Task: Determining Where to Put a New Workload

Introduction

Adding a new application or set of applications to an existing server environment requires careful planning. Deciding where to add the new workload can be challenging; can it be placed on an existing server, or is a new system required? With HP Capacity Advisor, the planning can be based on real data and realistic modeling of the results of adding a new workload to the current environment.




	NOTE: Try the HP Smart Solver Once you understand the basics of how Capacity Advisor works, you will realize that many of the steps illustrated in this example can be done faster and on a broader scale using the Smart Solver to automate the analysis of multiple possibilities. See “Using the Smart Solver” to learn about the Smart Solver.

Prerequisites To determine where to put a new workload:

You should be familiar with Capacity Advisor operations (see “Basic Procedures”).
You must be logged in to HP Systems Insight Manager. (See “Accessing Capacity Advisor”.)
You must have already collected data on the systems of interest (see “Gathering Data for Capacity Advisor”).

Procedure 4-4 To Determine Where to Put a New Workload

For specific descriptions of each field on the user interface screens, click the help topic link on the software screen for each task.

Obtain Data from a Test Machine
The most accurate models are based on real data, collected over a long enough period of time to capture the variations in load due to periodic peaks in usage (such as events happening “late Thursday night” or “the first and 15th of the month”). Collect data for at least a week, and preferably for long enough to capture any periodic variations. If you cannot collect data from a test machine and have data from a similar application running on an existing system, you can create a new workload based on the existing data and scale it to provide a “best guess” model of the new application's resource utilization.
Create a Scenario
Follow the procedure in “Creating a Planning Scenario” to create a scenario with the test system running the new application and all the candidate host systems.
Edit the Test Machine Workload
Follow the procedure in “Editing a Workload” to make any modifications to the data collected on the workload necessary to reflect estimated future production loads. This might include increasing the processor load and/or memory usage.
Move the Workload
Follow the procedure in “Moving a Workload” to move the workload from the test machine it has been running on to one of the potential host machines. The bar graphs on the Edit Scenario - Move Workload screen provide a rough estimate of the effect of moving the workload to each of the candidate hosts.
Estimate the New Quality of Service
1. Follow the procedure in “Using the Profile Viewer” to obtain a quick overview of the resource utilization of the system with the added workload.
2. Follow the procedure in “Utilization Reports Overview” to generate a detailed report on the new configuration.
In addition to the quantitative measures of the “goodness” of a system, it is important to use your knowledge of such things as how the system will be used, system ownership, and future constraints. This is an area where your knowledge of the context the application will be run in can be as important as the estimated resource utilization.
If Necessary, Repeat Moving the Workload and Estimating the Quality of Service
It the new quality of service is not adequate, try moving the workload to another system and estimating the quality of service. If none of the potential hosts provides an adequate quality of service, consider adding or moving processors to support the new application (see “Task: Estimating the Effect of Adding or Moving Processors”).

Task: Determining Where to Put a New Workload

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Introduction