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Designer for Azure

Getting Started with the Designer for Azure

The Cloudamize Designer can be used to run ‘What if’ scenarios by customizing regions, pricing plans, insurance types and families, storage options, and more. These changes can be applied to individual machines or the entire infrastructure.

You can edit existing designs or quickly create as many new designs as needed without losing any of your previous results.

To access the Designer, ‘click’ on the ‘Designer’ button at the top right-hand corner of the screen with an arrow pointing to it.

it will open a window as below and click on the ‘open Classic Console’.

The above option will open a new window with results page as shown below, then click on ‘View Details’ highlighted for Azure.

It will open a window as shown in the screenshot below, and click on the ‘designer’ option highlighted.

A new window will open, allowing you to create, or edit a Design.

 

To edit an existing design, [1] select the design from the dropdown menu, and ‘click’ Edit Design

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to create a new design, [2] check the box next to Create a New Design, and enter a name for your design.

 

Next, [3] select a base design that you wish to use as a starting point, and ‘click’ Create Design

The center of the Designer presents the same information, as the Assess Dashboard.

 

In the middle is the Annual Cost, along with the Infrastructure Summary, underneath is the details chart for Summary, Compute, Storage, and Network.

 

 

On the left-hand side are the various pre-built Workload and Hardware focused designs that are available for you to adjust, along with your infrastructure breakdown underneath.

Changes made in the Designer can be applied to your entire infrastructure, a group of nodes, or a single machine to ensure workload needs are met.

 

 

On the right-hand side panel are all the available tuning options.

 

Here, you can change your Pricing Plan and Region, apply any previously negotiated discounts, and make changes to the Compute, Storage, and Network aspects of your infrastructure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will look more closely at each tuning tab within this document, and explore how the changes will potentially affect your annual cost.

 

Save Your Design

 

Once finished, you can save any changes made by clicking Save Draft and continue working or finalize your changes and Build a Design.

The Force Rebuild button is to be used in the event that you edit an existing design.

 

 

Please note, Reset All will revert back to the original design configuration


After selecting ‘Commit Changes’ you will be returned to the Assess Dashboard.

This will then begin the process of recalculating costs on the Cloudamize platform, with updated pricing being shown on your Assess Dashboard once the calculations have completed.

 

 

Please note that this process can take upto 45 minutes to complete depending on the size of your infrastructure, and the number of changes made.

 

 

 

When completed, you can view the updated design by selecting it from the dropdown on the left-hand side of the screen.

 

 

 

 

Customizing Your Pricing Plan Azure

Introduction

You can change the Pricing Plan and options for any number of machines in the assessment to meet your needs. These options will vary for the different cloud providers based on their current offerings.

 

In Azure , you can select any pricing plan which is offered by the cloud provider and apply that pricing to any number of machines.

 

Using the Designer, Cloudamize allows you to build customer scenarios to view the costs and potential savings associated with a range of Azure instance options.

 

 

1.         Pay-as-you-go: Purchase Azure services directly from Microsoft with pay-as-you-go-pricing. Pay for only what you use each month, with no upfront commitments.

2.         1-year reservation: Azure Reservations, committing to one-year or three-years plans for virtual machines

3.         3-year reservation: Azure Reservations, committing to one-year or three-years plans for virtual machines.

 

Note: Pricing options in Azure are subject to change and can vary from region and region. It is recommended to check the availability of 1yr and 3yr RIs for each region

selected in Designer.

 

Click the link below  to check availability using Azures pricing calculator.

 

Azure Pricing Calculator

 

 

 

 

Azure Hybrid Benefit

 

Azure offers the ability to save on Windows OS licensing fees through Software Assurance if you currently own Windows OS licenses for your on-premise machines.

The offering allows you to eliminate the license fees for two Azure virtual machines for each on-premise license you own.

             

1.         Do Not Use Hybrid Benefits: Do Not Use Hybrid Benefits

2.         Use Hybrid Benefits Only If MSSQL Is Not Used: Hybrid Benefits are only available for VMs not using MS SQL Server. MS SQL Server can be still be installed after the VM has been constructed.

3.         Use Hybrid Benefits And BYO MSSQL License If Needed: Hybrid Benefits can be used in conjunction with BYO MSSQL Licenses

The i also provides information relating to the specific option.

 

MSSQL License

 

 

  • Use existing MS SQL licenses when moving to an Azure Cloud Instance

Please note, SQL Data is only captured using individual agents. This feature is not available for nodes assessed with agentless data collectors, or vCenter and Hyper-V installations.

 

 

Region

 

  • You can also choose any region which is offered by Azure to recalculate the results and get recommendations only for the offerings in the selected region

 

Discount

 

Apply a percent discount to individual machines by adjusting the slider under the Discount label. This feature is useful when looking to remove the cost of a machine that will not be migrated without necessarily removing the machine from the assessment results.

 

Save Changes or Build Design

 

Once finished, you can save any changes made by clicking Save Draft and continue working or finalize your changes and Build a Design.

The Force Rebuild button is to be used in the event that you edit an existing design.

 

 

Note, Reset All will revert back to the original design configuration

 

 

 

Customizing Compute Options

You can customize options relating to the compute recommendations for your infrastructure.
You can either select Use Azure VM or the Use Azure SQL

 

 

  • Customize the recommendations based on whether the assessed nodes will move to a traditional Azure VM, or an Azure SQL Database

 

Please note, SQL Data is only captured using individual agents. This feature is not available for nodes assessed with agentless data collectors, or vCenter and Hyper-V installations.

 

CPU and Instance Family

 

Select CPU and Instance Family or the Instance Type

 

 

  • Select the option for CPU and Instance Family to adjust the target peak CPU threshold (Service Level Target) and to select which instance families can be recommended. Get started by selecting CPU and Instance Family.

  • You can adjust the Target Peak CPU Threshold by moving the slider to select a value between 1% and 99%.

(Default setting is (80%)

  • Check the boxes next to each Instance Family you would like to receive recommendations for.

       

Please note, SLT (Service Level Target) is the target peak CPU threshold applied by Cloudamize when making recommendations.

 

  • Select the option for Instance Type to force the selected machine or infrastructure to a specific instance type. After selecting this option, click the drop-down list to view instance types available in the region you have selected under pricing plan options

 

 

 

Customizing Storage Options

You can customize the Storage Capacity Scaling, IOPS Scale, Storage types, and limit the maximum number of disks recommended for each type of storage.

 

Storage Capacity Scaling

 

 

  • You can scale the Storage Capacity for the selected machine or infrastructure by adjusting the slider at the top of the Storage Tuning controls.

  • You can scale the occupancy of your storage based on known occupancy. Changes made using this slider will update storage capacity recommendations.

 

IOPS Scale

 

You can scale your observed IOPS for the selected machine or infrastructure by adjusting the slider at the top of the Storage Tuning controls.

 

 

  • You can apply a percentage of your IOPS to consider for storage recommendations from 0% (meaning ignore all IOPS) to 500% (meaning assume 500% of the observed IOPS).
    This can be useful for adjusting the Cloudamize recommendations for certain situations which are known about your infrastructure.

 

Select Storage Types

 

 

  • Select the types of storage offered by Azure, for which you would like to have recommendations.

 

Select Number of Disk Limits

 

 

  • There is the ability to limit the number of disks recommended for each type of storage by selecting the maximum number of disks from the associated dropdown list.

    Select “Unlimited” for cases where the limit should not be considered.

 

 

 

 

Customizing Network Load Options

You can customize the network load factor by adjusting the slider under the Network Tuning portion of the Designer controls

 

Adjusting the Network Scale

 

 

  • You can select network load factor between 0% (meaning network load will not be considered) to 500% (meaning assume five times the amount of network load).

 

It is important to note that Cloudamize does not distinguish between local and external traffic. Cloudamize takes a look at all outbound traffic observed and assumes all of that traffic is egress and therefore going over the Internet. Similarly for inbound traffic, Cloudamize looks at total ingress and assumes it is all via Internet. Please adjust your design parameters to take this into account.

 

 

 

 

Use Azure SQL

Pre-Built Plans

Cloudamize provides two new pre-built designs for Azure assessments in the dropdown box on the Assess Dashboard.

 

 

  • DBMI (where SQL Server is used) with Hybrid Benefits: Provides an initial recommendation for each assessed SQL database while applying available discounts through the Azure Hybrid Benefits programs.

  • DBMI (where SQL Server is used): Provides an initial recommendation for each assessed SQL database without applying Azure Hybrid Benefits.

 

 

  

 

Migration Planner

Using the Migration Planner, Cloudamize now provides a more in-depth look at the SQL Servers found in the assessed infrastructure.

SQL Server and License Usage

 

 

 

The information provided within the SQL Server and License Usage machine allows you to gain further insight into the on-premise licensing data and view a comparison of host-based versus VM-based SQL licensing. This feature also provides an overview of necessary on-cloud SQL licensing.

 

SQL Server

Provides a breakdown of the SQL Instances assessed and provides an overview including the number of licenses utilized and SQL database information such as size, edition, version, location and more.

 

On-Cloud License Usage

Provides a breakdown of license usage on-cloud including information such as the On-Cloud Instance type, Number of Hardware Threads, SQL Edition, and whether or not the SQL license is part of the BYOL program.

 

 

 

On-Premise Physical

View how many SQL licenses are needed on-cloud based on the observed on-premise configuration and Cloudamize recommended instances. The chart also includes information such as the Number of Hardware Threads, CPU Information, and number of required SQL Enterprise or Standard licenses. This chart also informs you as to whether or not any of the following services are running:

 

  1. SQL Server Analysis Services

  2. SQL Server Integration Services

  3. SQL Server Report Services

  4. SQL Server Master Data Services

 

On-Premise VMware

View how many SQL licenses are needed on-cloud based on the observed on-premise VMware configuration and Cloudamize recommended cloud instances. The chart also includes information such as the Number of Hardware Threads, CPU Information, and Number of Required SQL Enterprise or Standard licenses. Also provided is a summary of the VM-based and host-based SQL licenses broken down by Standard and Enterprise editions. This chart also informs you as to whether or not any of the following services are running:

 

  1. SQL Server Analysis Services

  2. SQL Server Integration Services

  3. SQL Server Report Services

  4. SQL Server Master Data Services

 

On-Premise HyperV

View how many SQL licenses are needed on-cloud based on the observed on-premise Hyper-V configuration and Cloudamize recommended cloud instances. The chart also includes information such as the Number of Hardware Threads, CPU Information, and Number of Required SQL Enterprise or Standard licenses. Also provided is a summary of the VM-based and host-based SQL licenses broken down by Standard and Enterprise editions. This chart also informs you as to whether or not any of the following services are running:

 

  1. SQL Server Analysis Services

  2. SQL Server Integration Services

  3. SQL Server Report Services

  4. SQL Server Master Data Services

 

 

 

 

Advanced Filtering

Two new filters allow you to gain deeper insight into the assessed infrastructure and further ensure that migrations are as efficient and cost-effective as possible.

 

1.   BYOL for Microsoft Software: Searches for all machines with applications installed that are covered under Amazon’s BYOL license program including the following:

Microsoft Exchange Server

Microsoft SharePoint Server

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft System Center

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services

Microsoft Skype for Business Server

Microsoft Dynamics products

Microsoft BizTalk Server

 

2.   SQL With Less Than 4 Threads: Searches for all machines running SQL server where the number of observed CPU threads is less than four. These machines are candidates for further optimisation to lower SQL license cost.

  

 

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