VMware Communities: Message List - LM and ESX farm

Re: LM and ESX farm

lholling — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:08:14 GMT

You can have VC managing LM ESX Servers the only problem is that you will end up with a lot of Orphaned VMs, all it means then is that you must manually remove the orphaned VMs. You should not use it to manage any of the VMs on the server. It is best as a quick snapshot of how the ESX host is performing.

Lab Manager ESX Servers run an agent which you have to license it used to be Agent per ESX Server although now it is a license on a "per socket" basis so while you might be able to use your multiple servers as LM Hosts you would not be able to install it unless you have multiple LM Agents not really recommended.

Maybe the new v3 of Lab Manager will offer something different when it is released but we will wait and see.

Leonard...

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Re: LM and ESX farm

shifter — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:00:36 GMT

Hi,

I've got a few dozen ESX hosts all being managed by VC. Within that VC I've got a folder setup to hold all of the ESX servers I'm using for Lab Manager. VC knows about my LM ESX hosts, and monitors performance of them but doesn't do anything to the LM managed VM's unless someone specifically does something (start/stop VM's), which they really shouldn't be doing.

dstambaugh wrote:

can we run Lab Manager on the same ESX farm as our production servers, and somehow tell VC not to manage our LM VM's?

Yes, VC can know about all your ESX hosts but won't do anything to your LM hosts without manual intervention. Lab Manager maintains its own list of servers that it manages.

Can the QA workstations be managed with Lab Manager using DRS and HA?

No, Lab Manager does not currently use DRS/HA with managed hosts.

Would VC and LM be able to utilize all 4 ESX server resources for their needs, independantly? Or would I have to split or limit the CPU, RAM and storage between VC and LM?

Technically I think this is possible, but I wouldn't recommend it. I would use a dedicated pool of hosts for LM.

LM and ESX farm

dstambaugh — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:15:34 GMT

We are new to ESX. We have 2 ESX servers (ver 3.5) running our production servers with Server 2003 VM's. We are currrently evaluating Lab Manager on another isolated pair of ESX servers. I am aware of the conflicts of using Virtual Center and Lab Manager to manage the ESX servers, which is why we have them split into different ESX farms. My question is, can we run Lab Manager on the same ESX farm as our production servers, and somehow tell VC not to manage our LM VM's? Our QA dept needs to use LM for WinXP and Vista workstations. Can the QA workstations be managed with Lab Manager using DRS and HA? Would VC and LM be able to utilize all 4 ESX server resources for their needs, independantly? Or would I have to split or limit the CPU, RAM and storage between VC and LM?