Rightsizing

Introduction

Cloud resource rightsizing optimizes resource allocation in the cloud for cost efficiency and performance. It involves monitoring utilization, analyzing data, and resizing or reconfiguring resources accordingly. Benefits include cost savings, improved performance, and better resource utilization.

Rightsizing for a cost management group will be accessible in the following path: Cost group -> Optimization -> Rightsizing.

Rightsizing recommendations are available in two flavors and can be accessed based on the user preference:

1. Advisor recommendations
2. Custom recommendations

Azure Advisor based cost recommendations

This enables the users to view the Azure Advisor cost recommendations within cost management groups for their chosen subscription and resource groups which in turn helps users optimize and reduce their overall Azure spend by identifying idle and underutilized resources.

The impacted resources are classified into three recommendation types: high, medium, and low, each with recommended actions to be taken.

Custom recommendations

In consideration with the short comings of the Azure Advisor recommendations, Turbo360 allows users to configure a custom range of parameters to determine the right-sizing status of the resources. A set of rules based on the metrics like CPU, Memory can be defined and Turbo360 analyze the real time usage and provide a customized set of recommendations.

The following resource types can be rightsized using Turbo360 Cost Analyzer:

• App service plan
• Cosmos SQL Container
• Cosmos SQL Database
• Cosmos Table
• SQL Database
• SQL Elastic pool
• SQL Managed Instance
• Virtual Machine
• Virtual Machine scale set

Cost Analyzer provides four different types of recommendations for Azure resources:

1. Upgrade

A recommendation of this type indicates that resources often consume the maximum capacity of the purchased SKU. An upgrade to a higher SKU will increase resource performance.

2. Downgrade

A resource that does not utilize its maximum capacity is deemed to have this recommendation. Taking it down to a lower SKU will reduce resource costs.

3. Idle

This recommendation indicates that the resource is not being used for an extended period and can be deleted if no longer required.

4. No change

A recommendation of this type indicates that the resource frequently utilizes the average capacity of the SKU, and thus, no change in SKU is required.

The recommendation for each resource will be available next to the respective resource based on its usage.

Perform the following operations to apply the recommended sku to a resource:

1. Click any of the desired resource in Rightsizing.

You will be provided with a data trend chart based on the resource usage for the last 7 days. The aggregation type and the time settings can be modified to view the data trend for a specified interval.

2. The Recommended Sku based on the analysis, will be available for users to apply instantly.

3. You can also manually choose one among the supported SKUs by clicking the Click here to view all supported SKUs option.

Supported Resource types for Idle recommendations

The resource types supported for idle recommendations is constantly being improved, with the goal of increasing Azure subscription efficiency and reducing costs.

Besides the resource types eligible for Rightsizing recommendations, specific resource types detached from all Azure services exclusively facilitate Idle Rightsizing recommendations. This targeted approach aims to efficiently delete resources that are no longer necessary.

The list of resource types that exclusively support Idle recommendations is as follows:

1. Disks
2. Public IP Addresses
3. Virtual Network
4. Subnet

Rightsizing settings

• Turbo360 considers the CPU consumption of the resources by default to provide recommendations on choosing the right tier. For users with requirements to consider other associated metrics like memory consumption of the resources, they can customize the right sizing configuration.

• Enabling the Family restriction checkbox for Virtual Machine (or) Virtual Machine Scale sets ensures that their rightsizing recommendations are within the bounds of the Current SKU family. This option can be used when you want to exclude certain non-production VM families from being recommended for your production VMs.

Exclude families for recommendation

Excluding VM families for Virtual Machines or Virtual Machine Scale Sets ensures that their recommended SKU do not come from the excluded VM families.

Recommendation refresh

• Rightsizing recommendations for a cost group will be updated every 24 hours from when the cost group is created.

• It is also possible to perform a manual refresh at the root cost group to view recommendations instantly.

Recommendation settings

• Advisor recommendations are automatically enabled for the groups by default. To access custom recommendations, click on settings to open the recommended settings and enable the custom recommendation toggle. This will provide custom recommendations for the resources within the groups.

• Resource recommendations can also be customized by currency or resource usage based on a specified time.

• Click the settings to open the recommended settings and specify your preferred currency value and time interval based on resource usage calculations.

Ignoring recommendations

• Recommendations can be ignored if you agree to use the resource using the current SKU.

• Select the required recommendations and click Actions -> Ignore to ignore recommendations.

• The ignored ones are accessible in Actions -> View ignored recommendations.

Visualizing resource usage

The usage patterns of resources listed in custom rightsizing recommendations can be accessible by clicking it, with time range customizable through the Time settings option to focus on a specific interval.

The area chart below the usage trends enables the user to navigate between different intervals, providing detailed insights into the resource utilization data.

This widget also provides information on recommendations, including both the current and recommended SKUs.

Data points that surpass or fall below the thresholds defined for Upgrade and Downgrade in the Rightsizing settings will be visually distinguished as follows:

i) Yellow - identifies data points that have surpassed the threshold, recommending an upgrade to improve resource efficiency and productivity.

ii) Blue- identifies data points that fall below the threshold, recommending a downgrade for resource optimization.

Resource usage by status

The resource usage option accessible when clicking a custom rightsizing recommendation provides a calendar view that depicts the status of users' Azure resources over time. Multiple toggle modes are available for better accessibility.

The resource status considered here are:

• Active
• Idle

These status are determined based on specific metric values for the respective resource types:

• App service plan - CPU Percentage
• Cosmos SQL Container - Normalized RU Consumption
• Cosmos SQL Database - Normalized RU Consumption
• Cosmos Table - Normalized RU Consumption
• Disk - Disk Read Write
• SQL Database - DTU consumption
• SQL Elastic Pool - DTU consumption
• SQL Managed Instance - CPU Percentage
• Virtual Machine - CPU Percentage
• Virtual Machine Scale set - CPU Percentage

The Agenda view displays a day's active and idle hours in a grid format.

Recommendation notification

A rightsizing recommendation can be notified as a recommendation report, allowing a specific team (or) team member to prioritize actions for a particular resource.

1. Select a rightsizing recommendation
2. Click Actions -> Trigger notification

3. Choose the desired channels (or) configure recipient mail address
4. Click Send
   

The recommendation data will be sent as a report to the configured channels.

A bell icon will appear next to any recommendation for which a notification has been triggered. Clicking the icon will reveal the notification details.

The View Logs button, accessible when viewing a recommendation with an active notification, will also display the details of that notification.

Below is an image of recommendation report received via mail after triggering it for a rightsizing recommendation:

Export Rightsizing recommendations

Rightsizing recommendations can be downloaded as an excel workbook.

1. Go to Action dropdown in the Rightsizing section.
2. Click the Download as excel option.

Downloaded excel file contains the basic details of the resources and its recommendation.