Virtual Machine Monitoring is the process of monitoring the individual virtual machines and VMs created in a virtualization environment. With Virtual machine monitor software, you can view the availability status, and performance stats and manage the VMs connected to the host and their corresponding guest virtual machines.
Virtual servers aren't different from physical servers from the perspective of the users. A virtual server acts like an independent physical device, its hypervisor pulls systems resources from the host devices and allocates them to the virtual devices based on their needs. When users request IT services like websites or open web-based applications, the virtual server provides the necessary information or hosts applications. For the most part, the customers can't differentiate between physical and virtual servers.
For the IT organization, virtual servers offer innumerable advantages. Virtual servers are used as redundancies along with physical servers to ensure that services remain operational in case of an emergency.
Despite the availability of several virtual machine monitoring tools in the market, only a few of them can monitor virtual environments holistically. OpManager's VM monitoring functionalities help monitor VMware ESX/ESXi servers, HyperV, Xen servers, and the related guest virtual machines. It provides detailed insights into the performance and health of the host servers. With out-of-the-box reports, the option to set thresholds, fault and alarm management, and performance monitors for virtual machines, OpManager provides comprehensive virtual server management for your VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Citrix Xen host and associated virtual machines in real-time.
OpManager's virtual network management tool simplifies the entire process of virtual machine performance monitoring. It automatically discovers, maps, and monitors all the VMs in a host with just the server hostname and the required credentials. Monitor the performance and availability of VMs with pre-configured performance monitors that help in monitoring various parameters. With OpManager's virtual machine monitor (VMM), you can also drill down on specifics and identify the virtual servers running low on resources.
The 'Top Hosts' listing in OpManager lists the machines with high CPU consumption or Swap memory consumption. Some of the monitors available are CPU Wait/ Ready, Memory Balloon/ Shared/ Swapped/ Overhead, etc. You can also configure thresholds for the monitors making monitoring virtual machines proactive; OpManager's VM performance monitoring raises alerts when the performance thresholds are violated helping identify faults for efficient troubleshooting. OpManager supports device templates that can be used to apply and associate monitors in bulk.
Today's hybrid networks have virtual machines from different hypervisors such as VMware ESX/ESXi servers, Hyper-V, Nutanix, Xen servers, and more. Without a virtual machine monitor that is compatible with all hypervisors, network admins need to toggle multiple tools or tabs and lack a centralized view of their critical metrics.
With OpManager's centralized dashboard for the entire virtual environment, network admins can keep track of VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Citrix Xen host, and associated virtual machines in a single pane of glass. You can choose to have a separate view for individual hypervisors on their critical performance metrics such as Top VMs by Memory utilization, Top VMs by CPU utilization, Top VMs by Disk I/O usage, and Top hosts by Network usage. The VM sprawl dashboard features Top under, over-allocated VMs, and idle VMs by CPU/ Memory utilization.
"VM sprawl: In a large-scale organization, hundreds of VMs will be created to manage the server load. It is difficult to analyze and predict when the limit will be reached. Lack of resources can affect businesses and once VMs get accumulated, they will drain a considerable amount of resources. This will lead to a point where the administrator can no longer manage them effectively. This is called Virtual machine (VM) sprawl or virtualization sprawl".
Resources are a crucial part of ensuring the smooth functioning of virtual machines. Keeping the resources accessible to any virtual machine at a given point in time is necessary to ensure VM availability and performance. This requires managing VM sprawl, since idle, under or over-allocated VMs consume abnormal resources that create excessive workload in the virtual environment. OpManager's dedicated VM sprawl dashboard features all those VMs so that network admins can easily get a glimpse of devices causing VM sprawl and reallocate resources to active VMs that need them. For instance, with the list "Top VMs by CPU over-allocated", network admins can identify which virtual machine is consuming more CPU resources and re-allocate to needy devices.
OpManager's real-time monitoring of critical performance metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, and storage helps alert you instantly when the CPU usage shoots up or when the memory becomes low. Deciding whether to upgrade or purchase VM resources comes down to proper capacity planning.
OpManager's virtual machine monitoring not only monitors VMs but also provides over 100 out-of-the-box reports that help in identifying and analyzing utilization trends, performance, memory, and network utilization for hosts and VMs. Leverage OpManager`s reports to analyze the growth patterns of critical metrics like CPU, memory, and storage of VM devices to determine if it`s a false spike or nearing its maximum capacity. This helps you make an informed decision, and prevent indiscriminate storage purchases. Monitoring VM thus helps to keep the virtual resources in check.
To get a better visual understanding of your VM hosts and the related virtual machines associated with the host, OpManager's virtual machine monitoring tool provides real-time network topology maps. Spot virtual servers that need relocation and understand the relation between hosts and VMs, networks, and data stores. OpManager's Virtual Machine monitoring also offers VM migration tracking that helps administrators migrate virtual machines from one physical host to another.
Monitor virtual machines on the go with instant notifications via SMS or email on performance hiccups, faults, and downtime with OpManager. You can perform instant fault troubleshooting and remediation tasks on virtual machines using OpManager's advanced workflow automation feature. With Workflows, you can automate and execute certain actions based on the configured trigger profile for the related faults. This helps initiate better fault management activities and automates tasks that no longer require manual intervention.
