Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation
Nov 16, 2014 This calculator is focused on Virtual Server clusters, for VDI solutions I recommend the VDI Calculator by @andreleibovici. This calculator allows this to be done quickly and easily while giving advice as to the availability level recommended for the cluster based on its size. All you need to do is enter the follow details into the Yellow. A worst case calculation of your largest VM will determine what’s called a “slot” size. The VMware HA will then calculate how many total “slots” can be used which determines how many total VMs you can have powered on.
- Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Tool
- Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Calculator
- Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Calculator
- Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Chart
- Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculations
Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Tool
Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Calculator
By Duncan Epping, Principal Architect, VMware
Yesterday I received a question on twitter:
Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Calculator
Hi, to settle an argument in the office, if no reserves are in place, does number of vCPU’s affect slot size in vSphere 4? Thx 🙂
First of all, what is a slot? The availability guide explains it as follows
A slot is a logical representation of the memory and CPU resources that satisfy the requirements for any powered-on virtual machine in the cluster.
In other words a slot is the worst case CPU and Memory reservation scenario for any given virtual machine in a cluster. This slot is used when Admission Control is enabled and “Host Failures Tolerates” has been selected as the admission control policy. The total amount of available resources in the cluster will be divided by the slot size and that dictates how many VMs can be powered on without violating availability constraints. Meaning that it will guarantee that every powered on virtual machine can be failed over.
As said this slot is dictated by the worst case reservation for CPU and Memory. Prior to vSphere 4.0 we used the number of vCPUs to determine the slotsize for CPU as well. But we do not use vCPUs anymore to determine the slot size for CPU. The slotsize for CPU is determined by the highest reservation or 256MHz (vSphere 4.x and prior) / 32MHz (vSphere 5) if no reservation is set.
Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculation Chart
However, vCPUs can have an impact on your slot… it can have an impact on your memory slotsize. If no reservation is set anywhere HA will use the highest Memory Overhead in your cluster as the slot size for memory. This is where the amount of vCPUs come in to play, the more vCPUs you add to a virtual machine the higher will your memory overhead be.
Vmware Cluster Slot Size Calculations
I guess the answer to this question is: For CPU the number of vCPUs does not impact your slotsize, but for memory it may.