Method and system for cost avoidance in virtualized computing environments

1. A method, comprising:

monitoring utilization amounts of resources within logical partitions (LPARs) of a plurality of servers;

identifying a resource-strained server of the plurality of servers, wherein the resource-strained server includes a plurality of the LPARs;

determining a migration of one or more LPARs of the plurality of LPARs of the resource-strained server; and

migrating the one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server to an other server of the plurality of servers based on the determining to avoid an activation of capacity upgrade on demand (CUoD), wherein:

at least one of the monitoring, identifying, determining, and migrating are performed by a computer device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the resources comprise at least one of a CPU resource, a memory resource, an input/output (I/O) resource, and a network resource.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying comprises:

summing the utilization amounts of the resources, by resource type, of the one or more LPARs of at least one server of the plurality of servers; and

determining if any of the utilization amounts of the resources have exceeded a predetermined amount.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring comprises utilizing an agent located on each of the LPARs of the plurality of servers.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises:

identifying a resource type that is strained on the resource-strained server; and

identifying the other server of the plurality of servers that is not strained by the resource type.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the determining further comprises:

selecting an LPAR of the plurality of LPARs of the resource-strained server for analysis;

calculating resulting resource usages encountered on the other server by migrating the LPAR to the other server; and

storing the resulting resource usages.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining further comprises:

selecting each of the LPARs of the plurality of LPARs of the resource-strained server for analysis;

calculating resulting resource usages encountered on the other server by migrating the each of the LPARs individually to the other server; and

storing the resulting resource usages.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining further comprises:

reviewing the stored resulting resource usages; and

identifying a suitable resulting resource usage from the stored resulting resource usages that indicates a desired resource usage for each of the resources.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the desired resource usage is at least one of:

the resulting resource usage for the each of the resources which is below a respective predetermined resource strain level; and

the resulting resource usage for the resource type that is strained which is below the respective predetermined resource strain level.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the migration comprises an LPAR exchange.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining further comprises prioritizing for the migration a server of the plurality of servers having CUoD currently activated.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining further comprises:

determining a server of the plurality of servers having lowest cost CUoD resources; and

prioritizing the server having the lowest cost CUoD resources for migration of the one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server thereto.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein a service provider at least one of deploys, creates, maintains and supports a computer infrastructure that performs the steps of claim 1 .

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

15. A method for cost avoidance, comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure being operable to:

monitor utilization amounts of resources within logical partitions (LPARs) of a plurality of servers;

identify a resource-strained server of the plurality of servers, wherein the resource-strained server includes a plurality of LPARs;

determine a migration of one or more LPARs of the plurality of LPARs of the resource-strained server; and

migrate the one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server to an other server of the plurality of servers based on the determining to avoid or minimize an activation of capacity upgrade on demand (CUoD).

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the computer infrastructure is further operable to:

sum the utilization amounts of the resources, by resource type, of the one or more LPARs of at least one server of the plurality of servers; and

determine if any of the utilization amounts of the resources have exceeded a predetermined amount.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the computer infrastructure is further operable to:

identify a resource type that is strained on the resource-strained server;

identify the other server of the plurality of servers that is not strained by the resource type;

select an LPAR of the plurality of LPARs of the resource-strained server for analysis;

calculate resulting resource usages encountered on the other server by migrating the LPAR to the other server; and

store the resulting resource usages.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the computer infrastructure is created, maintained, deployed and supported by a service provider.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium to:

monitor a utilization amount of resources within logical partitions (LPARs) of a plurality of servers;

identify a resource-strained server of the plurality of servers, wherein the resource-strained server includes a plurality of the LPARs;

determine whether a migration of one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server to an other server of the plurality of servers would avoid or minimize an activation of capacity upgrade on demand (CUoD); and

if the migration of the one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server to the other server of the plurality of servers would avoid or minimize an activation of the CUoD, perform the migration of the one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server to the other server.

20. A system, comprising:

a computer device comprising:

a monitoring tool configured to:

monitor utilization amounts of resources within a plurality of logical partitions (LPARs) of a plurality of servers; and

identify a resource-strained server of the plurality of servers, wherein the resource-strained server includes a plurality of LPARs; and

an optimization tool configured to:

determine a migration of one or more LPARs of the plurality of LPARs of the resource-strained server; and

migrate one or more LPARs of the resource-strained server to another of the plurality of servers to avoid or minimize an activation of capacity upgrade on demand (CUoD).

21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising analyzing a workload of the one or more LPARs and determining which applications are driving the workload.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein migrating the one or more LPARs that have an activated CUoD deactivates the activated CUoD.