Workload Infrastructure Balancing Analytics

Start by running a new VM Coordinator from the Analytics page.

Select the entity type to analyze by clicking on the Add box and selecting from the following entity types: ESX Cluster, ESX Host, Hyper-V Cluster, Hyper-V Host, or PowerVM Host.

Select the named entity to analyze.

Set the Number of Swaps

Set the parameter for the number of swaps. This limits the number of VMs that can be moved. The default number of swaps is five. The more moves you select, the longer it will take to run VM Coordinator.

Selecting Advanced Options

You can run the analytic using its default settings, or choose from its advanced settings.

1. Check the Use Advanced Options box to display the advanced settings.

2. The advanced options allow you to fine-tune the analytic to limit the network traffic and disk activity, the number of iterations allowed, and whether to optimize for CPU or memory or ignore DRS Affinity Rules (for ESX only).

   

Setting the Date Range

Run intervals may be based on cluster or ESX servers.  The longer the date range and iterations, the more accurate the resource balancing will be.

The first run of VM Coordinator should be a minimum of 30 days, to catch monthly jobs on initial cluster rebalancing.  VM Coordinator should be run weekly thereafter, to maintain cluster balancing.

Saving the Analytic as a Template

Save the analytic as a template by selecting the Save button at the top right and schedule it as a monthly job.

Start by running a new Storage Portal Balancer from the Analytics home page by clickingClick the New Analytic or Run New button.

Click the Add button to select a storage array.

Select a storage array from the list. You can use the search box to find a specific storage array. Click the OK button.

Use the slider to specify the Number of HBA Swaps. The number allows you to limit the number of HBAs that can be required to be moved as part of the recommendations. The default is eight.

Select the maximum desired read and write utilization post-move. The default value is 50%. Note that the desired utilization has been set low in this example to show results.

If you click the Use Advanced Options check box (off by default), you can select additional check boxes (also off by default) to:

If you check Exclude Select Ports, the Exclude Storage Ports screen is displayed, and you can select one or more ports to exclude.

Click the Run button.

Start by selecting the entity type to analyze: Application, Nutanix Host, Nutanix Virtual Machine, Nutanix Cluster, KVM Host, KVM Virtual Host, ESX Cluster, ESX Host, or ESX VM, then select a named entity from the dropdown list. The following is the sample screenshot of the entity type.

You can choose to use advanced options with Workload Right Sizer by checking the Use Advanced Options box. For example, you can change the CPU and memory over-subscription ratios, which are set to 2:1 by default.

You can select whether a higher tier VM gets precedence for resources if there is a conflict.

You can also set acceptable usage thresholds for vCPU and VM memory usage. This identifies candidates for right sizing.

You can also over-ride the thresholds for a specific tier. Say you wish to right size the Bronze tier differently than other tiers and select candidates based on different thresholds. You can do this by selecting “Override Thresholds by Tier”, selecting the tier and setting the usage thresholds to different values.

Set the date range for the analytic. When running Workload Right Sizer for the first time, choose a range where the entities have been in the same state. After the analytic is run for the first time, it’s advisable to run it monthly.

You can save analytics in the same way you can save a report and schedule them to run periodically. Save the analytic as a template and schedule it as a monthly job.

You can run the analytic in the background and view its output later on the Outputs page.

Start by running a new Queue Solver from the Analytics home page by click the New Analytic or Run New button.

Click the Add button to select a host or ESX host to analyze.

Select a Host or ESX Host, then click the OK button. You can use the search box to filter the display of Hosts/ESX Hosts.

Run Queue Solver for at least two weeks, making sure to select a date range that is a good representation of your business cycle, e.g., includes month-end processing.

Subsequent runs should be made after queue depth settings have been changed.

Click the Run button.

If the host does significantly more writes than reads, click the Write-Based Recommendations radio button.

The queue solver analytic screen is redisplayed, showing the write-based recommended action to be taken on the queue depth setting. In this case, the read- and write-based recommendations are different.

You can click the percentile legend selections to show only some or all of the information.

Only the selected percentile curve is displayed.

Hover over the graph lines to display detail information.

To export a copy of the displayed graph, click the options menu (horizontal bars), and select the Export format from the displayed menu.

Start by running a new Migration Analysis by clicking the New Analytic or Run New button.

Select the types of data you wish to export.

There are two options. First, if connectivity to VP has not yet been configured, as shown below in the left-hand image, you select which data you want exported: Inventory, Resource Utilization, or NetFlow Conversation data. If connectivity to VP has been configured, as shown below in the right-hand image, the form will already be filled out according to the VP connection settings.

NetFlow Conversations include both NetFlow and netstat conversations.

Select a time range for the export by clicking on the date field.

The ideal date range for extracting the most granular data (5-minute) is 30 days. The granularity of data extracted for ranges over 30 days will be based on IO's data persistence policy.

Click Prepare Export to start the export process if VP connectivity has not yet been configured. Otherwise, click the Send to VP Workload Placement button.

The process runs in the background. You can choose to be notified when it is complete by checking the Notify me when completed box.

A message is displayed when the analysis is complete. Two possibilities exist as shown below. The left-hand picture depicts what is displayed when VP connectivity is not configured. In this case, click the Download Results button to download the file. The right-hand picture depicts what is displayed when VP connectivity is configured. For this case, downloading is optional, as the data has already been pushed to VP Workload Placement.

Start by running a new Workload Analysis by clicking the New Analytic or Run New button.

Click Add to select the entity to be analyzed.

Select an entity type and entity.

Specify a full export or an export with calculated clusters, groups of similar data profiles.

The full export generates a large raw file, and the clustered option produces a smaller file, with the Advanced Options of either auto-detecting or limiting the maximum number of clusters.

Select the protocol using the radio buttons.

If exporting calculated clusters, check the Use Advanced Options and choose to auto-detect or limit the maximum number of clusters to a specified value.

The default setting is to limit the maximum number of clusters to eight.

Click the Prepare Export button.

The file is generated.

A message is displayed when the analysis is complete. Click the Download Results button to download the file.