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vtparker
Contributor
Contributor

Idle VMs report question

I've run an Idle VMs report in vROM 6.6 and i'm not happy with the results.

It shows me very few VMs when I know we have more VMs (to the tune of dozens more) that are idle

We want to get rid of waste, VMs not being used.  The problem is that the idle VMs report is based on CPU utilization of 5% for 'n' period of time.

But we patch systems and backup systems regularly (daily, weekly, monthly) which throws the CPU utilization on VMs that are NEVER used up to 10% or more.

How can i TRULY find out what VMs are not being used daily? and that are simply a waste to even exist?

Thoughts?

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5 Replies
sxnxr
Commander
Commander

The idle Vmware report is not a run the report and then delete the vms it says. It is there to give you the evidence to go to the vm owner and show him it is idle and for him to prove it is still used.

You our should also tweek the ootb settings to for your environment as the out of the box settings are not giving what you expect

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vtparker
Contributor
Contributor

How would I do that?  I've changed the default policy to 10% only to realize that the 10% its allowing me to change is the TIME period, not the actual CPU utilization metric.

I am aware of the purpose of the report, but this report is not accounting for certain criteria that I hope is common in most environments. Meaning they have idle VMs but they are patched and backed up and that is the ONLY activity on these VMs and thus 'skewing' the results of this report.

I believe the VMs in the report are obviously idle and not needed.  I will go to those owners, but that wasn't not the purpose of my post. I know there are more and the report is not showing them for reasons stated above. The answer here is either:

1. Find a way to change the report to let go of this 5% CPU metric and relax that to ~10%

or

2. Find a 3rd party tool that does a better job

or

3. Unfortunately dig into PowerCLI and write or find a ridiculous amount of code and troubleshooting that code to do something that should be simple in the product I paid for in the first place.

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SteveR2345
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi, did you ever find a way to do this? I'm trying to modify the idle VM report in vRops 7.5, at least to change the monitoring window to business hours.

Any help appreciated, coming up blank on searches.
Thanks

Steve

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thomasbayer82
Contributor
Contributor

Hi guys,

looking for the same thing "change the monitoring window to business hours" to exclude the backup load each night.

Would appreciate any advise on this.

Thank you and best regards,

Thomas

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SteveR2345
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It looks like it's not possible in that version for some strange reason. See my discussion here :https://communities.vmware.com/message/2912552#2912552

Regards

Steve

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