System Sizing Guidelines for Integrity Virtual Machines Deployment -- Hardware Consolidation with Integrity Virtual Machines

Stacking Workloads - Example 3

For an Integrity server to host ten similar workloads that all experience peak load during the months

of September through October, the workloads have the expected utilization characteristics

described in Table 3.

Table 3 - Average expected utilizationa of workloads in Example 3.

CPU

Utilization

I/O Storage

Utilization

I/O Network

Utilization

Peak

Utilization

22%

12%

Average

Utilization

Because the workloads are in phase (that is, all peak during the same period), the averages are

disregarded. Hence, you should use peak utilizations for sizing purposes. Calculate the hardware

requirements as follows:

Number of CPUs = (10 * 22%) / 50% = 220% / 50% = 4.4  5

Number of Disks = (10 * 12%) / 40% = 120% / 40% = 3

Number of NICs = (10 * 8%) / 40% = 80% / 40% = 2

The Integrity server needs five CPUs, three disks, and two NICs to host the workloads in this

example.

Consolidating Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) Systems

Be sure to consider the number of CPUs on the existing hardware system when you estimate

workload utilization. For example, the overall sizing calculation is 20% for an expected utilization

of 5% on four CPUs,

Consider the motivation for the current system‟s multiple-CPU configuration when planning to

consolidate that workload. Perhaps peak utilization requires the application to have several CPUs

at its disposal or the workload will not perform well. You should reduce CPU count only after you

carefully consider the workload requirements, and when the new hardware is considerably faster. If

fewer virtual CPUs can handle the peak utilization, then the workload can be transferred to a

virtual SMP system with that number of virtual CPUs. If not, consolidate the workload using a

virtual machine with a CPU count equal to the one that is currently running the workload.

The number of physical CPUs on the Integrity VM Host must be at least the same as the highest

virtual CPU count on any virtual machine it hosts. Integrity VM supports virtual machines with up to

four virtual CPUs, but the VM Host system can have up to 128 physical CPUs.