Brian Williams, Blue Medora
Today we are going to take a close look at the Capacity Analysis Badge available in VMware vRealize Operations Manager (vROps). To access the analysis page, select your chosen database; for this blog we will be looking at a Microsoft SQL Server Instance object that I added with the vROps Management Pack for Microsoft SQL Server by Blue Medora.
- Select Environment Overview from the vROps user interface.
- Next, select the MS SQL Server Environment Inventory Tree from the Environment Overview screen. This view will show my SQL Server Instance object, as well as the associated virtual machine, datastore, and individual SQL Server databases.
- Select the SQL Server Instance and the Object Detail page will appear on the right.
- Select the Analysis tab and then select Capacity Remaining as seen in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1 – The Capacity Remaining analysis badge for my SQL Server Instance
A green hexagon-shaped badge in the top left of the Capacity Remaining view gives you a quick look at the remaining container space available. You can see 58% of my example SQL database. Below the badge, the “What is Capacity Remaining” link provides more details on capacity and how it is broken down, as well as info on reserved capacity. Click on the video icon in the top right of the screen for more information on the badge.
The top-right of the view shows the 30-day capacity trend details. From here you can quickly see if your database is growing or shrinking.
A quick primer on capacity calculations, usable capacity is total capacity minus HA and buffers. Capacity remaining is calculated using peak demand as well as average demand. Capacity remaining will simply be the difference between the total capacity minus buffers and HA, and the demand amount. In other words:
Capacity Remaining = Total Capacity – (Buffers + HA + Demand Amount)
Looking at the capacity breakdown, you can see the amount of capacity used, which by default is calculated over the last 30 days. (You can view these setting on the right.) You can also see the policy definitions for usable capacity, the buffers to be allocated, and how it’s calculated in the top-right.
In the breakdown, the green section (shown above) is how much capacity is used, grey is the amount remaining of the usable capacity, and black is the HA plus buffers percentable. The bar will change colors when its is at 10% remaining. The settings for that can be seen in the capacity remaining threshold bar, under policy settings on the right.
Below the Capacity Remaining bar we can see the individual Capacity Containers. These containers are broken down as total capacity, buffers, usable capacity, peak value, recommended size and capacity remaining. Below I have expanded out the the container for Memory Usage.
Figure 2 – Memory Usage for my SQL Server Instance
This chart helps us understand how we calculate capacity. The dark blue is the Average Demand. By default we calculate a demand to be used against our usable capacity that considers our stress. The gold dot on the right is the 30 days analysis of the Recommended Size.
On the bottom right side of the screen we can see the Capacity and Time Remaining Policy Settings. Capacity Remaining and Time Remaining are heavily influenced by policy and it is good to be aware how usable capacity is calculated based on the policy settings.
The more you understand the power of analysis badges in vRealize Operations, the more you will be able to reclaim over provisioned resources and save your company from the cost of unexpected downtime. For more information on the vROps Management Pack for SQL Server, visit the Blue Medora website.
