6.3

Table Of Contents
Reference Guide
78 VMware, Inc.
Application Slowdown
Operationsperformedbytheapplicationcantakelongertocomplete,andinturn,canaffectthetimerequired
tologintoaremoteclient,ortoopenorsaveafile.ThisistrueforbothserversrunningvCenterServer
Heartbeatandforserversrunninganyotherapplication.vCenterServer
Heartbeatcanmonitorsystem
performancecountersanddisplaywarningswhenpredefinedthresholdsareexceeded,butitdoesnotactively
managesystemresourcesforotherapplications.Likeanyotherapplication,italsorequiresafiniteamountof
resourcesforitsownoperationsinadditiontotheresourcesusedbytheoperating
systemandtheprotected
application.
ThemachineshostingvCenterServerHeartbeatmustmeetrecommendedhardwarerequirementsandmust
bepowerfulenoughtosupporttheload,theprotectedapplications,andanyothercriticalapplications
runningonthesameserverpair.
Poor Application Performance
Whenapplicationsarecompetingforresources,oneormoreapplicationscanperformpoorly.
Symptom
Neitherserverinthepaircanaccommodatetheloadplaceduponitduringnormaloperation.
Cause
ThePrimaryserverʹsresourceusageinoneormoreareasreachedclosetothemaximumbeforevCenterServer
Heartbeatwasinstalled.
Resolution
HeartbeatDiagnosticscanreporttheseconditionsandissueswarningsifCPUusageormemoryusageexceed
acertainpercentageoftheavailableresource.InformationprovidedbyHeartbeatDiagnosticscanminimize
theriskofapplicationslowdownbyidentifyingneededhardwareupgradesonthePrimaryserver.
Both Servers Can Accommodate the Initial Load but the Load Has Increased
Anysoftwareinstalledonaserverorworkstationconsumesafiniteamountofsystemresourceswhenitruns
anditmustsharetheresourcesituseswithanyotherapplicationsrunningatthesametime.Increaseddemand
causedbyadditionaluseractivitycanhaveanimpactontheserverperformance.
Symptom
Increaseduseractivityslowsapplicationresponsetime.
Causes
TheserverpairoperatesnormallywhenvCenterServerHeartbeatisfirstinstalled,butperformancedecreases
duetoincreaseduseractivity.Forexample,usersontheSQLServersystemincreaseorthetypicalusage
patternbecomesmoreintense.Thiscanbeagradualandsustainedincreaseovertime,ortransientifa
specific
eventtriggersatemporarysurgeinuseractivity.
Resolution
Ifthesituationissporadic,itcancorrectitselfwhentheloaddecreases.Iftheincreaseissustainedand
permanent,upgradetheserverhardware.
One Server Can Provide Adequate Resource Support, but the Other Cannot
Ifthetotalresourcerequirementsoftheapplicationsexceedtheavailablephysicalresources,theoperating
systemattemptstoprovideresources,butleavessomeapplicationsunderresourced.Whenthissituation
occurs,anapplicationcannotobtainenoughmemorytooperatenormally,oraprocessmustwaitbefore
accessingtheharddisk