HP Capacity Advisor is a utility that allows
you to monitor and evaluate system and workload utilization of CPU
cores, memory, network and disk I/O, and power. With this information,
you can load your systems to make best use of the available resources.
You can monitor and evaluate one or more systems
that are connected in a cluster configuration or to a network.
A single system can include multi-core
or hyper-threaded processors.
Capacity Advisor helps you evaluate system consolidations,
load balancing, changing system attributes, and varying workloads
to decide how to move workloads to improve utilization. The quantitative results
from Capacity Advisor can aid the planner in estimating future system
workloads and in planning for changes to system configurations. With Capacity Advisor, you can perform the following
tasks within an easy-to-navigate, clearly notated graphical user interface:
Collect utilization data on CPU cores, memory, network and disk
I/O, and power
View historical
resource utilization for whole-OS and sub-OS workloads on HP-UX and
whole-OS workload resource utilization on Microsoft® Windows systems.
View historical workload resource utilization and aggregate utilization across the partitioning continuum
(nPars, HP-UX vPars, HP-UX Virtual Machines)
Generate resource utilization reports
Plan workload or system changes, and assess impact
on resource utilization
Assess resource utilization impact for proposed changes
in workload location or size
Evaluate trends for forecasting future resource needs
Capacity Advisor can be used to
simulate changes in system configuration, such as the following:
Consolidating several systems into one system
Re-sizing a system for an upgrade
Re-sizing the demands on a system to reflect a forecast
Replacing older, small to mid-sized systems with virtual
machines
Capacity Advisor can use data collected over time to
show the results of these configuration changes in many ways. Graphical
views are available so you can see what the effects of the changes
are over time. Tables are available that give the percentage of time
and the degree to which the system is busy; this information is valuable
in comparing resource utilization and quality of service before
and after a change. Other tables show how many minutes per month
the system is unacceptably busy–a measure valuable for both
quality of service and for estimating TiCAP bills. Because Capacity
Advisor works from data traces collected over time, it is much more
accurate than using only peak data or average data in understanding your systems and the workloads
they support.
The significant advantage in using Capacity Advisor,
rather than ad hoc processes or guesswork, is
that it provides a quantitative basis for examining the usage of current
resources. Additionally, it provides the capability to try simulations
(what-if scenarios) for moving workloads or other resources before you actually implement
a move.
Capacity Advisor incorporates numerical values
of several components in its analysis and modeling, including:
Printable version
