The capacity page in VMware Aria Operations offers a comprehensive view of resource utilization, allocation, trends, and forecasts, allowing administrators to make informed decisions about resource provisioning, performance optimization, and future growth.
To open the Capacity page, click Capacity under Optimize in the left menu. Or, from the Launchpad, click Capacity under Pillars of Operations. Click View in the Capacity card.
How Optimize Capacity Works
The Capacity Optimization and Reclaim features are tightly integrated functions that allows you to assess workload status in data centers across your environment. You can determine time remaining until CPU, memory, or disk space resources run out and realize cost savings when underutilized VMs can be reclaimed and deployed where needed.
When you open the Capacity page, graphical representations of all the data centers and custom data centers in your environment appear. VMware Cloud on AWS data centers has a unique icon to differentiate it from the other data centers.
- Time Remaining
- Time Remaining specifies which clusters are most constrained and displays the criticality of the cluster.
- Optimization Recommendations
- VMware Aria Operations shows you the number of reclaimable VMs and the associated cost savings. Click View Reclaimable VMs to navigate to the Reclaim page.
- Cluster Utilization
-
Cluster Utilization displays an interactive graph that shows time remaining by component. You can explore the demand percentage over time by CPU, memory, and disk space or by the most constrained component. By default, the data displayed is for the Demand model. If you have configured the Allocation model, then you can also see the CPU, memory, and disk space time remaining model based on the overcommit ratios that you have set in the policy.
Click the Edit icon to modify the criticality threshold, risk level, and allocation model. These changes affect the selected cluster's policy. Hence, any change that you make here, affects all the clusters under the same policy.
Set the Show History and Show Forecast variables to create the slice of time in which you want to see time-remaining data. The vertical axis of the graph shows the total capacity being used by the current amount of CPU, memory, or disk space respectively. The bold, black line across the top of the graph depicts the historical value of usable capacity. The horizontal axis is the timeline. Vertical lines in the graph are labeled at the bottom of each line. The first vertical dotted line on the left marks the projection calculation start point. The next line is the current date - now. The third vertical marks the date the resource runs out. If a resource has little time remaining, the current date and the date that time runs out may be the same.
VMware Aria Operations can make recommendations for increasing time remaining based on the data it receives and these recommendations appear at the bottom of the screen. You might see two options: Option 1 shows what you can achieve by reclaiming resources. Option 2 shows the results of adding capacity.
If you choose to reclaim resources, you can run that process immediately by clicking RECLAIM RESOURCES. To see the details or choose additional options before running a reclaim action, review the information provided in the Optimization Recommendations pane and then click VIEW RECLAIMABLE VMS to go to the Reclaim page.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Select a datacenter |
Select a data center from the carousel across the top of the page. Information about the datacenter is displayed below. |
| ALL DATACENTERS | X | Toggle: click ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right when you want to switch the view to a filtered list of all data centers. Click X to return to a carousel view of data centers. |
| View: | Filter results to include data centers, custom data centers, or both. This option appears if you select ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right. |
| Group BY: | Filter results by criticality (least time remaining data centers/custom data centers listed first) or by the vCenter Server to which each data center belongs. This option appears if you select ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right. |
| Sort by: | Options (Options appear if you select ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right):
|
| Select datacenter or ADD NEW CUSTOM DATACENTER | Options (options appear if you select ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right):
|
| Time Remaining | Appears when you select a data center or custom data center from the top of the screen.
Gives overview of cluster status, including how many are at:
"Critical" can indicate a resource contention, imbalance, or other stress condition. Thresholds you set in the policies define what is critical. |
| Optimization Recommendations | Lists potential cost savings by reclaiming unused resources. Indicates if workloads can be optimized across clusters. VIEW RECLAIMABLE VMS - displays the Reclaim screen, where you can research and run potential VM reclamation actions. VIEW OPTIMIZATION - displays the Workload Optimization screen, where you can optimize workloads based on your policy settings. |
| Cluster Utilization and Time Remaining | Overall view of cluster health in the selected data center. You can select a cluster from the list to display information about that cluster, or use the options to sort and filter results. The options you select dictate the data displayed in the graph. Sort by:
Note: Demand model is always on and is the default.
Filter: search field. Show History for: The period before forecasting begins (does not impact the forecast calculation). Show Forecast For: The forecast period. How is the criticality determined? Displays the criticality threshold you set for this type of object in the Policies Library. Cluster Time Remaining Settings: Click the Edit icon to edit the default policy for the selected cluster. Change the criticality threshold, risk level, allocation model and capacity buffer. Applying these changes affects all objects in the policy. For more information, see Configuring Policies in the VMware Aria Operations Configuration Guide |
| Time Remaining graph | Data shows current and trending resource usage and pinpoints when a given cluster is projected to run out of CPU, memory, or disk space based on the allocation or demand model (default). VMware Aria Operations takes into account the business hours which you set in the current policy. |
| Legend | Displays a legend of the colours in the time remaining graph. Click on any one of the legends to toggle its display in the chart. |
| Recommendations | Option 1: Reclaim Resources. Shows resources that can be reclaimed to increase time remaining for the selected cluster. RECLAIM RESOURCES - displays the Reclaim screen, where you can research and run potential VM reclamation actions. Option 2: Add Capacity.Shows resources that can be added to increase time remaining. |
