The ability to perform monitoring tasks from mobile devices is becoming more prevalent. Especially as we increasingly move toward a hybrid cloud model with infrastructure distributed across data centers, edge locations, and in the cloud. Considering the momentum of Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) powered by vSAN, it only makes sense that we have monitoring capabilities for vSAN on mobile devices.
Introducing the VMware vSAN Live mobile client app! The app enables you to view resource utilization, check vSAN Health, and view performance and capacity information from just about anywhere.
For those who want to jump right in, you can download the app by searching for vSAN in your app store or use these links:
App Setup
The setup process is fairly simple. Keep in mind this is a “1.0” version of the app so the engineers chose a path of least complexity to start with. You need VPN access to the environment where the vSAN cluster(s) reside. We hope to provide a secure method for connectivity without a VPN in the future, but for now, it is required. It has been tested with vSAN version 6.7 and higher.
After downloading the app from the App Store, you must connect to your vCenter Server and download a certificate to your mobile device. Next, you install and enable the certificate on your device. Instructions for doing these steps are contained in the app.
Once this initial setup is done, simply connect to your VPN and log in using a vCenter Server administrative account and password anytime you need to check on a vSAN cluster. You are able to view various monitoring metrics such as vSAN Health, cluster-level performance data, and capacity information. It is not currently possible to perform administrative actions such as putting a host into maintenance mode.
Monitoring a vSAN Cluster
The app will display the vSAN cluster(s) managed by the vCenter Server. The number of hosts and VMs along with basic resource utilization data are available at a glance. Simply tap the cluster you wish to view.
The app features four main sections–Info, Health, Performance, and Capacity. The Info section of the UI provides basic information about the cluster. Health shows the vSAN Health checks. The Performance section provides VM and vSAN backend performance data at the cluster level. Capacity displays free space and capacity usage graphs.
Info
The top part of this section displays fault domains in a vSAN cluster. Each host is an implicit fault domain. If explicit fault domains are configured for rack awareness, as an example, these would be shown along with the list of hosts in each fault domain.
Scrolling down reveals information about the cluster configuration including vSphere HA, vSphere DRS, and vSAN Deduplication and Compression. This section also shows vSAN Performance service and vSAN iSCSI Target service details.
Health
vSAN Health provides more than 50 health checks on a wide variety of configuration items including hardware compatibility, firmware versions, cluster configuration, network status, object health, physical drive conditions, and capacity utilization. All of these items are checked once per hour by default. Issues are easily visible and information about each health check is included in the app. Each health check also has a link to its corresponding VMware KB articles to provide even more details. Having this information readily available can help minimize the resolution time when an issue arises.
Performance
This section of the vSAN Live app shows key performance metrics at the cluster level for VMs and the vSAN Backend network. These metrics include IOPS, Throughput, Latency, Congestions, and Outstanding IO. The default time period displayed is for one hour. This can be adjusted using the slider in the UI to show up to 23 hours of performance data.
Capacity
The capacity information is also available in the app. This makes it easy to monitor free space and quickly confirm adequate space is available before new VMs are deployed, storage policies are modified, and so on. This section also shows details such as usage by category, VM capacity consumption, and the amount of space used by the system (performance data, checksum overhead, etc.).
vSAN Live App Summary
The vSAN Live app enables you to monitor your vSAN clusters from nearly any location. Simply connect to your organization’s VPN, log in to vCenter Server, and tap the vSAN cluster you want to view. vSAN Health is a core component of the app that provides access to more than 50 health checks. Each health check includes an explanation and a link to the corresponding VMware KB article. The app provides key, cluster-level performance metrics for VMs and vSAN. It also shows free and used capacity details to help you avoid out-of-space issues, confirm adequate free space for new VMs, and view usage by object type.
Download the vSAN Live app today!
Note: The vSAN Live app is a VMware Fling. Flings are apps and tools built by our engineers and community that are intended to be explored, but they are not fully supported. If you would like to provide feedback or need assistance with the app, please send an email to [email protected].
Take our vSAN 6.7 Hands-On Lab here, and our vSAN 6.7 Advanced Hands-On Lab here!
