Overselling resource types from pools
Ensim Unify can be configured to oversell resource types from pools. Overselling means to sell, or promise to provide, more of a resource type than you actually have available on hand. For example, if you have a pool with 500 GB of the disk space resource type, and you set up 10 resellers with 100 GB of disk space each, you would be overselling your disk space resource type because you had promised more than you had available.
Since many resellers are not expected to provision their maximum available resources immediately, overselling can reduce the number of servers required to meet the demand. In the example above, you and your resellers could not provision more than 500 GB of disk space to organizations, however. Overselling does not enable you to provision more of a resource type than you actually have. Overselling simply allows you to oversell resource types to resellers.
By default, the oversell feature is disabled, and you cannot oversell resource types through Ensim Unify. When you sell a resource type to a reseller, the system checks to make sure the resource type is available. If it is available, or if the resource type has an unlimited capacity, the resource type is sold to the reseller. If it is not available, the operation fails.
If the oversell feature is enabled, the system no longer checks to make sure sufficient resources exist for the resource type when you sell it to resellers. If the resources do not exist, however, and a reseller attempts to provision the resource type to an organization, provisioning fails.
If the oversell feature is enabled, you can oversell resource types from pools regardless of availability. When a resource type is oversold, the word oversold appears in the available column on the pool information page.
Only Ensim Support can enable the oversell feature for your system. For more information, contact Ensim Support.
Before you use the oversell feature, keep these points in mind:
Overselling must be managed carefully to ensure that resources are available when resellers provision resource types to organizations. Make sure usage warning levels for resource types are set so that you have time to add or update resources.
There is nothing in the control panels to indicate whether the oversell feature is enabled or disabled. However, if the feature is enabled and you oversell a resource type, the available column in the resource limits section of the pool information page shows the resource type as oversold.
If a pool has unlimited capacity for a particular resource type, that resource type never shows oversold in the available column of the pool information page.
The oversell feature is global. If it is enabled, it is available to you and to all of the resellers in your system. This includes resellers added by resellers.
Once enabled, the oversell feature can be disabled only if nothing is oversold. If any resource type in the system is oversold, the feature cannot be disabled.