Capacity Planning
It is very common for an IT organization to manage system performance in a reactionary fashion, analyzing and correcting performance problems as users report them. When problems occur, hopefully system administrators have tools necessary to quickly analyze and remedy the situation.In a perfect world, administrators prepare in advance in order to avoid performance bottlenecks altogether, using capacity planning tools to predict in advance how servers should be configured to adequately handle future workloads.
The goal of capacity planning is to provide satisfactory service levels to users in a cost-effective manner.
Determine service level requirements
- Define workloads
- Determine the unit of work
- Identify service levels for each workload
Analyze current system capacity
- Measure service levels and compare to objectives
- Measure overall resource usage
- Measure resource usage by workload
- Identify components of response time
Plan for the future
- Determine future processing requirements
- Plan future system configuration
By following these steps, you can guarantee that your organization will be prepared for the future, ensuring that service level requirements will be met using an optimal configuration. You will have the information necessary to purchase only what you need, avoiding over-provisioning while at the same time assuring adequate service.
@ Vitage