VMware VSphere Performance : Designing CPU, Memory, Storage, and Networking for Performance-intensive Workloads

[BOOK DESCRIPTION]

Covering the latest VMware vSphere software, an essential book aimed at solving vSphere performance problems before they happen VMware vSphere is the industry's most widely deployed virtualization solution. However, if you improperly deploy vSphere, performance problems occur. Aimed at VMware administrators and engineers and written by a team of VMware experts, this resource provides guidance on common CPU, memory, storage, and network-related problems. Plus, step-by-step instructions walk you through techniques for solving problems and shed light on possible causes behind the problems. Divulges troubleshooting methodologies, performance monitoring tools, and techniques and tools for isolating performance problems Details the necessary steps for handling CPU, memory, storage, and network-related problems Offers understanding on the interactions between VMware vSphere and CPU, memory, storage, and network VMware vSphere Performance is the resource you need to diagnose and handle VMware vSphere performance problems, and avoid them in the future.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS]

Introduction                                       xix
    Chapter 1 • Performance Design            1  (20)
      Starting Simple                              2  (2)
        Determine Parameters                       2  (1)
        Architect for the Application              3  (1)
        Assess Physical Performance                3  (1)
        Start with Defaults                        3  (1)
      Establishing a Baseline                      4  (7)
        Baseline CPU Infrastructure                4  (2)
        Memory                                     6  (1)
        Network                                    7  (2)
        Storage                                    9  (2)
      Architecting for the Application             11 (1)
      Considering Licensing Requirements           12 (1)
      Integrating Virtual Machines                 13 (3)
        Virtual Machine Scalability                13 (1)
        vMotion                                    13 (2)
        Distributed Resource Scheduler             15 (1)
        High Availability                          16 (1)
      Understanding Design Considerations          16 (2)
        Choosing a Server                          16 (2)
      Summary                                      18 (3)
    Chapter 2 • Building Your Toolbox         21 (24)
      Capacity Planning Tools                      21 (5)
        VMware Capacity Planner                    21 (1)
        Microsoft Assessment and Planning          22 (1)
        Toolkit
        Using Capacity Planning Tools              22 (1)
        Ongoing Capacity Management                23 (3)
      Performance Analysis Tools                   26 (8)
        esxtop                                     26 (5)
        vscsiStats                                 31 (3)
      Performance Benchmarking Tools               34 (2)
        VMmark                                     34 (1)
        vBenchmark                                 35 (1)
      Performance Simulation Tools                 36 (6)
        CPU/Memory                                 36 (2)
        Storage                                    38 (3)
        Network                                    41 (1)
      Summary                                      42 (3)
    Chapter 3 • The Test Lab                  45 (18)
      Why Build a Test Lab?                        45 (10)
        Test Changes before Applying in            46 (1)
        Production
        Test New Applications and Patches          47 (1)
        Re-Create Production Problems              48 (2)
        Simulate Performance Problems for          50 (1)
        Troubleshooting
        Benchmark New Hardware                     51 (1)
        Learn about Virtualization                 51 (4)
      Strategies for a Successful Test Lab         55 (3)
        Build a Realistic Environment              55 (1)
        Building the Lab                           56 (2)
        Use Proper Tools for Measurement           58 (1)
      How to Build Your Lab                        58 (3)
        Test Objective                             58 (1)
        Lab Summary                                58 (2)
        Provisioning the Lab                       60 (1)
        Defining the Workload and Configuration    60 (1)
        of IOmeter
        Lab Postmortem                             60 (1)
      Summary                                      61 (2)
    Chapter 4 CPU                                  63 (34)
      Getting to Know the Basics of CPU            63 (6)
      Virtualization
        Understanding CPU Protected Mode in the    64 (1)
        x86 Architecture
        Defining the Types of CPU Virtualization   65 (3)
        Distinguishing between Physical CPUs       68 (1)
        and Virtual CPUs
        Understanding vCPU States                  68 (1)
      Introducing the ESXi CPU Scheduler           69 (15)
        Understanding the Proportional             69 (3)
        Share-Based Algorithm
        Understanding CPU Co-Scheduling            72 (1)
        The CPU Scheduler Cell                     73 (1)
        Understanding CPU Topology-Aware Load      74 (8)
        Balancing
        Multicore-Aware Load Balancing             82 (2)
      Sizing CPU for Virtual Machines              84 (2)
        Considerations for vSMP                    85 (1)
        Considerations for NUMA and vNUMA          86 (1)
        Hot Plug of CPU Resources                  86 (1)
      Understanding CPU Resource Management        86 (5)
        Understanding CPU Reservations             87 (1)
        Understanding CPU Limits                   88 (1)
        Configuring CPU Reservations and Limits    88 (1)
        Understanding Resource Pools               88 (3)
      Troubleshooting CPU Performance Problems     91 (4)
        Using esxtop to Diagnose CPU               91 (2)
        Performance Issues
        High CPU Ready Time                        93 (1)
        High ESXi Host CPU Utilization             93 (2)
        High Guest CPU Utilization                 95 (1)
      Summary                                      95 (2)
    Chapter 5 • Memory                        97 (34)
      Getting to Know ESXi Memory Management       97 (4)
        Memory Virtualization                      98 (1)
        Memory Management in ESXi                  99 (2)
        Hardware-Assisted MMU Virtualization       101(1)
      Reclaiming Memory from VMs                   101(14)
        Transparent Page Sharing                   102(1)
        Ballooning                                 103(5)
        Memory Compression                         108(3)
        Hypervisor Swapping                        111(1)
        Host SSD Cache Swapping                    112(2)
        Host Memory Reclamation                    114(1)
        Idle Page Reclamation                      114(1)
      Managing Virtual Machine Memory Allocation   115(8)
        Working Set Size                           116(1)
        Proportional Share-Based Algorithm         116(5)
        Sizing Memory for Virtual Machines         121(1)
        Memory Overhead                            122(1)
        Memory Overcommitment                      123(1)
      Troubleshooting Memory Performance           123(7)
      Problems
        Using esxtop to Diagnose Memory            124(3)
        Performance Issues
        High VM Consumed Memory                    127(1)
        High Memory Ballooning                     127(1)
        Hypervisor Swapping                        128(1)
        Guest Operating System Swapping            129(1)
      Summary                                      130(1)
    Chapter 6 • Network                       131(36)
      Creating a Network Design                    131(2)
        Designing Your Physical Network            132(1)
      Choosing a Virtual Switch                    133(6)
        Considering the Standard vSwitch           134(1)
        Considering the vSphere Distributed        135(3)
        Switch
        Considering the Cisco Nexus 1000V          138(1)
        dvSwitch
        Which Virtual Switch Do I Choose?          138(1)
      Selecting Host Hardware                      139(3)
        Host Server Type                           139(2)
        Network Adapters                           141(1)
      Designing for Performance                    142(13)
        ESXi Host-Level Performance                142(8)
        Virtual Machine Performance                150(5)
      Troubleshooting Networking Issues            155(10)
        Slow Virtual Machine Networking            155(10)
        Performance
      Summary                                      165(2)
    Chapter 7 • Storage                       167(66)
      Choosing Your Storage Platform               167(5)
        Storage Area Networks                      168(2)
        Network File System                        170(1)
        Virtual SAN                                171(1)
      Designing Physical Storage                   172(11)
        Determine Your Requirements                172(3)
        RAID Levels                                175(5)
        Flash Infrastructure Layer                 180(1)
        Networking for IP Storage                  180(3)
      Designing vSphere Storage                    183(32)
        Why Is Storage So Important?               183(1)
        VAAI                                       184(3)
        Storage I/O Control                        187(4)
        Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler     191(3)
        Profile-Driven Storage                     194(5)
        Datastore Size                             199(1)
        vFlash Read Cache                          200(9)
        Virtual SAN                                209(4)
        Jumbo Frames for IP Storage                213(2)
      Optimizing Virtual Machine Performance       215(7)
        Raw Device Mapping vs. VMDK Files          215(1)
        Virtual Disk Type                          216(1)
        Virtual SCSI Adapter                       217(3)
        Guest OS Disk Alignment                    220(2)
      Troubleshooting Storage Performance Issues   222(9)
        Storage Latency                            223(4)
        Misconfigured Storage for Your             227(1)
        Applications
        Storage Queues                             228(2)
        End-to-End Networking                      230(1)
      Summary                                      231(2)
Index                                              233