VMware vCenter CapacityIQ
Ensure Availability for the VMware vCenter Server Management Platform

Overview:

VMware vCenter™ CapacityIQ, a component of the VMware vCenter family of management products, provides capacity management for virtualized datacenter or desktop environments. It integrates seamlessly with VMware vCenter Server to enable capacity modeling, insight and intelligence, reducing risk and enabling informed decision-making.

Key Benefits

• Guarantee the efficiency and predictability of virtual infrastructure capacity.
• Right-size virtual infrastructure capacity at any level – from the virtual machine to the cluster, to the entire datacenter.
• Utilize capacity efficiently.
• Make informed planning, purchasing and provisioning decisions.
• Eliminate costly waste and risk in datacenter or desktop infrastructure.

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ provides visibility into available capacity, enables the efficient usage of existing capacity, and predicts future capacity needs. CapacityIQ provides continuous and real-time intelligence into datacenter and desktop infrastructure.

How is VMware vCenter CapacityIQ Used in the Enterprise?

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ enables IT administrators to analyze, forecast and plan the capacity needs of their virtual datacenter or desktop environments. VMware vCenter CapacityIQ ensures that IT infrastructure capacity is used in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. In simple economic terms, CapacityIQ balances business demand with IT supply, without compromising performance, availability and security.

CapacityIQ provides complete visibility into past, present and future infrastructure capacity states—including what capacity is available, what is being used, what is needed, and when capacity will run out.

CapacityIQ eliminates infrastructure waste by identifying any unused, over-allocated or spare capacity, and reduces excessive operational overhead by automating routine capacity monitoring and management tasks. Administrators can leverage CapacityIQ to minimize the business risk of outages and failures by ensuring always available, always optimized capacity.

IT organizations can leverage VMware vCenter CapacityIQ in a number of scenarios, including:

• Cost avoidance and justification. Optimize utilization of existing hardware resources or justify any new business purchases.
• Availability and risk mitigation. Plan for potential business and service disruptions proactively by modeling the impact of an outage, failure or disaster.
• Project planning and decision-making. Model the effect of one-time strategic business changes. Quantify the results of workload consolidations, company acquisitions, additional new headcounts or deployment of multi-tiered applications.

How Does VMware vCenter CapacityIQ Work?

VMware virtualization enables a shared, dynamic environment— with pools of resources and capacity that can shrink or expand on demand. This constantly changing environment provides an opportunity for better, more effective capacity management. VMware vCenter CapacityIQ is a purpose-built tool to provide automated, continuous capacity intelligence that enables informed decision-making

Administrators install CapacityIQ as a virtual appliance. Since virtual appliances are pre-configured, deploying CapacityIQ is simple, reducing unnecessary time and expenses. Then, administrators can access CapacityIQ from the VMware vCenter Server and review the dashboard to get an at-a-glance view of past, present and future capacity needs and availability. What-if scenario wizards help to model one-time potential impacts to the datacenter or desktop infrastructure capacity. Administrators can print and export real-time capacity reports to send to management or IT staff.

Key Features:

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ provides the following key features for just-in-time capacity planning:

Capacity Awareness

• Dashboard with at-a-glance charts and graphs: View and analyze past, present, and future capacity states. Leverage the dashboard to quickly review dynamic capacity demands and ensure real-time tuning.
• Customized capacity thresholds and alerts: Turn datacenter capacity on auto-pilot by specifying rules, settings and alerts. Eliminate any timely and costly routine monitoring and management tasks through automation.

Capacity Optimization

• Detailed reports with recommendations: Reclaim excess capacity from idle, oversized or powered-off virtual machines. Each capacity report provides detailed supporting data to help with any right-sizing or decommissioning decisions.
• Smart capacity profiler and advisor: Size and allocate capacity for each virtual machine based on historical and future needs. Place and stack virtual machines in the most optimal clusters to eliminate further waste.

Capacity Prediction

• Interactive What-If modeling scenarios: Simulate one-time business events to derive the best-fit outcome. Input company-, situation-, or project-specific data points to quantify potential business impact.
• Contextual capacity forecasts: Identify the exact timing of potential capacity shortfalls based on business-as-usual trends and predictions—specific to the datacenter or desktop environments. Purchase and provision capacity as and when needed.

How to Buy:

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ
Includes a license for 25 managed virtual machines. Support and subscription sold separately.

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ Requirements

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ requires an adequate number of vSphere Standard, Advanced, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus licenses and one instance of vCenter Server Standard.

Learn more about VMware vCenter Server Standard licensing and VMware vSphere licensing.

Support:

VMware Production Support & Subscription

Technical Support, 24 Hour Sev 1 Support -- 7 days a week.

Focused, 24-Hour Support For Production Environments

• Global, 24x7 support for Severity 1 issues
• Fast response times for critical issues
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Production Support is designed with your production environments in mind. Our global support centers are staffed around the clock to provide you access to our industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

VMware Basic Support & Subscription Service

Technical Support, 12 Hours/Day, per published Business Hours, Mon. thru Fri.

Weekday Support for Test, Dev and Non-Critical Deployments

• Global, 12x5 access to support
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Basic Support is designed for non-critical applications and platforms that require support during normal business hours. Our global support centers have been strategically placed to provide you with fast and efficient access to the support center in your region. Each center is staffed with engineers that can provide industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

Feature	Production Support	Basic Support
Hours of Operation	24 Hrs/Day 7 Days/Wk 365 Days/Yr 1	12 Hrs/Day Mon–Fri 1
Length of Service	1 or 3 Years	1 or 3 Years
Product Updates	Yes	Yes
Product Upgrades	Yes	Yes
Products Supported	All Products (excluding VMware Fusion and Player)	All Products (excluding VMware Fusion and Player)
Method of Access	Telephone/ Web	Telephone/ Web
Response Method	Telephone/ Email	Telephone/ Email
Remote Support	Yes	Yes
Access to VMware Web site	Yes	Yes
Access to VMware Discussion Forums and Knowledge Base	Yes	Yes
Max Number of Support Admins per Contract	6	4
Number of Support Requests	Unlimited	Unlimited
Target Response Times Critical (Severity 1 Major (Severity 2) Minor (Severity 3) Cosmetic (Severity 4)	30 minutes or less: 24x7 4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours	4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours 12 business hours
Business Hours North America and Latin America Alaska, Hawaii South America (NASA) Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA Asia, Pacific Rim, Japan (APJ) Australia/New Zealand	Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EST/EDT) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET)	Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EST/EDT) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET)

1Hours of operation for Gemstone are Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PST/PDT) globally.
1Hours of operation for VMware Go Pro and vCenter Protect products are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (CST/CDT), except holidays.
1Hours of operation for VMware IT Business Management and IT Financial Management are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (EST/EDT/GMT) except holidays.
1Hours of operation for Socialcast are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT).

Documentation:

Download the VMware vCenter CapacityIQ Datasheet (PDF).