As a virtual infrastructure administrator or other IT professional, you use Workload Optimization functions to identify points of resource contention or imbalance. In this example, you manually run an optimization action to consolidate demand.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have all required permissions to access the Workload Optimization UI and manage vCenter Server objects.

Procedure

  1. Click Workload Placement under Capacity in the left menu
    The Workload Optimization page appears. Data centers are grouped by Criticality, with the three troubled data centers appearing in a carousel across the top of the page: DC-Bangalore-18, DC-Bangalore-19, DC-Bangalore-20. A Not Optimized badge appears in the lower right corner of each graphic.
  2. If no data center is preselected, select DC-Bangalore-18 from the carousel.
    Comprehensive data about the state of the data center follows.
  3. Based on the available data, you determine an optimization action is required.
    CPU workloads can be consolidated such that a host in Cluster 3 can be freed up.
    Table 1. Panes and Widgets
    Pane Contents
    Workload Optimization Status shows as Not Optimized. A system message says, "You can consolidate workloads to maximize usage and potentially free up 1 host."

    The message reflects that you have set policies to emphasize consolidation as a goal in optimization moves. The system is saying you can free up a host through consolidation.

    Settings

    The current policy is Consolidate. The system advises: Avoid Performance Issues, Consolidate Workloads.

    Cluster Workloads Cluster 1 CPU Workload is 16%. Cluster 2 CPU Workload is 29%. Cluster 3 CPU Workload is 14%. Cluster 4 CPU Workload is 22%.
  4. Click OPTIMIZE NOW in the Workload Optimization pane.
    The system creates an optimization plan, which depicts BEFORE and (projected) AFTER workload statistics for the optimization action.
  5. If you are satisfied with the projected results of the optimization action, click NEXT.
    The dialog box updates to show the planned moves.
  6. If you need more information about the VMs which are included or excluded in the plan, click Download Report to see the optimization plan. You can review the reasons for incompatibilities and why some VMs were excluded from the plan.
  7. Optional: If you want to know the total optimization potential of the move, assuming that there were no incompatibilities and all your VMs can be included in the optimization plan, click Cancel, and go to the Optimization Potential tab in the Workload Optimization page. Click Calculate Optimization Potential to see the total optimization potential of your data center.
  8. Review the optimization moves, then click BEGIN ACTION.
    The system runs the compute and storage resource moves.

Results

The optimization action moved compute and storage resources from some clusters to other clusters in the data center, and so freed up a host on one cluster.

Note: The Workload Optimization page refreshes every five minutes. Depending on when you run an optimization action, the system might not reflect the result for up to five minutes, or longer when longer-running actions extend the processing time.

What to do next

To confirm that your optimization action was completed, go to the Recent Tasks page by clicking Administration in the left pane. In the Recent Tasks page, use the Status function on the menu bar to locate your action by its status. You can also search using a range of filters. For example, first filter on Starting Time and scroll to the time when you began the action, then select the Object Name filter. Finally, enter the name of one of the VMs in the rebalance plan.

Note: Sometimes an optimizing action may be suggested, for example to consolidate two hosts, but when you run the optimization, the generated placement plan does not show any potential consolidation. The seeming inconsistency results from the fact that suggested optimization actions are based on current conditions, whereas the placement plan logic includes forecasting. If forecasting predicts that consolidation might incur stress in the future, then consolidation is not suggested.