Testing/demoing DRS

[duhaas]

I am in the process of playing around with DRS and am trying to figure out the best way to test/simulate. I would like to show my organization how it works, and actually show it in action, but dont think I have enough load on my two esx hosts @ the moment. I'm actually playing in my test env, and only have two vms running, they are both on the same host, not using much resources. I have tried using some cpu busy scripts and leaky memory apps to trigger drs, but doesnt appear the load is enough for DRS to kick in since I have 32Gb of memory and tons of cpu. Any suggestions?

[Troy_Clavell]

set DRS to fully automated, put one of your hosts in maintenance mode. DRS will migrate all the VM's to the other host.

[khughes]

Troy is absolutely right, if you are in fully automated mode, once you put a host in maintenance mode it'll create a 5 star priority and move it off automatically. Once you're finish just take it out of maintenance mode and vMotion it back.

• Kyle

[duhaas]

thanks guy, is this the only way you can think of? i have to check my definition of maintainence mode, but I wanted to show how some machines will remain running, while the others that are beating down on the system get migrated. thanks again.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

since you only have two VM's running in a two Host Cluster, it will be hard to get resources contention, so putting your host into maintenance mode will generate a DRS event. If using 3.5/2.5 there is an option to evacuate powered off VM's, but it needs to be enabled. By default I believe the box is uncheck. You will be prompted when you put the host into maintenance mode.

You can check you DRS resource pool, by clicking on the cluster itself and then going to the summary tab. The "Percent of Enttitled Resources Delivered" in your enviornment is probably at 90-100+, which means no matter what setting you have for DRS, it will not cause an event.

Good Luck

P.S. Don't forget to award points for "helpful" or "correct" answers.

[bitsorbytes]

Use the cpubusy.vbs script to create CPU load, you might need a few VM's to create enough load to cause DRS to move the guests to the ohter hosts.

ie pegging 2 cores on a 8 core host, won't cause DRS to move Guests to another host. Pegging 8 cores on a 8 core host and starting other guests will cause DRS to do what you want it.

Have a play before you present

[vThinkBeyondVM]

I am too late to share my insight but some how I come across this post.

If anybody want to show DRS demo in your existing setup, please follow below suggestions

DRS offers you below features :

-Set the DRS in fully automatic mode with aggressive threshold.

-Initial placement: when you add new VM to cluster it automatically place on the appropriate host. You need not to select particular host to place the same. This you could show.

- You have DRS affinity and anti-affinity rules : Set DRS VM-VM affinity rule on the VMs in a cluster, it is mean that all VMs should be on one host. DRS would automatically vMotion all the VMs to either host. In this way use all types of rules and show how DRS behaves.

-Remove this rule, DRS would automatically balance the load.

- You can enable DPM and show how underutilized host would be placed in stand by mode (for this you need to enable IPMI/WoL)

Hope this helps.