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Foglight Capacity Director 7.1.0 - User Guide

Using Foglight Capacity Director Getting Started Tab Current Capacity Tab Resource Utilization Tab Scenario Modeler Tab Server Purchase Tab Report Tab Performance Tuning Tab Changes and DRS Rules Tab Infrastructure Organizations Tab

Scenario Modeler Tab

The Scenario Modeler view is intended to rebalance the workload among virtual centers or datacenters, to achieve optimal resource utilization. The balance metrics include CPU utilization, Memory utilization, and Storage Capacity utilization. A metric is defined as ‘balanced’ if the resource utilization is averagely distributed across all clusters and standalone nodes; otherwise this metric can be regarded as ‘non-balanced’. Foglight Capacity Director provides two methods to help you optimize the use of clusters resources, by using the Scenario Modeler view:

•
Optimal Placement: algorithm that calculates and recommends the optimal distribution of virtual machines across clusters.
•
Manual Placement: .
* 
NOTE: Results populated in the Scenario Modeler view are impacted if the HA policy is enabled in a virtual center.
To access the Scenario Modeler view:
1
On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, click Capacity Director.
The Capacity Director dashboard opens.
2
Use the Group selector located at the top of the dashboard to select the virtual environment that you want to monitor.
3
On the Menu bar, click the Scenario Modeler tab.
The Scenario Modeler view appears at the bottom of the Capacity Director dashboard.

The left side of the Scenario Modeler view includes the Planned Changes pane and the right side is the Scenario Modeler pane that walks you through the placement procedure.

Optimal Placement

To perform an optimal placement:
1
In the Scenario Modeler pane, select a resource that you want to balance under Step 1: Select a resource for balance.
2
Select Optimal Placement under Step 2: Select a placement approach.
3
Select an organization from the available organizations.
Or
Click >> Link to Infrastructure Organizations to add a new organization as needed. For more information, see Infrastructure Organizations Tab.
The available clusters list is refreshed automatically.
4
Select the cluster(s) that you want to rebalance at the bottom of the page, and click Next.
* 
NOTE: A minimum of two clusters must be selected so that the rebalancing and the VM replacement take effects. The Next button is disabled when only one cluster is available, which means the current organization cannot be rebalanced.
5
Foglight for VMware calculates in the background and displays the following optimal placement recommendations:
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Balance Scores: The original Balance Score before the optimal placement. For more information, see Balance Score.
•
Rebalance Scores: The updated Balance Score if the optimal placement is deployed.
•
Source Clusters: The clusters from which virtual machines are moved.
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Number of moved VMs: The number of the virtual machines to be moved to the Target Clusters.
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Moved VMs: The list of virtual machines to be moved to the Target Clusters.
•
Target Clusters: The clusters to which virtual machines are moved.
•
Yielding Metrics: The resource utilization before/after the optimal placement, and the increase percent of resources.
•
Conflicts: The list of conflicts to occur if the optimal placement is deployed. The types of conflicts include affinity rules violation, organization conflicts, and unavailable network accesses.
6
Click Start Over if you want to redo the resource rebalance.
Click Model Change to model the optimal placement. For more information, see Modeling Placement.
Click Deploy Change to execute the optimal placement as Foglight Capacity Director recommended. For more information, see Deploying Placement.
* 
NOTE: The Edit Assignment button is disabled for the Optimal Placement method.
Balance Score

Balance Score is scaled from 0 (non-balanced) to 100 (balanced). The same resource utilizations across all containers achieve a perfect Balance Score, for example, Balance Score is 100 if the CPU/Memory/Storage Capacity utilizations are 30% for all clusters. The Balance Score is approximately 0 if the resource utilization is 100% for cluster 1 and cluster 2, while resource utilization for cluster 3 is 0%.

Balance Score is divided into the following four ranges:

Table 5. Threshhold of Balance Score
Balance Score state
Default range
Default threshhold

Fatal (in red)

0 ~ 25

Default value is 25. To change this value, search for and edit CapacityHealthScoreFatal from Dashboards > Administration > Rules & Notifications > Manage Registry Variables.

Critical (in orange)

26 ~ 50

Default value is 50. To change this value, search for and edit CapacityHealthScoreCritical from Dashboards > Administration > Rules & Notifications > Manage Registry Variables.

Warning (in yellow)

51 ~ 75

Default value is 75. To change this value, search for and edit CapacityHealthScoreWarning from Dashboards > Administration > Rules & Notifications > Manage Registry Variables.

Normal (in green)

76 ~ 100

N/A

Modeling Placement

After Foglight Capacity Director calculates the result of optimal placement or manual placement, you can only model the virtual machines movement without deploying the movement in the realtime environment.

To model an optimal placement:
1
After Step 5 in To perform an optimal placement: or Step 7 in To perform a manual placement:, the placement recommendations appear in the Scenario Modeler pane.
2
Click Model Change.
The Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box appears.
3
(Optional) In the Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box, click Details to view details of Virtual Machine Movements. Click Close and return to the Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box.
4
In the Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box, select the Deployment Date, and click Schedule Scenario Deployment.
The Planned Changes pane is automatically updated to include the new modeled deployment.

Deploying Placement

After Foglight Capacity Director calculates the result of optimal placement or manual placement, you can deploy the virtual machines movement in the realtime environment, as needed.

To deploy an optimal placement:
1
After Step 5 in To perform an optimal placement: or Step 7 in To perform a manual placement:, the placement recommendations appear in the Scenario Modeler pane.
2
Click Deploy Change.
The Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box appears.
3
(Optional) In the Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box, click the Edit icon to open the Edit Movable VM(s) dialog box, and then click Browse next to Resource Pool to make changes as needed. Click Close to save changes and return to the Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box.
4
In the Schedule Scenario Deployment dialog box, select the Deployment Date, and click Schedule & Deploy Scenario Deployment.
The placement is executed in the realtime environment, and Planned Changes pane is automatically updated to include the new modeled deployment.
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