VM Coordinator
Use VM Coordinator to review ESX cluster balance and identify optimal moves for existing VMS to improve utilization and performance.
VM Coordinator reviews historical data to identify optimal moves of VMs on a cluster by examining CPU, memory, network, and disk utilization levels. Use VM Coordinator to identify and address both short-term and long term impacts to cluster resources
Running VM Coordinator
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.
Check the Use Advanced Options box to display the advanced settings.
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.
Understanding VM Coordinator Results
The top section shows you how many VMs are recommended for moves, along with their names, and their suggested moves.
Below is shown the projected impact on CPU and memory congestion, and disk and network usage.
A list of the current measurement and projected impact for each host is shown below. Expand the details for a host by clicking the down arrow.
Download vMotion Script
Recommendations from VM Coordinator will require you to move several virtual machines using a vMotion script.
If you decide to use the recommendation, you must perform all the recommended moves. Performance may be negatively impacted if only some of the moves are made.
To download the script produced by VM Coordinator, select More, then Export.
