Workload Optimization provides for moving virtual compute resources and their file systems dynamically across datastore clusters within a data center or custom data center.
Using Workload Optimization, you can rebalance virtual machines and storage across clusters, relieving demand on an overloaded individual cluster and maintaining or improving cluster performance. You can also set your automated rebalancing policies to emphasize VM consolidation, which potentially frees up hosts and reduces resource demand.
Workload Optimization further allows you to potentially automate a significant portion of your data center compute and storage optimization efforts. With properly defined policies determining the threshold at which resource contention automatically runs an action, a data center performs at optimum.
Starting with version 8.6, you can run workload optimization on a custom data center which has clusters aross multiple data centers within a single vCenter Server instance. The prequisite for this is that the hosts in the different clusters must be under the same network. This means that the port groups must be the same across the data centers. You can activate cluster level optimization across data center boundaries by enabling the setting in the business intent workspace.
vRealize Automation Integration
When you add an instance to a vRealize Automation adapter or solution pack as well as to a vCenter Server adapter instance that is connected to the vRealize Automation server, using vRealize Automation-managed resources, vRealize Operations automatically adds a custom data center for the vCenter Server, using vRealize Automation-managed resources.
On the vRealize Operations side, to get the day2 chain configured, you must make the following initial configurations:
- In vCenter Server, Administration -> Solutions and then add the VMware vSphere adapter instance for the vCenter Server that is configured as an endpoint in vRealize Automation Server.
- In vCenter Server, Administration -> Solutions and then add the VMware vRealize Automation adapter instance for the server that will appear in thevRealize Operations and vRealize Automation integration day2 chain.
vRealize Operations can manage workload placement and optimization for the custom data centers that reside in vRealize Automation-managed clusters.
However, vRealize Operations is not permitted to set tag policies for the custom data center. (At the Workload Optimization screen, the Business Intent window is not operational for vRealize Automation custom data centers.) When rebalancing a vRealize Automation custom data center, vRealize Operations uses all applicable policies and placement principles from both systems: vRealize Automation and vRealize Operations. For complete information on creating and managing vRealize Automation custom data centers that are managed by vRealize Operations, see the vRealize Automation documentation.
