What-If in VMware vRealize Operations for VxRail/vSAN Host adds to Cluster

Posted by

One of the things I enjoy about VMWare vRealize Operations is the ability to add or remove HCI nodes in a cluster.  I don’t know if I have been fortunate or unfortunate in my career but I have had to do a lot of VxRail/vSAN Ready Node adds.  On some occasions I have been requested to remove hosts from one cluster and build a net new cluster.  With this comes the question of is it possible.  I hope the below step by step on how to pan for adding hosts is useful.

Article on same process for removing host

How to use What-If

Machine generated alternative text:
vm vRealize Operations Manager 
Home 
Alerts 
Environment 
Administration 
Q 
BACK 
Quick Start 
Operations Overview 
Optimize Performance 
Workload Optimization 
Rightsizing 
Recommended Actions 
Optimize Capacity 
Overview 
Reclaim 
What-If Analysis 
Troubleshoot 
Workbench 
Virtual Machine 
VSAN 
using Logs 
Compliance 
Manage Applications 
Discover Services 
Monitor Applications 
What-lf Analysis 
Overview 
o 
Saved Scenarios 
Workload planning: Traditional 
Workload 
Workload planning: Hyperconverged 
c 
Workload 
Setup a scenario to 'deploy applications' by adding new workload or 'deprecate applications' by 
removing existing workload You can also evaluate the impact ot 'reclaiming inefficient workload' 
using remove workload scenario. 
by 
Plan tor 'future workload' to be deployed on vSAN environment with VMS associated with specific 
storage policy related factors (such as FTT, RAID), to evaluate if the usable capacity can cater to 
workload to be deployed. You can also evaluate the impact ot 'reclaiming inefficient workload' an 
vSAN cluster by using remove VMS scenario. 
ADD VMS 
REMOVE VMS 
ADD VMS 
REMOVE VMS 
Infrastructure planning: Traditional 
Infrastructure 
Infrastructure planning: Hyperconverged 
Infrastructure 
Determine the impact ot adding or removing specific capacity in your environment. If you are planning 
to upgrade the hosts in a cluster, setup a stacked scenario to 'Refresh hardware' with combination of 
remove existing capacity trom cluster and add new capacity to cluster. 
Determine the impact ot adding specific hyperconverged capacity in your vSAN environment You can 
plan to add new vSAN ready nodes to your vSAN cluster to evaluate the impact ot increase in HCI 
ADD HOSTS 
REMOVE HOSTS 
capacity 
ADD HCI NODES 
REMOVE HCI NODES

Home > Optimize Capacity > What-If Analysis > infrastructure Planning: Hyperconverged > ADD HCI NODES

Machine generated alternative text:
Infrastructure Planning: Hyperconverged 
Add HCI Nodes 
SCENARIO NAME 
LOCATION 
SERVER DETAILS 
DATE 
RUN SCENARIO 
3 Node Cluster Add 
Dallas (DALPRDESXVICOI) 
Server type 
SELECT SERVER 
Number of servers to add 
Start date 
4/08/20 
CANCEL 
pROD 
Please note that only 61 new 
hosts can be added to 
specified vSAN cluster as 
maximum allowed is 64 hosts 
End date* 
4/08/21 
•our engine is able to make projections 
up to maximum of one year from the 
current date 
SAVE

Give the Scenario a name

Select the vCenter and the cluster you want to add the hosts into

Select number of servers

Select server

Machine generated alternative text:
Select Server Type 
Currently Selected: None 
x 
Make 
Dell Inc. 
Model 
VxRaiI PS70F 
Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 61m 
Sockets 
2 
Cores 
Memory 
766 
Disk sp„_ 
Year 
2017 
Cost 
usS81,091 
I - lot I items 
CANCEL

Select the VxRail model that is currently in cluster then ok

Machine generated alternative text:
RUN SCENARIO 
SAVE 
CANCEL

Run Scenario

Machine generated alternative text:
Scenario Results 
After adding hosts your time remaining will still be > 1 Year 
O 
Total Cost: US$81,091 
O CPU* 
O Available capacity: 179.05 GHz/228_3g GHz 
S With Added capacity: *107.75 GHz, 286.8 GHz/336.14 GHz 
•All capacity utilization numbers are projected peak values for forecasted perioc[ 
Memory* 
O Available capacity: 1.29 TB/1_56 TB 
S With Added capacity: *766 GB, 2.03 TB/2.31 TB 
Disk space* 
O Available capacity: 45.08 TB/4T79 Ta 
S With Added capacity: *18.43 TB, 63.51 TB/66.22 TB
Machine generated alternative text:
CPU 
Memory 
Disk Space 
> 1 year remaining until CPU runs out 
300K 
FOK 
X 200K 
150K 
100K 
SOK 
Apr I 
Apr 8 
(New Workload) 
May I 
Jun I 
Jul 1 
Aug I 
sep 1 
Oct 1 
Nov I 
Dec 1 
Jan I 
Feb 1 
Mar I 
Apr I
Machine generated alternative text:
CPU 
Memory 
Disk Space 
> 1 year remaining until Memory runs out 
2.000M 
1.500M 
3 1.000M 
500M 
May I 
Apr 8 
(New Workload) 
Jun I 
Jul 1 
Aug I 
Sep I 
octi 
Dec 1 
Jan I 
Feb 1 
Mar I 
Apr I
Machine generated alternative text:
CPU 
Memory 
Disk Space 
> 1 year remaining until Disk Space runs out 
60K 
SOK 
40K 
30K 
20K 
Apr I 
Apr 8 
(New Workload) 
May I 
Jun I 
Jul 1 
Aug I 
Sep I 
Oct 1 
Nov I 
Dec 1 
Jan I 
Feb 1 
Mar I 
Apr I

Summary:
It is a pretty quick and seamless process to see if adding X number of hosts will meet your growth requirements.  Bonus is that you can take screenshots and put them into a report.  As always, I hope y’all found this to be useful.

One comment

Leave a Reply