Case Study: Datalink—Manage IT monitoring the MSP way

Case Study: Datalink—Manage IT monitoring the MSP way

Jason D Anderson

OCX29S @404mon #CAWorld

ca Opscenter

Datalink Technology Manager, Support Services

2 © 2014 CA. All rights reserved.

Abstract

Increasing infrastructure complexity is causing IT operations teams to re-think their monitoring approach. Join us for this session with Datalink to learn how to build and evolve a proactive IT monitoring strategy geared towards the modern, dynamic IT landscape.

In this session you will learn how Datalink proactively manages IT environments of leading Fortune 500 companies by leveraging analytics, intelligent alarms, a unified architecture and advanced process automation to achieve operational efficiencies. You will also learn how to make monitoring look easy to your end users while delivering the flexibility required to monitor just about anything they throw at you.

Jason D Anderson Datalink

Technology Manager Support Services


Agenda

ABOUT DATALINK

CURRENT MONITORING LANDSCAPE

ADDRESSING THE LANDSCAPE WITH CA UIM

CAN YOU REALLY MONITOR ANYTHING?

SUMMARY

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Use #CAWorld #ITOps

#Unifiedmonitoring #ITMonitoring for this session

About Datalink


Support Services Catalog

Archive

Backup

Network

Voice

Storage

Server

Cloud

OPERATE

Modular technology

admin and management

Managed Services

NetApp

EMC

Cisco

Quantum

Hitachi

VCE

OneCallSM

SUPPORT

World-class support

for IT infrastructures

Symantec

Datalink Central

ENABLE

Increased productivity

via managed tool sets

Managed Monitoring

StorageScape

Cloud Monitoring

We assist our customers with the

24x7 operation of their

datacenter infrastructures

through industry-proven support,

services and tools.


Datalink Overview

Dual 24X7 North American Support Centers –Eden Prairie, MN

–Cary, NC

Over 75 Support Services engineers

Eden Prairie, MN

Cary, NC

110 Million Dollar Business

Measured by Customer Satisfaction

Dedicated Support Lab

Deep Relationship with Tier 1 Vendors

Current Monitoring Landscape


Traditional monitoring

Accurate information needed

Process Automation

Problem Resolution Process Tools

Analytics

KB

Comm- unication

Alerts

!

Resolutions feed the

tools.

Tools feed the

resolution process.


The Urge To Use LEGOs

What are monitoring LEGOs?

A bunch of small tools that are combined to

build a enterprise monitoring solution

Open source, home grown, niche tools

IT Budgets are under a lot of pressure.

Cheap or free, easy to initially setup

End-users are throwing a lot at us.

Feeling of freedom

Easy to plug big holes

Customizable


The Issue With LEGOs

Cheep or free? Nothing is free. Management

of tools is costly.

Lack of single pain of glass? You have a bunch

of portals.

Feeling of freedom? This quickly fades ounces

you realize the rigidity of the LEGOs.

Easy to plug big holes? You start to miss a

bunch of smaller issues which add up.

Customizable? What happens when you need

to combine two of these tools together?


Traditional IT Monitoring

TOOL - A TOOL - B TOOL - C TOOL - D

Desktop

Team

Infrastructure

Team Network

Team

App/Dev

Team

TOOL - E


Understanding the Gap

What engineers think

• I got a tool for that

• Focusing on fixing an issue

• If I monitor the individual parts I am covered

What end-users think

• It is easy

• I thought IT was monitoring the entire system

What actually happens

• Issues are missed

• MTTR goes up

• Team productivity suffers

• End customer and user experience suffers

Addressing the Landscape With CA Unified Infrastructure Management (CA UIM)


Overview

CA UIM

CA UIM


CA UIM vs. LEGOs

Unified platform

– Single version of “truth”, faster MTTR

“Plug n’ Play” architecture

– Out-of-the-box monitoring support allows you to support new

technologies faster.

Easy to use and manage

– Spend less time “managing your management tools”.

Unified, Comprehensive IT Monitoring


Striving To Save Lives What We Can Learn From Auto Makers

Time needed to react

Nanoseconds (To late)

Microseconds Milliseconds Seconds


Striving To Save Systems

Time needed to react

Seconds (To late)

Minutes Hours Days to weeks

Static Thresholds

Dynamic Thresholds

Anomaly Detection (Time over Threshold) Predictive Alarms

Insightful Reports


Customer Studies

75% Fewer service desk tickets once a proactive approach is implemented

Can you really monitor anything?


Comprehensive Monitoring

Network

DNS, DHCP, LDAP SNMP, LAN, WAN

Servers

UCS

Storage

Virtualization O/S Unified Architecture

Databases Cloud Application Services

VOIP


Exchange Server Performance Time Elapsed


VMware Time Elapsed


Storage Performance Time Elapsed


Network Time Elapsed


Exchange Debug Time Elapsed


Datalink Portal Time Elapsed


Unified Exchange Dashboard Storage

Systems

Network

Round Trip

OWA Web

Application


Unified Dashboards UCS Hardware

UCS System UCS System

VM Guest Summary

NetApp Storage

Cisco Nexus


VDC Synthetic Transaction—Process

VDC

Network The network infrastructure is tested to ensure an end user can connect to the VDC infrastructure.

ESXi Hosts vCenters visibility into the ESXi cluster is confirmed when the test VM is located and then powered on.

VMotion A hot VMotion migration is executed on the

test VM to an opposite host in the cluster.

Storage As the test VM is being migrated to the opposite host, the backend storage and

storage interconnects are validated.

vCenter An end users ability to connect to vCenter via vSphere is tested.

Availability The availability of the VDC infrastructure

has been verified throughout the stack once the test VM has been successfully

migrated.



VMOTION TREND ANALYSIS

ESX host added


vMotion Example

• What does testing vMotion on a VDC infrastructures provide? It answers the following question:

– Could DRS migrate VMs if needed to optimize performance?

– Could a host be put into maintenance mode without impacting availability?

– In the event of a host failure can HA automatically migrate VMs, decreasing downtime?

• How does Datalink help ensure vMotion is functioning? – vMotion test script runs on a regular basis (two hours) against all guest in the cluster.

– The script executes commands directly against the vCenter server.

– The script asks vCenter to simulate and verify that each guest can migrate to a randomly selected Host within the cluster.

VMware ESXi VMware ESXi VMware ESXi

Failed Server Operating Server Operating Server


Summary A Few Words To Review

Key Challenges

• Demanding users and customers

• Rising infrastructure complexity

Key Takeaway

• A unified, proactive approach to IT monitoring can help you exceed user expectations.

• Automation of routine tasks can have a significant impact.


For More Information

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