by Greg Shields

Virtual environments are another area where monitoring is quickly becoming a critical asset. Virtual environments are by nature exceptionally dynamic entities. Virtual machines can be constantly on the move between virtual hosts. Processing and memory consumption (and, essentially all physical resources) are used in much higher levels than in traditional physical environments. Densities are higher, in storage, resource utilization, and servers and desktops.

All of these elements combine to make a virtual environment a very chaotic one. The dynamics of such a system are so great that I myself have been noted for repeatedly stating that no human alive can effectively watch and compensate for every behavior in such an environment.

This summarizes to really mean that if you have a virtual environment, you really and truly need virtual environment monitoring. End of story. Good virtual environment monitoring solutions not only watch for host system behaviors or virtual machine resource consumption but also keep an eye on your network—both its virtual and physical components. They look at your all-critical storage, both in terms of consumption as well as utilization. Virtual environments have a heavy reliance on storage, making well-performing storage important for well-performing virtual machines.

Tools that monitor your virtual environment should also include the ability to enact change on that environment. Today’s virtual environment monitoring solutions indeed need to keep an eye on many behaviors. But those same solutions also need to provide you with actionable intelligence that tells you what actions to take to resolve a problem. Because virtual environments have so many potential actions that can occur to solve a problem—add memory, live migrate, add or subtract virtual machines, rebalance workloads, and so on—you need a solution that analyzes your situation in real time and presents you with options.

Consider some of the current leaders in this space. Solutions such as eG Innovations Enterprise, Vizioncore vFoglight, and vKernel Capacity Analyzer provide the kinds of monitoring your virtual environment needs along with the actionable intelligence you’ll want to ensure that the decisions you make are based on hard data.

About the Author

Greg Shields is an independent author, speaker, and IT consultant, as well as a Partner and Principal Technologist with Concentrated Technology. With 15 years in information technology, Greg has developed extensive experience in systems administration, engineering, and architecture specializing in Microsoft OS, remote application, systems management, and virtualization technologies. He is a Contributing Editor and columnist for TechNet Magazine and Redmond Magazine, and serves as the Series Editor for Realtime Publishers, the world’s leading provider of high-quality content for the IT market. Greg is a highly sought-after and top-ranked speaker for both live and recorded events, and is seen regularly at conferences like TechMentor Events, Microsoft Tech Ed, VMworld, and more. He is a multiple recipient of Microsoft “Most Valuable Professional” award.