VMware quick reference

Your VMware environment

As a VMware administrator, being able to solve problems based on events in your infrastructure and being able to tie them to individual users or machines in your infrastructure is invaluable.

What VMware can do

You have VMware vCenter Server installed and configured to manage your virtual infrastructure. It addresses the needs for datacenter virtualization and virtualization management giving you the control you need over the infrastructure that is the backbone of your business operations. Virtualization saves you money and time. VMware vCenter Server is the information source providing time critical details supporting the optimal configuration and operation of your virtual infrastructure.In VMware a virtual machine runs on a physical server. The hypervisor take on the responsibility of the OS and manages the interaction between the virtual machines and the physical hardware. vCenter Server manages all the configuration tasks for the managed resources so that day-to-day business applications can run smoothly.

vSphere Client, the Web management tool, effectively and easily enables you to manage the Virtual Machines and ESX/I hosts (physical hosts) in your virtual environment. You can set alarms and events to automatically notify you of changes in your environment, such as virtual machines being moved or hosts failing, you can manage clusters (groups of hosts managed as single entities), and data centers (groups of physical resources such as hosts, virtual machines, networks, and data stores). In data centers, physical resources such as hosts, virtual machines, networks, and data stores must be identified by unique names. Cluster resources, such as CPU and memory,

Clusters are used to support high availability and load balancing. A certain number of physical machine resources are dedicated to supporting the cluster. In a cluster a virtual machine can be moved between hosts to load balance and reduce demand. Other resources, such as the cluster resources (CPU and memory) are managed by vCenter.

The vCenter database contains many different types of data about the virtual environment. Information is stored about the managed entities (for example, data center, cluster, host, virtual machine, and so on), about the relationships between the objects in the environment (how they are physically arranged and managed in relation to one another), and performance data for specific inventory objects. This is just some of the information that is stored. It contains performance statistics for virtual machines and hosts. vCenter logs contain basic information about vCenter and the database. Logs for other components are not on the vCenter server.

Splunk for VMware works with vCenter Server

The Splunk App for VMware works with vCenter Server to collect data from the resources and then maps the data collected to the Splunk App for VMware. It gives you a window into the data enabling you to explore and work with the data in the ways you want. You can keep granular historical data about all your tiers so you can go back and see what happened in your environment. This Big Data problem can be solved by Splunk Enterprise and the Splunk App for VMware. You can get business insights, operational visibility and proactive monitoring. You search and investigate your data. The Splunk App for VMware enables you to collect granular performance, log, and event data about the virtualization layer and enables you to use it with other data in your environment, such as OS data, metrics data, and more.