Specifications

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 Reviewer’s Guide 24
corresponding workloads to determine virtualization candidates. However, this upfront effort yields
results almost immediately as the number of servers is reduced and utilization rates increase.
VMM supports active server consolidation with reports that identify the server best suited for
consolidation. Fast, reliable P2V (Physical-to-Virtual) conversion tools and Intelligent Placement
algorithms take the guesswork out of deciding on which physical host servers to place virtual machines.
Consolidation with Virtual Machine Manager
Whether an IT group chooses an incremental phased-in approach or an active consolidation project,
VMM provides tools to simplify the process and improve results. For example, the first step in migrating
from a physical data center, in which every workload exists on its own physical server, to a virtual data
center is to identify appropriate workloads for virtualization.
VMM helps administrators identify the right physical server workloads for consolidation by measuring
the target system’s performance counters or by determining if the Operations Manager is available. It
does so by analyzing the historical performance data stored in the Operations Manager database. The
VMM consolidation report (shown in Figure 3) then provides an easy-to-understand summary of an
application’s long-term performance. With this view, administrators can provide adequate resources for
those applications with seasonal surges in demand.
For example, a workload that runs a resource-intensive routine once a month has high variance in
performance and may not be appropriate for virtualization. Without the VMM consolidation report,
administrators would need to keep track of this historical performance data on a spreadsheet to
determine which server workloads to consolidate.