capacity management in a vmware environment

Capacity Management in a VMware Environment

Jeff Hunter, VCP, MCTS

Senior Systems Engineer

VMware

[email protected]

Copyright © 2009 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents.

Capacity Management Goals

Effective capacity management strives to ensure both:• Efficiency – optimization of capacity• Predictability – availability of capacity

To mitigate risk as well as plan for future growth, IT capacity must be provisioned higher than highest peak of your actual capacity needs. Difference between provisioned IT capacity and...

Demand Peak: acceptable headroom

Demand Valley: acknowledged waste

Capacity Demand

IT Capacity


Items to Consider......that may affect capacity management and forecasting:• Changes in application workload patterns - examples: Month-end

accounting jobs, upgrades/patches, backup jobs, antivirus scanning.• Increasing utilization - examples: Adding more end-users to a business

intelligence system (meaning more queries), additional traffic on a retail store e-commerce web site during the holidays.

• New projects coming to fruition that require additional computing resources• Migration from a physical machine to a virtual machine...

• Is the physical machine an older, less-powerful model?• Is the host for the virtual machine new, more-powerful?

• Business acquisitions• Time required to add additional capacity• Ability to reclaim capacity that is no longer in use


Challenges and Nuances in Virtual Environments

• Hypervisor effects (CPU): vSMP, shares, limits• Hypervisor effects (memory): Transparent Page Sharing, ballooning• Storage optimizations: Thin provisioning, linked-clones• Clusters: VMotion, DRS, HA, FT• Workload flux: VMs growing, addition of vCPUs and memory


Capacity Management Methods

Homegrown SolutionExcel spreadsheetSQL / Perl script

Purpose-Built ToolsOff-the-shelf softwareBest of breed expertise

Rule of ThumbGuesstimatesTacit knowledge

Subjective to experiential biasOverly conservative to be safe

Time-consuming to build, maintain, prepare and analyzeStatic snapshot in time

Automated and continuous capacity intelligenceEnables informed, real-time decision-making

“It worked for me in the

past…” “To be safe, I’ll add an x% buffer…”


Capacity Planning before Virtualizing

Performance monitoring tools can help get us started...

Windows Performance Monitorhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749249.aspx

3rd Party Tools• Example: HP Performance Center, Collectl (Linux), etc.

Tools from VMware...

VMware vCenter Guided Consolidation• Built into vCenter• Basic analysis

VMware Capacity Planner• Available to VMware employees (SEs, PSO) and partners• More in-depth analysis and reporting


VMware vCenter Guided Consolidation• Included with vCenter• Provides basic consolidation estimate• Convert To Virtual Machine from the vSphere Client


VMware Capacity PlannerData Collector


VMware Capacity PlannerDetailed reports and recommendations• Virtualization candidates and exceptions (machines that need further analysis)


Capacity Management After Virtualization

VMware vCenter 4 provides some metrics that are useful• Resource utilization at the VM, host, cluster, virtual data center levels• Resource allocation details• Dashboard views• Charts can be saved and printed


Capacity Management After VirtualizationAnalyze, forecast, and plan virtualized

datacenter or desktop capacity

BenefitsDeliver the right capacity at the right timeMake informed planning, purchasing, and provisioning decisionsEnable capacity to be utilized most efficiently and cost-effectively

Key FeaturesPerform “What-If” impact analysis to model effect of capacity changesIdentify and reclaim unused capacityForecast timing of capacity shortfalls and needs

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ


CapacityIQ vSphere Client Plugin


Physical Machine Capacity

Total CapacityTotal amount of physical resources provisioned

Reserved Capacity = Unusable Capacity

VMware HA failover commitmentsESX host overhead capacityCapacity buffer for safety margin

Usable Capacity = Total Capacity – Unusable Capacity

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CapacityIQ Use Cases

How many more VMs will fit in my current VI? What is my historical capacity utilization?

Are my VMs sized correctly? Can I reclaim over-provisioned or unused capacity?

When will I run out of capacity? What if I add, remove, reconfigure capacity?

Visibility into Available Capacity

Efficient Use of Existing Capacity

Ability to Predict Future Needs


Capacity DashboardAt-a-glance charts and graphs

Datacenter to individual VM Managed objects and compute resources

Deployed and remaining capacity perspectives


Trending and Forecasting Identify current capacity usage trends and forecast timing of

potential capacity shortfalls and bottlenecks


Capacity Modeling

Impact analysis of capacity changesBased on

What-if modeling scenarios: simulated changes in capacity demand or supply

Historical resource trends

Virtualization-awarenessRecognizes VMware HA- and DRS-enabled clusters, and factors those into the predictions

What if I add more VMs? Is there enough capacity?

Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3

VMware Infrastructure

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VM ProfilingAnalysis of VM behavior and resource demands

Accounts forCPU, Memory, Storage, NetworkPeak and average resource demand over time

Average VM Profile used as basis for capacity estimates

Virtual Machine = Basic Unit of Capacity

Consumption


Capacity ModelingPerform “What-If” Impact Analysis to Model Effect of Capacity Changes

Hosts Virtual Machines


Capacity Modeling – HostsSpecify configuration to model your capacity changes

Host count, CPU and memory configurationAdding or removing hosts, changing host configuration (i.e. adding RAM)


CapacityIQ Views, ReportsBased on the object selected in the navigation pane

Exported as pdf or csv

Customizable


Capacity Optimization

Identify and Reclaim Inefficient, Unused CapacityRight-size or decommission unused or inefficient VMsUse the capacity modeling to predict the savings

Eliminate waste and reduce costs in your organization


VM Profiling: Oversized and Undersized VMs

Demand

CapacityVM Sizing OpportunitiesOversized VMs:VM has been allocated more capacity than it needsUndersized VMs:VM needs more capacity than it has been allocated


VMware vCenter CapacityIQ

Managing capacity in VMware environments isSimple: delivers capacity insight at your fingertips. Delivered as single virtual appliance. Integrated with vCenter and client.Efficient: enables capacity to be utilized optimally.Predictable: ensures capacity is always available to meet business demands.

Capacity Intelligence for VMware Infrastructure!


vCenter CapacityIQ Resources

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ product pagehttp://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-capacityiq/

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ Evaluationhttps://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php?p=capacityiq&lp=1

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ Documentationhttp://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/capacityiq_pubs.html

capacity management in a vmware environment

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