Virtual Machines are great for reducing hardware costs, but they do
tend to 'Grow like Topsy*'. SolarWinds' Virtualization Manager is
the classic tool to answer these questions:
How many VMs are there in our organization?
Which VMs are struggling and thus need more resource?
How can I load balance to achieve better performance?
Which VMs are idle, and are literally a waste of storage space?
* When Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin was asked, 'Who made you', she replied,
'Nobody, I spect I just growed'.
The SolarWinds dashboard is like Houston's mission control. As
well as giving you all the information you need on clusters, virtual
machines and datastores, it's a thing of beauty the way it allows you to
drill down to CPU and memory usage on individual hosts.
Underneath the integrated virtualization manager there must be lots of collection sensors, but on the
surface you just see a dashboard displaying color-coded information.
For example, when 'CPU ready time' reaches a critical threshold its
shown in red on the dashboard.
Perhaps I have been leading a sheltered life, but I have never before
seen an interface where you could press a button and see what happened
an hour ago, or even last week.
Virtualization Manager doesn't rely SNMP to collect data, instead it
uses VMware APIs to collect data from vCenter or from ESX(i) hosts.
This intuitive tool displays resource information about individual
VMs or clusters. For example, we keep hearing that disk space is cheap, but when it
comes reclaiming wasted terabytes because of unused VMs you can make
useful savings.
I realize that you have a job to do in managing your virtual
machines, but if you are like me then you always want to learn something new
about VMs, or make a connection between the underlying technologies.
My point is that the VM is always showing you extra interesting stuff,
such as seasonal usage trends.
As
I am reviewing SolarWinds Virtualization Manager I am thinking about which existing clusters need more disk space;
and if I can identify underused clusters then I can redistribute VMs
memory or CPU. As Virtualization Manager helps me
achieves these goals so it keeps me on my toes by identifying VM's that
have not been used in the last month.
One feature I haven't seen before with virtualization management is
the ability to play WhatIf games. This takes the guess work out of
adding more memory.
No review of SolarWinds Virtualization manager would complete without
a discussion of bottlenecks. I always find it satisfying to spot, then remove a
bottleneck, but guessing which resource is responsible for latency can
lead you to the wrong conclusion, it's much better to study reliable
data collected by a well-designed utility such as the Virtualization
Manager.
Unfortunately the 2nd law of bottlenecks still applies, 'Whenever you
remove one bottleneck, there is always another'. The good news is
as you remove each limiting factor, so create a more responsive system.
Perhaps I missed this ability to embed html when I assessed similar
utilities, but I loved the idea of using the widget to create a
link which I could insert into a web page. Simply right-click the
widget and copy the html code and paste into your page. See more
about
Virtualization Manager on the Twack forum.
Video of Virtualization Manager
How to Install the SolarWinds Virtualization Manager
I found the hardest part of installing this gismo was remembering
where I downloaded the zip file! From there it was all downhill. I extracted
the .msi file, and then clicked on the
licence agreement, and let the install wizard do the rest.
After the install completes the Virtualization Manager launches and you are ready to
begin. Should you need find the application later look on the
start menu, or if all else fails navigate to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\
Should you need to uninstall, then go to the Control Panel, Programs,
scroll down to 'S' for SolarWinds. See
more on
Thwack forum.
Summary of SolarWinds Virtualization Manager
The benefit of a good utility such as SolarWinds Virtualization Manager
is that you see the big picture yet drill down into the detail of
storage,
memory or CPU, and remember that the whole rationale behind virtual
machines means it's easier to respond when server demands increase.
My recommendations for additional handy
utilities. Many of these downloads are free, while others
are fully-functional, but time limited.
SolarWinds are happy to provide you with a free specialist tool, which is ideal for testing, and then
supply a more comprehensive suite for larger organizations. To let you
into a secret, for small networks, the free tool is all you'll ever need.
Guy Recommends: Orion's NPM - Network Performance Monitor
Orion's performance monitor is designed for detecting network outages. NPM makes it easy to see what's working, and what needs your attention.
This utility guides you through creating network maps. It also helps troubleshooting by indicating whether the root cause is faulty equipment, or resource overload.
