Follow our step-by-step guide on how to model the cost of moving your vSphere infrastructure to VMware Cloud on AWS. We’ll show you how to access your virtual infrastructure data and create a sizing and TCO estimate to make informed Cloud Economics decisions.
How to get a VMware Cloud on AWS Sizing and TCO Model
VMware provides great tools online for you to find out what it would cost to move your vSphere infrastructure to VMware Cloud on AWVMware provides great Cloud Economics tools online for you to find out what it would cost to move your vSphere infrastructure to VMware Cloud on AWS. This article will describe how to get a VMware Cloud on AWS sizing and TCO model.
First, Get the Data
In order to get a total cost of ownership model, we need to get a cost. In order to get the cost, we need to know how many hosts you’ll need in the cloud.
To do that, we need information like:
- How many VMs do you have?
- How much vRAM is used per VM? (we just need an average)
- How much storage is used per VM? (again, an average)
- What’s the average percentage of CPU utilized?
- What’s the average percentage of memory utilized?
And a few other numbers, if you want to be precise. Otherwise, you can use the defaults, provided by the tool, which you can find at http://vmcsizer.vmware.com.
Getting the information on your virtual infrastructure is easy, and you can collect the data using several different tools, including:
Since RVTools is the easiest, I’ll use this example. But all are quite good, and the best usage information comes from vRealize Operations. To use RVtools, all you need to do is download it, install it, and point it at the vCenter server with the VMs you’d like to use for the analysis. It will create a spreadsheet that you can use to calculate the items you need in the VMC Sizer.
Second, Figure Out How Many You Need
The next step is to go to the VMC Sizer. Input the data into the tool, and click the “Recommendation” button. I recommend using the following settings on your first time through (leaving all the defaults):
- Set Workload to “General Purpose”
- Set Workload Type to “General VMs”
This works for most people. Below that, you’ll see a section for your data:
Input the data you have acquired from the first step leaving the defaults in place, and click “Recommendation”.
Note that “Dedup” which is your level of deduplication provided by vSAN, can have a big impact, as can the utilization parameters, so try several different values.
You will then see a full report, which looks something like this:
The most important number here under the heading “VMC Server Pack”. This is the number of nodes you’ll need to purchase in order to hold the VM infrastructure. If you are interested in our list prices for these, check out the VMware Cloud on AWS Pricing Page.
Finally, Get a TCO Model
Once you know the numbers of nodes you need, we can help with a TCO model. For now, you can request one by clicking “Request TCO” at the bottom of the Sizer output page. Fill out the form that pops up with your hardware info, and someone will contact you. (Fair Warning: it might be someone from sales.) We’ll have an automated TCO tool soon, and I’ll update this post with the new information.
