VMware vFabric Suite - 5.0 Getting Started
Getting Started with vFabric Cloud Application
Platform
VMware vFabric Cloud Application Platform 5.0
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Table of Contents
1. About Getting Started with vFabric Cloud Application Platform ....................................................................... 1
Intended Audience ......................................................................................................................... 1
2. Quick Start Guide .............................................................................................................................. 3
3. Introducing vFabric Cloud Application Platform 5.0 ..................................................................................... 9
vFabric Platform Application Services and Packages ................................................................................ 9
Simplified VM-Based Licensing Model .............................................................................................. 15
Integration with vSphere ................................................................................................................ 16
Engineered for Spring-Built Applications ............................................................................................ 16
4. vFabric Licensing ............................................................................................................................. 17
How Licensing Works with Standalone vFabric Components .................................................................... 17
How Licensing Works with vFabric Standard and vFabric Advanced ........................................................... 17
Using the vFabric License Check Tool ............................................................................................... 17
License Usage Reporting ............................................................................................................... 20
5. Installing vFabric Platform .................................................................................................................. 21
vSphere, JVM, and Operating System Support ...................................................................................... 21
Install vFabric License Server on Your vCenter Server ............................................................................ 21
Activate vFabric Platform Licenses ................................................................................................... 24
RHEL: Installing vFabric Components from the VMware YUM Repository ................................................... 25
Windows/Linux: Example Walkthrough of Installing Component from Download Page ..................................... 39
Monitor vFabric License Usage ........................................................................................................ 40
Upgrade vFabric License Server ....................................................................................................... 42
Uninstall vFabric License Server from vCenter Server ............................................................................ 43
RHEL: Upgrade vFabric Components From the VMware YUM Repository ................................................... 43
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About Getting Started with vFabric Cloud Application Platform
1. About Getting Started with vFabric Cloud Application
Platform
Getting Started with vFabric Cloud Application Platform describes product concepts and initial setup tasks for VMware®
vFabric™ Cloud Application Platform. Read this documentation for an overview of platform components; to familiarize yourself
with the licensing infrastructure; and to install the VMware® vFabric™ Standard or VMware® vFabric™ Advanced package.
Intended Audience
Getting Started with vFabric Cloud Application Platform is intended for experienced Windows and Linux developers and system
administrators who want to learn about vFabric platform and its included components; install the vFabric License Server on an
existing VMware® vCenter™ Server; and understand how vFabric licensing works.
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2 vFabric Platform
About Getting Started with vFabric
2
Cloud Application Platform
Quick Start Guide 3
2. Quick Start Guide
This section guides you through the end-to-end process of installing vFabric Platform, or more specifically, installing two
vFabric components on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) virtual machine in the context of vFabric Platform. In particular,
the procedure describes how to perform the following tasks:
• Create an ODBC data source on the Windows computer running vCenter Server that connects to either the internal database
used by vCenter Server or to a separate database. You will later specify this data source when you install vFabric License
Server. vFabric License Server requires that certain properties be set on this data source, which is why you are required to
create one specifically for vFabric License Server use.
In this Quick Start Guide, it is assumed you are using a SQL Server database, although can also use other databases such as
Oracle.
• Install vFabric License Server on the same virtual machine (VM) as your vCenter Server.
• Activate a vFabric license.
• Install the vfabric-5-repo RPM on the RHEL virtual machine (VM), which makes it easy for you to browse the VMware
RPM repository.
• Install two vFabric components (vFabric tc Server and vFabric Web Server) on the RHEL VM from the VMware RPM
repository.
The procedure shows you how to complete the entire installation process as quickly as possible, with minimal explanation of
what each step means. For more details, see Installing vFabric Platform.
Prerequisites
• Install and configure vCenter Server and vSphere Client on a Windows 64-bit computer.
See vSphere Installation and Setup.
• Create a virtual machine (VM).
See vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.
• Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as the guest operating system on the VM.
See Installing a Guest Operating System.
• Install VMware Tools on the VM.
See Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools.
• Ensure that the Windows computer on which vCenter Server is running has the SQL Server Native Client ODBC
driver installed on it; if not, download and install the driver from the Microsoft SQL Server Web site.
Procedure
1. Create an ODBC data source that connects to either the vCenter database, or an external database.
a. On the Windows computer on which you are running vCenter Server, invoke the ODBC Data Source Administrator
window using Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Data Source (ODBC).
b. Click the System DSN tab.
c. Click the Add... button.
d. Select the SQL Server Native Client driver, then click Finish.
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4 vFabric Platform
e. Enter a name and description of the data source, then select the SQL Server you want this data source to connect to
from the drop-down list. The SQL server can be either the one used by the vCenter Server or a separate one, whichever
works best for your environment. Click Next.
f. Specify that you want SQL server to verify the authenticity using a login ID and password entered by the user, then
enter the Login ID and password of the SQL Server user.
Do not specify integrated Windows authentication.
g. Continue clicking Next, and then Finish, taking all default values, until you see a summary of the data source
configuration. Optionally test the data source to ensure you have configured it correctly, then click OK.
2. From the Windows VM on which you are running vCenter Server, download the vFabric License Server installer from the
VMware Download Center page and save it to your computer.
The installer program is called vFabric_License_Server-version.exe.
3. Install the vFabric License Server on the same VM as your vCenter Server.
a. Double-click on the installer from Windows Explorer to start the installation. After preparing the installation, the
vFabric Welcome Screen appears.
b. Continue clicking Next to accept the license agreement and view where the installer will install the vFabric License
Server.
c. Enter the login and password for the administrator of the vCenter Server installed on the same Windows VM, then click
Next.
d. Enter the login ID and password of the database user, and select the ODBC data source (DSN) that you created in a
preceding step.
e. Click Install to proceed with the installation.
4 Quick Start Guide
Quick Start Guide 5
The installer program completes successfully when you see the message InstallShield Wizard Completed.
f. To view details of the installation, click Show the Windows Installer Log. Click Finish to complete the installation.
4. Make a note of the license key that you purchased for vFabric Platform. See VMware Licensing Help Center for additional
information about licensing.
VMware license keys consist of groups of characters separated by dashes, such as 15243-
E1352-082DK-0TCH2-28D3G.
5. Activate the vFabric license keys in vCenter Server.
a. Start vSphere Client 5 and log in to the vCenter Server in which you installed vFabric License Server.
b. Select Home>Administration>Licensing to invoke the vCenter Licensing page, then click the Manage vSphere
Licenses link in the top-right corner, as shown in the screenshot.
c. Click Add License Keys on the left, then enter the license key in the text window to the right. Enter an optional label.
d. Click the Add License Keys button.
The license key shows up in the review window.
e. Repeat the preceding step to add any additional license keys.
f. Follow the prompts until you get to the Confirm Changes window, verify changes, and click Finish.
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The license keys are displayed in the main vCenter Licensing window under the name VMware vFabric
Standard|Advanced, depending on the vFabric Platform package you purchased.
6. Install the vfabric-5-repo RPM on the RHEL VM.
a. Log in to the RHEL VM as the root user and start a terminal.
b. Run the rpm command to install the vfabric-5-repo from the VMware repository:
prompt# rpm -Uvh http://repo.vmware.com/pub/rhel5/vfabric/5/vfabric-5-repo-5-2.noarch.rpm
You install the vfabric-5-repo RPM on each RHEL VM on which you want to install one or more vFabric
components.
7. Install vFabric tc Server and vFabric Web Server on the RHEL VM.
a. Log in to the VM as the root user and start a terminal.
b. Execute the following yum install command to install vFabric tc Server:
prompt# yum install vfabric-tc-server-standard
The yum command displays information about the contents of the installation.
c. Enter y at the prompt to begin the installation.
If the installation is successful, you will see a Complete! message at the end.
When the installation is complete:
• vFabric tc Server is installed in the /opt/vmware/vfabric-tc-server-standard directory.
• The installation is owned by the root user, but you manage the tc Server installation as tc-server, which is a
non-interactive user created by the RPM install.
d. Execute the following yum install command to install vFabric Web Server:
prompt# yum install vfabric-web-server
When the installation is complete:
• vFabric Web Server is installed in the /opt/vmware/vfabric-web-server directory
• The installation is owned by the root user.
What to do next
• Install a JDK or JVM on the RHEL VM on which you installed vFabric tc Server.
Update the JAVA_HOME and PATH environment variables of the tc-server user.
For example, to set the environment variables in a Linux profile after installing the JDK in /opt/java/jdk1.6.0_24:
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/java/jdk1.6.0_24
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
• Optionally enable EM4J in the VM on which you installed vFabric tc Server and create a tc Runtime instance that uses the
elastic-memory template.
6 Quick Start Guide
Quick Start Guide 7
See the Using Elastic Memory for Java (EM4J) section of the vFabric tc Server Administration
Guide.
After you start the instance and deploy a Web application to it, the memory management of the Java workload will be greatly
improved as compared to using a non-EM4J enabled tc Runtime instance.
• Create and start a vFabric Web Server instance.
See the vFabric Web Server Installation and Configuration.
• Install additional vFabric components on the RHEL VM, such as vFabric Hyperic or vFabric RabbitMQ. See Installing vFabric
Platform.
• Monitor the vFabric Platform license usage by querying the vFabric License Server. See Monitor vFabric License Usage.
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8 Quick Start Guide
Introducing vFabric Cloud Application
Platform 5.0
3. Introducing vFabric Cloud Application Platform 5.0
The rise of cloud computing and IT as a service is driving dramatic changes in application infrastructure and development.
VMware® vFabric™ Cloud Application Platform (vFabric Platform) embraces this shift by integrating the familiar Spring
Developer Frameworks with a proven set of services that span the lifecycle of modern application development, deployment, and
management.
Engineered for Spring Framework and VMware vSphere® virtualization, vFabric Platform includes tc Server with EM4J, Spring
Insight Operations, GemFire Application Cache Node, Hyperic Server and Agent, RabbitMQ, SQLFire, and Web Server. The
platform brings significant benefits to stake holders throughout the enterprise:
• Application developers and architects get tools that let them build data-intensive, Web-oriented applications quickly and
reliably. A per-VM licensing model gives them more latitude to amend application architecture with fewer licensing
constraints.
• IT gets an agile platform that makes applications easy to deploy, instantly scalable, and portable across clouds.
• End users get applications that are data rich, quick to access, and always available.
Subtopics
vFabric Platform Application Services and Packages
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Simplified VM-Based Licensing Model
Integration with vSphere
Engineered for Spring-Built Applications
vFabric Platform Application Services and Packages
vFabric Platform 5.0 is available in two packages, VMware® vFabric™ Standard and VMware® vFabric™ Advanced, as
indicated in the table. The sections that follow describe how each component is optimized to meet the demands of modern
applications in virtual and cloud environments.
Table 3.1. vFabric Platform 5.0 Components and Packages
Component and Version Description vFabric Standard Component vFabric Advanced Component
vFabric tc Server 2.6 Lightweight application server,
Elastic Memory for Java (EM4J
1.0)
fully compatible with Apache
Tomcat 7, that can be instantly
provisioned and elastically scaled.
Elastic Memory for Java (EM4J
1.0 ) is embedded with vFabric
tc Server (Spring Edition), and
Spring Insight Operations 1.5 is
available as a separate download.
Memory management technology
that enables you to run more Java
applications on your ESXi servers
than previously possible. EM4J
helps maintain Java application
performance and reliability while
freeing memory that allows you to
run more VMs per host. An EM4J
plug-in is now available for the
vSphere Web Client.
Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
Spring Insight Operations 1.5 Performance monitoring with real-
time, multi-layered visibility into
applications running on tc Server.
Yes. Yes.
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10 vFabric Platform
Component and Version Description vFabric Standard Component vFabric Advanced Component
vFabric Hyperic 4.6 Proactive performance
management with complete and
constant visibility into applications
and infrastructure.
vFabric GemFire 6.6 Data management platform that
provides real-time, consistent
access to data across widely
distributed cloud architectures.
GemFire Application Cache Node
is the vFabric Platform offering for
vFabric GemFire.
vFabric Web Server 5.0 Precompiled and pretuned Web
server and load-balancing service
that dynamically routes requests
to an application server for
processing. vFabric Web Server
is fully compatible with Apache
Web Server.
vFabric RabbitMQ 2.4 De facto standard for cloud
messaging and leading
implementer of AMQP. Delivers
highly available, scalable,
and portable messaging with
predictable, consistent throughput
and latency.
vFabric SQLFire 1.0 Memory-optimized, distributed
database management system
that provides extremely high
throughput; predictable latency;
dynamic and linear scalability;
and continuous availability of
data.
Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
No. Yes.
No. Yes.
vFabric tc Server 2.6 (Spring Edition)
VMware® vFabric™ tc Server is 100-percent compatible with Apache Tomcat 7. It has all the runtime advantages of Tomcat,
plus operational management, advanced diagnostics, mission-critical support, and unmatched visibility into Spring-powered
applications — none of which are available in the open source product.
tc Server harnesses the power of traditional JEE architectures while eliminating their complexity and performance drawbacks,
making it easier, faster, and more cost-effective to build and run cloud-ready applications. With its lean architecture and small,
10MB memory footprint, tc Server requires significantly fewer resources than conventional servers, which allows for greater
server density in virtual and cloud environments. tc Server supports integration with VMware tools and vFabric Hyperic, and
provides templates for vFabric GemFire session replication.
Main features of vFabric tc Server Spring Edition:
• vFabric tc Server instances are compatible with existing Apache Tomcat applications, thus eliminating migration costs and
cycles.
• Parallel deployment. Deploy multiple revisions of the same application at the same time so you can roll out a new revision of
an application without affecting users.
• Automatic instance upgrades. A new script lets you easily upgrade tc Server 2.0 and 2.1 instances to function with tc Server
2.6.
• Automated deployment of applications to multiple instances of tc Server and standardized templates for rapid provisioning of
new instances.
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Introducing vFabric Cloud Application
Platform 5.0
Introducing vFabric Cloud Application
Platform 5.0
• Commercial support for vFabric tc Server and Spring Framework.
• Elastic Memory for Java (EM4J). Included with tc Server Spring Edition, EM4J allows Java workloads to cooperate more fully
with ESXi advanced memory-sharing technologies. EM4J helps maintain Java application performance and reliability while
freeing memory so you can run more VMs per host, improving your consolidation ratio.
• Spring Insight Operations, a Web application that gives you real-time, detailed visibility into application behavior and
performance. Insight Operations is optimized for monitoring and tuning Spring-built applications in production.
EM4J 1.0 for Improved Memory Management of Java Workloads
EM4J revolutionizes the virtualization of Java applications.
With EM4J and tc Server, you can run more Java applications on your ESXi servers than previously possible, and Java
applications can now leverage ESXi's industry-leading memory sharing technology.
Previously if you ran Java on VMware ESXi, you had to reserve 100% of the configured memory for a VM running Java
applications or risk serious performance problems. To determine the optimum size of the Java heap, you determined the
application's peak requirement. Allocating less could mean unacceptable performance, errors, or crashes; allocating more than
was necessary wasted memory.
EM4J changes all that. It is a balloon that sits directly in the Java heap and works with a new memory-sharing interface
introduced in ESXi 5.0. EM4J allows ESXi to share available memory in the Java heap among VMs as needed, while preserving
application performance and reliability. You can size the Java heap to accommodate the peak workload, without wasting or
running out of memory. Any excess memory is ballooned away and redistributed where it is needed.
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This capability lets you create more VMs and pack more tc Server instances onto a single vSphere host. It also reduces the
likelihood of out-of-memory errors that can cripple applications.
A new EM4J plug-in is available for the vSphere Web Client. The plug-in enables you to monitor EM4J configuration and
memory performance for EM4J-enabled Java workloads in the vSphere Web Client. A Workloads tab displays statistics for
Java workloads on the virtual machine selected in the vSphere Web Client inventory tree. You can quickly verify that the virtual
machine and JVM are configured correctly for EM4J and see detailed information about the JVM process and memory usage.
Alerts warn of EM4J configuration problems and suggest best practices.
Spring Insight Operations 1.5 Engineered for vSphere, Spring, and Production Environments
Spring Insight Operations gives you real-time, granular visibility into application behavior and performance in production
environments. It is a Web application that runs with tc Server Spring Edition and is a separate download.
Insight Operations graphs the health of an application over time for the entire cluster and for each server in the cluster.
Administrators see application and server problems as they occur, with detailed information about contributing events, presented
in one unified dashboard. You can quickly identify under performing servers, server errors, and trace details for specific events
and exceptions.
VMware partners with Google to integrate Spring Insight data into SpeedTracer, a Google Chrome extension that analyzes
how your application is performing inside the browser and that ties browser performance to backend performance. If your Web
application uses Ajax and other rich open Web technologies, try SpeedTracer with Spring Insight.
Main features of Spring Insight Operations 1.5:
• Automatic instrumentation of Spring applications running on tc Server expose application performance from both general and
fine-grained perspectives.
• Isolation of performance problems by application, endpoint, application server, and method.
• Tracking of performance over time, to understand whether problems are chronic or spurious.
• Response-time histograms that reveal whether performance problems affect a many users, or a small subset.
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