Troubleshooting ESX virtual machine performance issues

VMware have created a KB that has a list of other KB's that help in troubleshooting virtual environments.

Tuning ESX/ESXi for better storage performance by modifying the maximum I/O block size

Balloon driver retains hold on memory causing virtual machine guest operating system performance issues
ESX has performance issues due to IRQ sharing
Enabling IOAT and Jumbo frames
Troubleshooting network performance issues
Analyzing SCSI Reservation conflicts on VMware Infrastructure 3.x and vSphere 4.x
Determining if multiple virtual CPUs are causing performance issues
Slow performance caused by misconfigured local storage or SAN array
Slow performance caused by out of date firmware on a RAID controller or HBA
Testing virtual machine storage I/O performance
[Internal] ESX and EMC storage performance tips
iSCSI and Jumbo Frames configuration on ESX 3.x, ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x
Using esxtop to identify storage performance issues
Configuring Jumbo Frames on a vNetwork Distributed Switch
Verifying correct storage settings on ESX 4.x and ESXi 4.x
Network I/O Resource Management in vSphere 4.1 with vDS
Impact of virtual machine memory and CPU resource limits
Checking your firmware and BIOS levels to ensure compatibility with ESX/ESXi
Enabling Jumbo Frames for VMkernel ports in a virtual distributed switch
Changing the Queue Depth for QLogic and Emulex HBAs
High co-stop (%CSTP) values seen during virtual machine snapshot activities

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2001003

VDS Best Practices -cont

Continuing  from VMware Networking blog. The final two parts are up.

• Blade Server Deployments
• Operational best practices

Part 5 - Blade Server Deployments

• Blade Server with Two 10 Gigabit Ethernet network adapters
• Design Option 1 – Static Configuration
• Design Option 2 – Dynamic Configuration with NIOC and LBT
• Blade Server with Hardware assisted Logical network adapters (HP-Flex10 like deployment)

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/12/vds-best-practices-blade-server-deployments.html

Part 6 - Operational best practices

• Command Line Interface
• vCenter API
• Virtual Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting
• Conclusion

 http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/12/vds-best-practices-operational-aspects.html 

I/O Analyzer from VMware Labs

I/O Analyzer is a virtual appliance solution by VMware that provides a simple and standardized way of measuring storage performance in a VMware vSphere virtualized environments. I/O Analyzer automates the traditional storage performance analysis cycle and reduces the performance diagnosis time from days to hours.

Features

• Integrated framework for storage performance testing
• Readily deployable virtual appliance
• Easily configure and launch I/O tests on multiple hosts
• View integrated performance results at both guest and host levels
• Easily export performance data for off-site analysis

http://labs.vmware.com/flings/io-analyzer

You need to have the following system requirements:

• ESX 3.5 above (4.0 and 4.1 tested)
• 350 MB storage space
• 1 vcpu and 512 MB virtual memory
• Firefox and Chrome browsers supported

VDS Best Practices

November 16 VMware Networking blog started 6 part blog about vDS Best Practice.

"These guidelines or best practices are discussed with reference to a sample example deployment. It is important to note that the suggestions/guidelines discussed here are based on the assumptions of the example deployment. Every customer environment is different as well as customer needs are different, and customers have to take that into account while designing the virtual network infrastructure using VDS. VDS is a flexible platform that can support different requirements from different customers. "

Some great information

Part 1 - Design Considerations

• Design Considerations
• Infrastructure design Goals
• Infrastructure component configurations
• Virtual Infrastructure traffic
• Example Deployment components
• Network Infrastructure
• Virtual Infrastructure Traffic Types

Virtual Infrastructure Traffic Types

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/11/vds-best-practices-.html


Part 2 - Virtual and Physical Switch Parameters

• VDS parameters
• Physical Network switch parameters

 http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/11/vds-best-practices-virtual-and-physical-switch-parameters.html



Part 3 - Rack Server Deployment with Eight 1 Gigabit adapters

• Rack Server in Example Deployment
• Rack Server with Eight 1 Gigabit Ethernet network adapters
• Design Option 1 – Static configuration
• Design Option 2 – Dynamic configuration with NIOC and LBT

 Rack Server with eight 1 Gigabit Ethernet network adapters

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/11/vds-best-practices-rack-server-deployment-with-eight-1-gigabit-adapters.html


Part 4 - Rack Server Deployment with Two 10 Gigabit adapters

• Rack Server with Two 10 Gigabit Ethernet network adapters
• Design Option 1 – Static Configuration
• Design Option 2 – Dynamic Configuration with NIOC and LBT

Rack server with 2 – 10 Gig NICs

http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/12/vds-best-practices-rack-server-deployment-with-two-10-gigabit-adapters.html




*********************************************************
So far really good information and makes good reading. looking forward to Parts 5 and 6.

Thanks Venky.

vCenter Chargeback Manager 2.0

VMware have released vCenter Chargeback Manager 2.0.

New in this Release
Automatic Report Scheduler
Charge thin and thick provisioned virtual machines differently
Cost variance and cost optimization
Showback Report
Apply fixed cost based on virtual machine state
Tier-based storage costing
Support for raw device mapping
Complete support for vSphere 5.0 and vCloud Director 1.5
New cost models and billing policies for vCloud Director

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vcbm_pubs.html

You can the find download here
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/it_business_management/vmware_vcenter_chargeback/2_0

VMware also offer a free Online self paced course.

Title		VMware vCenter Chargeback Fundamentals
Summary		- Format: Self-Paced - Length: 1 Hours
Overview		This self paced course discusses how to install, configure and manage vCenter Chargeback to implement an effective cost accounting system for the virtualized environment.
Objectives		After completing this course, learners should be able to: •  Describe the need for chargeback •  Discuss Chargeback methods •  Install and manage vCenter Chargeback application •  Deploy vCenter Chargeback as a virtual appliance •  Configure vCenter Chargeback application with common administration settings •  Create and manage chargeback hierarchies •  Create and manage cost models and templates •  Generate and manage reports •  Monitor System health and Perform common troubleshooting

Title		VMware vCenter Chargeback Fundamentals
Summary		- Format: Self-Paced - Length: 1 Hours
Overview		This self paced course discusses how to install, configure and manage vCenter Chargeback to implement an effective cost accounting system for the virtualized environment.
Objectives		After completing this course, learners should be able to: •  Describe the need for chargeback •  Discuss Chargeback methods •  Install and manage vCenter Chargeback application •  Deploy vCenter Chargeback as a virtual appliance •  Configure vCenter Chargeback application with common administration settings •  Create and manage chargeback hierarchies •  Create and manage cost models and templates •  Generate and manage reports •  Monitor System health and Perform common troubleshooting

http://mylearn.vmware.com/MgrReg/courses.cfm?ui=www&a=one&id_subject=15658