content top

VDI Monitoring and Capacity planning choices (part 2 of 5)

vdi-copy2Quest vFoglight
http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vFoglight
You can get their product brief PDF here.
vFoglight is priced per CPU, with two versions. SE is $499/socket, Pro is $699/socket. There is also a vEssentials package where you can pick your three favorite vizioncore products (hello vRanger Pro!), for $899/socket. These prices include 1 year of maintenance - 3 year packages are also available. (Also - vFoglight runs on top of a Windows Server installation, so include that in your TCO calculations)
The evaluation license is a Pro version, with a 30-day expiration.
I won’t regurgitate the marketing info or the differences between the versions - you can read just as well as I can. Instead, I’ll get to my observations. vFoglight is truly an enterprise-class monitoring tool, with some serious requirements, but also the beef to make them worthwhile. In a single-tier 32-bit installation four cores (1 quad core, 2 dual cores, or 4 single cores) and 4GB of memory are listed as minimum requirements. (Keep in mind that Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition has a 4GB memory maximum) A component called the “Cartridge for VMware” interfaces with vCenter to pull data into the vFoglight database. Once it’s installed and running, all management is browser-based. The monitoring is as robust and thorough as you’d expect an enterprise level monitoring tool to be. I’d recommend watching their demo to get the official feature set. Capacity planning is report-based, and can be run on-demand or scheduled periods. The ESX Server Capacity by Virtual Center report template seems to be the best match, and generates a PDF with average CPU and Memory usage for each host in the VC, along with how many running VMs used that capacity. You’ll have to do your own math to determine how many more VMs can be placed before host capacity runs out. There is no report template for storage capacity, although there is an extensive reporting engine that should allow you to make one of your own. Stay tuned for Veeam Monitor.

-Bruce Heavner, GlassHouse Senior Consultant

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree