Velocity Software, Inc. is recognized as a leader in the performance measurement of z/VM and Linux on z. The Velocity Performance Suite consist of a set of tools that enable installations running z/VM to manage Linux and z/VM performance. In addition, many components of server farms can be measured and analyzed. Performance data can be viewed real-time through the use of either 3270 or a browser. The CLOUD Implementation (zPRO) component is designed for full cloud PaaS implementation as well as to extend the capabilities of the z/VM sysprog (system programmer) to the browser world. This feature moves system management to the point-and-click crowd. Archived data and reports can be kept available of long term review and reporting usine zMAP. The zVPS, formally ESALPS, components consist of: zMON (formally ESAMON - real-time display of performance data), zTCP (formally ESATCP - SNMP data collection), zMAP (formally ESAMAP - historical reporting and archiving), zVWS (formally ESAWEB - z/VM based web server), zTUNE (a subscription service), zVIEW (formally SHOWCASE - web based viewing of performance data), zPRO (new to the quality line of Velocity Software Products). Velocity continues to work with other software vendors to ensure smooth interface with or from other products such as VM:Webgateway, CA-Webgateway, EnterpriseWeb, MXG, MICS. Velocity software remains the leader and inovator in the z/VM performance, Linux performance, Managing cloud computing arenas.
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zVRM - The Velocity Software Resource Manager


zVRM is a real-time management facility to manage Linux storage/ram resources and virtual CPU counts, both to meet current workload requirements.

Traditional Linux servers are created very large to ensure that they meet resource requirements as workloads grow. In the z/VM virtualized environment, this becomes a costly objective both in real storage requirements, and the overhead associated with Linux managing excessive number of virtual CPUs. As zVPS measures very accurately the current workload requirements, zVRM can reduce the impact on real resources by comparing current requirements to what is available and adjust settings accordingly.

Storage Management: Linux touches all pages over time, and as that happens, z/VM must back those pages with real resources. Thus an 8GB server will require 8GB of storage residing in real storage or paging storage - or sometimes pages reside in both places. zVRM evaluates current Linux free storage and using CMM (Collaborative Memory Management), will free up the backed storage to the point where the storage assigned to the server matches the storage needed by the workload. There is an additional buffer to ensure that if the workload grows, there is still resources to support that growth. The buffer size is a percent and tailorable by the installation by node, node class or system wide. Note that swap is also a buffer, and even though if on virtual disk and very fast, we prefer to minimize the use of swap.

The objective of the memory buffer plus swap is to ensure that there is plenty of time to give storage back as workload requirements increase.

Virtual CPU Management: If Linux is given 32 virtual CPUs, but rarely uses more than 1, it would greatly alleviate potential spin locks as well as management time by varying most of the virtual CPUs offline. There are two buffers associated with CPU management. The first is setting a utilization target with a default of 30%. This generous target average cpu utilization allows the workload to triple without creating internal CPU queuing. An additional buffer is providing allowing a minimum number of CPUs to be kept online.

The mechanism to provide this function uses the zPRO command interface allowing specific processors to be directly varied online and offline.


Features and Benefits


zVRM Management

zVRM is managed using a secure zPRO function. The default settings are generous, and after getting experience, installations may want to obtain better utilization of resources by reducing buffers. This can be done dynamically through zPRO. The "Status" function provides current status of all servers. Current free storage, CMM settings and swap utilization are shown as the 3 data points that should be used to understand zVRM effectiveness.

The following is a sample 3270 based status that zPRO will display via browser.

smsg zvrm status
Ready; T=0.01/0.01 14:45:57
 14:45:02 VRM Release 5136
 <-Target Server-> <----Storage(mb)----> Increment  Target Swap <-Status>
 Userid   NODENAME   Size   Free    CMM    Size     Avail  FULL% CMM CPU
 -------- -------- ------ ------- -----  -------- ------- ------ -------
 LXDB2002 lxdb2002    997    349      0       19     139      0 OFF ON
 MONGO01  mongo01    3849    599    483       76     538     16 ON  ON
 REDHAT4  redhat85    814    263      0        8     114     21 ON  ON
 REDHAT6  redhat6     492      5      0        8      68      0 ON  ON
 REDHAT64 redhat64    492     19      0        8      68      0 ON  ON
 REDHAT74 redhat74    991    275      0        8     138      0 ON  ON
 REDHAT75 redhat75    988     73      0        8     138      0 ON  ON
 REDHAT9  redhat01    970    198      0        8     135      1 OFF ON
 SLES12   sles12     3892    326      0        8     194    100 ON  ON
 SLES15   sles15      818     40      0       16     114      2 ON  ON
 Totals               14308     0

Verifying the Results

When using zVRM, the results can be verified. Use the following command can be done to see the savings from turning on ZVRM: On the ZVRM machine, type in the following: (or from an authorized machine use ZVRM instead of *)

CP SMSG * QUERY SAVINGS
 
Real Storage Savings by node group
NodeCls: RANCHER 2.1G
NodeCls: REDHAT 316M
NodeCls: SUSE 190M
NodeCls: TheUsrs 1.0G
Total VCPUs OFFLINE: 2

This shows the amount of storage saved in each Node class and the amount of VCPUs that are offline.



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