vSphere DPM

vSphere DPM is a cluster power management feature. vSphere DPM continuously monitors resource requirements and power consumption across a DRS cluster. When the cluster needs fewer resources, it consolidates workloads and powers off unused ESXi hosts to reduce power consumption. When resource requirements of workloads increase, vSphere DPM powers hosts on for VMs to use.

Create a DRS cluster functioning in Fully Automation Mode

vSphere DPM can use one of three Power management protocols to bring a host out of standby mode:

• Intelligent Platform management Intergace(IPMI)
• Hewlett-Packard Integrated Lights-Out (iLO)
• Wake on LAN (WOL)

Hosts powered off by vSphere DPM are marked by vCenter Server as being in standby mode. This indicates that the hosts are available to be powered on whenever they are needed.

vSphere DPM operates by awakening ESXi hosts from a powered-off state through WOL packets. These packets are sent over the vMotion networking integrate by another host in the cluster, so vSphere DPM keeps at least one host powered on at all times. (Manually test “exit standby” for the host with vSphere Client).

Wake-On-LAN Compatibility Requirements

vSphere DPM Operation

vSphere DPM algorithm does not frequently power servers on and off, it powers off a server only when it is very likely that it will stay powered off for some time. It does this by cluster workload history.

When vSphere HA admission control is disabled, failover resource constraints are not passed on to DRS and DPM. DPM places the hosts in standby mode, even if doing so violates failover requirements.

vSphere DPM powers-off the host when the cluster load is low, it considers a 40 minute load history and all VMs on the selected host are migrated to other hosts before putting the host in standby mode.

vSphere DPM powers on a host when the cluster load is high, for this DPM considers a 5 minute load history and then WOL packet is sent to the selected host, which boots up, then DRS does the load balancing and some VMs are migrated to this host.

vSphere DPM evaluates CPU and memory resource use of each host and aims to keep each host’s resource use in the range of 45–81 percent (63 percent +/- 18 percent).ESXi hosts cannot automatically be brought out of standby mode unless vCenter Server is running in the cluster.

The power management automation levels are:

• Off: disables the DPM feature.
• Manual sets vSphere DPM to recommendations for host power operation; these recommendations are displayed on the cluster’s DRS tab in the vSphere Client.
• Automatic sets vSphere DPM to execute host power operations if all VMs migration can be automatic from DRS.

Select Power Management and Specify Automation Level

Priority ratings are based on the amount of overutilization or underutilization found in the DRS cluster and the improvement that is expected from the intended host power state change. A priority 1 (Conservative) recommendation is mandatory. A priority 5 (Aggressive) recommendation brings only slight improvement.

vSphere DPM Set for Fully Automatic with priority level 5 “Apply all Recommendation”

When you enable vSphere DPM, hosts in the DRS cluster inherit the power management automation level of the cluster by default. You can override this default for an individual host so that its automation level differs from that of the cluster.

Thanks to VMware, Information is from the white paper provided by VMware.