Get Started with Intersight Workload Optimizer

Log In using Cisco ID

If you already have an existing Cisco Intersight account or Cisco ID visit https://intersight.com/ to log in.

If you are a new Intersight user, create a Cisco Intersight account:

  1. Visit https://intersight.com/ to create your Intersight account. You must have a valid Cisco ID to create a Cisco Intersight account. If you do not have a Cisco ID, create one here.

  2. Enter an Account Name. Account Name can only contain letters(a-z, A-Z), numbers(0-9) or hyphen(-).

Enable Intersight Workload Optimizer

You can start using Intersight Workload Optimizer either by using Trial license or by purchasing and registering an Intersight Workload Optimizer license.

Use the Trial Intersight Workload Optimize License

To start exploring the features offered by Intersight Workload Optimizer using a Trial license in Intersight, do the following:


Attention

You can use the trial license for the product only once.

  1. Log into Intersight with Account Administrator privileges.

  2. Select System > Admin > Licensing.

  3. Click Start Trial.

  4. Choose Workload Optimizer.

Purchase and Register Intersight Workload Optimizer Licenses

You can purchase any of the Intersight Workload Optimizer license tiers using the Cisco ordering tool. For more details, see Ordering Information in the Cisco Intersight Data Sheet.

To register an Intersight Workload Optimizer license in Intersight, do the following:

  1. Log into Intersight with Account Administrator privileges.

  2. From System > Admin > Licensing.

  3. Select Actions > Register Smart Licensing.

  4. Enter the Product Instance Registration Token. Click Cisco Smart Software Manager to obtain your Intersight Registration token. If you do not have a Smart Account, create one here. Click Next.

  5. In the Set Product page, Toggle ON Workload Optimizer and select the required license tier (Essentials, Advantage, or Premier). For more information on the Intersight Workload Optimizer licensing tiers, see the Intersight Workload Optimizer Licensing section.


Attention

Intersight Workload Optimizer provisioning might take up to 15 minutes.

Deploy Intersight Assist (If Required)

Cisco Intersight Assist helps you add endpoint devices to Cisco Intersight. A datacenter could have multiple devices that do not connect directly with Cisco Intersight. Any device that is supported by Cisco Intersight but does not connect directly with it, will need a connection mechanism. Cisco Intersight Assist provides that connection mechanism, and helps you add devices into Cisco Intersight. For more information about deploying Intersight Assist and for the right sizing for other Intersight features, see the Cisco Intersight Assist Getting Started Guide.

Resource Requirements for Intersight Assist

You can deploy Cisco Intersight Assist on VMware ESXi 6.5 and higher. This section describes the system requirements to install and deploy Cisco Intersight Assist for Intersight Workload Optimizer.


Attention

  • To claim any on-premises target an Intersight Assist of at least size Small is required.

  • If Intersight Assist is deployed already, verify the sizing requirements. If required, refer to the Sizing Options section in the Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance Getting Started Guide for resizing instructions.

Resource Requirement

System Requirements

Small

Medium

vCPU

16

24

RAM (GiB)

32

64

Storage (Disk in GiB)

500

500

Deploy Configuration

Up to 1000 Virtual Machines

Up to 30,000 Virtual Machines

Supported Hypervisors

VMware ESXi 6.5 and higher

**To deploy up to 100,000 Virtual Machines, increase the vCPU to 32 and RAM to 96 GB or more.

Register Targets

To claim new targets, do the following:

  1. Log in to Intersight with the Account Administrator, Device Administrator, or Device Technician privileges.

  2. From the Service Selector drop-down list, select System.

  3. Navigate to ADMIN > Targets > Claim a New Target.

  4. Choose Available for Claiming and select the target type you want to claim.

  5. Click Start.

  6. Enter the required details and click Claim to complete the claiming process.

For more information about configuring targets to monitor workloads and execute actions in your environment, see the Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer Target Configuration and User Guide.

Create New Users with Roles And Privileges

Intersight provides Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to authorize or restrict system access to a user, based on user roles and privileges. Intersight also enables multi-tenancy in an account through separation of resources through logical entities called Organizations. A user role in Intersight represents a collection of the privileges a user has, to perform a set of operations. These roles can be user or system-defined, and provide granular access to resources. For detailed information about the supported roles, the associated privileges, creating an Organization, a user-defined role, adding a User, User Group, and creating and switching between Roles, see Role Based Access Control in Intersight.

Optimize your Workloads

After you log in to Intersight, navigate to Workload Optimizer > Overview to begin using the features offered by Intersight Workload Optimizer.

From Overview, choose a View to see overviews of your environment. Navigate to other Intersight Workload Optimizer pages, including:

  • Search—Set the session scope to drill down to details about your environment

  • Plan—Run what-if scenarios

  • Place—Use Intersight Workload Optimizer to calculate the best placement for workloads, and execute the placement at the time you specify

  • Dashboards—Set up custom views with charts that focus on specifics in your environment

  • Settings—Configure Intersight Workload Optimizer to set up business rules and policies, define groups, and perform other administrative tasks

For more information about using Intersight Workload Optimizer, see the Cisco Intersight Workload Optimizer Target Configuration and User Guide.