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Capacity Planning: Tools and Methods

Capacitas Training Centre,
London, United Kingdom.
4 Days

Learn how to:

  • Employ forecasting techniques to solve common capacity planning problems
  • Use regression models to establish relationship between business drivers and system demand
  • Design a threshold alerting scheme to capacity manage a large number of network/server elements
  • Implement effective demand planning and traffic forecasting
  • Identify the demand drivers of your enterprise applications
  • Carry out workload characterisation
  • Use analytical modelling to solve capacity planning and performance problems
  • Apply the techniques learnt to real life problems across applications, servers and networks
  • Define a capacity and performance monitoring strategy for your servers and network
  • Produce an effective capacity plan

Course Agenda

Day 1
9:00 - 9:30 Registration
9:30 - 11:00 ITIL Capacity Management
  • Introduction to ITIL
  • ITIL Capacity Management Overview
  • ITIL Capacity Management Sub-processes
  • ITIL Capacity Management Interfaces
  • Is ITIL Capacity Management 'Best Practice'?
11:00 - 11:15 Morning Break
11:15 - 12:00 Baselining Techniques
  • Application Baselining
  • Network Baselining
  • Automating Baselining
  • Baselining Using 3D Surface Plots
  • Case Study: Baselining a Server
12:00 - 13:00 Regression Techniques
  • Linear Regression
  • Non-Linear Regression
13:00 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 14:45 Regression Techniques (Continued)
  • Multiple Regression
  • Regression Using Categorical Variables
  • Case Study: Using Regression for Capacity Planning
14:45 - 15:00 Afternoon Break
15:00 - 17:30 Forecasting Techniques
  • Time Series Analysis
  • Quantifying Forecast Accuracy
  • Moving Average Methods
  • Time Series Decomposition
  • Exponential Smoothing Methods
 
Day 2
09:30 - 11:00 Threshold Alerting
  • Benefits of Threshold Reporting
  • Absolute Thresholds
  • Growth Thresholds
  • Index Based thresholds
  • Case Study: Threshold Alerting for a Corporate Network
11:00 - 11:15 Morning Break
11:15 - 13:00 Workload Characterisation
  • Workload Characterisation Defined
  • The Benefits of Workload Characterisation
  • Naming Workloads
  • Defining Workloads
  • Workload Classes
  • Workload Modelling
  • Workload Partitioning
  • Clustering Analysis
13:00 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 14:45 Introduction to Demand Planning
  • Business Capacity Management
  • Relationship Between Business, Service and Resource Demand
  • Business Demand Planning: Business Volume Indicators
  • Identifying Business Demand
  • Measuring Business Demand
  • Business Demand Forecasting
  • Demand Deconstruction
14:45 - 15:00 Afternoon Break
15:00 - 16:30 A Capacity and Performance Monitoring Framework
  • The Capacity Database (CDB)
  • What to Monitor: Resource, Throughput, Response
  • Understanding Monitoring Overhead
  • Monitoring Techniques & Processes
  • Data Collection Mechanisms and Tools
  • Data Retention Techniques
  • Data Summarisation Techniques
  • Choosing your Sampling Intervals
16:30 - 17:30 Case Study: Capacity and Performance Monitoring in the Enterprise
 
Day 3
9:30 - 11:00 Delivering Demand Planning
  • Moving from Business Volumes to Service Volumes
  • Demand Planning Process for Networks
  • Demand Planning Process for Applications
  • Software Development Lifecycle
  • Understanding UML Diagrams
  • Case Study: Creating a Functional Demand Forecast for a New Application
11:00 - 11:15 Morning Break
11:15 - 13:00 Analytical Modelling
  • What is Analytical Modelling?
  • Why do Modelling?
  • Statistics Primer
  • Statistic Measures and the SLA
  • Throughput and Response Time Analysis
13:00 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 14:45 Analytical Modelling (Continued)
  • Queuing Disciplines
  • Little's Law
  • Utilisation Law
  • Queuing Models
14:45 - 15:00 Afternoon Break
15:00 - 17:30 Analytical Modelling (Continued)
  • Erlang Models
  • Applying Queuing Models to Answer Business Questions
 
Day 4
09:30 - 10:00 Analytical Modelling (Continued)
  • Case Study: Performance Analysis of an Application Using Sun JMS Queues
10:00 - 11:00 Analytical Modelling In Practice
  • Load Generation Tools
  • Performance and Capacity Model Inputs
  • Performance Test Strategy
  • Performance Test Approaches
  • Response Time Estimation Using Performance Tests
  • Comparison Between Theoretical and Measured Response Time
11:00 - 11:15 Morning Break
11:15 - 12:00 Case Study: Using Analytical Models to Predict Response Time
12:00 - 13:00 Simulation Modelling
  • Introduction to Simulation Modelling
  • Principles and Concepts of Simulation Modelling
  • Simulation Tool Checklist
  • Comparison of the Costs and Benefits of Analytical and Simulation Modelling
13:00 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 14:45 Simulation Modelling Case Study
14:45 - 15:00 Afternoon Break
15:00 - 17:30 Putting it all Together: The Capacity Plan
  • Objectives of the Capacity Plan
  • ITIL Specifications
  • What should the Capacity Plan Comprise?
  • A Capacity Plan Template

Course Brief

Capacity Planning is a specialist discipline that is integral to any organisation that owns or manages an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure.

This course details the tools and methods that are the foundation to good Capacity Planning practice across all technologies. This comprehensive course is aimed at the practitioner and is a prerequisite for the other technology specific Capacitas courses.

The course now contains numerous 'consultant's tips' that can be applied rapidly within your organisation. The application of the tools and methods is demonstrated with real life case studies.

The course also contains example questions that prepare the student for the Foundation Certificate in Capacity & Performance Management.

Course Prerequisites

  • None

Course Audience

  • IT Systems Capacity Planners
  • Network Capacity Planners
  • Performance Analysts
  • Demand Planners
  • Technical Architects
  • ICT Managers
  • Network/System Engineers
  • Operations Staff

How Your Organisation Will Benefit

Attending this course you will learn:
  • The strengths and weaknesses of the ITIL capacity management framework
  • The benefits that capacity planning an ICT system brings
  • To use forecasting techniques to plan demand and throughput
  • To use trending techniques to improve accuracy of forecasts
  • To effectively capacity manage network & server elements using threshold alerting
  • How to develop business forecasts
  • The techniques to convert business forecasts into server workloads
  • How to model the relationship between business drivers and system workload
  • To use analytical models to accurately capacity plan dynamic systems
  • How to rapidly develop usable simulation models
  • To define your capacity and performance monitoring requirements
  • How to produce and maintain a capacity plan

Comments from Recent Attendees

  • "In-depth subject material was presented in a way which was both relevant and enjoyable."
  • "I won't hesitate to use or recommend Capacitas in the future."
  • A potentially "dry" subject was made entertaining - excellent."
  • "A really good course."
  • "Good value for money."
  • "Very useful 4 days."
  • "Excellent course."
  • "Very friendly and professional."
  • "A company with a good ethos."
  • "Communication of presenters is very good."
  • "Fantastic presenters."
  • "Great examples and material."

Feedback Scores from Recent Course

Scores on a range of 1 to 5, where 1 is completely dissatisfied and 5 is completely satisfied.

Course
Did the course meet your objectives4.6
Level of detail4.6
Quality of visual materials4.4
Quality of printed materials4.4
Relevance of course4.6
Pace of course4.0
Training facilities3.4
Presenters
Knowledge of material4.6
Quality of communication4.6
Understanding of subject4.7

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