Are certain appliacations running slowly occasionaly? Sometimes things are superfast and then they slow to a crawl. What’s going on?

Any tool that uses SNMP to gather performance metrics can be used to baseline and stress test infrastructure and determine where the bottle necks are.

Basic methodology could go something like this…

1 – identify end to end system components from end user terminal through network to virtual machines, esx hosts, and storage.

2 – configure SNMP for all devices

3 – verify use patterns and confirm data collection over 1 week. Tune alerts for normal use.

4 – schedule stress test for each component to determine performance ceiling and baseline throughput capacity.

5 – make changes as needed to improve end user experience.

6 – verify changes had desired effect.

Performance Troubleshooting for VMware vSphere

vsphere4-performance-troubleshooting.pdf (2.1 MB)

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10352

Possible tools that could be used to poll for SNMP performance metrics include:

http://www.scriptlogic.com/Products/perspective/

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vFoglight/features.php

http://www.whatsupgold.com/technology/network-management/monitoring-technologies/index.aspx

http://www.quest.com/Quest_Site_Assets/PDF/DSA-FoglightNetworkDevice-US-VC.pdf

http://network-optimisation.com/technology/network_monitoring/snmp_monitoring.php

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/operationsmanager/en/us/default.aspx

http://www.manageengine.com/products/opmanager/index.html

http://www.managementsoftware.hp.com

http://www.solarwinds.com/products/orion/modules.aspx

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-monitoring.html

http://www.monitorsnmp.com/

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk869/tk769/technologies_white_paper09186a008011fde2.shtml

http://www.sage.org/lists/sage-members-archive/2002/msg01878.html

Follow these steps if you need to reset the root password on an ESX classic.

Note: Ignore the “quote marks” in the instructions below.

1 – turn on system (if it’s on then reboot it with Ctrl-Alt-Del from console)
2 – when grub appears press the “tab” key
3 – highlight VMware ESX line using the “arrow” keys
4 – press the “e” key
5 – scroll to kernel line using the “arrow” keys
6 – press the “e” key (again, I know!)
7 – press the “end” key to move cursor to end of the kernel line
8 – type the word “single” (using the keys)
9 – press the “b” key to boot the ESX host into single user mode
10 – eventually a “sh-3.2#” root prompt will appear
11 – use the command “passwd” to reset the password
12 – use the command “reboot” to reboot the ESX machine
13 – login to the console or the vic using the new password!

That’s it! I hope this procedure works for you. Your feedback is appreciated.

Morale of this story is:
1 – always protect the physical environment where you ESX host is located.
2 – always secure the Lights Out/Remote Access/IP-KVM/console access to your host.
3 – consider using a GRUB password on your ESX host so as to prevent password resets.