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Archive for the ‘capacity analysis’ Category

Because of the prevalence of virtual infrastructure these days, I’ll make the argument that virtual machine (VM) replication, both for business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) purposes, is the new P2V (physical to virtual migration) project. Not in the literal migration of physical to virtual, but in the same P2V concepts of infrastructure consolidation and capacity planning. I’m also talking similarity of process and in the frequency in which it is occurring. Simply put, IT shops that performed P2V migrations several years ago are now exploring how they can accomplish their DR site fail over or their BC needs with their virtual machines.

Let’s call these new generation of projects V4DR (virtualization for disaster recovery) or V4BC (virtualization for business continuity).

The comparison

If I rewind 3 to 5 years ago in my career, capacity planning for server consolidation was a weekly project and topic of discussion. Customers were either in the process of converting physical servers to virtual machines or they were exploring the possibility to do so. In both cases, capacity planning scenario spreadsheets and reports were frequent “ground zero documents” to almost every project plan I was involved in.

Just like P2V projects, VM replication today also requires some of the same considerations for job scalability and times to complete – i.e. using multiple hosts as targets and making sure the network can support getting the job done as quick as possible. Not to mention ip addressing, VLAN assignments, and application connectivity after the fact. Thank goodness we no longer have to deal with hardware drivers and other unneeded software a second time. Hopefully, VM alignment is a thing of the past too!

I’m not seeing the same “ground zero documents” for replication projects, however.

Use the same capacity planning tools?

So, I’ll ask the question:  Read the rest of this entry »

I received the following offer in an email this week from VKernel and I thought I would post this information for all VM /ETC readers:

” .. VKernel is now offering FREE perpetual licenses of our Capacity Modeler software until 12/31/09. VKernel Capacity Modeler is an alternative solution to the high-priced VMware vCenter CapacityIQ.

Download VKernel Capacity Modeler now and get the same function for FREE

Recognizing that VMware CapacityIQ’s capacity planning and ‘what if’ functionality is roughly equivalent to VKernel Modeler, Vkernel is offering anyone that downloads Modeler between now and December 31, 2009 free perpetual licensing for unlimited CPU sockets.

Download the FREE VKernel Capacity Modeler and get the ability to quickly plan, simulate, and validate hundreds of real–world “what if” VMware resource allocation and VM deployment scenarios. With VKernel Capacity Modeler, user can perform:

• Capacity Planning
• Interactive “What If” Modeling Scenarios
• Proactive Problem Prevention
• Predictive Capacity Impact Analysis

If you want to quickly solve more serious VMware issues, download FREE trials of our Capacity Analyzer and Optimization Pack software.”

I haven’t had the chance to use either product, but I thought VM /ETC readers could benefit from this offer.

Note the “roughly equivalent” statement above. I cannot speak to a comparison of the two products, but I still feel that any capacity analysis and modeling tool for free is worth investigating. If any readers have any experience with this solution please comment for the benefit of others.

Virtualization can be credited for popularizing the phrase “low hanging fruit” as a referral to the set of physical servers so underutilized they are easy virtualization candidates. Now, as virtual infrastructures (VI) mature and larger, more resource intensive applications are being considered for physical to virtual (p2V) migrations, administrators and application owners need to figure out how to adapt existing VI designs to accommodate the “fruit” still left in the “tree canopy”.

Anyone who has already “harvested” their own “low hanging fruit” knows there is so much to consider. The p2v tool and process are the tip of the iceberg, change control is just below the surface, and there are many more technical challenges hidden in the depths. I’ve blogged in the past about treating the migration to VI the same as you would changing physical data centers. It’s not just server builds and operating system installs.

These same challenges experienced during the initial consolidation are still there for the rest of the bunch, but most likely on a much more public and political scale. In fact, since more times than not these same servers were left out of the first consolidation scenario as “bad virtualization candidates, it’s likely time to Read the rest of this entry »

As IT budgets decline, old servers called to virtualization duty is an article written by Alex Barrett and Colin Steele on SeachVirtualization.com. Other then asking some pretty good virtualization sources their opinions , I think the article does a great job explaining why the expense of buying modern hardware still makes sense even in today’s economy. Whether to buy new servers is a common decision being made today as more and more companies are conducting capacity planning studies for consolidation to virtual infrastructure analysis.

Read the entire article for several great points, but here is one quote as an example argument:

“The first thing to determine is whether installing virtualization on older hardware actually saves money. Today’s servers are equipped with quad- and six-core CPUs that can deliver much greater consolidation ratios that single- or dual-core models, he said. “VI3 [VMware Infrastructure 3] is licensed per socket, so you’re paying the same cost for older CPUs but you’re getting less bang for your buck.”

But if the budget for new hardware simply isn’t there, consider the age of a server and how much life it has left in it. When identifying a candidate for a virtualization host, identify a box that is three years or younger and has “had a relatively low runtime,” the systems administrator said.”

Capacity Planning for virtual infrastructure is a topic I’ve covered before. Discussing the tools to conduct the analysis is almost not worth posting about since the majority are only available for the professional services partner and not the end customer (the main vmetc.com audience). However, Lanamark’s Server Virtualization Design Module and today’s announcement of Lanamark’s Desktop Analysis Pack for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is worth mentioning.

Why? Because I am not aware of another virtualization capacity planning tool that can monitor a company’s existing desktops, physical and virtual servers and then provide a comparison of consolidation scenarios across Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, Virtual Iron, and VMware ESX.

Lanamark now appears to fill a current capacity planning gap for the following scenarios:

• Companies looking at implementing / migrating to virtualization hosts other than VMware ESX or Microsoft Hyper-V (each with their own capacity planning and TCO analysis tools).
• Companies undecided on which virtualization platform to use and want to explore scenarios with an independent partner of multiple vendors.
• Companies needing customized capacity planning for virtual desktop infrastructure (beyond  adapting server virtualization capacity planning tools to vdi scenarios).

The remainder of this post contains details about Lanamark’s benefits both for server capacity planning first and then desktops. Read the rest of this entry »

I posted a Capacity Planner FAQ document last week. The purpose of that post was to offer technical, sales, and security answers to commonly asked questions about the Capacity Planner product. I quickly received a comment asking “what about the free licenses?” I thought what a great topic for another Capacity Planner post, but it really wasn’t relevant to content about the tool itself. Following up on that thought, this post dives into the use of the product by an authorized VMware Partner to deliver either a pre sales estimate or a professional services project. At the end of this post is a high level description of a few common Capacity Planner services projects and the deliverables associated with each service.

First things first. Yes, now VMware is providing free licenses for Capacity Planner to qualified Partners. Virtualization.info reported this announcement back in June, and as Alessandro points out.

“Partners will not be required to buy any license anymore (even if they will still have to attend a classroom course that doesn’t come cheap). They will just have to login on the online portal, create a new profile and start monitoring the customer’s infrastructure. The data will stay online for six months and then will be archived.”

Depending on the relationship between VMware, the partner, and the customer, free licenses were not uncommon before either. Either way, I want to emphasize there is an initial investment by the Partner both financially and intellectually. To get the free licenses Partners must join the Partner program, certify VCPs, and attend the Capacity Planner classes and the Virtualization Assessment boot camp.

What does this mean to VMware’s customers new and old? Read the rest of this entry »

So, I spent most of my day today preparing for a VMware Capacity Planner Virtualization Assessment that I will be starting next week. In typical fashion, the client had many questions and concerns about preparing for the installation of the data collector in their environment. To answer those questions I assembled a very informative and lengthy list of common questions and answers from the official VMware FAQs and I am posting the results of that effort here at VM /ETC.

The FAQs I used to create this post seem to be only available to VAC partners who’s accredited VCPs have completed the necessary Capacity Planner services training. Upon completing the training a VCP is assigned a log in to the VMware Data Warehouse Portal where Capacity Planner data collector’s uploads are processed into consolidation scenarios. Here, from this portal, is where these FAQ documents can be downloaded. I happen to be an accredited VCP, so I have access to the FAQs. All of the FAQs clearly state they are customer documents so I am now providing this information here. I’m not sure why these documents aren’t publicly available because I am sure they would help generate more interest in Virtualization Assessment service projects.

The remainder of this post combines VMware’s information from 3 different documents – the Capacity Planner Technical, Security, and Sales FAQs. The individual documents are provided on the VM /ETC Files page and are linked at the bottom of this post. I have trimmed down or omitted most of the FAQs in this post (and it’s still a lot of info to read), but check out the full .pdfs for more details and other FAQs I left out.

I recommend you at least skim through some of these very popular Q & A’s:

• How is Capacity Planner sold?
• Why should we add Capacity Planner when we already have so many other tools installed?
• What ports need to be open?
• What operating systems does it discover?
• What impact does collection have on my network?
• What impact does collection have on my servers?
• How are the utilization figures determined?
• What are the security features within the software?

Go get a fresh cup of coffee or your favorite beverage and then enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »