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Extreme Performance Series: vCenter Performance Best Practices Ravi Soundararajan, VMware, Inc Dilpreet Bindra, VMware, Inc. Zhelong Pan, VMware, Inc. INF4764 #INF4764

VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

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Page 1: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

Extreme Performance Series:vCenter Performance Best Practices

Ravi Soundararajan, VMware, IncDilpreet Bindra, VMware, Inc.

Zhelong Pan, VMware, Inc.

INF4764

#INF4764

Page 2: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 2

• This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development.

• This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in any generally available product.

• Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements of any kind.

• Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.

• Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not been determined.

Disclaimer

Page 3: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 3

Our Goals• Help you understand vCenter architecture

• Help you understand what factors influence vCenter performance

• Help you use this knowledge to guide vCenter deployment

Page 4: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 4

VC 2015 Teaser: vCenter 5.5 vs. vCenter 6.0 Throughput

Small Large0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

vCenter 5.5 vCenter 6.0 Windows

Inventory Size

Thr

ough

put (

oper

atio

ns/m

inut

e)

5.5 6.0

50% higher

100% higher

Substantial throughput improvements for high-churn workloads in 2015

5.5 6.0Small inventory Large inventory

Page 5: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 5

VC2015 Teaser: Web Client 5.5 GA vs. 6.0• Sample latency improvements from 5.5 GA to 6.0

• Bottom line: please upgrade to 2015

Operation Improvement in LatencyLogin 39%

Action Menu 88%

VM List 77%

Host Summary 65%

Create VM Wizard 73%

DRS Cluster Settings 91%

Page 6: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 6

Agenda

1 vCenter Deep Dive (+ Web Client)

2 Performance Considerations

3 Deployment Strategies

4 Concluding Remarks

Page 7: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

In the Beginning

CONFIDENTIAL 7

C# clientsAPI clients

vpxd DB

vCenter server

Page 8: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 8

However, this is Approximately vCenter (We Will Dissect This…)

ESXi + HostD + VPXA

STO

RA

GE

NET

WO

RK

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

vSphere WebClients

UpdateManager

vROps

ADC# UI / API

Clients

Java

InvServ

vCenter server

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

Page 9: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

vCenter Deep Dive+ Web Client

Page 10: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 10

vCenter Architecture Components: High Level• Single Sign On/Identity management

• Web Client

• Vpxd

• Inventory Service

• Other Services– Content library, storage profiles, perfcharts, health services, workflow management, licensing, …

Page 11: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 11

5.5 vs. 6.0 Installation

5.5: Components separately installed 6.0: Components installed together

Page 12: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 12

SSO and Identity Management

AD

vCenter server

SSO

• Global Roles and Permissions• Identity Management• Registered solutions visible to Web Client

Page 13: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 13

SSO Plus the Web Client

WebClientServer

vSphere WebClients

AD

vCenter server

SSO

• 2 vCenters registered with SSO• Both visible from web client

1. Login

2. SSO Authenticates

3. After user is authenticated, user has access to all providers registered with SSO (e.g., vCenter)

Page 14: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 14

Vpxd

VPXD

DB

WebClientServer

vSphere WebClients

AD

vCenter server

SSO

• Vpxd: performs main business logic• Sends tasks to appropriate hosts • Retrieves config changes from hosts • Pushes config updates to DB• Inserts stats into DB (5-minute intervals)• Satisfies queries from API clients

UpdateManager

vROps

C# UI / APIClients

Page 15: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 15

DatabaseDB also performs these tasks:• Stats Rollups: VPX_HIST_STATX

• 30 minutes, 2 hours, 1 day

• Purging stats

• Purging events (if auto-purge configured)

• Purging tasks (if auto-purge configured)

• TopN computation

• 10 min, 30 min, 2 hours, 1 day

For more info, see VSVC5234 from VMworld 2013

VPXD

DB

Page 16: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 16

Inventory Service

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

vSphere WebClients

AD

InvServ

vCenter server

SSO

Inventory Service• Embedded database • Cache of vCenter Inventory • Reduces load on vpxdSatisfies queries from web clientSatisfies inventory queries from extensions

Allows integrations with 2nd/3rd party tools

Page 17: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 17

Inventory Service: Integrations with ExtensionsPros:• Reduced load on the

vCenter Database

• Seamless integration with other products (e.g., VROps)

Cons:• Mem/IO resources • Proper sizing is key

vROps

Page 18: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 18

Other Services (1 of 2)

VPXD

DB

WebClientServer

Health perfcharts

vSphere WebClients

UpdateManager

vROps

ADC# UI / API

Clients

InvServ

vCenter server

SSO

SPS

Storage Profile Service (SPS)• Storage management

Health Services• Watchdogs, host and service health

Perfcharts• Overview charts in web client

Page 19: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 19

Other Services (2 of 2)

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

vSphere WebClients

UpdateManager

vROps

ADC# UI / API

Clients

Java

InvServ

vCenter server

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

Content Library• Shared VM repository across VCs• http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2015/07/

efficiently-deploy-vms-vmware-vsphere-content-library.html

Other• Licensing, ESX agent management,

workflows, proxy

Page 20: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

Windows vCenter Server Resource Usage: TaskManager

CONFIDENTIAL 20

TaskManager sorted by memory usageJava processes: look at “User name” for some services…for others, use Windows Sysinternals

Web client service

Vdcs = content librarySYSTEM? Use sysinternals

Page 21: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 21

Sysinternals: Mapping Process to Service (1/2)

View Process TreeFind Process ID

Page 22: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 22

Sysinternals: Mapping Process to Service (2/2)

Look at Service(VMwareSTS, Token service)

Page 23: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 23

vCenter Appliance Resource Monitoring• vimtop

Similar to Linux top

Shows services and resource usage

Must enable ssh and troubleshooting mode

Page 24: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 24

Agenda

1 vCenter Deep Dive (+ Web Client)

2 Performance Considerations

3 Deployment Strategies

4 Concluding Remarks

Page 25: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

Performance Considerations

Page 26: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL

vCenter Server Performance ConsiderationsSufficient Resource Provisioning is Key

• MINIMUM SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS (Please check documentation):• Small setups (< 1000 VMs): 4 vCPUs, 16 GB

• DB guidelines: 2 vCPU, 8GB

• Medium setups (< 4000 VMs): 8 vCPUs, 24 GB • DB guidelines: 4 vCPU, 12GB

– Large setups (> 4000 VMs): 8-16 vCPUs, 24-32GB • DB: 8 vCPU, 16GB

• Ps. See documentation for “Tiny” configuration (test/dev)

• MINIMUM– You may need more depending on your host/VM/network/storage configuration

26

Page 27: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 27

Factors Influencing vCenter Resource Usage• ‘Churn’

– Out-of-the-box settings should be fine for ‘light’ workloads

• Inventory size and host/VM configuration

• # of extensions

• Stats level and retention settings

Page 28: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 28

Resource Usage Discussion• Examine resources under different inventory sizes and churn factors

– CPU

– Memory

– Disk

– Network

Page 29: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 29

Impact of Inventory Size on CPU Usage: Idle Setup

0 200 400 600 800 1000 12000

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Number of ESXi Hosts

Idle

CP

U U

sage

(% o

f one

CP

U)

1000 hosts, 10K VMs60% of 1 CPU used

100 hosts, 1000 VMs: < 10% of 1 CPU used

Larger inventory, more CPUs neededImportant: SSDs used in this experiment

Page 30: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 30

Impact of Load on CPU Usage, 1000 Hosts, 10K VMs

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 16000

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

vCenter Throughput (operations per minute)

vCen

ter C

PU

Usa

ge (%

of o

ne C

PU

)

More load, more CPUs neededImportant: SSDs used in this experiment

16 cores to achieve ~1600 ops/min.

7 cores to achieve ~700 ops/min.

Page 31: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 31

CPU Version• Newer CPUs can impact performance

• Example for large inventory: – 60% more throughput with E5-2670v3 Haswell-EP than with E7-8837 Westmere-EX

Page 32: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 32

Impact of Inventory Size on Memory Usage: Idle Setup

0 200 400 600 800 1000 12000

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

vCenter Inventory and Memory Usage

Number of ESXi Hosts

Mem

ory

(no

cach

e/bu

ffers

, GB

)

1000 hosts: ~18GB

400 hosts: ~12GB

Memory usage is strongly related to inventory size

Page 33: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 33

Impact of Load on Memory Usage: 1000 hosts, 10K VMs

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 18000

5

10

15

20

25

30

vCenter Throughput and Memory Usage

Ramp-upSteady state

vCenter Throughput (operations per minute)

Mem

ory

(no

cach

e/bu

ffers

, GB

)

Memory varies more with inventory size than with load at scale

First run of workload: ramp up

Second run of workload: memory stays fixed

Page 34: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 34

Top Consumers of Memory (Excluding DB)1. Inventory service (java): inventory size

2. Vpxd (C++): inventory size• Inventory Service and vpxd often have similar usage

3. SPS (java): inventory size

4. vSphere Client (java): impacted by inventory size and extensions

5. Content Library and Transfer Service (java): concurrent transfers

• Java services sensitive to heap size (especially Inventory service, vSphere client)

Page 35: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 35

Inspecting Heap and Memory Usage• vCenter Appliance

– Heap settings: cloudvm-ram-size –J <service name>– Memory per service: cloudvm-ram-size –l

• vCenter Windows: same (make sure you are in correct directory)– chdir C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\visl-integration\usr\sbin – Heap settings: cloudvm-ram-size –J <service name>– Memory per service: cloudvm-ram-size –l

• Changing heap size: 2 options1. Resize VM and reboot: heaps are automatically resized (*new in 6.0*)2. Resize individual service (No Reboot required):

1. cloudvm-ram-size.bat -C <newHeapSize> <name of service>2. Restart

Page 36: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 36

Impact of Increasing CPU and Memory• With more CPU/Memory, vCenter performance improves (Note: uses SSDs)

• Example below: 16vCPU/32GB vs. 24vCPU/48GB

• Bottom line: In 6.0, we scale better with more HW than in 5.5

vCenter 5.5 vCenter 6.0 Windows vCenter 6.0 Server Appl.0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

16 CPU, 32 GB RAM 24 CPU, 48 GB RAM

vCenter Server Configuration

Thr

ough

put (

oper

atio

ns/m

inut

e)

5.5: small delta

6.0: bigger performance improvement

Page 37: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 37

Disk IO• Sample Write Breakdown: single cluster, 64H, 8K VMs, ~300 operations/minute, level 1 stats

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 590

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

Write KB/s

swapcorelogsDB_dataDB_transSEATnetdumpautoimageIS

DB transaction log

DB Data + log ~6MB/s

Inventory Service~7MB/s

DB Data

Total: ~3K write IOPsDatabase and Inventory Service largest contributors

Page 38: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 38

Disk CharacterizationTraffic related to load, inventory size, and statistics level

• Relational DB– Workload– Inventory Size– Statistics Level– Attached extensions causing vCenter Events

• Inventory Service– Workload– Inventory Size

• DB is involved in nearly all operations: latency is key

Page 39: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 39

Disk IO as a Function of Inventory Size (Idle)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 12000

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Bandwidth Trans. per Sec.

Number of ESXi Hosts

Dis

k B

andw

idth

(KB

ps)

Dis

k Tr

ansa

ctio

ns p

er S

econ

d1000 hosts: 1.2MB/s

400 hosts: ~500KB/s

Modest disk IO when setup is idle. Note: increasing stats level increases disk IO

Page 40: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 40

Disk IO as a Function of Operational Load: 1000 Hosts, 10K VMs

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 16000

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

vCenter Throughput and Disk Usage

Bandwidth

Trans. per Sec.

vCenter Throughput (operations per minute)

Dis

k B

andw

idth

(MB

ps)

Dis

k Tr

ansa

ctio

ns p

er S

econ

d

1600 VC ops/min35 MB/s2500 IOPs

700 VC operations/min20MB/s1500 IOPs

With high churn, high IOPs capacity and low latency important consider SSDs

Page 41: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 41

Performance Considerations for IO• Traffic pattern

– Write-mostly (inserts, purges, rollups, config updates), logs sequential, data random– SSDs critical for low latency and high bandwidth– Increase memory to ensure buffer caches capture most reads

• Stats Level– Use proper stats level for your use case (more details next slide)

• Physical Disk configuration: Use separate spindles for DB, Inventory service, core files, etc.– vCenter Appliance: ~10 VMDKs. Put DB and IS partitions on separate spindles– Windows: everything installed in one place. Use striped disks or SSDs under high churn

• Managing DB disk growth (see next slides)

• Location of DB (same node as VC, different node on same ESX host, etc.)

Page 42: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL

Impact of Stats Level on Database• Rough rules of thumb (your mileage will vary based on your setup)

• Level 1 stats: per-VM and per-host aggregate stats

• Level 2 stats: additional per-VM/per-host stats 4x or more stats than Level 1 depending on configuration

• Level 3 stats: per-instance stats 6x or more stats than Level 2 depending on configuration

• Level 4 stats: additional rollup types1.4x more stats than Level 3 depending on configurationRecommendations:– Use the stats calculator in vCenter– Try to use higher stats levels only for temporary debugging– If the stat you want is at the wrong level, let us know– Consider vROps for more advanced stats functionality?

42

Page 43: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 43

Latency to the DBLatency to DB important (often more so than ESX-to-VC latency)

• Almost everything involves the DB…• Stats persistence• Certain UI queries• Updating configuration information• Historical queries (events, alarms, task history)• …

Recommendation

Place DB and vCenter close together (minimally, same geo if practical)

Best case: same VM (if VM properly provisioned)

Also good: different VM on same host (if host properly provisioned)

Note: DB and vCenter on different hosts/VMs allows for independent sizing and tuning

For more info, see VSVC5234 from VMworld 2013

Page 44: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL

DB Performance Considerations (2 of 2)• Manage database disk growth

– Majority of DB data is “SEAT” data (Stats, events, alarms, tasks): 80-85% (10s of GBs or more in big setups)

– Inventory data: 10-15% of data (usually < 10GB for large inventories)– Choose stats levels wisely to avoid excessive growth– Utilize automatic purging of event/task tables if possible

• Recompute DB stats on highly-volatile tables (at least once a day)– VPX_TOPN*

44

For more info, see VSVC5234 from VMworld 2013

Page 45: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 45

Network• Network carries configuration changes and statistics data

• Network traffic is bursty due to periodic stats traffic:

0 5 10 15 200

10

20

30

40

50

60

vCenter Network Usage

Time (minutes)

Net

wor

k U

sage

(Mbp

s)

Page 46: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 46

Network Bandwidth Consumed as a Function of Load

0 200 400 600 800 1000 12000

50

100

150

200

250vCenter Throughput and Network Usage

Sent Received

Total

vCenter Throughput (operations per minute)

Net

wor

k U

sage

(Mbp

s)

Bandwidth requirements modest, but latency is key

Page 47: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 47

Network• Link from vCenter to hosts and to DB impacts performance: latency more so than throughput:

• Example from our lab:

Baseline 10Gbps, 1ms 100Mbps, 20 ms 10Mbps, 50 ms 1.5 Mbps, 100 ms

1.5 Mbps, 500 ms

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

8.23 8.85 9.23 10.2412.74

26.39Median PowerOn Latency (secs)

Pow

erO

n La

tenc

y (s

ecs)

Page 48: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 48

Other Performance Considerations• Concurrency

• API

• Extensions

• Windows vs. Linux

Page 49: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 49

How Many Concurrent Operations Can I Perform? (1 of 2)• vCenter hard limits

– 640 concurrent operations before incoming requests are queued– 2000 concurrent sessions (incoming requests plus remote console sessions)

• Per-host or per-datastore limits– A host can perform up to 8 provisioning operations at once (provisioning = clone, VMotion, relocate)– If host is source and destination, host can only do 4 operations at once– A datastore can perform up to 128 VMotions at once– A datastore can perform up to 8 Storage VMotions at once– Limits can be changed, but changes are not officially supported

• NIC configuration: 10Gb vs. 1Gb– 10Gb NIC allows a host to do 2x more VMotions at a time than 1Gb NIC

Page 50: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 50

vCenter Concurrency (2 of 2)• Clone VM from host A to host B

• Each host can participate in 7 other provisioning operations

• Clone VM from host A to host A

• Host A can only participate in 6 more operations

vCenter

Host A

VM 1

Host B

VM 2

Cost to A: 1 Cost to B: 1

vCenter

Host A

VM 1 VM 2

Cost to A: 2

Do not use a single host as the source of all clones (i.e., spread out templates) Better disk performance and better concurrency

Page 51: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 51

API Performance Considerations: An Example• Example of a good vs. bad client in PowerCLI

• PowerCLI: – Simple to use, but involves client-side filtering– Example: Get-VM gets all VMs from server, filters list @ client

• $vmList = Get-VM –name “vm1”,”vm2”,”vm3”,”vm4”

• Good: 1 server call, client throws away all but vm1,vm2,vm3,vm4

$nameList = “vm1”,”vm2”,”vm3”,”vm4”

foreach ($name in $nameList) {

Get-VM $name

}

Bad: 4 server calls, gets all VMs 4 times…excess client/server work

For more info, see VSVC5234 from VMworld 2013

Page 52: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 52

Impact of Solutions• vROps

– Increased network traffic to get stats from hosts– Increased CPU usage on hosts (to retrieve stats)– Increased CPU usage on vCenter to serialize data– Example at scale (1K hosts, 10K powered-on VMs)

• Data transmitted without vROps: 0.21 Mbps• Data transmitted with vRops: 1.4 Mbps (7x change)• Data received without vROps: 0.39 Mbps• Data received with vROps: 1.35 MBps (4x change)

– vCenter throughput reduced (example: 19% in a high-churn use case)

• NSX– 400MB extra memory needed for vSphere web client service heap

• vRA: increased concurrent workflows increases CPU on vCenter and network traffic

vROps

vCenter

ESXESX

ESXESX

ESXVC stats

DB

VC stats

vROps

vROps

Page 53: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 53

Windows vs. vCenter Appliance• The vCenter appliance with embedded DB can support full vCenter Limits

• The vCenter appliance and Windows have similar performance

Small Large0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

vCenter 6.0 Windows vCenter 6.0 Server Appl.

Inventory Size

Thr

ough

put (

oper

atio

ns/m

inut

e)

Page 54: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

Web ClientPerformance Concerns

Page 55: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 55

Web Client: Performance Considerations• If possible, browser machine should have 2 CPUs, 4GB

• Faster CPUs help (on both client and server side)

• Use browser in same geo as application server (RDP to a local machine?)

• Make sure application server has sufficient heap size (may need to increase if plugins are installed)

• Make sure Inventory Service has sufficient heap size

Page 56: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 56

Agenda

1 vCenter Deep Dive (+ Web Client)

2 Performance Considerations

3 Deployment Strategies

4 Concluding Remarks

Page 57: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

Deployment Strategies

Page 58: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 58

Deployment Options• With increased scaling, our goal is that inventory size and churn are NOT the reasons you

need to use multiple VCs

• Possibilities– Fully Embedded– Embedded + external DB– External Platform Services Controller (PSC)– Multiple VCs with External PSCs, high-availability– Multiple VCs with External PSCs, multi-site

• SSO on PSC replaces linked mode– Works on both Windows and Appliance– Allows global sharing of roles, permissions, tags, and licenses

Page 59: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

59

Fully Embedded or Embedded with External DB• Good for most single vCenter configurations

DB

AD

VPXD

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

AD

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

Page 60: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 60

External PSC• Good if you anticipate multiple vCenters

AD

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

PSC

2 vCPU, 2GB

Page 61: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 61

Multiple vCenters: Use Cases• Increased Scale

– Operations/s?• For some, 50 ops/min is where they want more vCenters

– Large number of hosts/VMs?• For some, the single VC “sweet spot” is 200H/2000VMs

• Business Considerations– Finance vs. Engineering– PCI-compliant vs. non-PCI-compliant racks– Server vs. Desktop Workloads

• Multiple Geographies– Ok with single vCenter managing remote hosts? – vCenter per site or per group of sites?

1. Decide on one or more vCenters

2. Single vs. Multiple SSO sites?

Page 62: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 62

Multiple vCenters, Single PSCPro: Single Pane of Glass

Pro: Shared Licenses, roles, permissions

Con: Single point of failure (PSC)

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

AD

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

PSC

Page 63: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 63

Multiple vCenters, Multiple PSCs with HA and Load BalancerAdd a load balancer in front of PSCs

8 VCs per PSC pair

Roles/Privileges/License replication

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

AD

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

PSC PSC

LB

Page 64: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 64

Multiple vCenters, Multi-site Mode with Multiple PSCs• Roles/Privileges/License replication across sites

• No HA: must add LB for this

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

AD

VPXD

DB

Web ClientServer

Health perfcharts

Java

InvServ

SSO

SPS

ContentLibrary

PSC PSC

Page 65: VMworld 2015: Extreme Performance Series - vCenter Performance Best Practices

CONFIDENTIAL 65

PSC: Performance Considerations• Default size (2 vCPU, 2GB) should be fine

• Tag performance can be impacted by slow link between vCenter and PSC

• Login may be slower for SSO vs. Standalone (contacting multiple vCenters)

• Search is slower for external SSO (contacting multiple vCenters)

• One slow vCenter may slow down Login/Search

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Agenda

1 vCenter Deep Dive (+ Web Client)

2 Performance Considerations

3 Deployment Strategies

4 Concluding Remarks

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Conclusions• vCenter 6.0 vastly improved in scalability and performance over 5.5

– Our goal: performance is not the reason you need multiple vCenters– Use PSCs for availability, not performance

• For best performance, vCenter needs sufficient resources– CPU: scales with inventory size and churn– Memory: scales with inventory size– IO: scales with inventory size, churn, and stats level– Network: low-latency between VC and DB recommended

• With 2nd or 3rd party solutions, resource requirements of vCenter will likely increase to manage the same inventory size

• Use the appliance! – Windows vCenter and Linux appliance: similar performance, same scale limits– PSC provides sharing of roles/permissions/licenses

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Extreme Performance Series – Break Out Sessions• INF4764 vCenter Performance Best Practices

• INF5701 vSphere Compute & Memory

• INF4936 Insight Into vSphere 6 vMotion

• VAPP4639 Best Practices for Performance Tuning of Virtualized Telco and NFV

• INF4853 Docker Containers on vSphere

• VAPP5724 High Performance Panel - No App Left Behind

• VAPP5165 Monster VM Database Performance

• STO4949 Virtual SAN Performance Deep-Dive

• EUC5802 Horizon View 6.x Performance and Best Practices

• VAPP6537-GD Maximize Performance on vSphere 6

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Performance Hands On Labs• HOL-SDC-1604 vSphere Performance Optimization

This Lab covers vSphere performance best practices and various performance related features available in vSphere 6.

• SPL-CHG-1695 vSphere 6 Challenge LabThe vSphere 6 Challenge asks you to put on your thinking cap to save the day! Each module places you in a different fictional scenario to fix common vSphere operational and performance problems.

• ELW-SDC-1604 vSphere Performance OptimizationThis expert led workshop will take you though the vSphere 6 performance best practices hands on lab with additional support and discussion.

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Extreme Performance Series:vCenter Performance Best Practices

Ravi Soundararajan, VMware, Inc

INF4764

#INF4764