6.2 Project Explorer

Projects are displayed in the Project Explorer.

Figure 6-1 Typical Project Explorer Tree

The project, scenario, and consolidated workloads are arranged hierarchically; that is, workloads are listed under a server, servers are listed under a scenario, and scenarios are listed under a project. All selected candidates are listed under workloads inside the project.

Table 6-1 Project Explorer Commands

Command

Action

Create a new project.

Copy a project

View project settings

Create a new scenario.

Copy a scenario

View report/View Project report/View Workload Assignment report.

Delete project/scenario/workload, depending on the selection made.

Implement by using the Portability Suite

Edit Mapping

Alternatively, select Project Explorer commands by right-clicking any server, scenario, or project.

Table 6-2 Project Explorer Icons

Icon

Description

Consolidation Project

Consolidation Scenarios

Server

Existing Target Servers

Virtual Machine

Workloads

Virtualization Overhead

Server Template is mapped to a Virtual Server in the database

Server is selected for Consolidation

Unconsolidated Server

Server is selected for Protection

Server is Unprotected

Unconsolidated Workloads

6.2.1 Creating Projects

A project can consist of any combination of consolidation candidates, protection candidates, workloads, and scenarios. Consolidation candidates are workloads on the network that you might want to move to virtual machines. Protection candidates are workloads you might want to create standby VM duplicates of for disaster recovery.

You create and compare scenarios in a project. The Project Report consists of scenario comparison results, which help in determining the best consolidation scenario for the environment.

Before you create a project, identify and group consolidation candidates. The identified candidates allow you to create and compare consolidation scenarios in a project.

NOTE:Collecting at least 24 hours of data for each workload before starting the project is recommended.

To create a new project:

  1. Click Consolidation and select New Project or click New Project in the Project Explorer.

    The Project Wizard (Step 1 of 5: Project Name and Type) is displayed.

  2. Type a Unique Project Name for this project in the text box.

  3. Select a Project Type:

    Server Consolidation: The project produces a recommendation for the best placement of workloads with respect to concurrent execution and CPU and memory heap space requirements.

    Workload Protection: The project produces a recommendation for deployment of workloads for disaster recovery. Specify existing virtual servers or use server templates to build a scenario.

    Both: The project produces a recommendation for both consolidation and protection. For example, optimally consolidate servers, and provision the remaining headroom for data protection.

    A workload cannot be provisioned for both consolidation and protection in the same project.

  4. Click Next.

    The Step 2 of 5: Workload Selection dialog box is displayed.

  5. Identify the workloads to include in the project.

  6. Drag workloads from the tree on the left and drop them into the Workloads to Consolidate panel or the Workloads to Protect panel on the right.

    Alternatively, select servers and click the arrow pointing to the panel to which you want to add them. If you make a mistake, select the server in the panel on the right that you want to remove and click the arrow pointing back toward the server list. Servers cannot be targeted for consolidation and protection within the same project.

  7. Drag and drop Target Servers into either of the two panels on the right.

  8. Click Next.

    The Step 3 of 5: Workload Utilization Date and Time Range dialog box is displayed.

  9. Set the date and time range to summarize the workload data. Date Range and Business Days are required for calculating the 24H profile of workloads.

  10. Optionally, click Advanced to manually set workload scaling factors.

    The Workload Scaling dialog box is displayed.

  11. Use the slide controls to adjust values or type the desired number.

    Workloads can be scaled across five dimensions to account for workload variability and projected growth. Server resources allocated to workloads on target servers are based on scaled workloads. By scaling workloads upward, more server resources might be required, potentially resulting in lower consolidation ratios. When scaling pointers are moved, workload scaling factors change.

    Workloads cannot be scaled below their peak hourly averages.

  12. Click OK.

  13. Click Next.

    The Step 4 of 5: Forecast Options dialog box is displayed.

    Select forecast options and a trend type. Workloads can be forecasted to account for future growth.

    The Step 5 of 5: Power and Cooling dialog box is displayed.

  14. Click Next.

  15. Enter values for the Project Goal, or deselect the Enable Power and Cooling check box if these values are not to be included.

    Energy Cost: Cost of energy per kilowatt hour.

    Server Derating Factor: Percentage of total energy consumption by the average server. For example, a server rated at 800 watts uses 400 watts with a server derating factor of 50%.

  16. Click Create.

    The new project is displayed in the Project Explorer.

When creating a project, a 24H Profile of workloads is computed. This includes calculating Processor Speed (MHz), Memory (MB), Disk Space Used (GB), Disk IO (MB/s), and Network IO (MB/s) over a 24-hour period for each workload. The 24H Profile comprises 24 values of workloads that correspond to each hour of the day (0 to 23). Each value in the 24H Profile is calculated by taking the peak value from all values observed for that hour.

6.2.2 Server Templates

Server templates are used to define servers for use in consolidation scenarios. You create server templates, each with their own components and utilization thresholds. A common use for server templates is for scale-up or scale-out consolidation scenarios. The created server templates are used as target servers for consolidating workloads.

Creating a New Server Template

  1. Click Consolidation , then click Server Templates on the menu.

    The Server Template Manager dialog box is displayed.

  2. Click New .

    The New Server Template dialog box is displayed.

  3. Make sure the General page is displayed, then specify the following:

    User Interface

    Required

    Description

    Name

    Yes

    Name of the template to be created.

    Make

    No

    Server manufacturer.

    Model

    No

    Server model.

    TCO

    No

    Total cost of ownership.

    Rack Units

    No

    Number of rack units.

    Power

    No

    Power consumption in watts.

    Virtualization

    Yes

    Virtualization platform:

    • Microsoft* Virtual Server

    • Virtual Iron*

    • VMware* ESX

    • VMware ESX 3

    • VMware ESX 4

    • VMware GSX

    • VMware Server

    • Citrix* XenServer*

    • Microsoft Hyper-V*

    • SLES Xen Server

    • None

  4. Click Components, then specify the following on the Components page:

    User Interface

    Required

    Description

    Settings

    Processor Count

    Yes

    Total processor count.

    Processor Speed

    Yes

    Instructions per second the server can execute in MHz or GHz. The minimum processor speed you can use is 266 MHz.

    Memory

    Yes

    Memory size for server in MB or GB.

    Cores Per Processor

    Yes

    Number of cores per processor.

    CPU Model

    Yes

    Model of CPU:

    • Pentium* IV

    • Core

    • Xeon*

    • Core Xeon

    • Athlon*

    • Opteron*

    • Intel* Nehalem (newly supported in PlateSpin Recon 3.6.1)

    Hyper-Threading

    No

    Specifies if hyper-threading is available.

    Normalized Speed

    Readonly

    A unitless measure of processor capacity. This provides more realistic comparisons across diverse processor architectures.

    Memory Size

    Yes

    The amount of memory to use. The minimum memory size you can use is 256 MB.

    Disk Space

    Yes

    Disk space in GB or TB that is required for the server. Select Unlimited if you are connecting target servers to a SAN or NAS, where disk space is not a limiting factor. If you use Fixed, the minimum amount of disk space you can specify is 1 GB.

    Thresholds

    Processor

    No

    Processor utilization. By default, the utilization is set to 80%.

    Memory

    No

    Memory utilization. By default, the utilization is set to 90%.

    Disk Space

    No

    Maximum disk utilization threshold. By default, the utilization is set to 85%.

    Disk IO

    No

    Maximum disk I/O allowed. By default, the Max IO is set to 50 MB/s.

    Network IO

    No

    Maximum network IO. By default, the network IO is set to 10 MB/s.

    Thresholds specify the level of utilization the Consolidation Planning Module can assume for the server templates. This affects the outcome of consolidation scenarios; lower utilization thresholds result in more servers being required to host the workloads of a scenario.

    For example: workloads requiring 180 GB of memory can be consolidated onto a server with 200 GB of memory if the utilization threshold is set at 90%. However, if the memory utilization threshold is set at 50%, only 100 GB of memory can be used, resulting in fewer workloads being consolidated.

    Utilization thresholds are initially set to the defaults listed in the table above and can be customized for specific needs.

  5. Click OK.

Editing an Existing Server Template

  1. Click Consolidation , then click Server Templates on the menu.

    The Server Template Manager dialog box is displayed.

  2. Select the server template you want to edit.

  3. Click Edit .

    The Edit Server Template dialog box is displayed.

  4. On the General page, make any desired modifications using the following as a guide:

    User Interface

    Required

    Description

    Name

    Yes

    Name of the template to be created.

    Make

    No

    Server manufacturer.

    Model

    No

    Server model.

    TCO

    No

    Total cost of ownership.

    Rack Units

    No

    Number of rack units.

    Power

    No

    Power consumption in watts.

    Virtualization

    Yes

    Virtualization platform:

    • Microsoft* Virtual Server

    • Virtual Iron*

    • VMware* ESX

    • VMware ESX 3

    • VMware ESX 4

    • VMware GSX

    • VMware Server

    • Citrix* XenServer*

    • Microsoft Hyper-V*

    • SLES Xen Server

    • None

  5. Click Components, then make any desired modifications using the following as a guide:

    User Interface

    Required

    Description

    Settings

    Processor Count

    Yes

    Total processor count.

    Processor Speed

    Yes

    Instructions per second the server can execute in MHz or GHz. The minimum processor speed you can use is 266 MHz.

    Memory

    Yes

    Memory size for server in MB or GB.

    Cores Per Processor

    Yes

    Number of cores per processor.

    CPU Model

    Yes

    Model of CPU:

    • Pentium* IV

    • Core

    • Xeon*

    • Core Xeon

    • Athlon

    • Opteron

    • Intel Nehalem (newly supported in PlateSpin Recon 3.6.1)

    Hyper-Threading

    No

    Specifies if hyper-threading is available.

    Normalized Speed

    Readonly

    A unitless measure of processor capacity. This provides more realistic comparisons across diverse processor architectures.

    Memory Size

    Yes

    The amount of memory to use. The minimum memory size you can use is 256 MB.

    Disk Space

    Yes

    Disk space in GB or TB that is required for the server. Select Unlimited if you are connecting target servers to a SAN or NAS, where disk space is not a limiting factor. If you use Fixed, the minimum amount of disk space you can specify is 1 GB.

    Thresholds

    Processor

    No

    Processor utilization. By default, the utilization is set to 80%.

    Memory

    No

    Memory utilization. By default, the utilization is set to 90%.

    Disk Space

    No

    Maximum disk utilization threshold. By default, the utilization is set to 85%.

    Disk IO

    No

    Maximum disk I/O allowed. By default, the Max IO is set to 50 MB/s.

    Network IO

    No

    Maximum network IO. By default, the network IO is set to 10 MB/s.

    Thresholds specify the level of utilization the Consolidation Planning Module can assume for the server templates. This affects the outcome of consolidation scenarios; lower utilization thresholds result in more servers being required to host the workloads of a scenario.

    For example: workloads requiring 180 GB of memory can be consolidated onto a server with 200 GB of memory if the utilization threshold is set at 90%. However, if the memory utilization threshold is set at 50%, only 100 GB of memory can be used, resulting in fewer workloads being consolidated.

    Utilization thresholds are initially set to the defaults listed in the table above and can be customized for specific needs.

  6. Click OK.

Copying a Server Template

  1. Select the template and click Copy .

    The New Server Template dialog box is displayed with the template information prepopulated.

  2. Rename the template and make any other required modifications.

  3. Click OK.

    The template is copied and is displayed in the Server Template Manager listing.