What is this feature all about?
Now Sizer provides an option to select the type of processor the workload (existing or proposed) is running on. This gets factored in while sizing for the workload adding precision to the sizing and overall recommendation.
To give an example of how it helps.. an existing worklaod (say Server Virt, 100 of them) running on a weak processor (say a Haswell 2699v3, specint-38.58) would require less cores in sizing than the same 100 VMs running on a high performing CPU( like Skylake 8156 specInt -68.85).
Previously, the processor for existing workload was not taken into account, though Sizer always used a baseline processor[E5 2680v2] . So irrespective of whether the current worklaod is running on a slowest processor or the fastsest one, sizings used to remain the same.
With this new addition, there is a lot more precision added to sizing as we account for the incremental changes due to different type of processors.
How do we handle the processor input during sizing?
Here is an example: input processor Broadwell E5 2690v4[46.43 specInt]
- Lets say sizing comes to 32 cores
- This sizing is at the baseline [E5 2680v2, 42.31 specInt] – Sizer defualt used until now
- This has to be adjusted against the input processor E5 2690v4
- 32*[46.43/42.31] = 35.11
- The way to read this:
- If your existing processor was E5 2680v2(42.31), then the workload would require 32 cores
- If your existing processor(E5 2690v4) is stronger than the above baseline (specInt wise), you would need more cores
Where do we select the processor input for the workload?
In the page where we give the workload name and select the type of workload, there is a dropdown to select the processor the workload is running on.
Currently, we support only one processor type per workload , however, there are chances that sometimes a workload can be running on mixed CPUs. In that case, it is advisable to go with the processor with better performance among the two.
Please note: This feature only deals with sizing based on the selected processor. It does not reflect or has any influence on the type of processor chosen for the recommended hardware. The HW recommendation continues to be driven based on the optimal HW solution based on the resources required (cores/flash/capacity)