VMware reservations for HA

[Heritage02Rider]

I have a small VMware cluster and have recently added the Mitel Applications Suite from a ova provided by my phone supplier. The reservations on this guest are set pretty high. CPU=2000 MHz Memory=4048 MB. I checked my HA advanced runtime infos and had 36 slots with 23 in use and 1 available. No other servers have reservations set. I have three formidable servers with plenty of RAM and CPU. So I removed the reservations for the MAS to see what the effect would be. Result is 870 slots, 23 in use and 557 available. Much nicer!

My question is this; do I really need to reserve this large amount of CPU and memory for MAS and are there any serious consequences?

If I am in a HA situation, this wold insinuate a problem that requires attention, so I do not feel that any possibility of reduced performance would be a big issue. I also only have about 60 users on the MAS which barely utilize the interactivity of the software.

[martyn]

The reservations are put in place to ensure that there are the resources available when really required. Because RTP is sensitive to any delay then if you are running MBG for instance with teleworker handsets off of the MAS, then if there were to be a stage where the resources like CPU weren't available to the MAS server because another application was using them then you could end up with a situation where you have laggy speach on the other end of the teleworker connection.
If you need support for an issue and they identify that you have removed the reservations then they would probably close the case (they are getting more strict on this as of recently) as the system is not meeting the requirements for a virtualised installation.

End of the day if you have far more resources and aren't over allocating then it probably wont be a problem, but I'd be leaving them there as they are meant to be is always my recommendation.

[Heritage02Rider]

Thanks for the reply. Very much appreciated.

I assumed that the reservations are there for a reason. I know you have no idea how taxed my servers are. My main concern was a large reservation creates a larger slot size and therefore reduces the number of available guests I can actually turn on. So my three servers, capable of many more guests, are reduced to a maximum of 24 powered on guests. For me, I am willing to run the risk of removing the reservations for now and see how it goes. My servers CPU's are barely flexing at about 10% utilization and my ram is less than 50% consumed. I am not using Teleworker and am not sure what interface the MAS has in regular calling with my 5000 and IP desk phones. I will run the risk now and hopefully avoid spending thousands for a new server(s) and upgrade licensing just to add a new guest or three.

In an effort to fully understand the risks vs benefits, I will follow up on this in a few weeks and let the forum know if I have realized any impact on the MAS or any other side affects.

[LoopyLou]

The thing is that Mitel sets things for a reason so in "playing with them" you have to accept the risks to your company of doing so. The MAS software is a platform where various blades or applications run. This can include a Nupoint voicemail, UCA softphones, SRC for recording of phones and yes teleworker sets for remote users. So before you make any changes to the settings supplied by Mitel you might want to check with someone in your company about what is actually running on the MAS and what if any are the ramifications of you potentially effecting the operations of the voice processing systems. 

Just saying.