Logicalis' IBM-certified specialists
regularly conduct consolidation studies using IBM’s Consolidation
Discovery and Analysis Tool (CDAT). The CDAT is designed to collect
capacity and utilization data from Intel servers, independent of
manufacturer and no matter how large or small the environment.
Logicalis uses this tool to collect data and develop a capacity
utilization report that includes the following:Processor
utilization per server, maximum and average
- Memory utilization, maximum and average
- Storage utilization compared to allocated storage
- Network capacity
The collected data on the server environment is used to assess
two key elements:
- The primary function of the server
- System resource requirements of the existing environment: CPU,
memory, storage and network capacity
This information allows us to identify homogenous groups of
servers performing similar functions. We call these groups "islands
of consolidation." We normally target six types of server
consolidation islands. These are:
- Mail servers
- Terminal servers
- File/print servers
- Application servers
- Web servers
- Database servers
Once these islands are identified, analysis of the resource
requirements for each island are fed into a set of capacity and
sizing models that recommend the optimal solutions for each
environment. In this solution-development phase, several scenarios
are examined to see if they will be a good match for the particular
island:
- Physical versus virtual consolidation
- Scale-up versus scale-out solution
- Blades versus standalone server for the Intel environment