Selecting data for a virtualization study

Before you begin

Before you create any Virtual Planner study, ensure that:

• Data representative of your computing environment is imported and available in the Workspace.
• Your system data is organized into domains with entity filters that identify the specific systems you want to work with in the Virtual Planner. Entity filters allow the Virtual Planner to operate efficiently by loading data only for the systems of interest for the planning exercise.

To select data for the Virtual Planner study

This procedure describes how to specify the data to use for your Virtual Planner study.

1. Navigate to the Virtual Planner tab.
   The New Study page is displayed.
2. From the Domain drop-down list, select the domain that contains the systems you want to use in the study.

3. From the Entity filter drop-down list, to further narrow down the systems to use in the study, select the entities from the domain.
   

   The entity filter list includes Local filters that can be applied only to the selected domain, and Global filters that can be associated with multiple domains.

4. From the Time Period drop-down list, select the required time range. Select from the available options:
   • 
     
     • Last 30 days. This is the default.
     • Last 7 days
     • Yesterday

     • From - to

       BMC recommends that you retain the default time period of  Last 30 days, or select Last 7 days or Yesterday. These are optimized time ranges that ensure that data loads faster. Select From - to only if you have a very specific time range requirement.

       Warning

       If you select From - to from the list, a warning message is displayed: It may take a long time to load data for a custom time range. Are you sure you want to continue?

5. After you select the domain, entities  and time period, the corresponding data is loaded, and the resulting computer counts are displayed in the OS Type and Virtualization Platforms tables as shown below:

   

   Note

   • To provide easy access to common virtualization targets, VMware resource pool and cluster information is automatically loaded, even if it is not included in the selected domain and entity filter. These pool and cluster counts are shown in the Virtualization Platforms table.
   • If "No computers available" message is displayed, select a different entity filter or time period. Refer to the troubleshooting section to view the steps you should take, if data is not loaded as expected.
6. After you select the data, you can conduct the study.

Related topics

What-is-a-virtualization-study

Prerequisites-for-Virtual-Planner