Use the Reclaim feature in VMware Aria Operations to identify underutilized workloads and reclaim resources from across your environment.

Where You Find Reclaim

Select Reclaim under Capacity in the left pane.

Note: Double-click on a data center graphic to display the object details screen for the data center.

How Reclaim Works

The Capacity Optimization and Reclaim features are tightly integrated functions that allows you to assess workload status and resource contention in data centers across your environment. You can determine time remaining until CPU, memory, or storage resources run out, and realize cost savings when underutilized VMs can be reclaimed and deployed where needed.

When you open the Reclaim page, graphical representations of all the data centers and custom data centers in your environment appear. By default, they are shown in order of time remaining, beginning from the upper left, where the most constrained data centers appear. To review the status of a data center, click the graphic. The area following refreshes to display details about the selected data center. The How much you can potentially save pane reflects potential capacity savings and indicates a possible cost savings once you have reclaimed underused or powered off VMs. The Total Reclaimable Capacity pane gives details of the reclaimable percentages for CPU, memory, and disk space.

The table at the bottom of the page provides important information about the VMs that offer the most cost savings. The VMs are listed by Powered Off VMs, Idle VMs, Snapshots, and Orphaned Disks. The highest priority heading is at the far left. You can specify what information is included in your reclaim action. For example, when you click a column heading, the table lists, by data center and then by VM, the allocated and reclaimable CPUs and memory, respectively. Then, for example, you can select the box next to one or more VM names and click the EXCLUDE VM(S) button to keep those VMs from being included in any reclaim action. You can also select VMs to resize.

Reclamation Settings

Select the gear icon next to the page heading to customize Reclamation Settings. This affects all data centers. Using the Reclamation Settings, you can exclude, for example all snapshots from being included in the reclaim action - by deselecting the Snapshots check box. Similarly, you can include or exclude powered-off VMs, idle VMs, and orphaned disks. For more information, see Reclamation Settings.
Note: To provide read-only access to the Reclamation Settings page for a user, configure the user role in the Access Control page (Roles tab) under Administration > Control Panel > Access Control. After you click Add or after you edit an existing role, select the Manage Global Settings permissions under Administration > Global Settings in the Assign Permissions section to grant access to modify the Reclamation Settings page. Unselect the Manage Global Settings permissions to grant read-only access.

Run a Reclaim Action

Run a reclaim action as follows:
  1. In the table headings, Select the types of VMs to reclaim.
  2. Click the name of a listed cluster to show its VM list.
  3. Select each VM or snapshot you want to reclaim.
  4. Click Delete VM(s) to reclaim their resources.
Table 1. Reclaim Options
Option Description

Select a data center.

Select a data center from the carousel across the top of the page. All data refreshes with information for the selected object.

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. Option appears when 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. Option appears when you select ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right.
Sort by:

Options (Options appear when you select ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right):

  • Alarm clock graphic - list data centers/custom data centers by time remaining.
  • Dollar sign - list data centers/custom data centers by potential cost savings.
  • Scales graphic - list data centers/custom data centers by level of optimization.
Select data center or ADD NEW CUSTOM DATACENTER.

Options (Options appear when you select ALL DATACENTERS on the upper right):

  • Select a data center from the carousel across the top of the page. All data refreshes with information for the selected object.
  • Select ADD NEW CUSTOM DATACENTER to display a dialog box that allows you to define a custom data center.
How much you can potentially save.

Appears when you select a data center or custom data center from the top of the screen. Shows the total calculated potential cost savings when you accept system reclamation recommendations.

Total Reclaimable Capacity

Lists potential cost savings for the selected data center when you reclaim unused resources.

Resource: CPU, memory, or disk space

Reclaimable Capacity: how much capacity is available to reclaim from idle resources

% Reclaimable: percentage of total CPU, memory, or storage you can reclaim.

Duration older than: Shows idle or powered off VMs that have been idle or powered off for at least the selected time period: one week, two weeks, or a month.
Table of Potential Cost Savings

Tabular representation of the VMs, Idle VMs, Snapshots, and Orphaned disks in the selected data center from which resources can be reclaimed.

Click one of the elements - powered off VMs, idle VMs, and so on - to refresh the table with data for that element. The table lists the relevant clusters. To see the VMs hosted in a given cluster, click the chevron to the left of the cluster name.

Click the check box next to the VMs you want to act on, or click the check box next to the column heading VM Name to act on all the VMs.

Once you select a VM or VMs, the dimmed options above the table become visible, as follows.

Exclude VM(s): The selected VMs are excluded from your subsequent action. Excluding VMs from a reclamation action can reduce the potential cost savings.

For powered Off VMs:
  • SCHEDULE ACTION: Displays a dialog box enabling you to schedule one or more reclaim action for powered off VMs. Expand the cluster name displayed in the table and select one or more VMs. Then, from the SCHEDULE ACTION drop down menu, select an action to be performed later. In the dialog box, you configure the schedule for the job. Scheduled jobs can be managed in Automation Central.
  • DELETE VM(s): Deletes the selected VMs.
  • EXCLUDE VM(s): Excludes the selected VMs.
  • EXPORT ALL: Exports the list of powered off VMs into a CSV file.
For idle VMs:
  • SCHEDULE ACTION: Displays a dialog box enabling you to schedule one or more reclaim action for idle VMs. Expand the cluster name displayed in the table and select one or more VMs. Then, from the SCHEDULE ACTION drop down menu, select an action to be performed later. In the dialog box, you configure the schedule for the job. Scheduled jobs can be managed in Automation Central.
  • DELETE VM(s): Deletes the selected VMs.
  • POWER OFF: Powers off the selected VMs.
  • EXCLUDE VM(s): Excludes the selected VMs.
  • EXPORT ALL: Exports the list of idle VMs into a CSV file.
For Snapshots:
  • SCHEDULE ACTION: Displays a dialog box enabling you to schedule one or more reclaim action for snapshots. Expand the cluster name displayed in the table and select one or more VMs. Then, from the SCHEDULE ACTION drop down menu, select an action to be performed later. In the dialog box, you configure the schedule for the job. Scheduled jobs can be managed in Automation Central.
  • DELETE SNAPSHOT(s): Deletes the selected snapshots.
  • EXCLUDE VM(s): Excludes the selected snapshot.
  • EXPORT ALL: Exports the list of snapshots into a CSV file.

SHOW|HIDE EXCLUDED VMS: Toggle displays or hides the list of VMs you previously excluded.

Note: By default, calculations for reclaimable resources are based on the demand model. But if you turn on the allocation model in the policy settings, the calculations are based on the allocation model.
For Orphaned Disks:
  • EXCLUDE DISK(S): Exclude the selected disks in the actionable list.
  • EXPORT ALL: Exports the list of orphaned disks into a CSV file. You cannot reclaim orphaned disks from the UI. Instead, export the list into a CSV file and then reclaim the orphaned disks manually.
    Note:

    VMware Aria Operations reports orphaned VMDKs conservatively. There might be a false positive situation when the used VMDK is reported as orphaned, particularly if the VMDK is located on a datastore which is shared among multiple VCs, while not all the VCs are monitored by VMware Aria Operations .

    Check the accuracy of the VMDK reported as an orphaned disk, and then perform a reclamation.

SHOW|HIDE EXCLUDED DISKS: Toggle displays or hides the list of disks you previously excluded. Excluded disks are not listed in the exported CSV file.