Products > VM Insight
Virtual machines can improve resource utilization by an order of magnitude by placing five, ten, twenty and sometimes forty server images on a single physical server. While these benefits are substantial, virtual machine deployments that are connected to networked storage also have the potential to dramatically increase storage costs. Hence the reward of server consolidation can be erased by the risk of dramatically increased storage capex.
VM Insight provides the information needed to optimize the risk/reward equation. VM Insight builds on SANscreen’s service path awareness and change management technologies to:
- Maximize server consolidation
- Minimize the risk of increased storage costs
Until now, no applications were available to manage the cross domain infrastructure challenges needed to support the combined virtual storage and compute infrastructure. Most virtual machine management applications have focused on managing the VM’s themselves and their associated images. Within storage management, storage resource management (SRM) applications have focused on building agents to read file level data for the virtual machines. VM Insight is the first cross domain application for both VM system administrators and storage administrators.
Maximize Server Consolidation
Server consolidation is maximized by providing real-time information on CPU, memory, I/O, network bandwidth, and when combined with Application Insight, SAN bandwidth and array performance. Using this data, VM administrators can optimally deploy the correct ratio of VMs per physical server and reach maximum ROI for the project.
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Provide VM Allocation Tracking to Reduce Storage Capital Costs
In VMware environments, storage teams generally use a delegated model of storage allocation. Storage teams allocate from 5 - 10 TB per VM farm to the server team then step back. The server team then allocates storage as they see fit to individual vms. This model of allocation is once removed from the standard storage allocation model where storage teams allocate and charge back for space at the server level. WIthout visibility into how storage has been allocated, the storage team looses the required visibility for forecasting, planning and charge back. The result is inefficient storage utilization and increased capex. VM Insight corrects this by providing VM to allocated volume visibility for both the server and storage team.
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Manage VM Server Sprawl
A VMs ability to quickly be deployed to support an application is one of its chief benefits. However, this ability to quickly set up and deploy servers also comes with significant downside. For each VM that is built, a portion of allocated storage is used up. Unless the team systemically goes back to delete these volumes, the storage space is consumed. VM sprawl has the potential to increase storage consumption by an order of magnitude.
VM Insight provides the capabilities to uncover orphan volumes and VMs that are no longer operating with allocated storage space. This storage space can then be reclaimed.
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Maximize Array and Fabric Utilization
In a VM farm, the server team can start/stop and move VMs at will. The result is shifting fabric and array demand. In addition, the large LUN sizes used by VMware cause additional sizing uncertainty for the storage team. Finally, ESX runs active/passive across the fabric. Without proper balancing, fabric utilization suffers. The result is the storage team will under allocate storage resources to make up for the uncertain demand. The result is lower utilization and higher costs.
VM Insight provides the cross domain load information to maximize fabric and array utilization.
