to capture for monitoring in HP Operations Manager relative to Vblock platforms. It does not provide all the implementation details necessary to set up all SNMP traps.

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It is important that you: Set SNMP traps to be sent to the SNMP Management Console (HP Network Node Manager host) for all Vblock infrastructure components for critical error conditions Set SNMP traps to be sent to the SNMP Management Console (HP Network Node Manager host) for all above or approaching threshold levels that if left unmonitored would result in a critical error Configure Veeam nworks Smart Plug-in to send alerts to HP Operations Manager directly for both error and threshold conditions for the virtualization layer Set warning and informational conditions based on your organizations specific business needs and practices. Before setting up the specific SNMP traps, it is important to consult the individual vendor component documentation and download the vendor-specific MIBs for each component to be monitored.

Setting Up Monitoring on Vblock Components

This section examines the key events to monitor and HP Operations Manager integration method for these Vblock components: Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Cisco Nexus Switches Cisco MDS Switches EMC Celerra EMC CLARiiON EMC Symmetrix VMware vSphere Monitoring Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) For the Cisco compute components of Vblock platforms, including the fabric interconnects, chassis, and blades, use SNMP traps to capture such critical events as overall health, availability, and performance. Enable SNMP for Cisco UCS using Cisco UCS-provided tools. Cisco UCS SNMP trap attributes provide all the fault details to identify the nature and cause of the fault that UCS Manager detects. Be aware that SNMP messages from a Cisco UCS instance display the fabric interconnect name rather than the system name. Refer to Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide, Release 1.3(1) and Cisco UCS Manager CLI Configuration Guide, Release 1.3(1) for more information. Enabling SNMP Traps on Cisco UCS Figure 4 shows a high-level overview of the process to enable SNMP traps on Cisco UCS.

Figure 4.

Enabling SNMP on Cisco UCS

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Key Events to Monitor The following are key events to monitor for the Vblock Infrastructure Platform Cisco UCS component. These events provide an effective balance of the performance, availability, and capacity of the Cisco UCS system.

UCS Component
Adaptor (DCD, HBA, NIC)

Statuses
Link Up/Down Operational State (Fault)

Blade Server

Power On/Off Temperature Operational State (Fault)

Chassis

Power On/Off Temperature Operational State (Fault)

Fabric Interconnect Fabric Interconnect Fan Fabric Interconnect Modules Ports (Ether, FC)

Operational State (Fault) Operational State (Fault Link Up/Down Link Failures (Number) Operational State (Fault)

Fabric Interconnect Power Supply (PSU)

Power On/Off Operational State (Fault)

UCS Power Supply

Power On/Off

Monitoring Cisco Nexus Switches The Cisco Nexus Series switches (1000/5000/7000) allow full support through SNMP v2 to monitor critical events, such as temperature, processor state, link up/down, and power supplies. Use the following Cisco-provided MIBs to accomplish this monitoring: CISCO-ENTITY library integration and IF-MIB. For more details on these MIBs, refer to the model specific vender documentation. Enabling SNMP Traps on Cisco Nexus Figure 5 shows a high-level overview of the process to enable SNMP traps on Cisco Nexus switches.

Figure 5.

Enabling SNMP on Cisco Nexus

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Key Events to Monitor The following are key events to monitor on Cisco Nexus Series Switches with default MIBs. The MIB responsible for each event notification is listed in parentheses. Link up/down status (IF-MIB) Memory statistics and LED information (CISCO-ENTITY-EXT-MIB) Power supplies, fans, and modules (CISCO-ENTITY-FRU-CONTROL-MIB) Sensor temperature and environment (CISCO-ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB) Module image management and upgrade status (CISCO-IMAGE-UPGRADE-MIB) For addition information on Cisco Nexus MIB, go to http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/mib/reference/NX5000_MIBRef.html. Monitoring Cisco MDS Switches |For the Cisco MDS component of Vblock platforms, use SNMP traps to capture such critical events as zone, sensor, and redundancy. These traps are recommended for effective Vblock platform monitoring through HP Operations Manager. Enabling SNMP traps on Cisco MDS requires making certain configurations using the Command Line Interface (CLI) on the MDS switch. These changes enable forwarding Cisco MDS-specific link up and link down traps, entity, fcdomain, and zone traps to HP Operations Manager. Enabling SNMP Traps on Cisco MDS Figure 7 shows a high-level overview of the process to enable SNMP traps on Cisco MDS.

Figure 6.

Enabling SNMP on Cisco MDS

Key Events to Monitor Cisco provides executables to integrate events with HP Operations Manager and ensure that HP Operations Manager can recognize Cisco MDS 9000 events. Listed below are SNMP traps included in the executables, which represent the key items to monitor for the SAN Fibre Channel Switch component: Link VSAN Zone Sensor Field Replacement Unit (FRU) Redundancy

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Monitoring EMC Celerra The EMC Celerra supports SNMP by sending SNMP traps to HP Operations Manager. Enabling SNMP Traps on EMC Celerra Figure 7 shows a high-level overview of the process to enable SNMP traps on EMC Celerra.

Figure 7.

Enabling SNMP Traps on EMC Celerra

Key Events to Monitor Celerra network servers generate events in response to specific changes in the state of the system caused by a command, error, or some other condition that might require action by an administrator. The following are key items to monitor for EMC Celerra. These provide an effective balance of events relating to the performance of the Celerra storage system, as well as its overall availability and capacity.

Event Category
Array subsystem

Events
Array state change Array configuration change

Statuses
Not present Unknown Offline Write disabled Failed

Environmental (temperature) File system Device

Temperature warning Percentage full threshold Device state change Device mask database change Device name change Cache change

Excessive temperature detected Actual value Not present Unknown Offline Failed Not present Offline Failed Write disabled

Disk

Disk state change

Data Mover

State change

Failed

Refer to Configuring Celerra Events and Notifications Technical Module for more information on configuring SNMP or customizing SNMP events for EMC Celerra.

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Monitoring EMC CLARiiON EMC CLARiiON arrays support SNMP by sending SNMP traps to HP Operations Manager. Enabling SNMP Traps on EMC CLARiiON Figure 8 shows a high-level overview of the process to enable SNMP traps on EMC CLARiiON.

Figure 8.

Enabling SNMP on EMC CLARiiON

After you enable and configure SNMP and select all the EMC CLARiiON storage-related events to monitor, the system automatically forwards the SNMP traps to the SNMP Network Management System to be rolled up into HP Operations Manager for event monitoring. Key Events to Monitor EMC CLARiiON arrays are capable of generating events in response to specific changes in the state of the storage system caused by an error or some other condition, such as a threshold limit reached that might require action by an administrator. The following are key items to monitor for an EMC CLARiiON array. These provide an effective balance of events relating to the performance of the EMC CLARiiON storage system, as well as its overall availability and capacity. Special Threshold Monitoring Condition: Virtual provisioning is a critical area to monitor with regard to thresholds for EMC CLARiiON storage environments. 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. The reaction of hosts to a pool full condition varies, as is documented in the Host Connectivity guides that EMC publishes for each open systems platform.

Event Category
Array subsystem

Events
Array state change Array configuration change

Statuses
Not present Unknown Offline Write disabled Failed

Environmental (temperature) Device pool

Temperature warning % pool state change % pool utilization is now %u percent

Excessive temperature detected Actual value logged

Service processor

Service processor state change

Not present Unknown Offline Failed

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Event Category
Device

Events
Device state change Device mask database change Device name change Cache change

Statuses
Not present Unknown Offline Failed Not present Offline Failed Write disabled

Disk

Disk state change

Refer to Unisphere Management and Administrator documentation for additional information on customizing SNMP events for CLARiiON. Monitoring EMC Symmetrix The EMC Symmetrix VMAX array supports SNMP. Using SNMP traps on the VMAX requires the EMC Solutions Enabler, which has an event daemon (storevntd) that monitors EMC Symmetrix operations by detecting and reporting EMC Symmetrix events. The event daemon: Continually collects Symmetrix event information in near real time Filters the events by severity and type Maps events into SNMP traps Sends events to a specified host running an SNMP trap client For integration and monitoring of these events, the SNMP trap client is the host running HP Network Node Manager and SNMP Management Services. Enabling SNMP Traps on EMC Symmetrix Figure 9 shows a high-level overview of the process to enable SNMP traps on EMC Symmetrix.

Figure 9.

Enabling SNMP on EMC Symmetrix

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Key Events to Monitor The following are key events to monitor for EMC Symmetrix V-MAX. These events provide an effective balance of events relating to the performance of the EMC Symmetrix storage system, as well as its overall availability and capacity. Special Threshold Monitoring Condition: Virtual provisioning is a critical area to monitor with regard to thresholds for V-MAX storage environments. 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. The reaction of hosts to a pool full condition varies; it is documented in the Host Connectivity guides that EMC publishes for each open systems platform.

Event Category
Array subsystem

Events
Array state change Array configuration change

Statuses
Not present Unknown Offline Write disabled Failed

Environmental (temperature) Device pool (virtual provision thin pools) Service processors

Temperature warning % pool state change % pool utilization is now %u percent Service processor state change

Excessive temperature detected Actual value logged

Not present Unknown Offline Failed

Device

Device state change Device mask database change Device name change Cache change

Not present Unknown Offline Failed Not present Offline Failed Write disabled

Disk

Disk state change

Refer to the Monitoring EMC Symmetrix Using the Solutions Enabler Event Daemon Technical Notes documentation for additional information on enabling SNMP for the Symmetrix and customizing SNMP events.

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Monitoring VMware vSphere There are three options available for monitoring VMware vSphere using HP Operations Manager: Veeam nworks Smart Plug-in for VMware v5, which also includes ESXi hardware health data HP Operations Virtualization SPI v1.0 (a Smart Plug-in available through HP) HP Operations integration to HP Insight Control, which provides a hardware-only view of the environment This paper focuses on the Veeam nworks Smart Plug-in (SPI) for VMware as the recommended option, as it provides a high level of functionality and integration for monitoring the individual vSphere elements. Veeam nworks Smart Plug-in for VMware allows HP Operations Manager to monitor the vSphere component elements of Vblock platforms effectively. The nworks SPI provides distributed monitoring and management of the VMware infrastructure (vSphere and VI3) fully integrated into HP Operations Manager. It publishes VMware performance, events, configuration, state, and topology directly into HP Operations Manager, giving you a common view across your physical and virtual infrastructures. Veeam SPI: Allows monitoring of both the ESX server and its virtual machines and direct reporting to the Operations Manager console Allows monitoring in unison of the hypervisor layer and the virtual machine layer Provides agent-less monitoring Reduces TCO by eliminating the need for an agent-based virtual machine monitoring approach Key Events to Monitor The following table highlights some key events to monitor for the VMware vSphere virtualization layer. These provide an effective balance of events relating to the performance of the ESX host and virtual machines, availability, and capacity indicators for the virtualization layer.

Event Category
ESX or VM ESX or VM ESX or VM

Events
Guest Disk Free % Guest Memory Usage CPU Status

Statuses
Disk free % capacity % guest memory utilization Running Failed

ESX or VM ESX or VM

Memory Status Host Status

% physical memory available Running Failed

ESX or VM

VM Status

Running Failed

ESX or VM

Heartbeat Status

Running Failed

ESX or VM

Host State

Connected Not Connected

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Event Category
ESX or VM

Events
VM Power State

Statuses
On Off

ESX or VM

Host Data Store State

% capacity

A full listing of class descriptions and available metrics for virtual machines and ESX servers on HP Operations Manager is available here: http://www.veeam.com/support/metrics/openview.html http://www.veeam.com/support/metrics/dictionary.html

Setting Up Your HP Operations Manager Containers

HP Operations Manager enables you to build containers with flexibility for individual layouts based on design and scale considerations in your approach. For optimal operational visibility, consider building a container hierarchy following these suggestions: Create a top level Vblock container (for grouping into one monitoring unit) Create individual Vblock containers within the top level container (each Vblock platform could be an application-specific Vblock platform) Group individual Vblock components within each Vblock container To facilitate monitoring of Vblock platforms as a whole, organize each Vblock platform in the data center as a container within HP Operations Manager. The premise behind the container is to build out a tree structure that depicts Vblock platform as the top level with its individual components underneath. You can drill down to get specific event information about each Vblock component, such as a specific blade, virtual machine, network state, state of the storage array, and so forth. Build your tree to meet your specific data center requirements for monitoring, keeping in mind that the ultimate goal of the container is to simplify monitoring Vblock platforms by organizing all the components in a single container. Figure 10 shows a sample HP Operations Manager Vblock platform layout.

Figure 10.

Sample HP Operations Manager Vblock Platform Layout

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Important Considerations Important considerations when building a container include: HP Network Node Manager Discovery process HP Operations Manager node editor Veeam nworks Smart Plug-in

HP Network Node Manager Discovery HP Network Node Manager plays a critical part in SNMP- enabled devices communicating with Vblock platforms. HP Operations Manager will not allow SNMP devices and servers to communicate directly with the HP Operations Manager console. HP Operations Manager automatically builds a separate HP Network Node Manager tree with all the elements that HP Network Node Manager discovers. You can then integrate elements or sub-trees of the HP Network Node Manager Discovery tree into HP Operations Manager, depending on layout preference. It is important to verify the HP Network Node Manager discovery and to move items from HP Network Node Manager into the required Vblock containers. For example, HP Network Node Manager will not group and correlate all switches and routers associated with a particular Vblock platform; instead, this must be a manual verify and move process. As HP Network Node Manager Discovery builds a topographical view of the network, discovery time varies depending on the network segment size. It is important to make sure your network is self-contained and that all involved parties are aware of the process as the HP Network Node Manager discovery polling process can be quite extensive. HP Operations Manager Node Editor The HP Operations Manager node editor is the primary tool for organizing nodes and devices within containers. Once the HP Network Node Manager tree has been integrated into HP Operations Manager, all further container layout creation is done using the HP Operations Manager node editor, which lets you build a tree-oriented hierarchy based on an application or grouping condition (that is, Vblock platform, production servers, development databases, and so forth). For more details on using the node editor, refer to the HP Operations Manager documentation. Veeam Smart Plug-in HP Operations Manager builds a separate container for the Veeam Smart-Plug-in elements (virtual machines). The Veeam Smart Plug-in allows for direct integration into the HP Operations Manager console. Once the integration is complete, construct a Veeam SPI container using the HP Operations Manager node editor tool. Elements from this Veeam SPI container can be combined with HP Network Node Manager Discovery container elements to form a container. The container described in Figure 10 is a superset of elements from the HP Network Node Manager Discovery container and the Veeam Smart Plug-in container.

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Conclusion
The capability to monitor data center availability, performance, and capacity through HP Operations Manager is critical for data center operations staff to proactively address system issues, errors and outages. Organizations can integrate Vblock Infrastructure Platforms easily and efficiently into their HP BTO framework to effectively monitor the compute, network, storage, and virtualization components of the data centers by doing the following: Outlining high-level steps for planning Vblock platform integration to HP Operations Manager Leveraging HP Network Node Manager, SNMP, and Smart Plug-ins to integrate Vblock platform monitoring with HP Operations Manager Identifying what events to monitor for performance, availability, and capacity for Vblock platforms Vblock platforms can be monitored through HP Operations Manager using a combination of standard SNMP protocol and available third party Smart Plug-ins. Furthermore, by containerizing and treating Vblock platforms as a whole, HP Operations Manager can provide the single view for monitoring data center assets. By following the guidelines presented in this paper, organizations can leverage their investment in HP Operations Manager to successfully monitor and manage Vblock Infrastructure Platforms.

Next Steps
To learn more about this and other solutions, contact a VCE partner or representative or visit www.vce.com.

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References
Cisco Nexus Cisco Nexus 5000 and Nexus 2000 MIBs Reference http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/mib/reference/NX5000_MIBRef.html Cisco MIB Locator http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/MIBS/servlet/index MIBs http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/netmgmt/cmtk/mibs.shtml Cisco UCS Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide, Release 1.3(1) http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/gui/config/guide/1.3.1/b_UCSM_GUI_Configuratio n_Guide_1_3_1.html Cisco UCS Manager CLI Configuration Guide, Release 1.3(1) http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/cli/config/guide/1.3.1/b_CLI_Config_Guide_1_3_1. html EMC Celerra Configuring Celerra Events and Notifications v6.0 (EMC Powerlink user ID and password may be required) http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/Technical_Documentation/300-009-973.pdf EMC CLARiiON Configuring Celerra Events and Notifications: http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1//en_US/Offering_Technical/Technical_Documentation/300-009-973.pdf EMC Symmetrix Monitoring EMC Symmetrix Using the Solutions Enabler Event Daemon Technical Notes http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1//en_US/Offering_Technical/Technical_Documentation/300-010-522.pdf HP Operations Manager HP Operations Manager documentation (HP Passport user ID and passport required) http://support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manuals Veeam Veeam nworks Smart-Plug-in for VMware http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-monitoring-hp-operations.html Veeam nworks OpenView Names http://www.veeam.com/support/metrics/openview.html Veeam nworks Metric Definitions http://www.veeam.com/support/metrics/dictionary.html

2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

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ABOUT VCE
VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment 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 www.vce.com.

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.

2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

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