VM Resource Pool Rebalancing

DAN BARR, PENN STATE ARL

CENTRAL PA VMUG, JULY 16, 2015

Penn State Applied Research LabUniversity Center of Excellence in Defense science, systems, and technologies

U.S. Navy UARC (University-Affiliated Research Center)

Approximately 1100 researchers and support staff

ARL IT Services division manages VMs for lab-wide infrastructure, business applications, and hosting for numerous research departments

Production clusters (x2): 10 hosts, 250 VMs

Project-specific clusters (x3): 16 hosts, 60 VMs, several “monster” VMs

Resource Pool BalancingUse Resource Pools to prioritize critical VMs and ensure fair balancing during contention

Rule 1: Resource Pools are NOT folders!◦ They have a real impact on resource distribution during contention

Rule 2: Share values are arbitrary but relative◦ Pick base per-VM values and be consistent with share weighting

◦ No default (Low/Normal/High) values on pools

Rule 3: Don’t mix Resource Pools and VMs at the same inventory level

Rule 4: vApps are Resource Pools, too

How do we balance the shares, and more importantly keep them balanced over time?

Default Settings = Unexpected Results

GoldShares = High (8000)

…

40 VMs = 200 shares per VM

SilverShares = Normal (4000)

…

20 VMs = 200 shares per VM

BronzeShares = Low (2000)

5 VMs = 400 shares per VM

Automated BalancingTags assigned to all Resource Pools & vApps◦ Tag Category: Shares Per VM

◦ Tags: 50, 100, 150, 200, “Parent”

◦ Parent = Resource Pool with child Pools

PowerShell Script◦ Reads the tags from each RP/vApp & calculates share value

◦ CPU & Memory Shares = (# of VMs) * (tag value)

◦ Parent pools = sum of child pools

◦ Email notification of changes made, warning on pools with no tag

Example End ResultDepartment A: 100 shares/VM, 5 VMs = 500 shares

Department B: 100 shares/VM, 8 VMs = 800 shares

Infrastructure: 6200 shares

Gold: 200 shares/VM, 10 VMs = 2000 shares

Business Apps: 4300 shares

Silver: 100 shares/VM, 35 VMs = 3500 shares

Bronze: 50 shares/VM, 14 VMs = 700 shares

Prod: 150 shares/VM, 18 VMs = 2700 shares

Dev: 50 shares/VM, 22 VMs = 1100 shares

Test vApp: 100 shares/VM, 5 VMs = 500 shares

THANK YOU!

QUESTIONS?

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