Setting Up the Scenario

Complete Step 1 of the host consolidation scenario creation process as follows:

1. From the Enterprise menu, select Consolidation, then select Host Consolidation Planner.
2. Click the consolidation project for which the scenario is intended.
3. Click the Create Scenario button.
4. Specify the scenario details, such as scenario name.
5. Specify the source resources to consider. Host Consolidation Planner will aggregate the specified resources to determine the total requirements.

   • Resource Type: The server requirements, such as CPU, memory (GB), and I/O capacity that must be considered.

   • Scale Factor: Provide room for growth on the destination for each source. The resource requirement estimate uses the scale factor to pad the estimate for consolidation. So, for example, if the estimated requirement for a given source, based on usage data, is 2 GB of memory, which equates to a scale factor of 1, and you specify a scale factor of 1.1, 2.2 GB will be required to consolidate that source.

   • Applicable Days: The days of the week on which resource usage metrics are collected.

   • Resource Allocation: The method used to aggregate daily server source resource usage. Values are:

     • Aggressive: Aggregate data based on average daily usage per hour.

       This typically results in a high consolidation (source:destination) ratio, because more sources will “fit" into each destination. But because more sources are involved, the odds that one or more will not meet the resource requirements are higher.

     • Medium: Aggregate data based on the 80 percentile usage. This typically results in a source:destination ratio somewhere between Aggressive and Conservative aggregations.

     • Conservative: Aggregate data based on maximum daily usage per hour.

       This typically results in a lower source:destination ratio, because fewer sources will “fit" into each destination.

   • The date ranges should define a period of time that is typical of standard resource requirements.

6. Click Estimated Requirements to view the estimated total resource requirements.

   For server consolidations, resource requirements are shown based on the averaged hourly requirement. The displayed requirements reflect the scale factor (if any) specified for the resource. The 24-hour requirement pattern will be used as the minimum requirements that must be met by consolidation destinations.

7. Optionally exclude or include sources, as appropriate.
8. Click Next to define consolidation constraints.