Yes, you can do what you want.  The very best part of Foglight is that you can do damn near anything.

Here's one option.

We have a custom row-oriented table which our capacity allocation folks use, which displays all of the clusters, and shows various capacity measures like cpu utilization %, vRAM utilization %, non-local disk free space, etc.  23 columns in all. 

It uses custom functions to calculate cluster type, cluster full status, VMs remaining to fill ( based on the average size VM already deployed), vRAM available for expansion ( a different calc than VMs to fill, since it only takes the vRAM into account), disk status, etc.  IP ranges are included, based on the IP addresses of VMs already deployed, so that the user can check the IP of the new VM to make sure it will fit on the IP ranges available on the cluster.

Our rules are a bit convoluted, and yours are certainly different, but this is definately possible.  And once you have the calculations, you can use the same functions in alerts.

So, does this help you get an idea of where you can go with this?

Thank you John for your quick reply!

Yes this would help us to get what we are looking for. Can you guide me to get our own table and those functions setup?

Thank you

Alex

First, we need to know what rules you want to use.

Let's start with vRAM available for expansion of existing VMs.

How this is calculated depends on:

• How much RAM are you willing to allocate to vRAM. 
  Given that you pay licensing on vRAM Granted, not used, in general the amount of vRAM you are willing to grant on a cluster is tied in some fashion to how much you have licensed, and in few cases would you want to over-provision your RAM, at least in production.  This influences the next item.
• How much RAM are you willing to allow to be utilized?
  ESX Hosts don't like to run with 100% utilized, and going over 100% = ESX swapping, a very bad thing.  We limit a cluster to 70% RAM utilized, so when some VMs need more, they don't push the hosts over 100%. The more you grant, the higher the % utilized goes, in general.

Hi John,

As far as setting up values, we know what will be our rules, but I meant showing where to go and what to create in vFoglight to get a capacity planning table like yours.

As of right now, all of our cluster are running under 65% memory utilization, and licensing/vRam is not an issue as we are using Enterprise Plus. And we are far from overprovisioning our RAM as we keep a really conservative approch to our Virtual Infrastructure (12 ESX/Cluster, running a max of 12 VM per host). It keeps the management happy and our environment is really stable. We are running ESX host with 144GB of RAM.

To answer your question, we would like to stay under 80% of RAM utilization for sure.

Thank you

Alex

Ok, in order to use custom functions, you need to actually go down into WCF:

Here's where to start:

http://edocs.quest.com/foglight/564/files/WebComponent_Tutorial.pdf

When you get that done, you'll have the basics to allow us to proceed.  If you can already do what's in Tutorial 2, bonus.

Thank you John,

Tutorial 1, I was familiar with it, as Ive created multiple dashboard using drag/drop of views and table and template.

Tutorial 2, was new to me.

I think i'm ready to create the table

Alex

Ok, so now, create a table displaying 1 row per VMWCluster, with the standard columns you want to be displayed. 

first, create this query:

List of all Clusters

Select objects of type VMware Cluster from the "(Default)" datasource (of type foglight-5)

    from Root of (foglight-5:default)/VMWModel/virtualCenters/clusterCollection/clusters

Then, build your table. This is what I have as the configuration on my table:

Module UHG_IT/ClusterPerformance
Name List of VMware Clusters with data for the past 7 days
Component Row-Oriented Table
Purpose(s) Dashboard, Home Page, Page, Pagelet, Portal, Portlet, Reportlet
Comments
Primary Input None
Additional Context
Key Name Evaluate Once Value
ClusterList  False Query ('UHG_All_Clusters' from the System module UHG_IT/Components)
timeRange  False Last 7 days
Configuration

    Rows Context returning "Localized Value"
    Columns
        Column
            Value Context /name, Renderer: 'Normal' from the System module Dashboard Development/Support/Common/UI Table returning "Localized Value"
            ID Name
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Left
        Column
            Value Context /UHG_Cluster_Type/latest/value returning "Localized Value"
            ID Cluster_Type
            Header Localized string (Cluster Type)
        Column
            Value Context /UHG_Cluster_Fill_State/latest/value returning "Localized Value"
            Export Value Context /UHG_Cluster_Fill_State/latest/value returning "Localized Value"
            ID Cluster_Full
            Header Localized string (Cluster Full)
        Column
            Value Context /esxServerCount/period/average, Renderer: 'Number - No Decimal Point' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID Host_Count
            Header Host Count
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /UHG_Cluster_Core_Count/latest/average returning "Localized Value"
            ID Cores
            Header Cores
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Function ('VAR1 div VAR2' from the System module UHG_IT/Components, Renderer: 'KB to TB - No Units - Scale -9' from the System module UHG_IT/Components)
                On Null Localized string (n/a)
                {VAR1} Context /totalHz/period/average returning "Localized Value"
                {VAR2} Context /UHG_Cluster_Core_Count/latest/average returning "Localized Value"
            ID Core_Speed
            Header Localized string (Core Speed GHz)
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /virtualMachinesPoweredOnCount/period/average, Renderer: 'Number - No Decimal Point' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID VMs_Running
            Header VMs Running
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /virtualMachinesCount/period/average, Renderer: 'Number: No Decimals, No Unit' from the System module Management Server/System returning "Localized Value"
            ID VMs_Provisioned
            Header Localized string (VMs Provisioned)
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Function ('UHG_VMs_To_Fill_Cluster - Current Load incl Granted' from the System module UHG_IT/UHG_VM_Allocation, Renderer: 'Number - No Decimal Point - Red/Grey/Green' from the System module UHG_IT/Components)
                {VMWCluster} Context returning "Localized Value"
            ID VMs_To_Fill
            Header Localized string (VMs to Fill Cluster, Renderer: 'Text Renderer: Strong' from the System module Management Server/Commons)
        Column
            Value Context /totalHz/period/average, Renderer: 'KB to GB - No Units - Scale -6' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID CPU MHz Total
            Header Localized string (CPU MHz Total)
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /cpuUtilization/period/average, Renderer: 'Percent Renderer 2 Digits No Units' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID CPU_Used_%
            Header CPU Used Avg %
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Function ('UHG_vRAM_Avail_For_Expansion_on_Cluster' from the System module UHG_IT/UHG_VM_Allocation, Renderer: 'Number - No Decimal Point - Red/Grey/Green' from the System module UHG_IT/Components)
                {timeRange} Context returning "Localized Value"
                {VMWCluster} Context returning "Localized Value"
            ID vRAM_Avail_For_Expansion
            Header Localized string (vRAM Avail For Expansion, Renderer: 'Text Renderer: Strong' from the System module Management Server/Commons)
        Column
            Value Context /memoryUtilization/period/average, Renderer: 'Percent Renderer 2 Digits No Units' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID vRAM_Used_%
            Header vRAM Used Avg %
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Function ('VAR1 div VAR2' from the System module UHG_IT/Components, Renderer: 'No Units - Scale -1' from the System module UHG_IT/Components)
                {VAR1} Context /memoryGranted/period/average returning "Localized Value"
                {VAR2} Context /totalMemory/period/average returning "Localized Value"
            ID vRAM_Granted_Perc
            Header Localized string (vRAM Granted %)
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /memoryGranted/period/average, Renderer: 'KB to GB - No Units - Scale -6' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID vRAM_Granted
            Header vRAM Granted GB
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /totalMemory/period/average, Renderer: 'MB to GB - No Units - Scale -3' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID Total_vRAM
            Header Total vRAM GB
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /cpuPercentReady/period/average, Renderer: 'Percent Renderer 2 Digits No Units' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID CPU_%_Ready
            Header CPU Ready Delay Avg %
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /memoryBalloon/period/average, Renderer: 'KB to GB - No Units - Scale -6' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID Balloon_vRAM
            Header Balloon vRAM Avg GB
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /memorySwapUsed/period/average, Renderer: 'KB to GB - No Units - Scale -6' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID Swap_vRAM
            Header Swap vRAM Avg GB
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /storageSpaceTotal/period/average, Renderer: 'KB to GB - No Units - Scale -6' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID Disk_Total
            Header Localized string (Disk Total TB)
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Context /storageSpaceUsed/period/average, Renderer: 'KB to GB - No Units - Scale -6' from the System module UHG_IT/Components returning "Localized Value"
            ID Disk_Used
            Header Localized string (Disk Used TB)
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Right
        Column
            Value Function ('VAR1 minus VAR2' from the System module UHG_IT/Components, Renderer: 'KB to GB - No Units - Scale -6' from the System module UHG_IT/Components)
                {VAR1} Context /storageSpaceTotal/period/average returning "Localized Value"
                {VAR2} Context /storageSpaceUsed/period/max returning "Localized Value"
            ID Disk_Free
            Header Localized string (Disk Free TB)
        Column
            Value Context /UHG_Cluster_Guest_IP_Ranges/latest/value returning "Localized Value"
            ID IPRanges
            Header Localized string (IP Ranges)
            Header Alignment
                Horizontal Left
            Cell Alignment
                Horizontal Left
    Selection Configuration
        Auto Select Policy None
    Cell Alignment
        Horizontal Right
    Large Data Visible Row Limit 500
    Large Data Min Column Natural Width 80
    Rows Background Color Configuration
        Alternate Row Background Color #dff1cf
        Enable Alternate Row Background Color true
    Default Sort Column ID Name
    Searching Configuration
        Enabled true
        Simple Search Position Left if no actions
    Portlet Options
        Scrollbars Auto

Reference Id system:uhg20it_clusterperformance.1
Last Modified Time Jun 29, 2012 6:53:49 AM CDT
Public Yes
Deprecated No
Priority None
Relevant Role(s) (none)
Allowed Role(s) (all)

When that's done, we'll work on the custom functions.

Correct, I'll add the renderers to this thread etc. but just now, my basement's flooding, so it may not be until tomorrow.

Also, I've found a bug in my table, going to fix that as well.

Good Morning John,

I have create the table, I didn't create the functions yet.

There are couples things I want to ask you, how do you set the static time frame to 7 days ?

Also, it seems that I'm missing some of the renderer that you use, when it comes to scaling and units. Did you create your own?

Thank you

Alex

When you create a WCF table you can define the timerange statically or allow for it to change.  Also the renders he is using are several he created himself and some are from the vBundle, the functions are his own it looks like.