vR Ops Super Metrics

Super Metric is a feature that I use heavily. When you download Operationalize Your World, you get >70 of them. If you compare vR Ops 6.3 and 6.7, you will notice we’ve added new metrics which were originally super metrics.

They complement regular metrics, as shown by the following shows table:

I’ve never met 2 customers with identical requirements. 2 customers can adopt identical architecture, but will always operate it differently. Operations is unique like fingerprint. Super Metrics enable that bespoke customisation.

I’ve used them for a few years by now. Here is how they have been useful to me:

As a constant

  • You simply enter the constant value. Yes, that’s all!

To convert units

  • You use the $This. Also, use metric= and not attribute= as you’re dealing with 1 object.

To get a summary from a group

  • How many VMs in a cluster is facing high CPU Ready? You can use the Count and Where clause to answer it. Apply this super metric to the cluster object.
  • Is any of the VM facing high CPU Ready? If yes, how high? You can use the Max (VM CPU Ready) and apply it at the World object.
  • I use the function Count, Min, Max, Average. If needed, I use Where Clause to filter the selection.

To answer higher level question

  • A higher-level question resonates more with senior management, as they care less about low level technical details. I build super metric on top of super metric, until the highest-level meets my need. Layering super metric also enables me to drill down, when I see the higher level number is giving warning.
  • What’s the uptime of Tier 1 VMs? The answer you expect is certainly 100%. The mathematics to answer that seemingly simple question is actually very complex. Super metric enables me to implement the maths, as you can see here.

To provide a common metric that depends on the policy.

  • In Operationalize Your World, you get Performance SLA. Notice the line automatically adjust depending the class of service. You know that the SLA line is a metric. If you have 3 class of services (Gold, Silver, Bronze), you have 3 different metrics, 1 for each policy. So how does it know which SLA to display in the widget? I use the Max function, knowing that a VM can only have 1 SLA.

Summary of Features

Here are the 5 features I used to implement all the super metrics in Operationalize Your World:

  • $This
  • Metric vs Attribute
  • Where clause
    • Useful in comparing against a value. A limitation here is the value has to be a constant. It can’t be another metric.
  • IF Statement
    • The VM KPI has 21 IF statements. I need to categorise value into Green, Yellow, Orange, Red. That’s 3 IF statements, nested as 1. I need to consider 7 factors. Since each factor has 3 IF statements, the total is 21.
  • Count, Max, Min, Sum

I’m aware of the usability and functionality enhancements, and am working to enhance it. As always, I welcome your feedback, as it’s valuable to have datapoints.

Hope you find super metrics as useful as I have.

2 thoughts on “vR Ops Super Metrics

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