Virtual Machines. Idle VMs

This report shows a list of idle VMs in terms of CPU, memory, disk and network utilization.

Description

Idle VMs are virtual machines that remain running even though they are no longer used, for example the project or POC is complete — but the virtual machines were never decommissioned. These Idle (aka 'Zombie') VMs consume CPU, memory and storage resources that could be used by other active machines.

Parameters

Date/time Selection: defines a time period to analyze in the report.

Note

With default data grooming and aggregation settings, the current date may not have a datapoint in the data warehouse. In this case, the object will be marked Unmonitored for the current day, which means the object will have downtime. For more accurate reporting results, you can exclude the current day from the reporting period.

Scope: defines a list of Groups or Objects that will be analyzed in the report (by default, the VMware Virtual Machine Group is selected). The Add Group option returns a Group and all objects that a group contains (with all performance counter instances). The Add Object option returns only the selected object.

Max CPU usage (MHz): defines CPU usage threshold. If the maximum CPU usage for a VM is below the threshold during certain number of days (defined by Idle Ratio (%)), the VM will be considered as “Idle”. Use 0 to ignore this parameter.

Max Active Memory (MB): defines memory usage threshold. If the maximum memory usage for a VM is below the threshold during certain number of days (defined by Idle Ratio (%)), the VM will be considered as “Idle”. Use 0 to ignore this parameter.

Max Disk Usage (KB/s): defines disk space threshold. If the maximum disk usage for a VM is below the threshold during certain number of days (defined by Idle Ratio (%)), the VM will be considered as “Idle”. Use 0 to ignore this parameter.

Max Network Usage (KB/s): defines network usage threshold. If the maximum network usage for a VM is below the threshold during certain number of days (defined by Idle Ratio (%)), the VM will be considered as “Idle”. Use 0 to ignore this parameter.

Idle Ratio (%): defines the percentage of days in the reporting period when the maximum resource usage (CPU, Memory, Disk and Network) of the VM was below the selected thresholds.

Note

If you define multiple thresholds, the VM will be considered idle if its resource usage is below all specified thresholds.

Sample Usage

Report on virtual machines CPU and memory performance for this week to identify VMs that can be considered as candidates for powering off or decommissioning. Identify VMs that stayed idle longer than the half of the reporting period.

Instructions

Open the Virtual Machines. Idle VMs report.
From the From list, select This Week > Monday. From the To list, select This Week > Friday.
In the Scope section, select VMs to include in the report.

Click Add Object. In the Add Object window, click Options. In the Options window, click Add. In the Class Name search box, enter virtual machine and click Search. Select the VMware Virtual Machine class in the list of search results, click Add and click OK. In the Options windows, click OK to apply the filter. In the Add Object window, click Search. The search will return a list of objects that belong to the VMware Virtual Machine class. Select all virtual machines in the list, click Add and click OK.

In the Max CPU usage (MHz) and Max Active Memory (MB) fields, enter 1000. Do not change other threshold values.
In the Idle Ratio (%) field, enter 50.
Click Run to view the report.

Report Output

The report will show the list of virtual machines that stayed idle longer than half of the reporting period. Particularly, these are VMs whose maximum CPU usage was reported below 1000 MHz, and maximum memory usage way reported below 1000 Mb for at least 3 days of the week.

The Summary doughnut charts will show the following information:

Total number of idle, switched-off and normal VMs (VMs that are neither idle, nor switched-off)
Total CPU, memory, network and disk usage for idle and normal VMs
Total storage consumption for idle and normal VMs

The Top 10 Datastores by Wasted Space chart will show 10 datastores with the highest amount of storage consumed by idle, switched-off and normal VMs.

The Idle VMs (performance-based analysis) table will show the following details for idle VMs:

Column	Description
Virtual Machine	Name of the idle virtual machine.
CPU Usage (MHz, max)	Maximum level of CPU usage for the VM during the selected period.
Active Memory (MB, max)	Maximum level of memory usage for the VM during the selected period.
Disk Usage (KB/s, max)	Maximum level of disk usage for the VM during the selected period.
Network Usage (KB/s, max)	Maximum level of network usage for the VM during the selected period.
Days Analyzed	Number of days in the reporting period.
Idle Ratio (%)	Number of days when the VM was in the idle state against the number of days in the reporting period (in percent).
Down Time (%)	Amount of time when the VM was in the Critical State against the amount of time in the reporting period (in percent). Critical State means that the VM was powered off or non-operating. Other unhealthy states, such as Unmonitored, are not taken into account.
Storage Space Allocated (GB, current)	Amount of storage space allocated for the VM, as per the end of the reporting period.

You can click a VM name in the report table to analyze how the amount of consumed CPU, memory, network and storage resources have changed for the VM during the week.

You can click the link in the Down Time (%) column to drill down to uptime details for the VM for this week.