Hyper9, SearchMyVM Introduce VI management through browser based searching
Imagine what the Internet would be like without search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Live Search from MSN. Now imagine what managing your virtual infrastructure would be like with browser based searching abilities similar to the service these search engines provide. A couple of new virtualization management products that are currently in beta, Hyper9 and SearchMyVM, promise to do just that.
It’s exciting to think about the reporting and monitoring possibilities of a virtual infrastructure that is constantly indexed and quickly queried for information. Judging only by my speed reading, it sounds to me like many of the daily administrative tasks that are currently scripted or made possible via VirtualCenter plugins can be consolidated to a browser-like management solution and accomplished more efficiently.
The following is a link summary of various posts about the 2 products. As always, read the entire posts for more information.
VKernel SearchMyVM appliance delivers VI3 information in a browser search
by Rick Vanover
“Portsmouth, N.H.-based VKernel has released a beta of the SearchMyVM appliance to allow administrators to make queries of their VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) virtual environment through a browser search-style interface. The SearchMyVM appliance keeps VKernel’s tradition of delivering very quick and easy-to-use solutions for managing virtual environments.
[omitted]
These queries can be a quick list of the canned queries or you can use the built-in query builder to get specific information for your environment. For example, let’s take one of my most frustrating configuration issues with VMotion, the connected optical (CD-ROM) device. Within SearchMyVM, you can determine which VMs have a connected optical drive within the hardware inventory by a simple query. The query below will return the list of VMs in the entire environment that have a connected optical drive:
vm.cdroms.object.cdroms.connected=true”
by Eric Seibert
“Their product promises to be a unique approach to monitoring and reporting and is based on using a Google style search engine to build queries to report on many different metrics that are available on the ESX hosts, VirtualCenter server and the virtual machines. It collects data from the virtual layer to the operating system all the way down to the physical hardware. Their product is agentless and works by utilizing the VMware Infrastructure SDK and also other methods like Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to gather information on the virtual machines. The product utilizes its own database to collect and store data and utilizes indexing technology to ensure that query results are quickly returned. It has a very attractive and easy to use interface that offers many powerful features and functionality.”
by Scott Lowe
“Interestingly enough, I have a meeting at VMworld 2008 with Hyper9, who also touts having a search-based virtualization management solution. At first glance, it looks like these products have a great deal of overlap, and it will be interesting to see how this particular market segment shakes out.”
Like Scott mentions in his post I also received an email from VKernel about their SearchMyVM beta. From my email:
“SearchMyVM instantly deploys exactly like each one of VKernel’s virtual appliances. With a “Google-like” search interface, you can find virtual machines, hosts, clusters, storage, resource pools, files, snapshots, VMware tools, applications and configuration information. Over 75 different types of attributes are fully indexed and available for you to search. Please download the SearchMyVM Beta today and give it a try.”
Roundtable #16 - Ask the Experts live podcast
John Troyer and the “usual suspects” also covered Hyper9 briefly in the VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast #16 yesterday. John’s call notes provide another interesting post on these new management products.
Google knows everything — even virtualization
by Alex Barrett
“On paper, the idea of using search to discover IT elements – even virtual ones — makes sense, but part of me wonders whether search is really as effective when trolling log files and configuration data as Google Desktop is at indexing, say, my sundry email messages and Word docs. Obviously, integration with a virtualization platform’s application programming interfaces provides visibility into key configuration items, but is that enough?”
Related Posts
Tags: hyper9, monitor, news, searchmyvm, virtualization, vkernel, vmware
