VMware is applying big data analytics to server log files to get information useful in real-time operations, which is usually mined after the fact for historical purposes.
VCenter Log Insight is a stand-alone product being added to VMware’s lineup. With a $ 200 license fee per monitored operating system , it’s meant to work hand-in-glove with a preexisting VMware data center product, vCenter Operations. VCenter Operations is used to capture and help manage configuration settings, performance management and capacity management.
Log Insight will supply an analytics engine to the log file data, which captures a record of server events, such as when the application gets a new user or contacts a database server for records. A vSphere host system, generating a large virtualized environment in the data center, produces 250 MB of log file information a day, Martin Klaus, group product-line manager, said in an interview. A Microsoft Exchange email server will generate 1 GB of log file information a day.
The Log Insight analytics engine will do what the human eye cannot do as it confronts the thousands of streaming alerts and notices of software events in a running virtualized infrastructure. It will separate the reporting that reflects normal operations and not bother the system administrator with it. It will perform diagnostics on exceptions or information patterns that might indicate an operational issue is taking shape.