Go check out SCVMM 2008

Okay, I know I am a bit behind the times here - but when SCVMM 2008 was released I was overseas talking about SCVMM 2008.  So if you have not already done so, go here: https://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/default.aspx to read about System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and then go here: https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9530142 to download an evaluation copy.

So why should you be looking into SCVMM 2008?  Well, on top of all the goodness that already was SCVMM (multi-host management, virtual machine library management, P2V, powershell scripting, etc...) some big additions to the 2008 release include:

  • Support for management of Hyper-V clusters (this is really slick)
  • Support for management of Hyper-V, Virtual Server and VMWare VI3 environments (side-by-side in the same console)
  • The new "PRO" (Performance and Resource Optimization) functionality that allows SCVMM to tie in with products like SCOM and dynamically detect configuration / performance issues in your environment and then provide corrective guidance or action

Maybe you have been delaying checking SCVMM out because it requires an Active Directory environment - but if that is the case here are two things you should know:

  • While SCVMM does required Active Directory it can manage servers that are outside of the domain
  • You can install SCVMM and all the components it needs on a single computer that is acting as a domain controller

In fact - when I demo SCVMM in public I have it installed in a single VM (which also acts as its own domain controller) and then use it to manage the copy of Hyper-V that is installed on my (non-domain joined) laptop that is in turn hosting the SCVMM environment! (remind me to do a post on my demo setup sometime :-).

Cheers,
Ben