Virtual Machine Manager

In a VMM environment, the VMM management server processes commands and controls communications with the Hyper-V hosts. To manage VMM, you set the management server as a target. Turbonomic communicates with that target, and also with the Hyper-V hosts that the VMM server manages. For this reason, if you add a VMM target, you should not also add individual Hyper-V hosts as targets. You must grant Turbonomic access to the VMM management server, and also to all the associated Hyper-V machines.

Prerequisites

  • VMM Dynamic Optimization disabled (recommended) or set to Low aggressiveness, with a frequency of at least 60 minutes.

  • Configure remote management on the VMM management Hyper-V server. Refer to Enabling Windows Remote Management

  • Grant access on every host in the cluster that Turbonomic will manage to the following WMI namespaces and subspaces:

    • root/virtualization
    • root/virtualization/v2
    • root/microsoft/windows/storage
    • root/microsoft/windows/smb
    • root/wmi
    • root/cimv2
    • root/mscluster

  • Apply necessary hot fixes on the VMM host

    For example, if you are running VMM Server on a Windows Server version earlier than Windows Server 2012 R2, you must apply the hot-fix referenced in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article #2842230 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2842230).

  • Apply time synchronization

    The VM that hosts Turbonomic must be synchronized with each target VMM management server. The Turbonomic Installation Guide includes instructions for synchronizing the clock on the Turbonomic server.

  • PowerShell execution must be enabled on the VMM management server.

  • Configure port access

    WinRM uses ports 5985 and 5986 for standard and secure communications, respectively. The firewall on your VMM server must open these ports.

  • Preexisting Hyper-V Targets

    If any of the hosts that make up the VMM target were added separately as Hyper-V targets (and you do not plan to exclude these hosts), these targets must be deleted. Failure to do so will create duplicate entities in the market, which will negatively impact Turbonomic performance.

Adding VMM Targets

Turbonomic uses the address and credentials you provide to discover the VMM target. From the VMM target, Turbonomic gets the list of managed Hyper-V instances. It then uses that list to discover each Hyper-V instance. The Hyper-V credentials you provide must be valid for all of these machines.

Turbonomic will also import your Availability Sets, representing them as placement policies for the affected infrastructure.

To add VMM targets, select the Private Cloud > VMM option on the Target Configuration page, and provide the following information:

  • The IP address or host name of the VMM management server

  • Which port to use for the WSMan connection

    For a standard connection (HTTP) use 5985. For a secure connection (HTTPS) use 5986.

  • Enable or disable a secure connection

    If you enable a secure connection, then you must configure a certificate, and you must configure Turbonomic to communicate over HTTPS. For more information, see Secure Setup for WSMan.

    Note that setting a secure connection for VMM does not also set secure connections for the underlying Hyper-V hosts. Any communications between Turbonomic and VMM will be secure. To configure secure connections to the underlying Hyper-V hosts, you must specify secure connections on each one.

  • Full domain name for the user account

    This domain name identifies the user account for Active Directory authentication.

  • Login credentials for the Hyper-V servers that are managed by the VMM target (Optional)

    Turbonomic must log into the Hyper-V servers that the VMM server manages. If you leave the Hyper-V credentials blank, then it will use the same credentials that VMM uses. If you provide Hyper-V credentials, then it will use that service account to log into every Hyper-V managed by the VMM.

    Note that the service account Turbonomic uses to log into a Hyper-V host must satisfy certain requirements. For more information, see Creating a Service User Account in Hyper-V.

  • Hosts in the VMM target that you would like to exclude from Turbonomic.

    Turbonomic will not discover or manage any hosts you enter in this field. These hosts do not participate in the market, and Turbonomic does not generate actions that involve these hosts. Enter multiple hosts in a comma-separated list. This field accepts both host names, and FQDNs (Fully Qualified Domain Names), and allows the use of the wild-card characters * and ?.

Microsoft VMM and Hyper-V VLANs

Windows Server Hyper-V provides support for VLANs on host and VM partitions. If your Hyper-V environment makes use of this VLAN support, then your VM moves must be sensitive to which hosts provide networking access to your defined VM networks. If a VM is a member of a given VM network, then any move of that VM must be to a host that has access to the same network.

For Hyper-V targets in a VMM environment, the Cloud Control Module is aware of the VM networks, and ensures that a move is to a host that provides connectivity over the given VM network. For example, if Host 1 and 2 provides connectivity to VM Network A, and Host 3 and 4 provide connectivity to VM Network B, Turbonomic will never recommend a VM with access to Network A, residing on Host 1, to move to Host 3. That would render the VM unable to communicate on Network A.

Configuring SMB 3.0 File Shares Discovery

With VMM, Turbonomic can discover SMB 3.0 shares as datastores, assuming these shares have been properly added to your VMM service center. When you add shares to your VMM environment, be sure to:

  • Use the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the file server

    As you the associated file server to your VMM environment (via the Add Storage Devices Wizard), be sure to specify the FQDN of the file server on the Specify Discovery Scope page of the wizard. Do not use the file server’s IP address.

  • Ensure that file server names are unique

    Do not specify file servers with the same name, even if they belong to different domains. Turbonomic requires the file server names to be unique.

For information about setting up SMB 3.0 shares, please refer to your Microsoft documentation. For example, see “How to Assign SMB 3.0 File Shares to Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters in VMM”.

Actions

Turbonomic recommends actions for the cloud target supply chain as follows.

Virtual Machines

  • Provision additional resources (VMem, VCPU)

  • Move Virtual Machine

  • Move Virtual Machine Storage

  • Reconfigure Storage

  • Reconfigure Virtual Machine

  • Suspend VM

  • Provision VM

Physical Machines

  • Start Physical Machine

  • Provision Physical Machine

  • Suspend Physical Machine

Consumer Virtual Datacenters

  • Resize Consumer vDC

  • Provision Consumer vDC

Monitored Resources

Turbonomic monitors the following resources for the cloud target supply chain:

Virtual Machine

  • Virtual Memory (VMem)

    The utilization of the VMem allocated to the hosting VM

  • Virtual CPU (VCPU)

    The utilization of the VCPU allocated to the hosting VM

  • Virtual Storage (VStorage)

    The utilization of the virtual storage capacity allocated for the VM

  • Storage Access Operations Per Second (IOPS)

    The utilization of IOPS allocated for the VStorage on the VM

  • Latency

    The utilization of latency allocated for the VStorage on the VM

    Measured in milliseconds (ms)

Host

  • Memory (Mem)

    The utilization of the PM's memory reserved or in use

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • CPU

    The utilization of the PM's CPU reserved or in use

    Measured in Megahertz (MHz)

  • IO

    The utilization of the PM's IO adapters

    Measured in Kilobytes per second (KB/s)

  • Net

    The utilization of data through the PM's network adapters

    Measured in Kilobytes per second (KB/s)

  • Swap

    The utilization of the PM's swap space

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • Balloon

    The utilization of shared memory among VMs running on the host. ESX-only

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • CPU Ready

    The utilization of the PM’s allocated ready queue capacity (measured in Kbytes) that is in use, for 1, 2, and 4 CPU ready queues. ESX-only

    Measured in Megahertz (MHz)

Datacenter
Note: For datacenter entities, Turbonomic does not monitor resources directly from the datacenter, but from the physical machines in the datacenter.

  • Memory (Mem)

    The utilization of the PM's memory reserved or in use

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • CPU

    The utilization of the PM's CPU reserved or in use

    Measured in Megahertz (MHz)

  • IO

    The utilization of the PM's IO adapters

    Measured in Kilobytes per second (KB/s)

  • Net

    The utilization of data through the PM's network adapters

    Measured in Kilobytes per second (KB/s)

  • Swap

    The utilization of the PM's swap space

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • Balloon

    The utilization of shared of memory among VMs running on the host. ESX-only

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • CPU Ready

    The utilization of the PM’s allocated ready queue capacity (measured in Kbytes) that is in use, for 1, 2, and 4 CPU ready queues. ESX-only

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

Provider Virtual Datacenter

  • Memory (Mem)

    The utilization of the Datacenter's memory reserved or in use

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • CPU

    The utilization of the Datacenter's CPU reserved or in use

    Measured in Megahertz (MHz)

  • Storage

    The utilization of the storage attached to the Provider vDC.

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

Consumer Virtual Datacenter

  • Memory (Mem)

    The utilization of the Datacenter's memory reserved or in use

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)

  • CPU

    The utilization of the Datacenter's CPU reserved or in use

    Measured in Megahertz (MHz)

  • Storage

    The utilization of the storage attached to the Consumer vDC.

    Measured in Kilobytes (KB)