Operations

When building your scenarios, you can work step by step by applying individual changes to the initial state of your Baseline View.

Operations are simulated future actions that you make to your IT infrastructure. When you apply operations to the scenario in , Forward Thinking you create a new model of how that scenario will look if you implemented it at that point.

When building your scenarios, you can work step by step by applying individual changes to the initial state of your Forward Thinking

Types of operations you can make include the following:

• Adding or removing hosts or workloads
• Transferring physical machines
• Migrating workloads
• Right-sizing workloads
• Upgrading hosts
• Adding data stores
• Adding or setting demand to application tiers
• Load balancing

Each operation you perform on the sunburst is added to the operations list and to the timeline with a coloured indicator. For more information about the timeline, see Timeline.

Note: The Operations panel is only visible in .

This guide lists all the most common operations you may want to perform while scenario modelling.

View the list of all existing operations

To view the operations list, follow the steps:

1. From the configuration panel list on the left, click Operations.
   The Operations & Overcommitment panel opens.
2. Click Operations to see the list of all operations, their statuses and other details.

To view the operations list for a specific day, click on the timeline for the day you are interested in. For more information, see Timeline.

Add hosts

You can add new hosts to existing data centres or clusters using an available Host Template. This is done by dragging the template into the desired area of the sunburst. For more information about creating templates, see Templates.

There are a number of options available when adding hosts:

• A number of the new hosts.
• The placement and name of the hosts.
• Type of storage to each host.

To add a host to the baseline, follow these steps:

1. On the configuration panel list on the right, click Templates.

2. Click the Host tab to show available host templates.

3. Select a template and drag it to a data centre or cluster on the sunburst. The Add Host dialog box opens.

4. In the Add Host dialog, you can specify more details about the new host:

   a. In the Location for new Host section, enter the number of hosts to be added, and a common host name prefix to be used for naming the hosts.
   When the hosts are added, the new hosts are named according to these fields with a numerical suffix, for example: new_Host1, new_Host2, and new_Host3.

   b. Select an existing Cluster to which the new hosts should be added, or create a new cluster.
   These controls are available only if the template is dragged to a data centre on the sunburst.

   c. In the Storage section, enter a value for the Local storage per Host if local storage is required for the new hosts.

   d. Select a Data centre and Cluster from which to retrieve a list of datastores and click Get datastores.
   The list of connected datastores for the chosen data centre and cluster is shown. By default, all of the datastores are selected but you can update this list according to your requirements.
   When the Hosts are added, the new hosts are created with the local and shared storage configured in the Storage section.

   e. Click Add to add the new Hosts.

The new hosts are added to the sunburst, and an operation is added to the timeline.

Add workloads

You can add new workloads to existing hosts using an available Workload Template. This is done by dragging the template into the desired area of the sunburst. For more information about creating templates, see Templates.

There are a number of options available when adding workloads:

• A number of new workloads.
• Repetition of adding of new workloads.

To add a workload to the baseline, follow these steps:

1. On the configuration panel list on the right, click Templates.

2. Click the Workloads tab to show the currently available workload templates.

3. Select a template and drag it to the desired segment on the sunburst. The Add workload dialog box pens.

4. In the Add workload dialog, you can specify more details about the new workload:

   a. Enter the number of workloads to be added.

   b. In the Repeat operation section, indicate if you want to repeat the addition of workloads over time.
   If the operation is to be repeated, provide information on how often it should be executed.

   c. Click Add to add the new workloads.

The new workloads are added to the sunburst, and an operation is added to the timeline. If the workloads were dragged into a non-host segment, then the workloads are added to the first host found under that segment.

Migrate workloads

Workload migration means moving the workloads from one host to another.

There are a few ways to migrate workloads:

• Moving individual VMs to new hosts. This is done by dragging the VM over its new host.
• Moving multiple VMs by grouping them. This is done by dragging the whole grouping segment over its new host.

Moving groupings around your baseline lets you migrate large numbers of VMs in one go. For example, you can migrate only the VMs that run certain applications or that run with a particular OS.

During migration, you are asked if you want to right-size the migrated workloads. For more information, see Right-sizing.

Once the workloads are migrated, the Baseline View is updated and an operation is added to the timeline.

P2V transformation

You may want to replace an existing physical machine with a VM. You can model this scenario by migrating the physical machine to a virtual host.

Physical machines are represented in the Baseline View as white segments with a single workload.

To simulate a P2V transformation, follow these steps:

1. Find the physical server or workload that you want to transform on the sunburst.
2. Select and drag it to the virtual host you want to use for the new VM.

The Baseline View is updated to show you the changes to resources and storage, and an operation is added to the timeline.

Upgrade hosts

The following resources are available to upgrade:

• Cores — number of CPU cores the host has available.
• Capacity — memory capacity in MB, the maximum amount of memory available.

To upgrade a host, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the host in the sunburst.
2. From the menu, select Headroom. A dialog window with more details opens.
3. Enter new values for each of the resources you want to upgrade. Cores and capacity resource are editable so that you can plan your upgrades according to your business needs.
   Once you provide new values, the Save changes button appears.
4. Click Save changes to confirm the upgrade and close the dialog window.

The Baseline View is updated to show you the changes to your hosts, and an event is added to the timeline.

Add datastores

You can add additional datastores to hosts or to data centers. A datastore can be configured as a local or shared resource.

To add a datastore, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the host in the sunburst.
2. From the menu, select Add datastore. A dialog window with more details opens.
3. Enter the name and the capacity of the new datastore.
4. Select if the datastore should be local or shared.
5. Click Save changes to confirm the upgrade and close the dialog box

The datastore is added to the host or data centre and an operation is added to the timeline. Additionally, the new datastore now appears in the Storage panel.

Remove hosts and workloads

When the time comes to remove unnecessary or unwanted hosts and workloads from the estate, you can use Capacity Planner to remove them completely.

Note

You can undo the removal process in if you need to restore a host or workload to the estate. To do this, go to the Operations List and delete the required operation.

Remove a single workload

To remove a workload, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the workload you want to remove.
2. Click Remove and confirm.

The sunburst updates itself to show the effect the removal has, and an operation is added to the timeline.

Remove a single host

Note

You cannot remove a non-empty host. You must first remove all workloads running on the host, or alternatively migrate them onto a different host.

To remove a host, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the empty host you want to remove.
2. Click Remove host and confirm.

The sunburst updates itself to show the effect the removal has and an operation is added to the timeline.

Remove all workloads from a segment

You can remove all the workloads contained under any segment in the sunburst.

To remove all workloads, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the required segment in the sunburst.
2. From the menu, select Workloads.
3. Click Remove VMs and confirm.

Success: The sunburst updates itself to show the effect the removal has and an operation is added to the timeline.

Remove all empty hosts from a segment

After the required workloads have been removed, you can remove all the empty hosts contained under any non-host grouping in the sunburst.

To remove all hosts, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the non-host grouping containing the hosts you need to remove.
2. From the menu, select Remove empty hosts and confirm. This option is only visible if there are no workloads on the hosts.

The sunburst updates itself to show the effect the removal has and an operation is added to the timeline.