- 1. Introduction
-
2. Getting Started
- 2.1 VM Price
-
3. Sign In - Cloud Console
- 3.1 Sign In
- 3.2 Sign In Successfully
- 4. Dashboard VM
-
5. VM
- 5.1 What is server virtualization?
- 5.2 History of virtualization
- 5.3 Why is server virtualization important?
- 5.4 How does server virtualization work?
- 5.5 What are the benefits of server virtualization?
- 5.6 What are the disadvantages of server virtualization?
- 5.7 Use cases and applications
- 5.8 What are the types of server virtualization?
- 5.9 Migration and deployment best practices
- 5.10 Server virtualization management
- 5.11 Vendors and products
- 6. Create VM
- 7. Manage VM
- 8. Security Group
-
9. Networking
- 9.1 Allocate IP
- 9.2 Manage IP
-
10. VM Image - Backup
- 10.1 Scheduled Backup
- 11. Restoring a VM
- 12. The FAQ's
- 1. Introduction
-
2. Getting Started
- 2.1 VM Price
-
3. Sign In - Cloud Console
- 3.1 Sign In
- 3.2 Sign In Successfully
- 4. Dashboard VM
-
5. VM
- 5.1 What is server virtualization?
- 5.2 History of virtualization
- 5.3 Why is server virtualization important?
- 5.4 How does server virtualization work?
- 5.5 What are the benefits of server virtualization?
- 5.6 What are the disadvantages of server virtualization?
- 5.7 Use cases and applications
- 5.8 What are the types of server virtualization?
- 5.9 Migration and deployment best practices
- 5.10 Server virtualization management
- 5.11 Vendors and products
- 6. Create VM
- 7. Manage VM
- 8. Security Group
-
9. Networking
- 9.1 Allocate IP
- 9.2 Manage IP
-
10. VM Image - Backup
- 10.1 Scheduled Backup
- 11. Restoring a VM
- 12. The FAQ's
Server virtualization management
Managing virtualization across an enterprise requires a combination of clear policies, conscientious planning and capable tools. Virtualization management can usually be clarified through a series of common best practices that emphasize the role of the infrastructure as well as the business:
- Have a plan. Don't adopt virtualization for its own sake. Server virtualization offers some significant benefits, but there are also costs and complexities to consider. An organization planning to adopt virtualization for the first time should have a clear understanding of why and where the technology fits in a business plan. Similarly, organizations that already virtualize parts of the environment should understand why and how expanding the role of virtualization will benefit the business. The answer might be as obvious as a server consolidation project to save money, or a vehicle to support active software development projects outside of the production environment. Regardless of the drivers, have a plan before going into a virtualization initiative.
- Assess the hardware. Get a sense of scope. Virtualization software, both hypervisors and management tools, must be purchased and maintained. Understand the number of systems as well as the applications that must be virtualized and investigate the infrastructure to verify that the hardware should support virtualization. Almost all hardware is suited for virtualization, but perform the due diligence upfront to avoid discovering an incompatibility or inadequate hardware during an installation.
- Test and learn. Any new virtualization rollout is typically preceded by a period of testing and experimentation, especially when the technology is new to the organization and IT team. IT teams should have a thorough working knowledge of a virtualization platform before it's deployed and used in a production setting. Even when virtualization is already present, the move to virtualize new workloads -- especially mission-critical workloads -- should involve detailed proof-of-principle projects to learn the tools and validate the process. Smaller organizations can turn to service providers and consultants for help if necessary.
- Focus on the business. Virtualization should be deployed and used according to the needs of the business, including a careful consideration of security, regulatory compliance, business continuance, disaster recovery and VM lifecycles -- provisioning and later recovering resources. IT management tools should support virtualization and map appropriately against all those business considerations.
- Start small and build out. Organizations new to server virtualization should follow a period of testing and experimentation with small, noncritical virtualization deployments, such as test and development servers. Seek the small and quick wins to gain experience, learn troubleshooting and demonstrate the value of virtualization while minimizing risk. Once a body of expertise is available, the organization can plan and execute more complex virtualization projects.
- Adopt guidelines. As the organization embraces server virtualization, it's appropriate to create and adopt guidelines around VM provisioning, monitoring and lifecycles. Computing resources cost money, and guidelines can help codify the processes and practices that enable an organization to manage those costs, avoid resource waste by preventing overprovisioning and VM sprawl, and maintain consistent behaviors that tie back to security and compliance issues. Guidelines should be periodically reviewed and updated over time.
- Select a tool. Virtualization management tools usually aren't the first consideration in an organization's virtualization strategy. Virtualization platforms typically include basic tools, and it's good practice to get comfortable with those tools in the early stages of virtualization adoption. Eventually, the organizations might find benefits in adopting more comprehensive and powerful tools that support large and sophisticated virtualization environments. By then, the organization and IT staff will have a clear picture of the features and functionality required from a tool, why those features are needed and how these features will benefit the organization. Server virtualization management tools are selected based on a wide range of criteria, including licensing costs, cross-platform compatibility supporting multiple hypervisors from multiple vendors, support for templates and automation, direct control over VMs and storage, and even the potential for self-service and chargebacks -- enabling other departments or users to provision VMs and receive billing if desired. Organizations can choose from many server virtualization monitoring tools that vary in features, complexity, compatibility and cost. Virtualization vendors typically provide tools intended for the vendor's specific hypervisors. For example, Microsoft System Center supports Hyper-V, while vCenter Server is suited for VMware hypervisors.
- Support automation. Ultimately, virtualization lends itself to automation and orchestration techniques that can speed common provisioning and management tasks while ensuring consistent execution, minimizing errors, mitigating security risks and bolstering compliance. Generally, tools support automation, but it takes human experience and insight to codify established practices and processes into suitable automation.