Inventory by Virtual Platforms

In large virtualized infrastructures, multiple virtualization platforms (e.g.,Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere ESX, etc.) often co-exist. As a routine practice, administrators of these environments may have to periodically take stock of the number and names of virtual hosts that are available in the environment and the virtualized platform on which they operate. Moreover, if a virtual host under-performs, they may need instant access to the configuration information pertaining to that host to identify inconsistencies (if any) in configuration, which could have caused the host to suffer performance anomalies.

To enable administrators to easily maintain the inventory of virtual platforms and hosts and to provide them with on-demand access to the configuration of specific hosts, the configuration management console offers the Inventory by Virtual Platforms page.

To use this page, do the following:

1. Follow the Inventory -> View -> By Virtual Platforms menu sequence.

2. Figure 7 will then appear. Figure 7 reveals the details of all virtualization platforms that are in use in the target environment. Accordingly, All is the default selection in the Component Type list.

   

   Figure 7 : The details of all virtual platforms that are in use in the environment

3. If the Component Type chosen is All, then, Figure 7 will provide a doughnut chart depicting the distribution of virtual hosts of each virtual platform that is currently managed.

4. The doughnut chart will be followed by multiple sections - one each for every virtual platform - displaying the list of virtual hosts operating on that platform. Clicking on a virtual host will lead you to Figure 8, where the basic configuration information pertaining to that host will be revealed. If a virtual host suddenly behaves abnormally, then, you can view the configuration information to figure out whether the host has been sized right, whether too many VMs have been spawned on that host, and so on.

   

   Figure 8 : Viewing the configuration of a virtual host

5. You can return to the inventory by virtual platforms page by clicking on the Back button at the right, top corner of Figure 8.

6. Once back in the inventory by virtual platforms, you can pick a particular virtual platform from the Component Type list and click the submit button to view the count of and the names of virtual hosts that are operating on that virtual platform alone (see Figure 9).

   

   Figure 9 : Viewing the details of virtual hosts operating on a particular virtual platform

7. Here again, you can click on a virtual host to view its configuration.