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Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager

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VMM 2008 Features

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager provides a comprehensive, multi-virtualization management solution for the virtualized data center that enables increased physical server utilization, Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO),  and centralized management of both physical and virtual machine infrastructure.

 

Maximize Datacenter Resources

Feature

Description

Multi-vendor Virtualization Platform Support

With its support for virtual machines running on Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server, and VMware ESX infrastructure, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 integrates multi-hypervisor management into one tool.  VMM provides comprehensive support for VMware VI3 through integration with VMware’s Virtual Center.

Easy Identification of Consolidation Candidates

The first step in migrating from a physical data center, where every workload exists on its own physical server, is to identify the appropriate physical workloads for consolidation onto virtual machines. Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) leverages historical performance data in the Operations Manager 2007 database to identify and list underutilized physical servers that are good candidates for consolidation.

Fast and Reliable Physical-to-Virtual-Machine Conversion (P2V)

Converting a physical machine to a virtual machine can be unnecessarily slow and error prone. VMM improves the Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) experience by integrating the conversion process and by using the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) of Windows Server 2003 to create the virtual machine faster and without having to interrupt the source physical server.

Fast and Reliable Virtual-to-Virtual-Machine Conversion (V2V)

To help ease the migration from VMware to Virtual Server, VMM converts VMware VMDK/VMX virtual machines to the Microsoft VHD format. If the guest OS runs Windows, VMM will perform fixes during the conversion process, to ensure a working converted virtual machine.

Intelligent Placement

Selecting the appropriate virtual machine host for a given workload is the key to maximizing the utilization of physical assets, whether the organization’s goal is to balance loads among existing hosts or to maximize resource usage on each host. In VMM, this process is called “Intelligent Placement.”

When a virtual machine is deployed, VMM analyzes performance data and resource requirements for both the workload and the host. This allows an IT administrator to fine-tune placement algorithms to get the best matched deployment recommendations. First, historical performance data is used to understand actual resource requirements of the workload. Next, minimum CPU, disk, RAM, and network capacity requirements in the virtual machine’s configuration are checked. After determining the virtual machine’s requirements, performance data is gathered for candidate virtual machine hosts. Finally, pre-selected business rules are factored in to optimize placement recommendations either for resource maximization or for load balancing, and to weight the importance of different resource types for the workload.

Centralized Resource Optimization

The IT administrator has three ways to optimize resource utilization within a virtual infrastructure: tune resource settings for individual virtual machines, migrate virtual machines from one host to another, or do a little of both. The VMM Administrator Console provides a central work area for performing these tasks. Resource settings can be changed on virtual machines without interrupting workloads and virtual machines can be migrated from one host to another to optimize physical resources.

 

Achieve Agility

Feature

Description

Rapid Provisioning of New Machines

VMM enables quick provisioning of new virtual machines. Using a wizard-based user interface, IT administrators can rapidly deploy virtual machines from approved templates. VMM also allows management and migration of existing virtual machines between virtual machine hosts, giving IT administrators an integrated and holistic view of their virtual and physical infrastructure.

Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO)

Physical Resource Optimization (PRO) helps administrators ensure that their virtual machine hosts and the virtual machines that run on those hosts are operating efficiently. PRO provides the ability to link the advanced monitoring capabilities of Operations Manager 2007 with the virtual management capability of VMM. This integration enables PRO to monitor hardware, OS, and application variables and take actions based on those rules. The IT administrator can use PRO to assign rules to monitor service levels and, in response to alerts, dynamically create new virtual machines, reallocate existing resources, or move virtual machines from one physical host to another.

Host Cluster Support for “High Availability” Virtual Machines

With greatly expanded support for failover clusters, VMM improves its “high availability” capabilities for managing mission-critical virtual machines. VMM is fully cluster-aware, meaning it can detect and manage Hyper-V host clusters as a single unit. New user-friendly features, such as automatic detection of added or removed virtual hosts and designating high-availability virtual machine with one click, facilitate the administrator’s work.

Library

The virtualized data center relies on the ability to find and maintain image files for virtual machines (known as “virtual hard drives”). Unlike a physical server, these virtual hard drives can be unintentionally lost or duplicated. VMM provides a library to manage all the building blocks of the virtual data center. The library organizes not only stored virtual machines but also the various virtual machine “building blocks”, such as virtual hard disks, cd/dvd media/ISO images, post-deployment customization scripts, hardware configurations, and templates.

Rapid Deployment of Virtual Machine Templates

The VMM library adds an important tool to the administrator’s toolkit: virtual machine templates. A virtual machine template enables an administrator to create approved standard virtual machine configurations for subsequent virtual machine deployments. Templates contain both the guest operating system configuration and the hardware configuration, to ensure consistency in the data center. Templates bring all the standardization and ease of management of “SysPrep’ed” images to virtual machines.

Automate Test Lab Operations on Virtual Infrastructure

Virtual infrastructure is commonly used in test and development environments, where there is constant provisioning and tear down of virtual machines for testing purposes. While this task is far easier with virtual machines than with physical hardware, it typically still requires some IT involvement. With VMM, administrators can delegate this provisioning role to “delegated administrators” and/or authorized users while maintaining precise control over the creation and management of virtual machines and hosts. The “delegated administrator” role—new to this version of VMM—maintains the management abilities of a full administrator but on a reduced scope of responsibility such as a designated subset of virtual hosts.

Leverage and Extend Existing Storage Infrastructure to Provision Quickly

Virtual machine images can be large and difficult to move over the network. VMM auto-detects SAN infrastructure and enables copying of virtual machine images over fiber at fast speeds, thus leveraging SAN investments.
The VMM library provides centralized management of distributed resources for creating virtual machines. This enables the efficient distribution of offline virtual machines, templates, ISO images, scripts, and other library resources to the edges of the organization, enabling rapid creation and deployment of virtual machines in branch offices.

 

Leverage Datacenter Expertise

Feature

Description

Familiar Interface, Common Foundation

The VMM Administrator Console is built on the familiar Operations Manager 2007 user interface thus helping administrators quickly and easily become proficient in managing their virtual machines. Comprehensive health monitoring of hosts, virtual machines, library servers, and VMM components is provided through the Virtualization Management Pack in Operations Manager 2007.

Under the covers, System Center also is integrated with familiar tools and technologies. For example, System Center uses a SQL Server database to store performance and configuration data, and reporting in VMM leverages the familiar SQL Reporting Services provided through Operations Manager.

Fully Scriptable Using Windows PowerShell

VMM is built on Windows PowerShell, an administrator-focused command shell and scripting language. Easy to adopt, learn and use, PowerShell’s architecture enables the quick construction of ad-hoc integration solutions through the use of over 170 commandlets. Numerous “View Script” controls throughout the VMM interface allow administrators to examine and repurpose PowerShell scripts generated by wizards and dialog boxes.  Through PowerShell, administrators can integrate VMM and System Center with established tools and procedures in the data center.

Active Directory Domain Services Integration

The System Center virtual machine management solution integrates with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) to provide a secure environment for managing access to virtual machines and hosts. VMM also supports managing a virtual machine host on a perimeter network (also known as a DMZ).