Now that XenServer’s feature set has expanded one of the questions that I commonly get is “How do you monitor XenServer?” While this will greatly depend on how complex the environment is and what the administrators would like to ultimately monitor. For starters, most of the data that can be collected from XenServer will be in the form of an RRDTool file as the performance monitoring counters are stored in that format. Some of the tools that I have seen customers use in the past are:
Splunk
These guys are in my opinion currently the top performer in monitoring XenServer. They have application-based management of their suite which makes it easier to understand and update and they are very well known and even have their own Consulting solutions team.
Pros:
- Enterprise-class monitoring
- App-Based management of tools
- Easier to implement
- XenServer Modular management (There’s an App for that!)
- Monitors beyond XenServer
- Proactive Alerting
Cons:
- It is not cheap
- Can have some level of a learning curve although in my personal experience not as bad as other suites
My Personal Opinion:
- This is pretty much what the big guys use
LogicMonitor
Another enterprise-grade management tool, it has automatic discovery of hosts, pools, etc. This suite boasts being SaaS style which might go well or not so well with some customers.
Pros:
- SaaS architecture
- Auto-discovery is a nice feature
- Enterprise-class monitoring
- Monitors beyond XenServer
- Proactive alerting
- Boasts a very simple learning curve
Cons:
- It is not cheap
- Even though a simple learning curve for installation is involved it still has a learning curve due to the amount of available modules
- SaaS could be taken negatively by some administrators if they are afraid of their server statistics being out in ‘the cloud’
My personal opinion:
- Great monitoring tool which I would personally classify as the runner up after Splunk
SolarWinds (With Hyper9)
SolarWinds is a very well accredited tool within the monitoring space and they recently acquired a pretty cool company named Hyper9 which allows the monitoring of XenServer
Pros:
- Great interface from Hyper9 which gives a nice impression as it has a mobile interface
- Some capacity planning tools which are well made
- Fairly affordable
Cons:
- Does not monitor as many XenServer metrics as LogicMonitor and Splunk
- Last time that I implemented this Hyper9 was a Virtual Machine and it required a web server which made it seem somewhat ‘cheap’ but this might have changed since acquisition
My Personal Opinion:
- Not a bad mid-level tool, it might not have as many bells and whistles as the leaders but it provides a very powerful suite at a reduced price. Also, C-level people love to see the mobile device monitoring console as it gives them the security of knowing that they can know the status of XenServer on the go. Personally I also like their capacity features which are not the greatest thing on earth but they provide some baselines for companies who are new to XenServer.
Nagios
This is a greatly powerful monitoring tool which is highly acclaimed amongst the OpenSource community and can be used to manage XenServer.
Pros:
- Very powerful monitoring engine
- OpenSource
- Great for clients on a budget who want powerful features at virtually no cost
- Monitors beyond XenServer
- Proactive Alerting can be created
Cons:
- Requires the writing (or finding) of custom modules and code in order to properly monitor XenServer hosts (here is an example)
- Will likely require a decently strong Unix/Linux administrator to support in case things go wrong
My Personal opinion:
- This is great for techie admins or places where budgets are very constrained and the employees are willing to put a few drops of sweat towards the proper customization of its modules.
Double Rev Management Pack
For something slightly more advanced but not really too in depth which comes with some additional bells and whistles for management administrators can try Double Rev’s Management Pack (www.doublerev.com)
Pros:
- Automatic and agent less mass update of XenTools
- DVD Manager
- Storage Analyzer
- Mass VM-Copy
- Re-convert templates to virtual machines
- VM-Inventory Export
- Seamless XS Console Integration
- Storage analyzer and network manager
Cons:
- CLI Commands
- Limited Monitoring
- Most of these features probably will come in Future XS Console
- XenServer Only Monitoring
- Costs $$$
My Personal Opinion:
- Should be considered if you need some of the automation features as most of the features can be easily performed via basic scripting
RRD Customized Consoles
For those administrators that would like to go down the direction of creating their own basic monitoring they could use the tool available here in order to open and edit the RRD files. This basically involves creating a custom console or application based on the metrics that XenServer provides out of the box.
Pros:
- Can get as granular and detailed as you want
- No real limitations
Cons:
- Requires Development time
- Interface dependent on developers
- Can become an expensive endeavor to update and maintain
My Personal Opinion:
- This is great if you have time for development and want to monitor very specific things, I have personally seen some customers do some pretty cool stuff with this
