Aria Operations gives us the ability to reclaim resources by exposing Powered Off VMs, Idle VMs, VM Snapshots, and Orphaned VMDKs. This blog will highlight the Powered Off VMs, for me the easiest to reclaim. To see your Powered Off VMs go to Capacity - Reclaim - select a Datacenter then expand the Powered Off VMs tab.
I like the list of Powered Off VMs, but I have to select each Datacenter to see it's Powered Off VMs, I'd prefer a list of all VMs across all Datacenters. I'd also like to see vCPU and Memory for each VM, telling me exactly how much I'll be reclaiming if I were to delete the Powered Off VMs.
You'll also notice the Duration metric telling us how long the VM has been Powered Off, but this is a computed metric not available on the VM itself, so I created a Super Metric to give us the same which we discussed previously. Keep in mind that your Super Metric will start counting from the time you import it, so it may vary from what's being shown in Capacity - Reclaim
We'll use this Super Metric in a new Dashboard (and View) to show us all Powered Off VMs, total vCPU and Memory reclaimable, and down duration against each VM. Here's what I created.
The View on the left is a list of Powered Off VMs, including our Super Metric, along with vCPU, and Memory for each VM with totals at the bottom indicating what you can expect to reclaim should you delete these Powered Off VMs. I also included the metric called Reclaimable Powered Off, which is a tag of sorts assigned by Operations once daily to VMs defined as Powered Off by what you've set in Capacity - Reclaim - SETTINGS.
This gives you the ability to show only VMs that have been powered off for more than 7 days for example. I want to see them immedaitely, so I've set my threshold to 1 day.
There is a Metric Chart top right showing the trend of Powered Off VMs in your environment and there is a Text widget bottom right pointing at the Capacity - Reclaim link in your environment for reference. If you import this Dashboard you'll want to change the URL in that widget. If you'd like the Dashboard (and View and Super Metric) you can download it here.
Most importantly we now have a place to go to show all Powered Off VMs and just how much vCPU and Memory you'll reclaim by deleting them. Happy hunting!
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