It is with great pleasure I introduce Virtualization Manager 6.0, fulfillment of the dream of deep integration with SAM (Server & Application Monitor) and NPM (Network Performance Monitor). This isn't simply embedding a view or two, but real contextual integration into Orion views and resources allowing you to navigate seamlessly from App to VM to Host to Datastore/CSV without ever leaving the familiar interface of SAM and NPM. Is it perfect? - well no (at least, not yet), but it is a huge step forward and has been your most requested features on our Thwack ideation forum. But enough with the pleasantries, lets get down to business!
What's New In 6.0?
This release is a smörgåsbord of goodness, including large features and small enhancements, plus numerous bug fixes as well. We will cover the most important and asked for features in this blog post.
Integration with SAM and NPM
The goal of integration was to expand the breadth of virtualization data in SAM & NPM, but maintain a seamless experience in the Orion GUI, with contextual linkages to Virtualization Manager when needed. The focus for the data was around storage (datastores, local volumes, cluster shared volumes) and how it relates to other nodes - mainly hosts, VM's and applications. Here is a quick video showing the kinds of issues you can solve with the integration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0nDPsT40DA
Link: View Performance
Allows you to contextually launch Performance Analyzer in Virtualization Manager and then pick any metric and chart, all within the SAM/NPM website.
Appears for Clusters, Hosts, and VM's.
Contextually drill down to any metric in Virtualization Manager, not just the ones shown in Orion, allowing you further diagnose performance issues.
Link: Show in Maps
Allows you to contextually launch Maps in Virtualization Manager and see all related nodes and their status.
See a visual representation of all the nodes related to the current node, ranked by their status. Easily drill down to any node to go to the SAM/NPM view.
Link: Diff Recent Config Changes
Allows you to contextually launch the "Virtual DNA" feature for hosts and VM's in Virtualization Manager to view configuration or environmental changes of that node over the past week.
Appears for Hosts and VM's.
Quickly see if there have been configuration changes to your VM's or if your VM has migrated to another Host.
Resource: Virtualization Manager AlertsShows you the current alerts for that node with the ability to drill down to the alert in Virtualization Manager.
Appears for Clusters, Hosts, Datastores, and VM's.
See in-depth virtualization alerts not available in SAM or NPM, drill down to get more details and suggestions.
Link: Datastore to Storage Manager TargetIf you have Storage Manager and turn on the integration with Virtualization Manager, the link from Datastore to the Target View (LUN/Share) will also be propagated to SAM and NPM.When diagnosing a problem with your application, after drilling down to storage level in the virtualization layer, you can drill down to the Array level, jumping directly to the LUN your application is running.
Hyper-V Storage (Yes, Cluster Shared Volumes!)
We've improved our Hyper-V coverage by going deep on storage, making local and CSV (cluster shared volumes) equivalent to a datastore object in Virtualization Manager... what does that mean? It means everything that works in Virtualization Manager on datastores (trends, capacity planning, search, alerts, link to Storage Manager, etc.) now works on Hyper-V local storage and CSVs! Yes, including the integration detailed above.
Hyper-V storage data includes:
- Storage capacity, usage and growth
- Relationships to Clusters, Hosts and VMs
- Performance including IOPS, Latency and More
- Snapshots
- LUN information
Note: We've kept the "datastore" nomenclature to represent all storage presented to hosts (at least for now).
GUI and Speed Improvements
As this post gets longer, I get slower, but Virtualization Manager 6.0 would still be going strong. We made numerous improvements to increase the speed of data collection, dashboards, maps and capacity planning - "snappier" is what one of our RC testers called it. Also, we completed many long requested GUI improvements... here are a few:
| Feature | Description | Use Cases and Benefits | Video (No Sound) |
|---|
| Resize Widgets | Resize widgets to 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2. Dashboards automatically adjust to make the widgets fill up the page properly. | Users can customize dashboards to fit their environment. - Enlarge the Map widget to see more of the environment
- Enlarge key performance metrics to see more detail in charts.
|  |
Improved Charting | Change the size of the legend, easier to select time ranges, improved selection of a time range on the chart, and made the time slider work more like SAM/NPM. | Easier to use charting - bonus, it works more like SAM/NPM. |  |
Appliance Health and Status | Quickly see the health and status and link to the appliance login. | Quickly understand if your Virtualization Manager appliance is healthy. |  |
How do I turn on the integration?
To see the integration in your environment, you need to install two pieces.
- First, for Virtualization Manager:
- If you own Virtualization Manager, download the upgrade ISO from the customer portal and upgrade to 6.0.
- If you don't own Virtualization Manager, download the appliance from the SolarWinds website and install it in your VMware or Hyper-V environment.
- Second, you need to update your production SAM or NPM server with the IVIM package included in the zip file you downloaded above (upgrade or fresh install).
Once both servers are installed/upgraded, then you have to "turn on" integration. All downloads of Virtualization Manager installs and upgrades include the update installer for SAM/NPM too.
Here is a brief overview of the steps to install and configure, more detailed steps can be found in the Admin Guide.
- Download Virtualization Manager 6.0:
- Upgrades: Get the upgrade ISO from the customer portal (the full install is available too).
- Try It: If you want to try it, download it from the SolarWinds website. Installation of the appliance is super easy - watch our video Virtualization Manager Installation on VMware
.
- Make a snapshot/backup of your servers. Always important to have a backup!
- Install/Upgrade Virtualization Manager.
- If you are using SAM 6.0 or NPM 10.6, there is nothing additional to install on Orion.
For SAM (5.5) or NPM (10.5), upgrade Orion with the IVIM package included in your zip. This upgrades the IVIM module to 1.7. - In SAM/NPM, go to Settings > Settings section > Virtualization Settings.
- Go to Setup Virtualization Manager integration
- Enter the required information, press Submit.
- If everything works, you should see a green check mark appear.
- Click on the Virtualization tab, you should see 5 new links. Congrats, you are done!
Notes:
The End of the Beginning
This is the first step of integrating Virtualization Manager with SAM, NPM and other Orion-based products. We'd love to hear what you think about the integration and the new features in Virtualization Manager 6.0 - and, of course, what you want in the future. Check out our What We Are Working On post and the .
Cheers!
