PlateSpin PowerRecon helps plan for VM growth

Action from information

PowerRecon has a five-step server consolidation routine that divides potential mergers into either server and/or workload protection projects. We selected a server consolidation project based on existing discovered inventory, then gave PowerRecon a date and time range (varies for an hourly or user-specified time period that can exclude specific work days like Saturdays and/or Sundays) then had PowerRecon forecast/project a load with an optional power/cooling factor. Trend data flushes after 30 days, which can be a limitation. The data is then gathered and we examined it to determine which consolidation/protection candidates existed among our test server groups. It turns out that we don't utilize our servers enough and most of them were candidates.

Over the term of using PowerRecon, we came to depend on it as well as Onaro's tools for our every-day lab and production activity sources. PowerRecon doesn't have quite the luscious user interface of SANscreen VMInsight, but is very useful nonetheless. Coupled to optional PowerConvert, PowerRecon is a strong combination that's useful for medium to large installations.