Tools for ITIL Capacity Management: How not to spend 100,000

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1 Tools for ITIL Capacity Management: How not to spend 100,000 Danny Quilton Capacitas Abstract Capacity Management requires data to produce meaningful deliverables such as models and capacity plans. While there are a considerable number of tools on the market for collecting data, manipulating it, analysing it and reporting the results, most of these cost in excess of 100,000 to purchase. Capacitas has a strong ethos of using whatever is available, whether it is OS bundled products or inexpensive third-party products. This presentation highlights some of the useful products already available to the capacity manager without incurring significant capital expenditure. Capacitas

2 Introduction Agenda Toolsets for capacity and performance monitoring Toolsets for capacity and performance modelling Analytical modelling Simulation modelling Summary Capacitas Introduction Capacity and performance monitoring underpins the entire Capacity Management process suite: Capacity and performance baselining Capacity and performance reporting and exception alerting Workload characterisation Business and service demand tracking A capacity and performance model provides the foundation to deliver capacity planning Monitoring and modelling tools are thus critical to delivering both capacity management and capacity planning Capacitas

3 Capacitas is vendor independent Introduction None of the tools described here are being actively promoted These are available tools that may fit your particular requirements Capacitas The big four : Commercial Monitoring Tools Market IBM CA HP BMC Software All offer extensive systems and network management product suites of which performance monitoring is one facet Large number of smaller players who typically offer a subset of the functionality of the big four Capacitas

4 Commercial Monitoring Tools Market The big four have significantly expanded their product suites through acquisition Expect this to continue Movement towards: End-to-end performance monitoring Service monitoring Capacitas Big Four Toolsets Strengths Established vendor Extensive product suite Wide user base Strong support channels Can offer product modules across the whole systems management spectrum Weaknesses Lack of integration with acquired products High cost Lack of functional flexibility Not necessarily the best in each and every module offering Licensing models can be prohibitive, especially those priced per node or per performance metric The origin and meaning of certain metrics may be ambiguous Capacitas

5 Alternative Monitoring Toolsets Operating system toolsets Typically bundled or available as free add-ons Open source toolsets Low-cost toolsets Capacitas Windows Solaris AIX Linux Operating System Tools Capacitas

6 Windows Capacity and Performance Monitoring OS Tool Functionality Windows Server 2008 Performance Monitor Real time performance monitoring and logging Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2003 Reliability and Performance Sysmon Real time performance monitoring Real time performance monitoring and logging Capacitas Reliability and Performance Capacitas

7 Sysmon/Performance Monitor Ability to log performance data directly to a local or remote SQL Server database Little database configuration required Capacitas Data Logging Templates Data log settings may be saved to a HTML file Can then be used as a template for other target devices Capacitas

8 Centrally Based Collection Strategy Monitored Devices Central Repository Polled Data Capacitas Remote Based Collection Strategy Monitored Devices Central Repository Batch Data Transfer Capacitas

9 Windows Further Reading Performance and Capacity Monitoring Windows 2003 Using Out of the Box Tools ols.pdf Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Performance Longhorn.pdf&ct= Capacitas Solaris/Linux Monitoring Toolsets Consists of the following suites of tools sar iostat mpstat vmstat netstat Relatively easy to automate monitoring Results can be collected, parsed and loaded into a central repository However development effort required Capacitas

10 NMON AIX/Linux Monitoring Toolsets ibrary/au-analyze_aix/index.html#n haw.ibm.com/collaboration/wiki/displa y/wikiptype/nmon Capacitas Nagios SE Toolkit Open Source Monitoring Toolsets Capacitas

11 Nagios Capacitas Nagios Systems, services and network monitoring Originally designed to run on Linux but can run on most operating systems Largest published deployment consists of: 20 servers performing monitoring 100,000 monitored hosts Capacitas

12 Nagios Cross-platform capacity and performance monitoring: Windows Unix variants Network devices Can also perform service and availability monitoring Remote monitoring can be achieved using agents MySQL database support Highly extensible Capacitas Nagios Capacitas

13 SEtoolkit A package of utilities for monitoring of the Solaris operating system Composed of a scripting language, pre-written support code and example programs Supports Solaris 8, 9 or 10 Available for SPARC or x86 systems First developed in 1993, now available under GPL setoolkit/ Capacitas Low-Cost Toolsets Applications Manager from ManageEngine Capacitas

14 Cross platform AIX FreeBSD HP-UX / Tru64 Linux Mac OS Sun Solaris Windows Resource monitoring Service availability Response time monitoring Applications Manager Capacitas Applications Manager Monitors numerous application servers including: Oracle AS Tomcat Server WebLogic Server WebSphere Server MS SQL MySQL Oracle Apache Server IIS Server Web Server Mail Servers Exchange Server Capacitas

15 Applications Manager Strengths Low cost Ease of configuration Cross platform Multiple services Weaknesses Lack of flexibility around data retention Lack of flexibility around data summarisation Does not provide monitoring at the ITIL business layer Limited threshold alerting capability Licensed by number of monitors Capacitas Applications Manager List Price Product # of Monitors List Price Professional Edition 25 $ $1, $2, $4,290 Enterprise Edition 250 $5, $7, $10, $13,570 Capacitas

16 Analytical modelling tools Simulation modelling tools Modelling Tools Capacitas Commercial Modelling Tools Strengths Extensive libraries of preconstructed models Wide user base Strong support channels Integration with performance monitoring tools Weaknesses High cost Modelling algorithms employed are not always documented thus the underlying assumptions of models built using the tool are not understood May be tightly coupled to performance monitoring tools Capacitas

17 Excel Analytical Modelling Tools Capacitas Modelling With Excel Powerful solutions can be rapidly built Success-based modelling approach Extensive research in the public domain: Capacitas Daniel Menasce Capacitas

18 Further reading: Modelling With Excel Cost Effective Capacity Modelling - A Real-life Case Study mod_h.pdf&ct= Implementing an End-to-End Performance Model of an E- Commerce System in Microsoft Excel model.pdf Capacitas Modelling With Excel Capacitas

19 Modelling With Excel Predicted KPI Compliance for Transaction: Drill into Quotes 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 ms 6,000 4,000 2, ,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000 45,000 50,000 55,000 60,000 65,000 70,000 75,000 Number of CRM users Capacitas Modelling With Excel Capacitas

20 Modelling With Excel Strengths Mature, stable product Zero capital cost Flexibility to model most problem domains Avoids engaging in long procurement cycles for modelling tools Weaknesses Maintenance Requires customisation specific to your problem domain Models can be parameterised to deliver scenario modelling Capacitas Simulation Modelling CSIM 19 from Mesquite Software Omnet++ Capacitas

21 ex.htm Low cost simulation modelling tool Extensive client list Performance Engineering Services use CSIM 19 as an engine for their SPE-ED tool CSIM 19 Capacitas CSIM 19 CSIM 19 is a library of routines for use by C or C++ programmers; These routines are used to implement process-oriented, discrete-event simulation models of complex systems A CSIM 19 model is a computer program, written in C or C++ A model consists of: Structures (which simulate the resources of the model system) Processes (which simulate the active entities of the model system) Capacitas

22 CSIM 19 List Price Product # of Units Unit Price Professional Licence 1 $1,000 2 $850 3 $850 4 $725 5 $ $675 Run Time Option 1 10 $ $ $ $150 Capacitas OMNeT++ Free for non-commercial use Commercial licence available from Employs a high level declarative language for building models GUI based which is useful for Tracing Debugging Animating Strong user support via a large user community Capacitas

23 OMNeT++ Capacitas Indicative Price for OMNeT++ Product # of Units Unit Price Perpetual Licence 1 $19, $14, $11, $9,800 Capacitas

24 Summary Monitoring and modelling tools are critical to delivering ITIL Capacity Management The future: Growing strength of the big four as they expand their product suites Nagios will continue to offer a viable open-source alternative monitoring solution Excel will continue to be a compelling choice for analytical modelling Low cost simulation modelling tools reduce initial outlay but development costs are often higher than more expensive commercial tools Tools discussed here can offer useful solutions in time or budget constrained environments Capacitas