Virtualization Management Index

2010 Year End Report

Available Data
• Hosts
• VMs
• Clusters
• Resource Pools
• Storage (allocated, attached)
• Memory (allocated, available)
• CPU (allocated, available)
• Power On, Power Off VMs
• Cores, Sockets, vCPU
• VMs with performance problems – CPU, memory, storage,
latency
• VMs under utilized – CPU, memory, storage
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Analysis Drawn from 578,000 Virtual Machines

Average Size: 225 VMs

Average Hosts: 18
Average VM/Host: 15.7
2500 unique environments
578,000 VMs
>50 VMs to be included
Free tools source anonymous data

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Running on Dual Socket, Quad Core

• Sockets per host: 2.4

• Cores per socket: 3.6
• Storage per host: 1.8TB
• Memory per host: 50 GB
• Average core speed is 2.6 GHZ

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Hardware Gains Have Really Driven
Consolidation Advances
• Average:
• VMs/vCPU is .9
• CPU/core is 2.2
• Current sharing is only about 2
VMs/core
• More cores/host to drive
compression vs. proactively
driving out costs
• Virtualization provides
mainframe like efficiency yet we
are stuck in physical world
capacity planning
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Memory is the Limiting Resource

0.7 Average Over Commit Memory

2.2 Average Over Commit CPU

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Balancing High Density Memory Cost Vs. Fewer
CPUs
• Enterprises are still CPU rich but memory starved
• Cost of higher density memory causing sticker shock
• Efficiency point - higher cost for memory balanced
against:
• Lower power costs for fewer CPUs
• Lower software licensing costs
• Lower datacenter costs for fewer servers

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Finding High Density Environments

• Start 2563 environments

• Memory allocation >= 1.0
• 236 remaining
• CPU allocation >= 1.0
• 235 remaining
• Zero VM performance issues
• 95 remaining or top 3.7% of sample

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High Density Environments Have Higher
Density Memory Allocation
Metric High Density Average

VMs/Host 25.5 15.6

VMs/vCPU 1.1 .93
vCPU/Core 3.3 2.17
CPU Allocation Ratio 3.3 2.18
Memory Allocation Ratio 1.2 .66
CPU and Memory Bottlenecks 0% .3%

• High density introduces own set of problems around failover

• 1.2 memory allocation problematic in failover unless utilization is low
• Understanding utilization next step
• Significant savings for higher density

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High Density 50% Cost Advantage

High Density Average

VMs/Host 25.5 15.6

Hosts Req (100vms) 4 6

Server Capex 10,000 10,000

Three Year Opex 15,000 15,000

Capex and Opex 100,000 150,000

Three Year VM Cost $1,000/VM $1,500/VM

Cost Advantage 50% 0%

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All Good Analysis Asks More Questions than it
Answers
• Optimal memory density for a server that maximizes
ROI
• Are VMware functions that compress memory and do
other memory saving features useful if enterprises
don’t over allocate?
• How to break through 2 VMs/core barrier

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Environment Statistics Round Up

Environment Average Median Max

Statistics
Hosts 18.1 11.4 177.2
Clusters 3.7 2.0 50.8
Data Stores 53.5 33.2 1308
Total VMs 225.6 142.0 2,955
Sockets 43.1 26.0 510
Cores 153.3 92.5 2,058
Memory (GB) 897 496 14.9 PB
Storage(TB) 28 16.8 525

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Per VM and Per Host Statistics
Per VM, Per Host Average Median Max
VMs/ Host 15.7 13.0 200
VMs/Core 1.9 1.6 17.5
Sockets/Host 2.4 2.0 8.0
Cores/Socket 3.6 4.0 7.0
Memory/Host 50.0 41.4
Storage/VM 85.5 65.1
Storage/Host 1.8 TB 1.4 TB 25.6 TB
Memory/VM (GB) 4.0 3.4 28.5
Hosts/Cluster 5.7 4.0

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