Run an Optimization Audit

Overview

An audit is a point-in-time analysis of the cluster. When you create an audit, the Optimization collects current cluster metrics, applies the selected strategy algorithm, and generates a prioritized action plan. Audits are fast — typically 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on cluster size and data source responsiveness.

Prerequisites

Optimization enabled on your platform
At least 1 hour of metric data collected (for telemetry-backed strategies)
Project access with the member role or above

Create and Run an Audit

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Audits

Navigate to Optimization → Audits.

Create a new audit

Click Create Audit and fill in the parameters:

Field	Description	Example
Name	Display name for the audit	`daily-consolidation-2026-03`
Goal	Optimization objective	`server_consolidation`
Scope	Target scope	`CLUSTER`
Strategy	Optional override	Leave blank for default
Auto Trigger	Run on a schedule	Optional

Leave Strategy blank to use the default strategy for the selected goal. Override only if your administrator has configured custom strategies.

Confirm the audit

Click Create. The audit status progresses:PENDING → ONGOING → SUCCEEDED

Audit reaches SUCCEEDED status and an action plan is generated.

Authenticate

Load credentials

source openrc.sh

List available goals

List optimization goals

watcher goal list

Create and run the audit

Create audit

watcher audit create \
  --goal server_consolidation \
  --name daily-consolidation-2026-03

Monitor status

Check audit status

watcher audit show daily-consolidation-2026-03 \
  -f value -c state

Poll until state is SUCCEEDED.

Verify completion

Confirm audit succeeded

watcher audit show daily-consolidation-2026-03

State is SUCCEEDED and an action plan UUID is listed.

Audit States

State	Meaning
`PENDING`	Audit queued, waiting for Decision Engine capacity
`ONGOING`	Decision Engine is collecting metrics and computing recommendations
`SUCCEEDED`	Audit complete — action plan generated
`FAILED`	Audit could not complete — check error detail
`CANCELLED`	Manually cancelled before completion

Audit Scope Options

Scope	Description	When to Use
`CLUSTER`	Analyze all hosts and instances in the cluster	Full cluster rebalancing
`ZONE`	Analyze only instances in a specific availability zone	Zone-specific consolidation

Run zone-scoped audit

watcher audit create \
  --goal zone_migration \
  --scope ZONE \
  --name zone-a-rebalance

Strategy Parameters

Override default strategy thresholds when creating an audit:

Audit with custom consolidation threshold

watcher audit create \
  --goal server_consolidation \
  --parameter threshold=0.15 \
  --parameter period=7200 \
  --name low-threshold-consolidation

Parameter	Strategy	Default	Description
`threshold`	`server_consolidation`	`0.2`	Utilization ratio below which a host is underutilized
`period`	All	`3600`	Look-back window in seconds
`granularity`	Telemetry-backed	`300`	Metric sample granularity in seconds

Next Steps

Action Plans

Review and approve the migration plan generated by your audit.

Execute Actions

Start a recommended action plan to rebalance workloads.

Optimization Goals

Understand which goal to select for different operational scenarios.

Troubleshooting

Resolve audit failures and empty action plan scenarios.

Core Services

Other Services

Overview

Create and Run an Audit

Navigate to Audits

Create a new audit

Confirm the audit

Authenticate

List available goals

Create and run the audit

Monitor status

Verify completion

Audit States

Audit Scope Options

Strategy Parameters

Next Steps

Action Plans

Execute Actions

Optimization Goals

Troubleshooting

​Overview

​Create and Run an Audit

Navigate to Audits

Create a new audit

Confirm the audit

Authenticate

List available goals

Create and run the audit

Monitor status

Verify completion

​Audit States

​Audit Scope Options

​Strategy Parameters

​Next Steps

Action Plans

Execute Actions

Optimization Goals

Troubleshooting

Overview

Create and Run an Audit

Audit States

Audit Scope Options

Strategy Parameters

Next Steps