A custom data center is a user-defined container for a group of objects that includes clusters, hosts, and virtual machines. Custom data centers provide capacity analytics and capacity badge computations based on the objects it contains. You can use custom data centers to forecast and analyze the capacity needs for your environment.
When you create a custom data center, you can include multiple cluster objects that span multiple vCenter Server instances. For example, you might have a production environment that spans multiple clusters, and you must monitor and manage the performance and capacity of the entire production environment.
After you create your custom datacenter, you can select it in the list of custom data centers to display a summary of its health, risk, and efficiency. To access the list of custom data centers, click .
This view displays the top alerts for the data center. To examine the capacity remaining for the custom data center, click the Capacity tab.
How Custom Datacenters Work
In vSphere, a data center serves as a container for objects that a vCenter Server instance manages. A custom data center is a container that can include objects from multiple vCenter Server instances.
Custom data centers can contain vCenter Server instances, data centers, clusters, hosts, virtual machines, and datastores. You can add vSphere object types to a custom data center.
When you add an object, the hierarchical children of that object become part of the custom data center. An object can belong to multiple custom data centers.
When you create custom data centers, the system runs capacity analytics on the objects in the custom data center, even if those objects span multiple vCenter Server instances. For example, you might need to examine the capacity analytics data across multiple clusters, and the multiple vCenter Server instances that manage those clusters. You do not have to analyze the capacity of one cluster or one vCenter Server instance at a time. You can create a custom data center, add all the clusters to it, and see the capacity analysis in a single location.
Custom Datacenters List
You can view the list of custom data centers that exist in your environment, and a summary view of its health, risk, and efficiency. In this view, you can click a custom data center to display the top alerts that the objects in the custom data center triggered.
Where You Find Custom Datacenters
In the left menu, select .
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Toolbar options | In the toolbar click Add to add a new custom data center. Click the Vertical Ellipses against a custom data center name to perform the following actions:
|
| Filter | Limit the list of custom data centers to those data centers that match the text that you enter in the Filter text box. |
| Data grid | Lists the custom data centers in your environment. Click on the name of a custom data center to view the details. To view a summary of the custom data center health, risk, and efficiency, click the Vertical Ellipses and then Go to Details. To edit, delete, or clone a custom data center, Vertical Ellipses and then the corresponding option. |
Custom Datacenters Add and Edit Workspace
A custom data center is an object type that provides capacity analytics and capacity badge computations based on the objects it contains. You create a custom data center object and add inventory objects to it.
Where You Create or Edit a Custom Datacenter
To create a custom data center, in the menu click , and click the ADD button.
To edit a selected custom data center, click the Vertical Ellipses to edit, remove or clone.
| Step | Option | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - Custom Data Center | Name | Descriptive name of the custom data center. |
| Description | Meaningful description for the custom data center. Provide specific information that other users must know about this custom data center. Click the NEXT button when you are done. |
|
| 2 - Objects | Objects | This screen in this step is divided into two sections. On the right section, you can select an object from the tree view of your inventory. Drag an object to the left pane to add it to the custom data center. You can search for objects on the right hand side of the screen after selecting an object type. Once you have found the object, drag the object from the right section of the screen to the left section of the screen under vSphere Hosts and Clusters. You can add vCenter Server instances, vSphere data centers, vSphere clusters, and ESXi hosts. When you add an object, the hierarchical children of that object become part of the custom data center. An object can belong to multiple custom data centers. To remove an object when editing, click the object in the vSphere Hosts and Clusters panel and click REMOVE. Click the CREATE when you are done. |
