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jcardoso
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Anyone have experience performing Vmware Health Check Assessments?

Hi,

I just started a new job as a Vmware Consultant and although I've been administering vmware for 4 years, I've never performed a "health check" for any company.

I went through and downloaded all the documentation, but I was wondering if anyone has first hand experience performing a health check and can point me in the right direction?

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Gostev
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You would definitely need some kind of reporting tool to be able to perform such assessment. There's very little you could do without a reporting tool really, even if your customer has just a few ESX servers - discovering network and storage topologies, resource allocation etc. could become a serious challenge.

The data those reporting tools produce should give you a good starting point for health research. In most cases, you would be able to see most problems right away from that data, given you have good level of knowledge about VMWare Infrastructure. By the way, some good reporting tools even create comprehensive Visio diagrams of the environment (like network topology), which would make your life tons easier when creating your assessment report. Just those reports alone look very impressive. Smiley Wink

Now, in case when customer has issues which come and go, you would need to use some monitoring solution in order to be able to gather and analyze data for extended periods of time.

To start, I suggest that you look at Veeam Reporter tool, it should fit most (if not all) your needs as a VMWare consultant. Just search this forum to find more information about it. By the way, you can license it on per-engagement basis, very good deal there. And in case you need extended monitoring, Veeam has another product for it as well.

Hope this helps.

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Gostev
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You would definitely need some kind of reporting tool to be able to perform such assessment. There's very little you could do without a reporting tool really, even if your customer has just a few ESX servers - discovering network and storage topologies, resource allocation etc. could become a serious challenge.

The data those reporting tools produce should give you a good starting point for health research. In most cases, you would be able to see most problems right away from that data, given you have good level of knowledge about VMWare Infrastructure. By the way, some good reporting tools even create comprehensive Visio diagrams of the environment (like network topology), which would make your life tons easier when creating your assessment report. Just those reports alone look very impressive. Smiley Wink

Now, in case when customer has issues which come and go, you would need to use some monitoring solution in order to be able to gather and analyze data for extended periods of time.

To start, I suggest that you look at Veeam Reporter tool, it should fit most (if not all) your needs as a VMWare consultant. Just search this forum to find more information about it. By the way, you can license it on per-engagement basis, very good deal there. And in case you need extended monitoring, Veeam has another product for it as well.

Hope this helps.

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Rodos
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I assume you are referring to the VMware Healthcheck which is part of the VAC program (as you said you downloaded the documentation). If that's the case you should probably contact the VAC manager for your region or your channel parter people for some guidance. If you don't know who they are PM me your region and I will see if I can find out through my contacts.

In terms of direction, read the consultants guide and sit the online exam as a start. Talk to the VAC people at VMware in your area and maybe organise a phone call with a VMware SE who has done a few and can give you some tips. If you need anything specific PM me.

Stick with it though. Performing HealthChecks keeps you fit.

Good luck!.

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jcardoso
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Guys, I really appreciate all your help!

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jcardoso
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Hi Guys,

I have one more question.

I have a pre-flight call scheduled with the customer and was wondering what kind of questions you guys ask prior to the health check?

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Gostev
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I am not familiar with the VMWare Health Check requirements...

But typically, to get a basic understanding of what I would have to deal with, I would ask my customer the following questions about their VMWare deployment.

  • Basic information about environment (number of ESX servers, number of VMs running on them, number of spindles those VMs are sharing, what apps those VMs are running) so that I could verify this data against typical VMWare recommendations before I come on site. In many cases you would see that customer might have potential performance problems just from this data.

  • As for networking, you could ask how many network adaptors per ESX server they use, link speeds etc.

  • For storage, I would want to know before hand if the customer is using SAN or local storage.

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azn2kew
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Also want to know database type for virtual center (oracle, sql or free express edition which has limitations as well). Want to know about their storage systems and how their interconnect. RAID levels and multipath HBAs redundancy etc.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!! Regards, Stefan Nguyen VMware vExpert 2009 iGeek Systems Inc. VMware vExpert, VCP 3 & 4, VSP, VTSP, CCA, CCEA, CCNA, MCSA, EMCSE, EMCISA
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Rodos
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Did you read page 8 of the consultants guide? There is a section "Customer Preparation" with many details. Remember you are not just after technical information, you need to ensure there is space and facilities for you to run the onsite work (room, projector, access to systems) and who is going to be participating from the client.

There are some good things to go through in the guide. In addition I also like to get an understanding of why they are having the Healthcheck done? Do they have large problems or issues currently? Are they wanting to validate an install performed by a 3rd party? Are they trying to fire their VMware Admin and they after a report to prove they have been doing a poor job. Its always good to know if you are walking into an "agenda".

Hope it goes well for you.

Considering awarding points if this is of use

Rodos {size:10px}{color:gray}Consider the use of the helpful or correct buttons to award points. Blog: http://rodos.haywood.org/{color}{size}
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jcardoso
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Hi,

Thanks for the tips. I was wondering if you use a tool of any kind to perform a health check or just go through everything?

Also, what do you show and not show to the customer? Do you go in perform the health check manually and then do the report at the end?

If so, how do you go about doing that?

Anyone else out there actually perform a health check and can send me the finished results, ofcourse removing the customer name...etc.

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jcardoso
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Just wanted to let everyone know I did the Health Check and it went very smoothly!

Thanks,

Jim

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