Question

1) Why should virtualization sprawl be restrained and what would you do to achieve that goal?

2) If virtualization sprawl is already an issue, what should an administrator do before it becomes even worse?

Answer 1

Answer:-

1)ans

The concept of virtualization is based on the minimization of the physical hardware and maintenance costs. With virtual servers, the technical needs can be quickly met as the time taken to deploy a virtual server is only a fraction of the time taken to deploy a physical server.

Although there are many benefits of virtualization, some organizations find themselves in trouble as managing such a huge virtual environment becomes difficult. When virtualization sprawl occurs, support and security issues also increase rapidly leading to a huge number of unmanageable virtual machines.

From my perspective, VM sprawl refers to the ease of deploying virtual machines and then never going back to audit the use/purpose of the virtual asset. Over time, as new VMs get deployed and the old ones keep on running the VM footprint grows to be a large operational concern. In the "old" days this was not as much a problem as there were only a set number of racks to deploy servers. In the virtualized world, there is no physical limitation in place to force the scrub so if the only reminder a line item on a bill or a IP address on a report, the VM count will begin to "sprawl".

2)

Develop policies to prevent sprawl

Strict business policies are one way to prevent VM sprawl. When employees need to justify a specific reason to create a VM, they are more likely to think twice before requesting resources they may not need. This type of restriction may not be practical for all businesses, but assigning users permissions can limit VM creation. At the very least, employees should be familiar with a set of guidelines or best practices for creating new VMs. Businesses should also have policies in place for determining how many VMs a server can host.

Use automated reporting to stay on top of resource use

Of course, employees don't always follow best practices, so you should also consider software that can report resource use and virtual machine capacity as a part of your VM sprawl control strategy. Many capacity planning tools can alert admins if resource usage reaches a certain threshold, warning you of a potential VM sprawl problem before it gets out of hand. Even built-in tools, like VMware's esxtop utility, can generate resource usage reports.

Consider lifecycle management tools

One of the most common causes of VM sprawl is VMs that continue to run after they're no longer needed. A lifecycle plan can help prevent unneeded or outdated VMs from consuming resources. Many VMs are needed for only a short time. Lifecycle management tools can help you keep track of which VMs are running. If possible, create VMs with time-based policies so they're automatically removed once they are no longer needed.

Create a VM library

Creating a library of standardized VM templates can be an important part of VM sprawl control. When users create VMs from one of these base images, IT departments can easily identify the purpose of a VM and, if appropriate, know when it can be deleted. Creating consistent VMs with built-in limitations also prevents one VM from consuming too many resources. Keeping track of software updates or patches is much easier when you have similar VMs.

Try VM archiving

Even idle VMs consume resources, so part of your VM sprawl control strategy should include removing those idle virtual machines. But not every idle VM is expendable, and you may not want to simply delete them forever. By archiving VMs that you may need later, you can reclaim memory and computing resources that otherwise would be wasted. These archived disk images, usually stored on inexpensive storage media, can be pushed back into production without much trouble when they're needed.