By Kelly Goolsby, Director of Enterprise & Technical Solutions at Liquid Web
For companies that need cloud computing and virtualization software and services, VMware can provide trusted infrastructure and optimize how secure applications are run, managed, and connected across clouds and devices in a common operating environment. For small and midsize organizations, VMware can help solve some very unique IT challenges. These organizations tend to rely on a few important applications that support operations management, business continuity and more. The problem is that business technology tends to be complex and geared towards enterprise clients, which also makes it expensive. VMware simplifies IT and reduces costs by centralizing management and streamlining the delivery of applications, data, and desktop environments to any place.
Any VMware admin worth their salt should have developed some critical habits that keep their environment in good shape. This may include checking routine tasks or following a checklist of sorts to ensure that all things are checked and ready within the VMware environment each day.
Whether these are rote habits that are followed every day and embedded in your psyche or simply a few of the items on your daily checklist, the following four essential habits for VMware admins can keep things running smoothly.
Check the health and see if there are any active alarms in vCenter
This is a critical check to ensure everything is running as it should. First things first, any good VMware admin will have set up alarms. In some cases, these alarms will automatically trigger notifications and track incidents. Triggered alarms may alert a VMware admin via email or SNMP, which can be more timely than always using the web client to monitor the status of the environment. A great VMware admin may set up alarms that will execute a script when they are triggered.
Check that all vCenter plug-ins are functioning properly
Plugins can be helpful in ensuring that 3rd party and or VMware applications run as fluidly as possible and can extend vCenter Server functionality. Some plugins include the vSphere Update Manager plugin, vRealize Operations Manager, vSphere Replication,x, and Orchestrator, and more. While these can improve and extend functionality, it is very important to ensure that they are functioning properly. A good VMware admin will make a habit of checking this regularly.
Check for resource bottlenecks
A strong VMware admin will check for resource bottlenecks via memory, CPU, disk, or network. While it seems straightforward, troubleshooting a poorly performing virtual machine can be a difficult and time-intensive task because there are so many elements. There are symptoms to identify and decode and narrow down until the cause can be identified and addressed.
By keeping a finger on the pulse of resource allocation and potential bottlenecks, a good VMware admin can stave off bigger issues down the road.
Ensure hosts are in compliance with host profiles
First things first, great VMware admins manage the configuration of host and host profiles in order to optimize ease of use and order, especially in regulated environments. Good VMware admins will document host configuration, ensure that hosts have a uniform configuration, and make sure that hosts share reassures such as networking and storage.
In the case where a host is not in compliance with its attached profile, VMware admins must understand how to remediate it, which requires editing the host customizations.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the essential habits that excellent VMware admins have, though they should not be mistaken for a complete list. VMware admins have a long list of responsibilities and will also want to develop habits and good behavior around running at optimum resource levels where the load is properly distributed, checking for ESX patches, ensuring VMware Tools version is up to date, and more.
It’s also worth noting that some small and midsize businesses may benefit more from outsourcing to a managed private cloud powered by VMware. This allows a business to enjoy the same benefits as managing VMware in-house but amplifies power, performance, and security by leveraging an isolated private infrastructure on dedicated hardware. It can be a high-reliability, low-cost option for businesses that want the same efficiency, flexibility, and scalability without the headaches of managing it themselves.
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About the Author
Kelly Goolsby is the Director of Enterprise & Technical Solutions at Liquid Web. He has worked in the hosting industry for nearly 16 years and loves seeing clients use new technologies to build businesses and solve problems.
