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This article is about how to choose the right virtualization management tool. The editor thinks it is very practical, so share it with you as a reference and follow the editor to have a look.

In modern data centers, virtualization has become a powerful technical force. It is very attractive to deploy more applications on less hardware, which can not only increase energy utilization, but also save a lot of money. But virtualization also has its own challenges.

Increasing the number of virtual machines (VM) results in the consumption of underlying hardware and network resources. To make matters worse, traditional system management tools often fail to accurately analyze the allocation of resources in a virtualized environment, making it impossible for IT administrators to manage resources effectively. In this interview, Nick Martin, an assistant editor in the computer room, discussed virtualization management tools with virtualization expert Brien Posey, and how they can help virtualized data centers achieve enhanced performance.

Nick Martin: what is the difference between virtualization management tools and traditional management tools?

Brien Posey: the key function of most management tools is to monitor the server, report failures or provide repair actions directly. However, in the virtualized environment, the traditional management tools play little role in managing and monitoring the performance of the Windows environment. The management tools you are using need to be able to distinguish between host servers, VM, and separate physical servers, because all of this hardware needs to be monitored in several different ways.

Martin: how many tests do you have to go through before buying a new virtual environment management tool?

Posey: this is a very interesting question because you can look at it from two different angles. * the point of view is the position, what is the actual effect of this tool on your company. In this case, one thing you need to consider is whether you have any other management tools that are still in use. If so, have you decided to abandon this old tool altogether, or are you ready for a transition period to use multiple tools at the same time? If you haven't used management tools at all before, what's the reason why you can't continue to use your current management techniques?

Another perspective is to determine whether your investment in this virtualization management tool is worth it. If you end up buying only one license, but you can make sure that the tool does meet all your needs, it's worthwhile to do some very wide-ranging testing.

Martin: what kind of fallback plan do you need if you find a lot of problems with the new virtualization management tool?

Posey: you need to have a double insurance fallback. When you find a problem for the first time, you will not rashly abandon this virtualization management tool. If a problem occurs, all you need to do is call technical support for the tool immediately. It is possible that the problem is very simple, can be solved only by phone, and can help you learn a piece of knowledge that you haven't covered yet. But if technical support is stumped, or if the problem seems to take a long time to solve, you definitely need a process to switch back to the management technology you used before. This assumes that this management tool is quite important, and that you can't stand a day or two without virtualization management software. So you need to assess the comparison between the urgency of resuming the use of the tool and the time it takes to fix the tool failure.

Martin: what types of capabilities or functions are expected by IT employees for a virtualized system management tool?

Posey: it depends on your needs. There are no two identical leaves in the world, so the needs of each company are different. On the list is also the most important: easy-to-operate management tools. I have seen some virtualization management tools that require you to have a doctorate in computer science to understand that if you install this tool, the information provided is confusing. A good tool is to instantly display the status information of the system you are managing and monitoring through a simple operator panel.

At the same time, this tool needs to be able to analyze the event log information in your system in real time, and should be able to alert and notify you when some potential problems have not yet broken out. A good management tool should be able to tell you at what point in time you can allocate resources to add virtual machines. This is what often happens in managing virtualized server environments, and it's something you need to be able to deal with quickly.

Another thing that is really important is that your tools need to be supported by multiple platforms. Just because you are using VMware or Microsoft-based hardware today doesn't mean it will be the same tomorrow. You want to know that when you need to use flexible multi-platform management tools, you will not abandon your current tools completely.

Martin: can you explain the trade-off between third-party virtualization management tools and management tools provided by virtualization vendors?

Posey: the word trade-off means being forced to choose between the tools provided by the virtualization vendor and the third-party tools. I don't agree with this view. In some cases, these tools do not even manage the same area. Sometimes, the role of these third-party tools is to fill the gap left by virtualization vendor tools. Sometimes it may be more helpful to use two tools at the same time. For example, Hyper-V Manager and vSphere Vlient. These are utilities for allocating new hosts, but they do have limited functionality in monitoring these hosts. At this point you can use some tools such as Quest vFoglight to fill the gap. Basically, you just need to make sure that these tools cover all your work. Do they all use third-party tools or hybrid tools of third-party and original manufacturers? As long as your needs are met, I really don't think there is a single right or wrong choice.

Thank you for reading! This is the end of the article on "how to choose the right Virtualization Management tool". I hope the above content can be of some help to you, so that you can learn more knowledge. If you think the article is good, you can share it for more people to see!

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