Specifications

VMware, Inc. 135
Chapter 8 Consolidating the Datacenter
 Confidence–IndicatesthedegreetowhichVirtualCenterisabletogather
performancedataaboutthesystemandhowgoodacandidatethesystemisbased
ontheavailabledata.
 CPUUsage–Displaysthesystem’saverageCPUusage.
 MemoryUsage–Displaysthesystem’saveragememory.
Afterreviewinganalysisresults,youcanproceedbycreatingaconsolidationplan.See
“ConsolidatingCandidates”onpage 135.
About the Confidence Metric
OneimportantmetricdisplayedintheAnalysistabistheConfidencemetric.During
theanalysisphase,performancedataabouteachselectedsystemiscollected.Thisdata
iscomparedtohostresourcestodeterminearecommendationforeachcandidate.The
recommendationindicateshowwellsuited,basedonthecollecteddata,acandidate
is
toaparticularvirtualmachinehostsystem.Confidencereferstothereliabilityofthe
recommendationanditisafunctionofthedurationoftheanalysis.Recommendations
basedonlongerperiodsofanalysis–andthereforemoreperformancedata–receivea
higherlevelofconfidence.
Consolidating Candidates
Afteryouhaveanalyzedyourdatacenter,youarereadytoconvertcandidatestovirtual
machines.Inthisphase,youselectthesystemsyouwanttoconvert.VirtualCenter
selectsappropriatedestinationsandconfigurationparametersforeachresultantvirtual
machine.Ifmorethanonevirtualmachinehostisavailable,youcanselectthe
hostyou
want.
N
OTEAfter24hoursofanalysis,VirtualCenterindicatesahighlevelofconfidencein
itsrecommendations.However,thiscanbemisleadingifasystem’sworkloadvaries
significantlyoverweeksormonths.Toensureahighlevelofconfidenceina
recommendation,allowthedurationoftheanalysisphasetoencompassan
amountof
timethatincludesrepresentativepeaksandtroughsinthesystems’workload.Analysis
canrunuptoonemonth.
NOTEItishighlyrecommendedthatyouvirtualizeonecandidateatatime.
Consolidatingmultiplecandidatessimultaneouslycouldcauseallvirtualization
operationstofailifthehostdoesnotcontainanadequateamountofstoragespace.