We are having a huge environment with multiple Daqtacenters at different locations.
We use SRM,Cicso load balancer,VDI,ESX,VC etc.We host Linux, Novell, Windows and Solaris Vms.
Documenting such such a huge environment is a big pain. I was woindering is there any kind of software which we can customise as per our needs
to document information like - History of the VM - Where a VM engineer can record all the activities that took place inside the VM. like troubleshooting, addition of resources
If there is a VM that needs to be under SRM, we can record that, if the VM is going to use Cisco GSS we can record that etc...
We can use Excel but it cannot be used at a enterprise level.
I am not looking for any monitoring software. This is more towards documenting your environment.
Any help/suggestions is greatly appreciated
Thanks
Have you look at Veeam Reporter? It does change management, capacity planning, and enterprise reportings, you can exports your infrastructure to Exel, Word, PDF and Visio of choices. Since your environment is complex you may need different automation and manual solutions and the best way to keep up to date is have good change management process in place and mandate your engineers to document every changes and standardize it and viewable through SharePoint etc..
If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!
Regards,
Stefan Nguyen
VMware vExpert 2009
iGeek Systems Inc.
VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant
Veeam Reporter is a good tool.
VMware give also another tool, but only for Partners... If you have access to Partner Network look for VMware vSphere Health Check.
A simple tool, useful to export to excel (for example) is RVTools.
Andre
There is a tool called XIA Configuration which can document your entire environment. It can document and audit VMWare environments, including vCenter, ESX, VMWare Hosts and Virtual Machines.
There is a change tracking feature which allows you to view the history of the changes made to the environment or a particular VM.
There is a free version available for small networks.
For auditing :
Hytrust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFaMJ3GmRso&feature=related
http://www.netwrix.com/change_reporter_for_vmware_infrastructure_3_freeware.html
Embotics V-Commander
http://embotics.com/solutions/virtualization-management/change-management
VM documentor Powershell scripts
http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-7473
http://www.virtu-al.net/2011/05/15/ha-and-drs-audit/
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/336110
Find software
http://ict-freak.nl/2009/08/27/powershell-export-installed-software-to-excel/
Vcheck 5
http://www.virtu-al.net/2010/03/26/vcheck-v5/
http://www.vmdude.fr/en/scripts-en/vcheck-v5-2/
Who created this vm
http://www.virtu-al.net/2010/02/23/who-created-that-vm/
Create a sql db and track changes in the sql db
http://xtravirt.com/powercli-sql-databases
Texiwill mentioned sometools
HyTrust, Catbird, Altor, Reflex as well as log analysis tools such as Splunk
I can also recommend XIA. It detects my vCenter servers and virtual machines automatically, I can then automatically generate documentation for both VMware and my virtual machines.
Here's a link direct to their VMware page:
https://www.centrel-solutions.com/xiaconfiguration/capabilities.aspx?capability=vmwaresystem
Hi All, there was mention of XIA being free for small environment but I can't find a download . I'm running a 3 host cluster.
I'm just wondering if anyone can documentation template or if there have been any new software since the last posting.
Thank you!