VMWare Strategy

[gsirep1]

Hello Everyone.

We are in a process of implementing VM Environment and we at an administrative stumbling block. Now this will not stop proceeding witht h project, but in the long run will pose me some problems if I cannot put a Governance plan in action.

The issues that I have are:

1.) How do I figure out Chargeback Costs?

2.) What should be the process for our Application teams when they request a "New" server.

3.) Any other pain points that you have gone through to help me plan for them.

Hopefully someone has done this and I don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Thank you ahead of time for your help.

George

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Forums -

1) VMware is developing a chargeback application for vSphere and will be available this year - http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-chargeback/

2) Most clients, if not all, I have worked with have gone to the policy that all new machines will be virtual. If a physical machine is needed it has to be justified and approved by management

3) The biggest pain point I sees is VM sprawl that should be addressed once 1) is out because no one is feeling the pain of herdware purchase so they just keep asking for more -

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[jbruelasdgo]

you can wait for vcenter Chargeback (in the meantime: check http://www.vkernel.com/)

for provisioning, verify vCenter LifeCycle Manager here: http://www.vmware.com/products/lcm/)

regards

Jose Ruelas

[azn2kew]

You can also use vmSight to implement chargeback and VM Sprawls. If you use NetApp storage gear, the management tool also has chargeback built in tool you can use.

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

[vserverdude]

Make sure you check out the new virtual appliance from newScale. It's a great tool that can help you with the governance process for your Application teams when they request a new server.

It's available for download as a free trial at www.newscale.com/vmware. The appliance is based on a concept called a Service Catalog, where you can publish a searchable and browseable "menu" of standard VM templates - with self-service ordering that's as simple as ordering something on Amazon.com (or EC2) for your Application teams. And you can include pricing and showback, as a starting point for chargeback.

The built-in self-service portal has entitlement-based controls, automatic approvals, and role-based approvals - so you can control who can request a VM and govern the process. It has a design tool for configuring rich and interactive request forms, to record everything you need for your server build sheet.

The appliance is integrated with vCenter and there are some cool features for tracking VM requests that you won't find anywhere else - it makes it easy to identify which VMs should be decommissioned and who's still using what VMs and for what purpose. Give it a try!