Now that we got it, how do we manage it?
OK, so we shipped Hyper-V and everyone cheered... Right? Now how do we manage it? How do we manage more than one Hyper-V server at a time? How do we remember what that virtual machine we created last week was supposed to do? How do we maintain a library of standard server images so that we can deploy a server solution faster and consistently? System Center Virtualization Manager (SCVMM) will answer all of these questions, but right now I want you to think back a few years ago...
Remember the server bloat of 8 or 9 years ago? Every department in every company had their own "computer expert". Yes the company still had an IT group, but each department felt that IT didn't understand their business needs, so they hedged their bet and grew their own "experts" in their department. During each company re-org, management would try to slowly squeeze out these departmental experts by either consuming them as part of IT, or by pushing them out of the company. Part of the problem back then was that these departmental experts were able to purchase their own hardware. They could order one or two more desktop class machines than they actually needed, and then they would re-purpose these additional machines to departmental servers. Now each business unit had their own server solutions that were not being managed or updated. Remember that? Through these re-orgs and IT partnering with purchasing and receiving, they were able to intercept these departmental servers and put a stop to the server sprawl issue. Unfortunately, IT then became known as the department that was better at saying "No" than the department that helped grow the business. We really blew this one, but it was a tough call for everyone. How do we secure, manage and protect our infrastructure while supporting business growth.
Step one was get control of the sprawl, step two was then to partner with the business units so that IT could deliver scalable and manageable solutions to meet their needs. Long story, but the reason I took the stroll down memory lane was to draw the parallel to what Virtualization is experiencing now. Again, departments and their "departmental IT experts" (yes they are still there) are able to start building departmental server solutions again and they found another way to avoid IT. Here we go again... Right? How do we help "get our arms" around the new Virtual Server sprawl while continuing to support our business units?
So what's System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)? It's a lot of very good things, but the one thing in my mind that really makes SCVMM worth a look is that we can now identify other servers within your organization that are hosting the virtual machines. It can identify Hyper-V servers and Virtual Server 2005 R2. Now we can "see" who is creating these solutions and we can "help them" understand how we can partner with them to deploy these new business solutions while maintaining the standard images and the standard processes that continue to support and secure your infrastructure. SCVMM can allow you to manage all of the virtual machines and virtual machine hosts "all together" or "by groups". I'll go into more detail on SCVMM in the future, but the thought I'd like to leave you with is that SCVMM will help you manage your Virtual Machine sprawl before it gets out of control.
SCVMM solves so many problems and answers so many questions that it's really worth a good hard look. We'll dig into more SCVMM detail in the future, but if you're looking for a way to manage more than one server at a time, give it a look.
Until next time!
Rob