VMware DRS

VMware DRS continuously balances computing capacity in resource pools to deliver the performance, scalability and availability not possible with physical infrastructure. VMware DRS allows you to:

• Improve service levels for all applications. VMware DRS continuously balance capacity will ensure that each virtual machine has access to appropriate resources at any point in time.
• Easily deploy new capacity. VMware DRS will seamlessly take advantage of the additional capacity of new servers added to a resource pool by redistributing virtual machines without system disruption.
• Automate planned server maintenance. VMware DRS can automatically migrate all virtual machines off physical servers to enable scheduled server maintenance with zero downtime.
• Dramatically increase system administrator productivity. Enable system administrators to monitor and effectively manage more IT infrastructure.

Reduce Energy Consumption in the Datacenter

VMware Distributed Power Management (DPM) (this functionality is supported experimentally) continuously monitors resource requirements and power consumption across a DRS cluster. When the cluster needs fewer resources, it consolidates workloads and puts hosts in standby mode to reduce power consumption. When resource requirements of workloads increase, DPM brings powered-down hosts back online to ensure service levels are met.

Distributed Power Management allows IT organizations to:

• Cut power and cooling costs in the datacenter during low utilization time periods.
• Automate management of energy efficiency in the datacenter.

VMware DRS (with DPM) is included in VMware Infrastructure Enterprise edition and can be purchased as an add-on product to the Standard and Foundation editions. VMware VMotion is required to implement VMware DRS. Find out more about the VMware Infrastructure editions.