VMware Labs releases Proactive DRS Fling from last years Fling Contest

Last year, the VMware Labs team ran an Open Innovation contest where users could submit ideas for Flings that they would like to see get built. In addition to that, one lucky winner will be selected and their idea will actually be sponsored internally within VMware R&D and VMware Engineers would then implement that idea. The winner of that contest was Mike Preston on an idea called Proactive DRS:

“What I would like to see is some sort of appliance/script that can hook into both the vCenter Operations API’s as well as the vSphere APIs and merge these two technologies together. By interpreting vCenter Operations predictions for what is going to happen within your environment and then leveraging vMotion/DRS/DPM to prepare for this before it happens we could be left with a more proactive approach. (I.E. Historically VM1 will utilize 100% CPU at 4am in the morning, let’s be sure these resources are available on the host at 3:45 by migrating other VMs off, rather than waiting for DRS to kick in at 4:05 – At 6am everyday my workload normally increases to the point where DPM kicks in and turns on some hosts, let’s turn these on at based on the vCenter Operations stats rather than having to manually configure a setting to do so).”

Today at the VMware R&D Innovation booth at VMworld, the VMware Labs team has just announced that they will be releasing the Proactive DRS Fling (download coming very soon!). I think this is pretty awesome, I mean how cool is that, an idea that you came up with was implemented by a group of VMware Engineers? Congrats on the awesome idea Mike!

Here is a bit more details on how Proactive DRS works:  

It is a way for DRS to react to changes in the virtual cluster, and to act on predicted changes in resource demands before hosts become stressed. For example, if you have a VM that historically uses 100% CPU at 8am every morning, ProactiveDRS  makes  sure that the CPU resources will be available for that VM before 8am. These actions ensure that your cluster runs smoother and reduces the amount of reactive VM rebalances that occur.

Features

• Given an advance forecast/prediction of each VM’s resource demands, e.g., CPU and Memory, ProactiveDRS seeks to reorganize the placement of VMs to best balance the current resource demands while taking early actions to accommodate the future/predicted resource demands.
• Sample actions include, but are not limited to, proactive vMotions (migrations) and proactively powering on a new physical host to accept VMs whose resource demands are expected to spike beyond the available resources of their current physical host.

The VMware Labs folks did not stop there, they are also running a new 2013 Fling Contest and if you are at VMworld, you can drop by the VMware R&D Innovation booth which is behind the main VMware booth to submit your ideas. Another lucky winner will be selected and their idea will also be built by VMware Engineers which includes a free ticket to VMworld 2014. I recommend you either drop by the booth if you are at VMworld or go online to submit an idea and you could be the next person with their very own Fling!