VMware is rushing in where cooler heads have been wary: the rapid data accumulation field of server log file analysis. VMware’s new vCenter Log Insight became available July 11 as the latest addition to VMware’s push into data center management.
It’s sure to meet resistance from the well-established vendors already at work on log file management. They include the widely used Splunk system, SolarWinds’ Log and Event Manager, TripWire Log Management, and Sumo Logic. But it seems clear there will be no future software-defined data center without automated server log file analysis, and VMware is volunteering to take on the role from the vantage point of virtualized operations. Splunk has returned the compliment by offering Splunk for VMware, a product that collects log file data on the VMware environment.
VMware, like other vendors in the field, not only collects data but reviews it in real time, sorting out what indicates normal operations and focusing on abnormalities or patterns that might indicate the start of trouble. To do this for many servers with a low latency is no small task.
The typical vSphere server log file in the VMware environment generates at least 250 MB of data a day; a Microsoft Exchange Server will generate a GB. Keeping up with large numbers of these servers, along with virtual machine hosts, firewalls, Web servers, load balancers and database servers becomes a big data problem.