Evaluating Host Consolidation Scenarios

You can view details for your consolidation scenarios using the Consolidation console. After evaluating the consolidation scenario results, you can define different plans as well as rerun existing scenarios to re-evaluate them based on the previously specified conditions with the latest available data. The results of the previous analysis will be over-written. You can also create a new scenario based on an existing scenario, where you tweak certain values to customize the new scenario. This iterative process helps you obtain the optimized consolidation scenario which is generated by compromising various factors and weighing different trade-offs.

Compare the consolidation scenarios you create to determine which consolidation strategy best meets your requirements.

Your objective is to:

• Match source resource requirements with destinations best able to meet those requirements.

• Fit source requirements with each destination's available resources as tightly as possible, so you can get maximum usage of destination capacity.

• Provide room for growth on destinations by allowing for headroom as a factor of resource requirements.

• Optionally balance the source workload across all available destinations.

1. From the Enterprise menu, select Consolidation, then select Host Consolidation Planner.
2. First, examine the project containing the scenario you want to view.

   • The Status column indicates the status of data collection, based on the minimum and maximum collection days specified for the project.

   • The General tab summarizes the project in terms of type, collection details, number of sources, and so forth.

   • Click the Source Candidates tab to view various usage data collected for the sources defined in the project. Data can include utilization rates for CPU, memory, storage, and disk and network I/O, depending on the project type.

   • Click the Source Workload tab to view source resource usage data collected. The default display is a heat map, a grid of 24 hours by 30 days, showing the workload for a given hour as a color indicating the load relative to 100% of capacity, and a number showing the actual percentage. Alternatively, you can view the same data as a line graph. You can filter either view by source, resource type, and month.

   • Click the Destination Candidates tab to view a breakdown of hardware details and projected resource utilization by destination candidate, based on the sources to be consolidated.

   • Click the Report button above the table when the project is selected to view summarized information and more details.

3. Next, view the data for a specific scenario. The General tab summarizes the scenario in terms of resource type and allocation, constraints, destination types, and so forth. For a completed analysis, click any metric in the row to view details on the respective tab, as follows:

   • Sources: The list of sources to consolidate, including their projected CPU and memory capacities and requirements.

   • Destinations: The list of destinations to which the sources will be consolidated. Resource configuration and calculated utilization are shown for each destination.

     For consolidations to the cloud, resources of consequence are CPU capacity and memory.

   • Ratio: The ratio of sources to destinations. By default, Host Consolidation Planner will try to “fit" sources into as few destinations as possible.

   • Mapping: The destinations to which specific sources will be mapped. The analysis includes estimated CPU and memory requirements and utilization, enhanced by suggested CPU and memory allocation figures to consider. These suggestions represent a reasonable compromise between requirements and destination server capacity.

   • Confidence: The percentage of the data collected for sources that meet the source usage requirements defined in the scenario. This value is aggregated for all sources defined with the project.

   • Violations: The number of violations of technical or business constraints defined in the scenario. This metric is applicable only if the scenario uses auto-mapping of sources to destinations.

   • Exclusions: The number of sources that do not have a qualified mapping to a destination. These are sources that exceed the capacity of available destinations.

A different set of constraints may result in a different optimal scenario. Modify the constraints to come up with different scenario results.