Table of Contents
Across a range of industries, the use of virtual machines is on the rise. However many people still implement these systems without a good understanding of how to optimize them. Keep reading to find out more about how you can get the best out of your virtual machine.
Importance of Virtual Machine Management
Virtual machines are like a digital manager that helps you to navigate the tricky world of virtual machines. They can allow you to do so much on a single physical machine. But without proper management, you won’t be able to get the best from your network.
Poor management of a virtual machine can lead to increased running costs, reduced efficiency, and a host of other issues. Taking the time to learn everything you can about your virtual machine will help you to be a better manager and allow every virtual machine to reach its maximum potential.
Virtual Machine Planning and Deployment
You’ll get the best out of your virtual machine network by carefully planning your deployment strategy. If you’re inexperienced, don’t worry. There are lots of virtualization management tools available to help you.
Determine Resource Requirements
Getting the resource requirements right for your virtual machine network is vital. Many people make the mistake of assigning too many resources to their virtual network. This can result in increased running costs. But failing to assign enough resources to a virtual machine can result in performance issues.
The best way to do this efficiently is to use a special tool to manage the requirements of your virtual machine. Let’s take a look at these tools and learn how to find an appropriate one for your management needs.
Selecting the Right Hypervisor
A hypervisor is a computer program that runs virtual machines. It allocates resources to each virtual machine, helps to manage your server, helps to run guest operating systems, and provides a range of other functions.
Selecting the right one will help you to optimize your VMs. Do your research into each hypervisor and try to get the balance right for your needs.
Look for features like:
- Affordability, so your costs don’t rise quickly
- Reliability, to ensure your VMs can run efficiently even under pressure
- Scalability, so you can adjust your hypervisor to your requirements as your virtual machine network grows
That said, it’s unlikely you’ll get all of these features in a single hypervisor. You may need to sacrifice one feature to get what you need.
As you begin the process of virtualization, a hypervisor will be at your side to guide you through the process. It’s a good idea to invest a little extra money on a hypervisor. Although there are plenty of affordable options on the market, you need to ensure you are getting all the
Configuration and Optimization
When you create a virtual machine network, you will need to configure the network for optimization purposes. Virtualization is simple in some ways, but getting the details right takes time. The best way to become a master of virtualization management is to acquire as much information as possible and
Virtual Machine Sizing
Each of your VMs should be the right size. It’s all about hitting a balance between the right capabilities without overextending on unnecessary resources. Use your analytics to work out the optimal sizing for each virtual machine. MoonQube can help you get this tricky balance right with our selection of virtualization management tools.
Security and Compliance
VMs are vulnerable to various security threats. And if you’re managing a VM network on behalf of a company, you’ll need to comply with laws and regulations. Take some time to focus on security management.
Isolation and Access Control
Isolating virtual machines is important for security purposes. If a virtual machine is not isolated, it may be vulnerable to breaches via other VMs in your network.
Access control ensures that only authorized people can access a given virtual machine. You can customize the access to each virtual machine, allowing access from certain locations and adding other security features as you see fit. You can even configure custom roles for each virtual machine, allowing chosen parties to make selected changes to the VM.
MoonQube offers a variety of security tools to help keep your virtualization software safe. We can help with isolation, access control, and more.
Patching, Encryption, and Compliance
Patching is an important process that protects a virtual machine from attacks. A good patch identifies dangerous traffic directed towards a virtual machine and protects against vulnerabilities.
Encryption is another important way to keep a virtual machine secure. The average virtual machine contains a lot of sensitive data. By encrypting each virtual machine
Many companies or jurisdictions demand that virtual machine networks follow certain security protocols. Starting with patching and encryption is a good way to get ahead of the curve. But be sure to put in the research about the laws around virtualization in your area.
Auditing and Policy Enforcement
You should regularly audit each virtual machine to ensure there are no vulnerabilities in your network. Although it can be difficult to inspect so many machines, it’s worth taking the time. Remember that a breach in a single virtual machine could cause a major headache for your organization.
By using our tools, virtual machine management is made easy. You can collect data and snapshots on your network to ensure your virtual machine collection is running smoothly.
Monitoring and Performance
By monitoring your VM performance, you can get the best value for your money and maximum efficiency from every virtual machine. Virtualization is a constantly changing process and you can only keep on top of things with the right data.
Monitoring Tools and Metrics
There are some important tools to use when managing virtual machines. By using these tools, you can gain accurate, timely data about the performance of each virtual machine. Choose virtual machine tools for the following tasks:
- Events monitoring
- Performance monitoring
- Sprawl control
- Virtualization management
- Capacity planning
Using each of these tools will help you to make the best of your virtual machine network.
Strategies for Performance Optimization
Optimization begins during the virtualization process. You should think carefully about the specs of each virtual machine. Choose the right size, software, and tools to help things run smoothly.
Once you’ve collected data and analytics, you can work to make use of this information. Ensure that each virtual machine has enough resources allocated. Try to reduce the workload on under-pressure machines.
Lifecycle Management
VMs don’t last forever. As performance and needs change, you may need to retire a virtual machine and replace it with another.
Efficient VM Provisioning and Retirement
Eventually, the time will come when you need to retire a specific virtual machine. It might be tempting to simply delete your virtual machine and forget about it. But you should take your time and follow a few steps to avoid difficulties.
First, back up your data. The average virtual machine has a lot of data stored, and simply deleting it without caution could result in losses for you and your team. The best way to avoid data loss is to schedule regular backups from each virtual machine to a central hard drive.
That said, you will need to ensure any information sent from a virtual machine to a hard drive is properly encrypted for safety purposes. As mentioned earlier in the article, it’s important to follow the proper compliance.
Next, ensure your hypervisor is not allocating resources to a defunct virtual machine. Your virtual infrastructure may soon be clogged up with machines that no longer have any use. A virtual machine taking resources from others can be a major drain on your network.
Maximizing Templates and Snapshots
Virtual machine templates can help you to quickly create a large number of similar VMs. With a few clicks, you can set up a template that works for you. Decide on the right parameters, operating systems, and other details. It makes virtualization faster and easier.
Don’t become overly reliant on templates for virtualization. Be sure to check your templates are still meeting your needs as time goes on and your requirements change.
Snapshots are data sets that preserve information about a virtual machine at a certain point in time. This allows you to ensure a virtual machine is running well, even when functioning at peak times.
Additional Reading and Tools
We hope this article helped you understand the basics of managing virtual machines. But there is so much more to learn about this complex topic. If you’re still looking for more, check out the following resources:
- V2 Cloud’s guide to VMs for beginners is the perfect way to learn the basics of how to set up and operate a virtual machine
- Microsoft provides additional reading on how to use their operating system for your virtual machine
There are lots of other handy tools you can use for improving your Virtual Machine network.
- Virtualization management tools like VMware vCloud Director and Fraxses which can help you to
- Management tools such as VMan can monitor VMs and cut down on waste
- A virtualization manager like SolarWinds Virtualization Manager can help your virtual environments and physical hardware work in perfect harmony
Get Started with our Virtual Machine Monitor
If you don’t know where to start with your virtual machines, don’t worry! We can help you to manage every virtual machine on your network. When you use our Qubes virtual machine management service, you can monitor the performance of every virtual machine with ease.
We offer a range of different products to help you with virtualization management and other tricky tasks. Want to know more about our services? Check out moonqube.com and find a service that suits your needs.