HP PROLIANT ESSENTIALS User Manual

HP ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Management Pack

1.10 Product Brief

Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 2

Overview ........................................................................................................................................ 2

Benefits........................................................................................................................................... 2

Technology summary............................................................................................................................ 3

Hosted virtual machine host servers .................................................................................................... 3

Bare metal physical servers ............................................................................................................... 5

Integration with HP SIM........................................................................................................................ 6

Virtual machine host association and virtual machine guest control ............................................................ 7

Using the remote console ................................................................................................................ 10

Virtual disk detail display................................................................................................................ 11

Performance analysis ......................................................................................................................... 12

Virtual machine host performance .................................................................................................... 12

Moving and copying virtual machine guests.......................................................................................... 16

Creating templates and backups.......................................................................................................... 18

Creating a template ....................................................................................................................... 18

Creating a backup ......................................................................................................................... 19

Usage scenario: Workload optimization .............................................................................................. 19

Conclusion........................................................................................................................................ 21

Glossary........................................................................................................................................... 22

For more information.......................................................................................................................... 22

Introduction

Virtualization is the representation of hardware through software. This representation, in which
multiple guest operating systems run concurrently on a single hardware machine, reduces costs and
complexity in operating server consolidation projects. In addition, virtualization provides faster
response times to changing business demands.

Overview

The HP ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Management Pack (VMM) provides management of virtual
machine hosts and virtual machine guests for Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005, VMware ESX Server,
and VMware GSX server. The Virtual Machine Management Pack does this within the HP Systems
Insight Manager (HP SIM) 4.2 environment, which allows tracking, monitoring, and control functions
for organizing an effective virtualized environment. HP leverages key industry alliances to provide
best-in-class management capability across most contemporary virtualization software platforms and
industry-standard servers.

The Virtual Machine Management Pack integrates completely within HP SIM to provide ease of use,
installation, and maintenance. All requirements and practices for proper operation of HP SIM must be
observed for the Virtual Machine Management Pack. For more information about HP SIM
requirements and usage, refer to the HP SIM web site at

The Virtual Machine Management Pack includes the following components, which are installed and
set up during the Virtual Machine Management Pack installation:

http://www.hp.com/go/hpsim.

• Virtual Machine Management Service—This service resides on the HP SIM server and controls the

internal functions of Virtual Machine Management Pack.

• Virtual Machine Management Console—As the user interface for the Virtual Machine Management

Pack, the console provides access to the virtual machine monitoring and control functions. The GUI
can be accessed locally or remotely using industry-standard Web browsers.

• Virtual Machine Management Agent—This agent is provided with the Virtual Machine Management

Pack installation and distributed to managed virtual machine hosts from HP SIM.

• HP ProLiant Essentials Server Migration Pack—Used to perform physical-to-virtual (P2V) migration or

virtual-to-virtual (V2V) migration of virtual machines managed in the Virtual Machine Migration Pack
console using the Server Migration Pack integrated console. Note that the Server Migration Pack
has additional licensing requirements. For more information about the Server Migration Pack, refer

http://www.hp.com/servers/proliantessentials/smp.

to

Benefits

The Virtual Machine Management Pack provides central management and control of virtual machines
from Microsoft and VMware. Among its benefits, the Virtual Machine Management Pack provides:

Single console for physical server and virtual machine resources

The Virtual Machine Management Pack is a plug-in to HP SIM that provides the ability to use a single
management console to manage both physical and virtual resources. This integrated approach
enables IT administrators to associate virtual machine guests to host servers and correlate the health of
host servers to virtual machine guests running on the host—making it easy to identify potential host
issues and avoid possible service interruption.

2

Simplifies virtual machine management and operation

The Virtual Machine Management Pack simplifies day-to-day management tasks and ongoing
operation of virtual machines. The Virtual Machine Management Pack simplifies typical management
tasks by providing:

• Remote access through remote console

• Virtual machine guest control functions (start, stop, pause, and reset capabilities)

• Virtual machine host backup to preserve valuable virtual machine guest, operating system, and

application configuration information

• Templates that reduce virtual machine guest deployment time to a matter of minutes

These features simplify the virtual machine management process and reduce the time you need to
perform these tasks.

HP SIM integration

HP SIM provides a unified view of virtual machines and supporting host server resources with an
at-a-glance view of host server and associated virtual machine performance.

Heterogeneous virtual machine guest management

Heterogeneous virtual machine host management supports management and control of virtual
machine software from VMware with ESX Server and GSX Server versions and Virtual Server from
Microsoft.

Workload management

IT administrators can easily move virtual machine guests between host servers to optimize workloads
of host server resources.

These benefits provide you with simplified management and operation of multi-VM environments,
reduced administration cost and complexity, and faster response times.

Technology summary

Virtualization allows for the migration and consolidation of applications from legacy operating
systems to current hardware and software platforms. Depending on the technology, virtualization
layers such as Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and VMware GSX Server are examples of hosted
environments. Meanwhile, VMware ESX Server is an example of a bare metal environment.

Hosted virtual machine host servers

A hosted virtual machine host server requires a host operating system such as Microsoft Windows®
Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server. For example, the Microsoft Virtual Server 2003 or VMware
GSX Server virtualization layers require a host operating system.

3

The following figure shows an example of how virtualization component placement on a hosted
virtual machine host server.

Figure 1. Virtualization components on a hosted virtual machine host server

The host operating system serves as the foundation for the hosted virtual machine host server. The
operating system is aware of the hardware and can virtualize the hardware out to the virtual machine
guests that are associated with the virtual machine host. Each virtual machine guest contains a distinct
guest operating system.

4

Bare metal physical servers

The following figure shows the virtualization components that exist directly on a bare metal physical
server. A bare metal physical server does not use a host operating system. For example, the VMware
ESX Server virtualization layer requires a bare metal physical server.

The following figure shows an example of virtual machine guest placement on a bare metal physical
server.

Figure 2. Virtualization components on a bare metal physical server

Virtualization allows for the partitioning and isolating of server resources in secure and portable
virtual machine guests. These resources can then be remotely managed, automatically provisioned,
and standardized on a uniform platform.

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Integration with HP SIM

A key differentiator for the Virtual Machine Management Pack is its integration with HP SIM. The
Virtual Machine Management Pack installs and runs on the HP SIM Central Management Server
(CMS). The Virtual Machine Management Pack displays the status of virtual machine hosts and guests
in the HP SIM console.

With the Virtual Machine Management Pack integration, you can associate physical and virtual
machines to update and manage your environment. This information helps you anticipate potential
issues that affect the health of your server.

The virtual machine host and guest status information is displayed in the VM column, shown circled in
the following figure.

Figure 3. HP SIM console

In this figure, systems ml350g3-w2k3, ntvm1, and printervm are operating in normal condition, as
evidenced by the normal (
Meanwhile, systems dl560g1-wk3ee and ml350g3-2 have potential issues, as evidenced by the
major (

HP SIM integration enables you to identify issues in both your physical servers and the virtual
environment. The Virtual Machine Management Pack grants you the control needed to manipulate
your servers to ensure optimal efficiency.

) icon displayed in the HW column.

) icon displayed in the Hardware Status (HW) column in the right frame.

6

Virtual machine host association and virtual machine
guest control

Using the Virtual Machine Management Pack, you can start, resume, shut down, stop, pause, reset,
restart, move, and copy virtual machine guests.

Select Tools>Integrated Consoles>Virtual Machine Management Pack from the HP SIM
toolbar to access the Virtual Machine Management Pack console. The home page of this console
presents information about each virtual machine host being managed.

Figure 4. Virtual Machine Management Pack console

Performance metrics listed in the right frame are as follows:

• % Free CPU—% Free CPU is the amount of processor resources available on the virtual machine

hosts. These resources can be allocated to additional virtual machine guests.

• Free Memory—Free memory is the amount of virtual machine host physical memory that is not used.

Free memory can be allocated to additional virtual machine guests.

• Free Storage—Free storage is the amount of virtual machine host disk capacity that is not in use.

From this console, select the virtual machine host in the left frame to display information for its
associated virtual machine guest or guests in the right frame.

7

The following figure shows a Virtual Machine Management Pack guest console. The left frame
displays the tree of virtual machine hosts and guests and provides easy identification. The right frame
displays information for the selected node. In this example, the virtual machine guest msvs-w2k-2004,
is displayed.

Figure 5. Virtual Machine Management Pack guest console

The Virtual Machine Management Pack guest console is designed to provide management and
control functions in the virtual environment. The following configuration information is displayed for
each virtual guest:

• Virtual machine host • Virtual disk

• Virtualization layer • CD/DVD drive

• Configuration file • Floppy drive

• Configuration folder • Network card

• Memory • Total file size

• Virtual disk name • Virtual disk size

8

Additional information is displayed for virtual machine hosts and guests using color-coded icons so
you can quickly identify status. The following tables depict the status icons of virtual machine hosts
and guests.

Table 1. Virtual machine host icons

Icon Status

The virtual machine host is licensed and is currently communicating with the Virtual Machine Management Pack.

The virtual machine host is licensed but is not currently communicating with the Virtual Machine Management Pack.

The VMM agent is installed on the virtual machine host, but the host is not licensed.

The VMM agent is installed on the server, but the server is not a virtual machine host.

No
icon

The VMM agent is not installed on the server.

Table 2. Virtual machine guest icons

Icon Status

The virtual machine guest is associated with a licensed virtual machine host, and the guest is started.

The virtual machine guest is associated with a licensed virtual machine host, but the host is not communicating with
the Virtual Machine Management Pack.

The virtual machine guest is in a state requiring user attention.

The virtual machine guest is associated with a licensed virtual machine host, but the guest is not started.

The virtual machine guest is not associated with a licensed virtual machine host.

NOTE: The status shown in the VMM Status field is the same in both the virtual machine host and
guest consoles.

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Using the remote console

Some vendors provide native management tools with their virtualization layers. Whenever possible,
the Virtual Machine Management Pack provides remote access to native management tools.
Additionally, the Virtual Machine Management Pack provides remote desktop to access these guest
operating system consoles.

To launch a remote console for the virtualization layer installed on a virtual machine host, select a
virtual machine guest in the Virtual Machine Management Pack console, and click the thumbnail
image of the virtual machine guest or click Remote Console in the Launch menu as shown in the
following figure. The remote console displays in a separate browser window.

Figure 6. Virtual Machine Management Pack guest console with remote options identified

IMPORTANT: Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 remote console is only supported with Microsoft Internet

Explorer browsers.

IMPORTANT: VMware Remote Console application must be installed on the client machine to
launch and view the virtual machine remote console.

Because the Virtual Machine Management Pack is integrated tightly with HP SIM, you can control the
virtual machine guest remotely, and to launch the task manager.

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Virtual disk detail display

Another management feature is the ability to monitor virtual disk capacity. The Virtual Machine
Management Pack provides virtual disk details at the bottom of the virtual machine guest information
display as shown in the following figure.

Figure 7. Virtual disk details display

Monitor the virtual disk capacity by reviewing this screen. In this example, the screen calls out the
virtual disk details as follows:

• The first virtual disk, Another.vhd, has a 500 MB capacity that has been partitioned. The first

partition has a 250 MB capacity, of which 1% is currently used. The second partition has a
244 MB capacity, of which 1% is currently used.

• The second virtual disk, Web1.vhd, has a 200 GB capacity, of which 66% is currently used.

• The third virtual disk, SCSI.vhd, has a 2 GB capacity and has an empty FAT32 partition.

IMPORTANT: The network server does not immediately register changes to the virtual machine guest
name, the Internet browser, or security settings. This situation causes inconsistency between HP SIM
and the Virtual Machine Management Pack, and possibly affects performance. For the same reason,
avoid using multiple management tools to perform actions on virtual machine hosts and guests.

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Performance analysis

The Virtual Machine Management Pack reports the total processor utilization on the virtual machine
hosts. This utilization includes the processor consumption by all virtual machine guests on the virtual
machine host and all other processes running on the virtual machine host.

Virtual machine host performance

To access the Virtual Machine Management Pack console, select Tools>Integrated Consoles>
Virtual Machine Management Pack from the HP SIM toolbar. The Virtual Machine
Management Pack console displays in a new browser window.

• The left frame of the Virtual Machine Management Pack console displays the tree of virtual machine

hosts and guests. The Virtual Machine Management Pack home page displays in the right frame.

• After a node is selected, the right frame displays information for the selected node. The information

displays in both text and graphical format. The numbers to the right of the graphs indicate the most
recent data collected in the last minute. Graphical data depicts performance for the previous 60
minutes.

• Select a virtual machine host or guest in the left frame to display the virtual machine host or guest

information in the right frame. Select a VMM log under the Tools directory to display completed
events, running tasks, or scheduled backups.

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The following figure shows a Virtual Machine Management Pack virtual machine host console.

Figure 8. Virtual Machine Management Pack host console

Monitor the virtual machine host capacity by reviewing the information in the right frame. In this
figure, the processor utilization (Processor %) is at 5%. As virtual machine guests are added to the
virtual machine host, the processor usage will increase and could become a performance issue.

The Virtual Machine Management Pack collects virtual machine guest performance information from
the supported virtualization product every minute. The performance numbers give a pretext for why it
would become necessary to move or copy a virtual machine guest.

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Analyzing virtual machine host performance information

The type of performance information collected by Virtual Machine Management Pack varies
according to the virtualization product installed as indicated in the following table. The performance
information for the virtual machine host consists of the sum of the metrics for each virtual machine
guest along with the virtual machine host.

Table 3. Performance information by virtualization product

Virtualization product Performance information

VMware ESX Server, VMware GSX Server, and Microsoft Visual Server 2005 Processor %

VMware ESX Server Memory (free/total)

VMware ESX Server Memory Usage %

VMware ESX Server and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Network Throughput

VMware ESX Server and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 Storage Throughput

Key performance metrics relevant to virtual machine hosts are derived from different sources,
depending on the virtualization product. VMware ESX Server performance metrics are made
available through the VMware ESX Server Application Program Interface (API) program. VMware
GSX Server and Microsoft Virtual Server metrics are made available through the Performance Monitor
(perfmon) program in Windows.

Analyzing virtual machine guest performance information

Virtual Machine Management Pack shows the actual processor consumption of the virtual machine
guest on the virtual machine host (that is, how much of the host processor is used by the guest).

With virtual machine guests that run on a single processor (almost all) and are not constrained, the
processor utilization reported by the Virtual Machine Management Pack is approximately the same
value that would be seen in the Performance Monitor on the guest operating system. For example, if
the Performance Monitor showed 50% processor utilization in the guest, the Virtual Machine
Management Pack would show approximately 50% processor utilization (usually a bit more).

The processor percentage reported by Performance Monitor is not valid if the virtual machine guest
hits resource constraints. Such constraints are either imposed by the virtualization platform or by other
virtual machine guests attempting to do work.

As the virtual machine guest processor utilization gets close to the utilization limit, requests to use the
processor are rejected by the virtualization platform. The operating system inside the virtual machine
guest cannot differentiate this from normal “out of cycles” conditions, and utilization rapidly diverges
from the real utilization toward 100%. This phenomenon complicates performance analysis and
capacity planning. Similar but unpredictable observations can be made when virtual machines
compete for processor resources. See Figure 7 on page 11 for an example.

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The following figure shows a virtual machine guest running on a single processor virtual machine host.

Figure 9. Virtual machine guest performance

100

80

60

40

VM Guest Processor Utilization %

20

0

0 20406080

VM Host Processor Utilization %

100

• The horizontal axis is the processor utilization of the virtual machine host where the virtual machine

guest resides.

• The vertical axis is the virtual processor utilization as observed from within the virtual machine guest

(through Performance Monitor, for instance).

• The solid line shows that when there is no contention for processor resources, the virtual processor

utilization of the virtual machine guest tracks closely to the actual processor utilization of the virtual
machine host.

• The dashed line illustrates the divergence between the virtual and actual processor utilization when

there is contention for the host processor resource. In this case, the virtual processor utilization
detected by the guest operating system quickly approached 100% as the actual processor usage on
the virtual machine host approached the 60% utilization limit.

The host processor utilization depends on the number of processors. For example, on a system with
four processors, a virtual machine guest that used 50% of a processor would use 12.5% of the system
processor capacity. (Virtualization overhead and other host processes always cause the actual virtual
machine host utilization to be higher.)

NOTE: VMware ESX Server can dynamically reallocate memory and processor resources. These
resources are assigned a minimum value, maximum value, and shares per virtual machine guest. The
minimum value is the minimum guaranteed resource amount that the virtual machine guest will always
have. The maximum value is a fixed upper limit on the amount of resources that a virtual machine
guest can consume. A virtual machine guest will never be assigned more resources than the specified
maximum, even if resources are available. Shares are a relative weight assigned to a virtual machine
guest for resource allocation. Shares determine which virtual machine guests should be assigned a
contended resource. For example, a virtual machine guest with twice the shares of another will win

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contention for that resource about 66% of the time. Microsoft Virtual Server can also perform dynamic
processor allocation. However, VMware GSX Server is incapable of this type of resource arbitration.

By monitoring and analyzing server performance in your virtual environment, you can maintain server
efficiency before problems arise by using the Virtual Machine Management Pack copy and move
features.

Moving and copying virtual machine guests

Another key differentiator for the Virtual Machine Management Pack is its ability to move and copy
virtual machine guests between licensed virtual machine hosts. The entire move and copy capability
consists of the user interface to define the parameters of the operation, the integration with HP SIM,
and the actual move and copy operations.

NOTE: The Virtual Machine Management Pack supports copying or moving a virtual machine guest
that has been configured with VMware Virtual SMP to use more than one processor to another
VMware ESX Server only if the target virtual machine host also has Virtual SMP installed and enough
physical processors.

NOTE: The Virtual Machine Management Pack will not move or copy virtual machine guests with the
following disk types shown in the following table:

Table 4. Disk types not moved or copied by virtualization product

Virtualization product Disk type

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005

VMware ESX Server

VMware GSX Server

Linked Disk

Differencing Disk

Physical (RAW) Disk

Moving a virtual machine guest

Virtual machine guests can be moved from an existing virtual machine host to a new host when the
same virtualization technology exists on both the source and target hosts. The Virtual Machine
Management Pack simplifies virtual machine guest movement by pre-selecting hosts with the same
virtualization layers.

Virtual Machine Management Pack copies the virtual machine guest configuration file from the source
virtual machine host to your specified location on the target virtual machine host. The Virtual Machine
Management Pack then copies virtual disk files from the source virtual machine host to your specified
location on the target virtual machine host. The copied virtual machine guest is then registered to the
target virtual machine host.

When the move is complete, the Virtual Machine Management Pack status of the moved virtual
machine guest is displayed as Disabled on the new host. Start the moved virtual machine guest as
necessary.

NOTE: When a virtual machine guest is moved, the source virtual machine (the old one) is
unregistered, so it is no longer accessible to the VMware/VS platform, but the files remain on the host
server. You must manually delete those virtual machine guest files. Also, depending on the
virtualization product, you might need to manually reconfigure the virtual network connections on the
moved virtual machine guest.

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Copying a virtual machine guest

Virtual machine guests can be copied from an existing virtual machine host to a new host when the
same virtualization technology exists on both the source and target host servers.

When copying a virtual machine guest, first select the target virtual machine host, the target virtual
machine name, and the target path for storing the files and then confirm the copy. To begin this
process, select the virtual machine guest in the left frame of the VMM console, and click Copy
Virtual Machine in the Administrate action menu.

In Virtual Machine Management Pack, the steps involved in copying the virtual machine guest to
moving a virtual machine guest. The Virtual Machine Management Pack copies the virtual machine
guest configuration file from the source virtual machine host to your specified location on the target
virtual machine host. The Virtual Machine Management Pack then copies virtual disk files from the
source virtual machine host to your specified location on the target virtual machine host. The copied
virtual machine guest (new one) is then registered with the target virtual machine host.

When the copy is complete, the Virtual Machine Management Pack status of the new virtual machine
guest is displayed as Disabled on the console. Start the copied virtual machine guest as necessary.

NOTE: Depending on the virtualization product, you might need to manually reconfigure the virtual
network connections on the new virtual machine guest.

VMM Event log

The Virtual Machine Management Pack displays the completed moving and copying tasks on its Event
Log screen. To access the Event Log screen:

• From the Virtual Machine Management Pack left frame, click Event Log to view the completed

moving and copying tasks for all managed virtual machine hosts and guests.

• From the virtual machine host console, click Event Log to view the completed moving and copying

tasks for that particular host.

The Virtual Machine Management Pack logs the in-progress moving and copying tasks on its Running
Task Log screen. To access the Running Task Log screen:

• From the Virtual Machine Management Pack home page, click Running Task Log to view the in-

progress moving and copying tasks for all managed virtual machine hosts and guests.

Notes and limitations on moving and copying virtual machine guests

• The Virtual Machine Management Pack copies the virtual machine configuration file and virtual disk

files into a single folder for Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and VMware GSX Server, regardless of
their placement on the source virtual machine host.

• The Virtual Machine Management Pack copies all VMware ESX Server virtual disks to a user-

selected location. VMware ESX Server definition files are copied into a separate location.

• The Virtual Machine Management Pack does not copy virtual disks mapped to physical devices.

• The Virtual Machine Management Pack does not support movement of virtual machines with

differencing files.

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• The Virtual Machine Management Pack does not copy virtual network configuration. The virtual

machine will retain its virtual network definitions if the named virtual networks are defined on the
target virtual machine host.

• The Virtual Machine Management Pack does not copy media images attached to virtual floppy or

CD devices.

• The Virtual Machine Management Pack does not delete any files from the source virtual machine

host after “Move.”

Creating templates and backups

The Virtual Machine Management Pack allows for rapid provisioning in which you can build a
reference copy of a virtual machine guest and replicate it as needed. The Virtual Machine
Management Pack allows for the creation of templates, or images, of complete virtual machine guest
configurations. These configurations include all relevant information needed to create and register a
new virtual machine guest on a new virtual machine host with the same virtualization technology. Any
existing licensed virtual machine guest can be used to create a template.

IMPORTANT: Virtual machine guests that contain disk types that are not currently supported by the
Virtual Machine Management Pack do not support backups.

Creating a template

A key Virtual Machine Management Pack differentiator is that it does not provision only a virtual
machine guest configuration in the template. Instead, it provisions both the virtual machine guest
configuration as well as virtual disk files containing the guest operating system. You can decide
whether to include a preinstalled guest operating system in the template. Should a guest operating
system be included, the disks will be stored in a user-defined location

From the virtual machine guest console, select Create VM Template to begin the template creation
wizard. The wizard will first check whether the virtual machine guest is a valid source for a template.
If this is the case, you will be asked for a name under which the template will be stored, and a
description of the template, which is optional.

NOTE: Virtual machine hosts that contain disk types not currently supported by the Virtual Machine
Management Pack cannot be used as a template source. If the template source contains disks that are
not supported by the Virtual Machine Management Pack, the wizard will abort and an error message
will appear.

Templates will not allow cross-deployment to other virtualization layers than the one used to create the
template. Allowing cross-deployment requires the same functionality used in the HP ProLiant Essentials
Server Migration Pack to perform virtual-to-virtual machine (V2V) migrations. For more information
about the Server Migration Pack, refer to the Server Migration Pack web site at

http://www.hp.com/servers/proliantessentials/smp.

Any existing virtual machine host template can be used to create a new virtual machine guest on one
of the virtual machine hosts known to the Virtual Machine Management Pack. During template
deployment, you must select a template and modify certain settings before deployment is completed.

The Virtual Machine Management Pack also provides a simple way to create backup copies of virtual
machine guests. A backup is a copy of all files associated with a virtual machine guest.

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Creating a backup

The Virtual Machine Management Pack enables you to make an immediate backup, or schedule a
recurring backup on a daily or weekly basis. Scheduled backups will be stored under the user-defined
backup location where each backup is stored in a separate subfolder.

IMPORTANT: During a backup, the virtual machine guest must be either stopped or suspended. If
the virtual machine guest is running, it will be automatically suspended and restarted after the backup
is completed. Time needed for the backup process depends on the amount of data to transfer. HP
recommends that you schedule backups during periods of low usage or specified service maintenance
windows.

Usage scenario: Workload optimization

In this scenario, you first display the virtual machine hosts and review the performance data of each
host. The following figure shows that the nirvana5 virtual machine host is operating at 90% utilization
capacity.

Figure 10. Virtual machine host at 90% capacity

To balance the utilization capacity of the four virtual machine hosts, you must redistribute the virtual
machine guests from virtual machine host nirvana5 to the other VMware ESX Server virtual machine
host. You accomplish this redistribution by moving virtual machine guests to achieve the desired
configuration.

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Upon completion of this task, verify the association tree in the left panel of the virtual machine host
console. In addition, verify the host performance status. The following figure shows that the virtual
machine guest ML530Win2k has been moved from the VMware ESX Server virtual machine host
nirvana5 to virtual machine host wg-esx. The figure also shows that virtual machine host nirvana5
now operates at 25% utilization capacity as a result of this move.

Figure 11. Virtual machine host at 25% capacity

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Conclusion

Today’s competitive environment demands maximum efficiency at minimum cost. Virtual server
technology helps companies save money and resources by optimizing all the server resources
available. HP’s Virtual Machine Management Pack stands apart as the premier solution for several
reasons.

• Integration with HP SIM—the Virtual Machine Management Pack installs and runs on the

HP SIM CMS. The Virtual Machine Management Pack displays the status of virtual machine hosts
and guests in the HP SIM console.

• Virtual machine movement—the Virtual Machine Management Pack can move and copy virtual

machine guests from one virtual machine host to another in response to performance or hardware
concerns. You can move any virtual machine from one virtual machine host to another when the
virtualization platform, such as Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 or VMware, is the same on both
hosts.

• Rapid provisioning—the Virtual Machine Management Pack gives you the ability to perform rapid

provisioning of both the virtual machine guest and the guest operating system. The Virtual Machine
Management Pack lets you create templates for easy virtual machine guest creation and
registration.

• Heterogeneous virtual environment support—the Virtual Machine Management Pack provides

support to Microsoft Virtual Server, VMware ESX Server, and VMware GSX Server virtual
environments.

These benefits provide you with simplified development, reduced cost and complexity, and faster
response times.

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Glossary

CMS—HP SIM Central Management Server.

VMware ESX Server—VMware ESX Server product that provides a virtual machine solution.

VMware GSX Server—VMware GSX Server product for Windows- or Linux. This product runs as an
application inside a host operating system (Windows or Linux) to provide a virtual machine solution.

guest operating system—A reference to a distinct operating system instance running in a virtual
machine.

host operating system—A reference to the operating system running on the physical host/server.

legacy operating system—An older operating system, often incompatible with up-to-date hardware.
Virtual machines allow legacy operating system to run on new hardware.

virtual machine—Essentially a computer within a computer, implemented in software. A virtual
machine virtualizes a complete hardware system, from processor to network card, in a self-contained,
isolated software environment, enabling the simultaneous operation of otherwise incompatible
operating systems. Each operating system runs in its own isolated software partition.

virtualization—The representation of hardware through software. Virtual machines are an example of
virtualization, as are virtual memory and virtual disks.

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005—Microsoft’s host operating system that provides a virtual machine
solution.

For more information

For more information about the Virtual Machine Management Pack, refer to:

http://www.hp.com/servers/proliantessentials/vmm

•

• HP ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Management Pack Quick Setup Poster

• HP ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Management Pack Support Matrix

• HP ProLiant Essentials Virtual Machine Management Pack User Guide

For more information about the Server Migration Pack, refer to:

http://www.hp.com/servers/proliantessentials/smp

•

• HP ProLiant Essentials Server Migration Pack Quick Setup Poster

• HP ProLiant Essentials Server Migration Pack User Guide

For more information about HP Systems Insight Manager, refer to:

http://www.hp.com/go/hpsim

•

• HP Systems Insight Manager Help Guide

• HP Systems Insight Manager Installation and User Guide

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© 2005 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained
herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and
services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such
products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an
additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or
omissions contained herein.

Itanium is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and
other countries and is used under license.

5983-0358EN, 2/2005