Understanding the Instance Optimization Details for RDS and Spot Instances

Understanding the Instance Optimization Details for RDS and Spot Instances

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The Instance Optimization Details report displays instance-specific details for RDS and spot instance types.

Open the Instance Optimization Details report, by clicking on a hyperlinked value in the Count column from the RDS and spot Instance optimization opportunity tabular report.

The Instance Optimization Details report for ASGs is covered in Working with Auto Scaling Groups.

The Instance Optimization Details for EC2, Azure and GCP is covered in Understanding the Instance Optimization Details Report.

Note: Cloud instances that do not have adequate information for recommendation analysis are not included in the Instance Optimization Details report. For example, this would include guests with no data or incomplete benchmark data.

Page Navigation

Use the Back button in the top-right corner of the page to return to the parent Public Cloud Optimization page. Do not use the browser's Back button for navigation within Densify as this exits Densify.

The Instance Optimization Details dashboard consists of:

  • A tabular report—The columns of the tabular report change depending on the selected instance type. Refer to the Table: Instance Optimization Details Tabular Report Columns below for details. See Data Controls, below to search, sort, export and customize the table's content.
  • A lower pane with system details—Based on the selected system in the tabular top pane, various details and settings for the system are available in separate tabs, such as system resource utilization charts, system details, optimization approvals and modifying system attributes. See Reviewing Specific Instance Details for details on each tab.

Reviewing the Instance Optimization Details Table

Tabular Report

Table: Instance Optimization Details Tabular Report Columns

Component/Column Name

Description

Account

The instance's parent environment. This corresponds to the AWS Linked Account.

Environment

The instance's parent account. This corresponds to the AWS Payer Account.

Cluster

The cluster/availability zone that corresponds to a geographic region.

System

The system name is a hyperlink that takes you to the Impact Analysis and Recommendations page. You can review instance-specific details. See Viewing the Public Cloud Impact Analysis and Recommendation Report.

System ID

A unique key assigned by the public cloud vendors to identify this instance.

Overall Status

Identifies the overall status of the optimization results based on Optimization Type and potential $ Savings/Month :

Optimal

These groups of cloud services are currently optimal. Optimization type is just right and there are no savings for this group.

Identified Risk

These groups of cloud services are at risk. This status typically occurs when the savings amount is less than $0 (i.e. when you need to spend money to mitigate risk).

Identified Risk status is also present when the savings amount is $0, but optimization type is upscale, upsize, or upsize to optimal family. This situation occurs when services are inactive, but they will need to be upscaled or upsized when they resume activity to mitigate risk.

Savings Opportunity

These groups of cloud services have saving opportunities, which occurs when their savings amount is greater than $0.

Savings opportunity status is also present when the savings amount is $0, but optimization type is terminate, modernize, modernize to optimal family, downscale, downsize, or downsize to optimal family. This situation occurs when services are inactive, but have a recommendation of terminate, modernize, downsize or downscale when they resume activity to save money.

Optimization Type

The recommended action for this instance. See Optimization Type Descriptions and Color-Coding for a description of each recommendation.

Recommendation Reason/Observations

The reason for the Optimization Type recommendation. Densify also provides any relevant details related to the recommendation.

Current Instance Type

Based on the data collected, the current instance type is listed.

Current Purchasing Strategy

The current purchasing strategy discovered through data collection.

Possible purchasing strategy values are:

  • On-Demand—The on-demand price, with 0% RI coverage;
  • Reserved—The reserved instance price, for 100% RI coverage;
  • Partially Reserved—This current instance has partial reserved instance coverage (between 0% and 100%);
  • "-" —no purchasing strategy is provided for terminate recommendations.

Current RI Coverage (%)

This is the percentage of reserve instance (RI) coverage available for the current instance. Flexible RIs are taken into consideration when calculating the percentage of RI coverage. However, convertible RIs are included in the calculation depending on the RI coverage assessment Densify settings.

Contact [email protected] to review your RI candidate policies and RI coverage assessment Densify settings.

Recommended Instance Type

Based on optimization analysis, the recommended catalog instance type is listed.

Predicted Uptime (%)

When using pay-per-use pricing models, we need to know the amount of time each instance has been running to accurately estimate future costs.

The predicted uptime (%) for an instance or container, is based on the percentage of hours CPU utilization data is present in the historical interval, as specified in the policy settings for the ASG. Individual child instances are not taken into account.

Predicted uptime %, for new instances or containers, that started mid-way through the historical interval, is calculated from the time/date that the instance was started as opposed to the beginning of the interval, resulting in more accurate predictions for future usage.

For example, the uptime is the number of hours that have "CPU Utilization in mcores", and the range is the lesser of when the container was discovered, or the range defined in the policy. Looking at a specific container that was discovered on Jan 5th 2023, that has workload of 42 hours since that date, then the uptime % is 42 hrs/(13 days x 24 hrs/day) = 13.4%. This is the value is shown in this column.

Click on the Predicted Uptime Details tab to review the uptime details for the selected instance.

Current Estimated Cost ($)

The current estimated per instance cost is determined by multiplying the on-demand, monthly price of the current instance type by predicted uptime %. i.e. current per instance list price (monthly)* predicted uptime %

See FAQs for examples of how the cost s are caculated.

Recommended Estimated Cost ($)

Recommended estimated cost is calculated based on multiplying the on-demand price of the recommended instance type by the uptime.

This column is hidden by default. You can enable it for display, as required. See Data Controls, above.

$ Savings/Month

The estimated current and recommended instance cost is used to calculate savings per month (i.e. current estimated cost - recommended estimated cost).

Effort

[Moderate|Low|Very Low|None]

This column describes the effort required to investigate and implement the Densify recommendations. Effort for each instance is calculated by rule-driven analytics based on factors (such as instance family change, storage change, data quality checks, feature changes, etc.) that can be configured in the policy settings and rule set which captures best practices.

Click on the Effort Details tab to view the factors that contribute to the effort level. See Reviewing the Workload Charts and Additional Details Tabs, below.

Current CPU

The current value for CPU allocation.

Recommended CPU

The recommended value for CPU allocation.

Current CPU Benchmark

The current CPU benchmark.

This column is hidden by default. You can enable it for display, as required. See Data Controls, above.

Recommended CPU Benchmark

The recommended CPU benchmark.

This column is hidden by default. You can enable it for display, as required. See Data Controls, above.

Current Memory Allocation (GB)

The current value for memory allocation.

Recommended Memory Allocation (GB)

The recommended value for memory allocation.

%CPU Usage (High)

The percentage of highest CPU workload.

%CPU Usage (Low)

The percentage of lowest CPU workload.

Active Memory Usage (%)

The percentage of active memory utilization.

Memory Usage (%)

The percentage of memory utilization.

OS

The operating system running on the instance.

Ideal CPU Allocation

The minimum CPU allocation required to not violate the policy high limits on the recommended instance.

Ideal Memory Allocation

The minimum memory allocation required to not violate the policy high limits on the recommended instance.

CPU Allocation Efficiency (%)

The allocation CPU efficiency (i.e. ideal allocation / recommended allocation) is measured in percent and shows the amount of CPU resources truly require by the workload.

Memory Allocation Efficiency (%)

The allocation memory efficiency (i.e. ideal allocation / recommended allocation) is measured in percent and shows the amount of memory resources truly require by the workload.

Instance Type Updated On

A value in this column indicates the instance type (cloud) or instance request/limit values (container) has been change recently.

The workload for this instance, on which the recommendation is based, includes only the days of data from the indicated date to the current date. All historical data for this instance, collected prior to the indicated date is not included in the analysis. The data has been excluded because it was based on the previous instance type (cloud) or instance request/limit values (container).

A blank cell indicates the current instance type has not changed and all available workload data within the range, defined by the policy, has been used to generate the recommendation.

Contact [email protected] to enable this feature. See Relearning Workload Patterns for more details.

Summary Total

In the top-right of the tabular report, the total number of Instances and Savings/Month for implementing the recommendations are displayed.

The total number of instances displayed is a total of all the instances in the optimization instance type group. This number corresponds to the number in the Count column of the parent optimization opportunity tabular report.

The amount of savings per month is a sum of all the monthly savings for each instance listed and can be negative if the recommendation is an upsize or upsize to an optimal family.

Note: The following details are not included in this report: Disk Allocations (Current | Recommended), Individual Disk Partitions at Risk, Disk Usage and Parent.

Optimization Type Descriptions and Color-Coding

The following descriptions and color coding apply to all AWS, Azure and GCP tabs.

Note: Not all optimization types are supported for all cloud providers.

Table: Optimization Type Color-Coding Summary

Optimization Type

Description

Just Right

This instance is optimally sized for the workload.

In general the following upsize recommendations incur additional costs. The cost increase is determined by comparing on-demand pricing for the current and recommended instance. The increased cost is required to alleviate application risk. If you have an RI or SP for the recommended upsize instance, there could be cost savings. This would still be an upsize recommendation.

Upsize - Optimal Family

This instance should be upsized to a more optimal instance family. This will improve the workload's performance and reduce risk.

If the workload can be moved to larger instance in a different family and still reduce cost, this then becomes a Modernize recommendation. e.g. t2.medium-Linux to m3.medium-Linux

Upsize

This instance should be upsized to an instance within the same instance family. The hosted workload needs an instance with more CPU and\or memory resources.

e.g. r3.large to r4.xlarge, both are in the "Memory Optimized r" instance family.

Upscale

This recommendation applies to ASGs only and indicates the ASG needs increase compute capacity by adjusting the maximum group size.

It may be more cost effective to use a larger instance for this ASG.

Downsize recommendations reduce the allocated resources as your workload has likely been over-provisioned. Once the recommendation has been determined from CPU and memory utilization, it is further verified against policy-defined limits, before the downsize or terminate recommendations are made.

Terminate

This instance should be terminated, as it is idle. An instance is determined to be idle if it has very low CPU utilization, network and disk I/O over an extended period of time. This will save you money.

Downsize - Optimal Family

This instance should be downsized to an instance belonging to an instance family that more closely suits your workload's utilization.

When you downsize, CPU and\or memory will be decreased to better suit your workloads. Utilization will improve with no impact on performance. This will save you money. e.g. d2.medium-Linux to m4.medium-Linux

Downsize

This instance should be downsized to an instance within the same instance family.

As indicated above, CPU and\or memory will be decreased to better suit your workloads. Utilization will improve with no impact on performance. This will save you money. e.g. m3.large-Linux to m3.small-Linux

Downscale

This Auto Scaling group should be downscaled to decrease the compute capacity by adjusting the minimum group size.

The following modernize recommendations move your workload to a more modern instance type without changing the resource allocation, cost or performance, at a minimum. Your costs could decrease and/or you may benefit from potential utilization and performance improvements.

Modernize - Optimal Family

This instance should be modernized to an instance belonging to a more optimal instance family. The cost of the new instance type will be less than the existing cost.

Allocated resources are not being removed and moving to an instance with more current hardware, you may also benefit potential utilization and performance improvements.

When you modernize, you will not decrease performance but will decrease cost.

Modernize

This instance should be modernized to an instance within the same instance family. The cost of the new instance type will be less than the existing cost and as indicated above you may also get utilization and performance improvements.

For example, moving to a new generation of the same instance family (e.g. m3.large to m4.large).

Reviewing Specific Instance Details

Clicking on any row in the tabular report shows more detailed system information for that instance, in the tabs on the lower pane:

  • Metrics Viewer—The link in the upper right corner of the lower pane, opens the metrics viewer. You can use the metrics viewer to investigate details when deciding whether to action specific recommendations. See Using the Metrics Viewer.
  • Note: The metrics viewer is not available for AWS Spot Instances.

  • Resource Utilization Metrics: Cloud Tab—The charts on this tab show the utilization for various workloads for the selected the instance.
  • Note: If no metrics are available, then the corresponding chart is not displayed.

    If a cloud instance has been optimized (i.e. instance type has been changed based on a recommendation), then on the next day you will see the Optimization Type set to "Just Right" and since the required data (as defined by the policy) has not been accumulated, only the Memory BackFill workload chart is displayed, if enabled. See the column, Instance Type Updated On , in Table: Instance Optimization Details Tabular Report Columns, above for more details.

    These workload charts show hourly min/max and sustained activity for the selected system. Use the left/right arrows to scroll though the various workload charts.

    Workload charts show current Sustained Activity in blue, while Sustained Activity on the recommended instance type is shown in green.

    Note: The recommended instance type (green) is not applicable and so is not shown for Optimal and Terminate recommendations.

    The minimum and maximum utilization values are shown as vertical lines above and below the coloured block. The median is indicated as a black line within the coloured block. The average is indicated in brackets, in the sub-title of the chart.

    The scale used on the Y-axis is scaled dynamically to match the range of data. Where applicable, the pink line indicating the policy high limit, is shown, and the setting of the Y-axis scale also accounts for the policy limit setting. This is applicable to both public cloud and virtual optimization charts for Resource Utilization Metrics.

  • System Information Tab—Click on this tab to see allocated resources and some of the organizational attributes that have been set for this guest.
  • Effort Details Tab—This tab lists the factors that contribute to the effort required to investigate and implement the Densify recommendations. Effort for each instance is calculated by rule-driven analytics based on factors (such as instance family change, storage change, data quality checks, feature changes, etc.) that can be configured in the policy settings and through analysis rule sets. A description of each rule/property and its impact on the effort to move the current instance to the recommended instance type are provided.
  • Contact [email protected] for further details on the policy settings and rule set configured for your environment.

  • Predicted Uptime Details Tab—This tab shows a pie chart with the uptime details for the selected instance.
  • Edit System Attributes Tab—This tab provides you with the ability to edit system attributes for the selected system. See Editing System Attributes for details.

Quartiles in the Resource Utilization Charts

To learn more watch the following video:

In charts, workload data for each system is shown in four different bars (two yellow and two red), called quartiles, to show minimum, average, sustained and peak values. When used in the analysis, quartiles provide a good representation of system activity because the weighted scoring for sustained and peak activity produces a more accurate assessment of workload utilization patterns and requirements.

Quartiles are calculated in the following manner:

  • Workload activity is collected every five minutes, which totals 12 times per hour.
  • The 12 values are then re-ordered in descending order and separated into equal sample sizes (quartiles), with each quartile having three values. Each quartile represents 25% of operational time.
  • The bottom of the first quartile shows the minimum value, the next quartile shows average values, the top of the third quartile shows the sustained value and the top of the fourth quartile shows the peak value.

Editing System Attributes

The Edit System Attributes tab in the lower pane of the Instance Optimization Details report allows you to edit specific attributes of the system selected from the top pane.

This feature is also supported via the Densify API. Refer to the API documentation.

The following default system attribute categories are available for editing:

  • Business
  • Routing

Contact [email protected] if you require additional system attributes to be exposed for editing.

Attribute changes are displayed accordingly in the Edit Systems Attributes tab.

Densify optimization and reporting database updates are required before the saved values are reflected in the Instance Optimization Details tabular report and footer. For example, if you update and save one of the Self-Optimizing Automation Overrides attributes, you can see the updated value in the Edit Systems Attributes tab and extract the updated attribute value from the Densify API. However, the Instance Optimization Details tabular report and footer will not display the recommendation results of the updated value until analysis has been performed and the reporting tables have been updated via the overnight scheduled job.