Customizing PRO

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

This topic describes how to customize Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) in System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 by making changes to the PRO-enabling rules and monitors in the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 and its successor, the VMM 2008 R2 Management Pack.

The default settings and thresholds in these management packs reflect a general definition of a healthy state for the hosts and virtual machines that VMM is monitoring. These settings provide a starting point for administrators, who can customize PRO by creating overrides to existing monitors or by creating additional management pack elements, such as rules and monitors, to meet the requirements of their virtualized environments.

About the VMM PRO-Enabled Management Packs

Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) is implemented through specially designed PRO-enabled management packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007, which provide Virtual Machine Manager with the performance and health data that it uses to optimize performance and resource usage within a virtualized environment. VMM generates PRO tips based on unhealthy states detected by PRO management packs.

The VMM management pack incorporates four PRO-enabled management packs that provide PRO tips for Hyper-V hosts, Virtual Server hosts, VMware ESX Server hosts, and all virtual machines.

In VMM 2008, the thresholds for CPU and memory in the host monitors are 90 percent of CPU capacity and 75 percent of memory capacity. In VMM 2008 R2, those thresholds are determined by the host reserves that are in effect for each host. In VMM, host reserves specify the amount of memory, CPU, and other resources that is set aside for the use of the host operating system. Host reserves are set for a host group but can be overridden for individual hosts. The host reserves for the root host group, All Hosts, sets the default host reserves for all hosts. For information about setting host reserves, see How to Modify the Properties of a Host Group (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162967) and How to Set Host Reserves for a Host (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162974).

The following tables list the performance thresholds and sampling methods for the PRO monitors for hosts and virtual machine in the VMM management pack. The tables present the friendly names of the monitors. For hosts, separate monitors are used for Hyper-V, Virtual Server, and ESX Server.

PRO Monitors for Hosts

PRO Monitors for Virtual Machines

The PRO monitors in the VMM 2008 management pack target five classes of objects that VMM manages:

• Hyper-V hosts

• Virtual Server hosts

• VMware ESX Server hosts

• Virtual machines

• VMM server

In addition, a PRO Public class can be used to define new classes that the monitors in PRO-enabled management packs can target. For more information, you can download an authoring guide from Authoring PRO-Enabled Management Packs (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162654).

For more information about the PRO management packs developed for VMM, see the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Management Pack Guide or the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Management Pack Guide. Both management pack guides are posted on the Management Pack Guides for Server Products site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120279). A downloadable copy of the management pack guide also is included with the VMM program files.

Customizing a Management Pack

All objects that define a health model (monitors, rules, classes, and so on) are stored in a management pack. The management pack can be sealed, making it read-only. Operations Manager allows changes to both sealed and unsealed management packs by creating overrides that change various aspects of the objects defined in the management pack. The VMM 2008 Management Pack is a sealed management pack, in the .mp file format. When you create or modify a monitor, rule, or other object, the customizations are saved to an unsealed management pack in the .xml file format.

By default, Operations Manager creates the Default Management Pack to store overrides defined for sealed management packs. To simplify management of your PRO customizations and enable you to export your overrides to other management groups, you should save your customizations to a new management pack. The new management pack will be dependent on the current version of the VMM 2008 Management, and can only be imported to management groups that have that version of the management pack imported.

Access Requirements

To customize or create a management pack, you must be a member of the Operations Manager Authors role. For information about adding members to that role, see How to Update Author Role Properties in Operations Manager 2007 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=126980).

Changing a Performance Threshold or Alert Severity in the VMM Management Pack

To change the alert severity for a PRO tip or, if you are customizing the VMM 2008 Management Pack, to change a performance threshold, you can create an override for the PRO monitor in the VMM management pack. (If you are using the VMM 2008 R2 Management Pack, the more flexible method for changing performance thresholds for the host monitors is to modify host reserves in VMM instead of creating overrides in the management pack.)

Overrides represent all changes that are made to the original definition of the monitor. An override can be created for a class of objects or for a member of that class. The procedures in this section explain how to create an override for all Hyper-V hosts or for a specific host in order to change a performance threshold or the alert severity of a PRO tip.

Creating an Override for All Hosts

The following procedure explains how to create overrides for the CPU threshold and alert severity level of the PRO CPU Utilization monitor for all Hyper-V hosts.

To create an override for all Hyper-V hosts

1. Open the Operations console under an account that is a member of the Authors role in Operations Manager.

2. Click Authoring beneath the navigation pane to display the Authoring pane.

3. Expand Management Pack Objects, and then click Monitors.

4. To filter the display to only PRO CPU monitors for hosts and virtual machines, type PRO CPU in the Look for box, and click Find Now. Do not place the keywords in quotation marks.

5. In the details pane, expand PRO Hyper-V Host Target, and then navigate to the PRO CPU Utilization monitor.

6. On the Operations Manager toolbar, click Overrides, click Override the Monitor, and then click For all objects of class: PRO Hyper-V Host Target.

7. In the Override Properties dialog box, you can override any setting by selecting the parameter and entering a new value.

   • If you are customizing the VMM 2008 Management Pack, to change the CPU threshold, click the Override check box for the Threshold parameter, and then type the new threshold in the Override Setting cell.

     Note

     If you are using the VMM 2008 R2 Management Pack, you can change CPU thresholds for hosts by modifying host reserve settings in VMM. The host reserves for the root host group, All Hosts, set default host reserves for all hosts. However, you can override the host reserves for individual host groups and for individual hosts. If you prefer not to have the host reserves that are in effect for a host determine the CPU threshold for the host monitor, you can enter a value in the Override Setting cell to specify a CPU threshold that will, in this case, apply to all Hyper-V hosts.

   • To change the severity level of PRO tips for the monitor, click the Override check box for the Alert Severity parameter, and then select the appropriate severity level from the list.

8. Repeat steps 5–7 to change the thresholds for the PRO CPU Utilization monitors for the following:

   • PRO Virtual Server Host Target

   • PRO VMware Host Target

9. Under Management pack, click New, and then create an unsealed version of the management pack in which to store your customizations.

   The new management pack is added to the list of management packs in the Administration tab of the Operations Console.

Creating an Override for a Specific Host

To change the CPU threshold and alert severity for PRO tips for a single host, create an override for a specific host within the host type.

To create an override for a specific host

1. In Authoring view of the Operations Manager console, expand Management Pack Objects, and then click Monitors.

2. Look for PRO CPU monitors. (Do not place the keywords in quotation marks.)

3. Expand PRO Hyper-V Host Target, and then navigate to the PRO CPU Utilization monitor.

4. On the Operations Manager toolbar, click Overrides, click Override the Monitor, and then click For a specific object of class: PRO Hyper-V Host Target.

5. In the Select Objects dialog box, select the Hyper-V host to apply the override to.

6. Enter your overrides by selecting the parameter in the Override column and then updating the Override Setting value.

7. Under Management pack, save your settings to a new or existing unsealed management pack.

Advanced Customization

The PRO-enabled management packs support the full range of customizations that are available for all management packs for Operations Manager 2007. You can create new rules and monitors, override the logic of a rule, and make many other adjustments. For example, you might create a dynamic group that contains the hosts in a particular host group in order to customize the monitors for that host group.

For information about authoring PRO-enabled management packs, see Authoring PRO-Enabled Management Packs (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162654). For other management pack authoring resources, see Authoring Management Packs and Reports (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127711).

See Also

Concepts

Enabling PRO in VMM

Other Resources

VMM 2008 Management Pack Guide
VMM 2008 R2 Management Pack Guide
Authoring PRO-Enabled Management Packs
Authoring Management Packs and Reports
System Center Operations Manager Community