> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.xloud.tech/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Strategy Configuration
> Configure Xloud Optimization strategy plugins — tune thresholds, periods, and metrics for each optimization strategy to match your cluster topology.
## Overview
Strategies are the algorithm plugins used by the Decision Engine to analyze the cluster
and generate migration recommendations. Each strategy is tied to one or more optimization
goals and accepts tuning parameters that control sensitivity thresholds, look-back periods,
and metric selection. This page documents all available strategies and their configuration
parameters.
***
## Available Strategies
| Strategy | Goal | Algorithm | Data Source Required |
| ------------------------ | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ |
| `server_consolidation` | Server Consolidation | Bin-packing — fill hosts before activating new ones | Compute API |
| `outlet_temperature` | Thermal Optimization | Heatmap — migrate from hot racks based on inlet temperature | Prometheus (temperature) |
| `workload_stabilization` | Workload Stabilization | Statistical variance analysis per instance | Telemetry time-series |
| `saving_energy` | Energy Savings | Consolidate + flag empty hosts for power-off | Compute API |
| `zone_migration` | Zone Rebalancing | Even distribution across availability zones | Compute API |
| `noisy_neighbor` | Noisy Neighbor | CPU steal contention detection between co-located instances | Telemetry |
| `basic_consolidation` | Consolidation (basic) | Threshold-based: migrate from hosts below utilization threshold | Compute API only |
***
## Configure Strategy Parameters
### Per-Audit Parameters
Override defaults at audit creation time without changing the service configuration:
```bash title="Create audit with custom parameters" theme={null}
openstack watcher audit create \
--goal server_consolidation \
--parameter threshold=0.15 \
--parameter period=7200 \
--name custom-threshold-audit
```
### Service-Wide Defaults
Set platform defaults that apply to all audits which do not override specific parameters.
Open **XDeploy** and navigate to **Configuration**. Select the **Advance Features** tab
and toggle **Enable Dynamic Cluster Optimization** to **Yes**. Click **Save Configuration**.
Navigate to **Advanced Configuration**. In the **Service Tree** (left panel), select
**watcher**. Click **New File** or select an existing `watcher.conf` from the
**File Browser** (right panel).
Add the following in the **Code Editor** (center panel):
```ini title="/etc/xavs/config/watcher/watcher.conf" theme={null}
[watcher_strategies.server_consolidation]
threshold = 0.2
period = 3600
[watcher_strategies.workload_stabilization]
metric = cpu_util
granularity = 300
period = 7200
[watcher_strategies.outlet_temperature]
threshold = 35.0
period = 3600
```
Click **Save Current File**. Return to **Operations** and run **reconfigure** to
apply the strategy defaults to the Decision Engine.
Strategy defaults configured and applied via XDeploy.
Edit the configuration file directly:
```ini title="/etc/xavs/watcher/watcher.conf" theme={null}
[watcher_strategies.server_consolidation]
threshold = 0.2
period = 3600
[watcher_strategies.workload_stabilization]
metric = cpu_util
granularity = 300
period = 7200
[watcher_strategies.outlet_temperature]
threshold = 35.0
period = 3600
```
Restart the Decision Engine after configuration changes:
```bash title="Restart Decision Engine" theme={null}
docker restart watcher_decision_engine
```
***
## Parameter Reference
| Parameter | Strategy | Default | Description |
| ------------- | --------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| `threshold` | `server_consolidation`, `basic_consolidation` | `0.2` | Fraction below which a host is underutilized |
| `period` | All | `3600` | Look-back window in seconds for metric aggregation |
| `granularity` | Telemetry-backed | `300` | Metric sample granularity in seconds |
| `metric` | `workload_stabilization` | `cpu_util` | Metric used for stability scoring |
| `threshold` | `outlet_temperature` | `35.0` | Inlet temperature (°C) above which to evacuate racks |
***
## Verify Strategy Loading
```bash title="Verify strategy plugins are loaded" theme={null}
docker exec watcher_decision_engine python3 -c "
from stevedore import driver
drv = driver.DriverManager(
namespace='watcher_strategies',
name='server_consolidation',
invoke_on_load=False
)
print('Strategy loaded:', drv.driver)
"
```
```bash title="List all registered strategies" theme={null}
openstack watcher strategy list
```
***
## Xloud Production Enhancements
**Xloud-Developed** — These enhancements ship with XAVS and are active on all Optimization strategies.
### Server Group Awareness
All 14 strategies automatically respect server group affinity and anti-affinity constraints during automated migrations. Hard policies (affinity, anti-affinity) block invalid migrations. Soft policies adjust destination scoring weights.
See [Server Groups](/services/compute/server-groups) for configuration.
### DRS Safety Checks
The workload balancing strategy includes production safety guardrails:
| Check | Description |
| ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Max iterations** | Configurable limit on migrations per audit cycle |
| **Capacity validation** | Pre-migration check ensures destination has sufficient resources |
| **Concurrent migration limit** | Prevents overloading the cluster with simultaneous migrations |
| **Server group weight** | Destination scoring adjusts based on soft-affinity/anti-affinity group membership |
### Automated Storage Tiering
The storage tier balance strategy automatically moves volumes between NVMe, SSD, and HDD pools based on IOPS activity and volume age. Configurable promotion and demotion thresholds. See [Storage Tiers](/services/storage/storage-tiers).
***
## Next Steps
Connect the data sources required by each strategy.
Implement and deploy custom optimization strategy plugins.
Schedule recurring audits using the configured strategies.
Review how strategies fit into the Decision Engine pipeline.