Distributed Power Management (DPM) Automation on VMware using Ansible

Distributed Power Management (DPM) is a feature in VMware vSphere that automatically adjusts the power state of hosts within a cluster based on the resource demands of the virtual machines (VMs) running on those hosts. DPM is designed to conserve energy by dynamically powering off unused or underutilized hosts and bringing them back online when resource demands increase. This feature helps organizations save on energy costs and reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining the high availability and performance of their virtualized infrastructure.

How Does Distributed Power Management Work?

DPM works by analyzing the resource requirements of the virtual machines running in a vSphere cluster. It evaluates the overall capacity and utilization of the cluster and makes decisions about whether to power off certain hosts or put them into standby mode. DPM uses vSphere HA (High Availability) and vMotion technologies to move virtual machines (VMs) from hosts that are being powered down to other hosts in the cluster, ensuring minimal disruption.

Here’s a breakdown of how DPM works in a vSphere cluster:

  1. Idle Hosts: If a host in the cluster is underutilized and not running many VMs, DPM can power it down or put it into standby mode, reducing power consumption.

  2. VM Migration: Before a host is powered off, vMotion is used to migrate any running VMs to other active hosts in the cluster, ensuring that workloads continue running without downtime.

  3. Power On Demand: When resource utilization increases (such as when more VMs are added or workloads increase), DPM will automatically power on the hosts that were previously powered off to meet the demand.

  4. Power Management Policies: VMware vSphere provides administrators with the ability to configure policies that control how aggressively DPM will manage power. This includes options to balance between power savings and performance requirements.

 

Ansible Playbook to Enable DPM in VMware vSphere

Here’s an example of an Ansible playbook that enables Distributed Power Management (DPM) in a VMware cluster using the community.vmware.vmware_cluster_dpm module. This playbook will configure your cluster to automatically power off hosts when they are not in use and power them on when needed.

 

- name: Enable Distributed Power Management (DPM)
  community.vmware.vmware_cluster_dpm:
    hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
    username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
    password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
    datacenter_name: datacenter
    cluster_name: cluster
    enable_dpm: true
    default_dpm_behaviour: automated
    host_power_action_rate: 2
  delegate_to: localhost

Explanation of the Ansible Playbook

  • community.vmware.vmware_cluster_dpm: This is the module used to enable and configure Distributed Power Management in a VMware cluster.

  • hostname: The hostname or IP address of the vCenter Server where your VMware environment is managed.

  • username: The vCenter Server username with appropriate permissions to manage the cluster.

  • password: The password corresponding to the vCenter Server username.

  • datacenter_name: The name of the datacenter where the cluster is located.

  • cluster_name: The name of the VMware cluster in which DPM should be enabled.

  • enable_dpm: Set to true to enable Distributed Power Management for the specified cluster.

  • default_dpm_behaviour: Specifies the default behavior for DPM. Setting this to automated allows DPM to make automatic decisions about powering hosts on and off.

  • host_power_action_rate: The rate at which hosts are powered off and on. A value of 2 means that the system will make these adjustments at a moderate pace, balancing power efficiency and workload performance.

  • delegate_to: localhost: Ensures that the playbook is executed locally (on the machine running Ansible), as it needs access to the local configuration details and authentication credentials.

Benefits of Enabling DPM with Ansible

  1. Automation: Automating the process of enabling DPM across multiple clusters ensures consistency and saves time for administrators.
  2. Energy Efficiency: By automatically managing the power states of hosts, DPM helps save energy by powering off idle hosts.
  3. Cost Savings: Reducing the number of powered-on hosts directly reduces operational costs associated with electricity and cooling.
  4. Scalability: DPM can be easily configured for large-scale environments, enabling efficient energy usage across many clusters.
  5. Minimal Disruption: DPM ensures that VMs are migrated off hosts before they are powered down, minimizing any potential impact on performance or availability.

 

Enabling Distributed Power Management (DPM) with Ansible is an excellent way to automate energy-efficient management of your VMware vSphere clusters. By reducing the number of powered-on hosts, you can optimize resource usage, lower operational costs, and help make your data center more sustainable. Ansible makes it easy to configure and automate DPM settings across your infrastructure, ensuring a more efficient and cost-effective virtualized environment.

Ashutosh Dixit

I am currently working as a Senior Technical Support Engineer with VMware Premier Services for Telco. Before this, I worked as a Technical Lead with Microsoft Enterprise Platform Support for Production and Premier Support. I am an expert in High-Availability, Deployments, and VMware Core technology along with Tanzu and Horizon.

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