This post is intended to cover the VCAP design objective around building manageability requirements into a logical design. At the time of writing, the required ‘Skills and Abilities’ listed by VMware for this topic are:
- Evaluate which management services can be used with a given vSphere solution
- Differentiate infrastructure qualities related to management
- Differentiate available command-line based management tools (PowerCLI, vMA etc)
- Evaluate VMware Management solutions based on customer requirements
- Build interfaces into the logical design for existing operations practices
- Address identified operational readiness deficiencies
- Define Event, Incident and Problem Management practices
- Analyze Release Management practices
- Determine request fulfillment and release management processes
- Determine requirements for Configuration Management
- Define change management processes based on business requirements
- Based on customer requirements, identify required reporting assets and processes
This objective is all about looking at the manageability design quality – which is defined as – “Provide ease of managing the environment and maintaining normal operations. Subqualities may include scalability and flexibility”.
We’ll start by listing the main management tools we have available in a vSphere environment. These include:
- vCenter
- vMA
- PowerCLI
- vCenter Orchestrator
- vSphere API
In addition, there are a bunch of management tools that vCenter makes available, which include:
- vSphere HA and DRS
- Host Profiles
- Auto Deploy
- Task Scheduling
- vDS
- Update Manager
An in-depth knowledge of these tools and how they should be used, and what problems they help solve, will be required. How these tools are configured and utilized will make up a significant part of the detailed design.
Build Interfaces into the Logical Design for Existing Operations Practices
This looks to be about understanding what existing practices and tools are in place, and linking them into the design. Knowing what already exists should come out of the discovery phase. Examples here could be building in connectivity to an existing syslog server, if there is already a policy that all log data is sent to an existing location. Or could be that existing AV solution is used on a Windows vCenter server. There will be many examples where a solution will have to be integrated with existing systems and practices.
Address Identified Operational Readiness Deficiencies
There’s a useful document on operation readiness here. Usually there will be an operational readiness checklist. This assessment will help identify any deficiencies, some or all of which may be able to be addressed in the design. For example – It could be that there isn’t an existing monitoring system – which could be addressed by implementing vCenter alarms, with email notifications. You should also check out this document on operational readiness from VMware.
The following sections are all around ITIL defined processes/practices. Often, existing processes will be in place to cover these areas, however it is important to keep these in mind when designing a vSphere infrastructure.
Define Event, Incident and Problem Management Practices
Often these processes will already exist, often in line with ITIL. Each can be defined as:
Event:
A change of state which might have an influence for the management of a service or system.
Incident:
An event which is not part of the standard operation. It might cause a service disruption or reduce the productivity
Problem:
The cause of one or more incidents. Problems are usually identified because of multiple incidents.
Define Release Management Practices
The ITIL v3 Overview document describes Release Management as:
The goal of the Release and Deployment Management process is to assemble and position all aspects of services into production and establish effective use of new or changed services. Effective release and deployment delivers significant business value by delivering changes at optimized speed, risk and cost, and offering a consistent, appropriate and auditable implementation of usable and useful business services. Release and Deployment Management covers the whole assembly and implementation of new/changed services for operational use, from release planning through to early life support.
Define Request Fulfillment Processes
Taken from the same ITIL doc:
A service request is a request from a user for information or advice, or for a standard change, or for access to an IT service. The purpose of Request Fulfillment is to enable users to request and receive standard services; to source and deliver these services; to provide information to users and customers about services and procedures for obtaining them; and to assist with general information, complaints and comments. All requests should be logged and tracked. The process should include appropriate approval before fulfilling the request.
Define Change Management Processes
Change Management ensures that changes are recorded, evaluated, authorized, prioritized, planned, tested, implemented, documented and reviewed in a controlled manner.
The purpose of the Change Management process is to ensure that standardized methods are used for the efficient and prompt handling of all changes, that all changes are recorded in the Configuration Management System and that overall business risk is optimized.
The process addresses all service change. A Service Change is the addition, modification or removal of an authorised, planned or supported service or service component and its associated documentation.
Based on Customer Requirements, identify required reporting assets and processes
This is about determining what needs to be monitored and reported on. This could be driven by agreed SLAs, e.g reporting uptime or availability of a service, or there could be a requirement to produce vCenter inventory reports, for example. These requirements should be taken into account in the design.