In OMS there is a new solution Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Analytics that allows to centralize inside Log Analytics, jobs from one or more instances of Virtual Machine Manager to have an overview of all activities performed by VMM in the virtualization infrastructure.
In this article we will see how to enable and configure this new solution so you can use the tools offered by the OMS platform to more easily diagnose any issues related to the activities carried out on the virtualization hosts and virtual machines using Virtual Machine Manager. Furthermore, through the power of language to create queries in OMS you can search and correlate data collected by others OMS solutions in a simple and functional way.. Don't overlook the possibility of implementing automated tasks through runbooks in Azure Automation for the resolution of any issues.
In order to implement the solution Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Analytics you will need the following requirements:
- Azure Subscription.
- OMS Workspace where to deploy the solution.
- Azure Automation Account with the presence of the Hybrid Worker role able to communicate with Virtual Machine Manager.
- Credentials with read permission on the VMM server from which you want to collect information.
It is an open-source solution that can be included in the workspace OMS following this steps.
First, it is necessary to access the Azure Portal and select the subscription that contains the OMS workspace which you want to add the solution. To start the deployment of the solution simply access to its GitHub page and press the button Deploy to Azure. Automatically compare the template that requires the inclusion of the following parameters:
Figure 1 – Parameters required by the template of the solution
The template of the solution requires you to select, in addition to the basic information such as the name of the Subscription and the Resource Group, the name and the region of the OMS Workspace on which will be deployed the solution. Are also requests information relating to the Automated Account that will contains everything needed for the automation allowing the solution to catch the information relating to the Virtual Machine Manager system, whose name is specified as the last parameter.
At the end of the deployment of the solution inside the specified Automation Account will be created the runbook called vmmanalytics, thanks to which is carried out the import in Log Analytics of VMM jobs.
Figure 2 – Runbook used by Virtual Machine Manager solution (VMM) Analytics
Now you need to set the variable LastRunTime in the Assets with a string expressed in the form “yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fffffffZ“. This variable specifies the time from which the runbook will begin to collect the jobs of VMM. At every execution of the runbook this variable is updated automatically. As you can see from the following image there are other variables already populated automatically by the process of deployment of the solution:
Figure 3 – variables used by the runbook of the solution
You also need to specify credentials with the appropriate permissions to read jobs from the instance of Virtual Machine Manager:
Figure 4 – Required credentials for collecting VMM jobs
The runbook vmmanalytics can be run manually, but to import in an automatic and recurring way the jobs of VMM in Log Analytics you can create a specific schedule to suit your needs:
Figure 5 – Schedule creation
Afterwards you must attach schedule created to the runbook vmmanalytics and set which Hybrid Worker use to contact the Virtual Machine Manager instance.
Figure 6 – Scheduling and execution parameters of the Runbook
After successfully completing the first run of the Runbook, using the OMS portal you can access the solution Virtual Machine Manager Analytics which includes a number of useful reports to display in a simple and intuitive way the data collected from instances of Virtual Machine Manager.
Figure 7 – Overview of VMM Analytics solution
The dashboard of the solution also allows you to define the time range to filter, more accurately and to suit your needs, the jobs collected from Virtual Machine Manager.
Figure 8 – Defining the Time Range
Conclusions
Thanks to this new solution is made available to the VMM administrators the potential of the OMS platform. This is very useful because you can hypothesize scenarios where are merged into a single OMS workspace jobs from more instances of Virtual Machine Manager. It may be possible to configure OMS alerts to notify working groups on the state of execution of the job performed using VMM and undertake remediations in the face of problems. Also by correlating jobs collected with this solution with information from others OMS solutions as Capacity and Performance and Change Tracking you can simplify troubleshooting and you can more easily identify the causes of any problems. Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Analytics is an open-source solution so you can contribute to its development by directly accessing its GitHub page.
To test and evaluate for free Operations Management Suite (OMS) you can access this page and select the mode that is most appropriate for your needs.
