Capacity Planner?

[KGoch]

I manage a small ESX 3.5 envrionment with 5 hosts and 20 VMs. We are looking to soon start ramping up our server consolidation to VMs. However before it gets too out of hand I had started looking at tools such as Capacity Planner and Power Recon[PlateSpin].

And I was wondering, first off what are some given recommendations for planning and continuing with consolidation using a product such as Capacity Planner or Power Recon (ie. Did you use a tool like this? If so, how long? etc. etc.) And what product do you prefer?

Obviously I am not looking for you to tell me how to consolidate my enivronment, I am more interested in your thoughts on the consolidation tools mentioned above.

Thanks!

[happyhammer]

Cap Planner you need to be a vmware partner to get access to this, whereas powerrecon you can go buy. Ive used both tools extensively and prefer the powerrecon tool as it i find it much easier to

analyse the data and present it in VRA reports to clients. It is also far better at analysing the Disk metrics, iops and MB/s over the 24 hour period which is essential for SAN planning, no of disks, RAID and amount of TB required etc.

Also you get to keep the data with PowerRecon whereas Cap Planner is a bit more difficult to keep the data

[KGoch]

Thanks for the info!

[tom_foody]

Hammer,

Have you looked into the Microsoft's assessment tool I just started looking at this along with Capacity Planner. At first glance it looks like the Microsoft tool is easier to use and produces nicer looking reports. (keeping management happy- LOL). Thanks for posting your experience.

Tom.

[happyhammer]

tom, not had a chance yet, although i will be looking at this in the future, can you post a link on where i can get hold of this

[tom_foody]

Sure thing This brings up another good point is this tool is free I am going to be comparing this to vm's capacity planner over the next week or 2 I will share my opinions then,

Here is link to download.

Happy Holidays