Case Study: Datalink—Manage IT monitoring the MSP way

ca Opscenter
Case Study: Datalink—Manage IT
monitoring the MSP way
Jason D Anderson
Datalink
Technology Manager, Support Services
OCX29S @404mon #CAWorld

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
2 © 2014 CA. All rights reserved.

Agenda
ABOUT DATALINK
CURRENT MONITORING LANDSCAPE
ADDRESSING THE LANDSCAPE WITH CA UIM
CAN YOU REALLY MONITOR ANYTHING?
SUMMARY
1
2
3
4
5

Join the conversion on social media
Use #CAWorld #ITOps
#Unifiedmonitoring #ITMonitoring
for this session

Support Services Catalog
OneCall
World-class support
for IT infrastructures
Symantec
Increased productivity
via managed tool sets
Managed Monitoring
Cloud Monitoring
StorageScape
Managed Services
Modular technology
admin and management
Cloud
Archive
Backup
Storage
Server
Network
Voice
OPERATE
NetApp
EMC
Cisco
Quantum
Hitachi
VCE
SM
SUPPORT
Datalink Central
ENABLE
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

Problem Resolution Process
Comm-unication
KB
!
Alerts
Tools feed
Traditional monitoring
Accurate information
needed
Process Automation
Tools
Analytic
s
Resolutions
feed the
tools.
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
TOOL - E
App/Dev
Team

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, Comprehensive IT Monitoring
 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”.

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
Static
Thresholds
Time needed
to react
Dynamic
Thresholds
Anomaly Detection
(Time over Threshold) Predictive Alarms
Seconds
(To late)
Minutes Hours Days to weeks
Insightful
Reports

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

Can you really monitor anything?

Comprehensive Monitoring
Application Services Cloud Databases
O/S Virtualization Unified Architecture
Network
DNS, DHCP, LDAP
SNMP, LAN, WAN
Servers
UCS
Storage
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
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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For Informational Purposes Only
Terms of this Presentation
This presentation provided at CA World 2014 is intended for information purposes only and does not form any type of warranty.
Content provided in this presentation has not been reviewed for accuracy and is based on information provided by CA Partners
and Customers.

Case Study: Datalink—Manage IT monitoring the MSP way

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Case Study: Datalink—Manage IT monitoring the MSP way