VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘capacity planning’

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 »