I know many Virtualization Consultants who all are still wondering where is the Intel Nehalem processor in the VMware Capacity Planner. The Nehalem processor has already hit the market more than 6 months back, VMware still has not update their Capacity Planner to include it. We all know that the Nehalem processor is providing a great performance & efficiency enhancement comparing to the prior Intel processors & this change should be taken into the consideration When doing Capacity Planning.
Customers has been as well wondering why the capacity planner report is made with an older processor, as they will be buying the Nehalem one. The only way I had found around this is to build your custom hardware inside the VMware Capacity Planner with a faster CPU frequence, but even this still not too accurate. I am hoping VMware will address this soon. If any one has any updates or VMware plans for this topic & would share it with us. it would be of a great value to everyone.
Lanamark updates processors released from AMD, Intel and other vendors on a bi-weekly basis. You can learn more about Lanamark Suite, a multi-platform alternative to VMware Capacity Planner, here: http://www.lanamark.com/product/solution-providers/overview