As analysts cannot look at many detailed performance graphs for hundreds or thousands of servers and still proactively prevent performance or capacity-related problems, data centers must rely more on tasks that can be easily automated.
In order to move from a reactive, ad-hoc way of managing performance and capacity related issues, companies should either purchase vendor tools or develop their own applications that provide:
Automation of data capturing and retention
Automated exception-based reporting
Automated performance alerting
Intelligent, automated trending of business and performance metrics
Automated exception-based trend reporting
Automated trend alerting
Automated interpretation of performance data, along with advice and guidance, where appropriate
Targeted analytic modeling – based on the systems and applications identified by the exception reporting and alerting
Building such an infrastructure allows the analysts to focus on capacity and performance-constrained applications on a timely and proactive basis.
Intranet reporting, standard with many vendor tools, should provide management with an easy browser interface, along with many clickable links that lead to performance and trend reports. These reports should be on an exception-only basis, if so desired, and should be easily navigated through a single common structure and/or easily sent to IT staff by email or other communication methods.
Since these reporting tools are checking data values against performance and trend thresholds when building the reports, the web pages containing the reports should show some automated advice and data interpretation that can help close the communication gap between the data center and the business unit. But most of all, reports generated for the business units, whenever possible, should be built in business terms easily understood by non-IT staff.
Using the reporting and alerting mechanism and by overlaying a targeted analytic modeling scheme for crucial applications and using analytic models to determine workload and hardware configuration changes, the data center will be much more manageable – regardless of how many servers there are.
It's the end of my series today so please feel free to share your thoughts with me.
To download the full version of this blog visit http://www.metron-athene.com/_downloads/_documents/papers/too_many_servers.pdf
Rich Fronheiser
Consultant
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