As hybrid physical/virtual environments become a standard data center deployment, administrators will require a systematic approach to executing successful migrations. With NetIQ’s Operational VMware Management solution, customers can quickly establish consistent or improved system utilization and configuration, application performance, and end-user experience to demonstrate rapid and continuous value of IT investments. |
VMware Operational Management | Phase | Goals | Challenges | NetIQ Solution | | Migrate | Reduce total cost of server infrastructure Reduce number of physical servers Maintain performance and availability of IT services | Complex or demanding applications that may not fit candidate criteria Long migration planning cycles Poor performance of virtualized applications | Identify Virtualization Candidates and Validate Migrations | | Manage | Maintain service levels Streamline server management and reporting Minimize disruption to IT operations and systems management processes | Management tools that are not adapted to virtualization paradigm No comprehensive view of hybrid infrastructure Lack perspective of end user impact | Manage Hybrid Physical and Virtual Environments | | Secure | Maintain strong security of corporate data without hindering virtualization efforts Satisfy auditor concerns regarding the risks of virtualization | Newly virtualized assets that are not as protected as their physical counterparts Security management tools that do not address the virtualization layer | Secure and Audit the Virtual Infrastructure |
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| Pre-migration planning is critical to ensure a successful migration to the VMware infrastructure. Performance and security of virtualized servers requires a careful assessment along with post-migration validation. This can be achieved by:- Baselining the performance and security of physical servers before migration
- Auditing the security configuration before and after migration, and evaluating changes
- Comparing both the performance and end user experience of virtual machines to their physical baselines
NetIQ’s solution supports confident migrations by providing metrics for a careful analysis of virtualization candidates. In doing so, it supports faster migrations and higher VM to physical server ratios, thereby maximizing the cost benefits of virtualization.
NetIQ Supporting Products: |  | NetIQ AppManager NetIQ AppManager provides rich instrumentation and monitoring of both the VMware infrastructure (i.e., ESX, VirtualCenter) and other components in the application stack (networks, operating systems, databases and applications). | | |  | NetIQ ResponseTime Modules NetIQ AppManager’s ResponseTime Modules monitor service performance by emulating and measuring the end-user experience through synthetic transactions via windows-based or web-based user interfaces. | | |  | NetIQ Analysis Center NetIQ Analysis Center warehouses performance data and generates reports to help evaluate candidates’ long-term performance as well as compare the performance of migrated servers to pre-migration metrics. | | |  | NetIQ Secure Configuration Manager NetIQ Secure Configuration Manager provides automated security configuration assessment, baselining and delta reporting of Windows, Unix, and Linux systems as well as ESX Server (based on the Center for Internet Security VMware ESX Benchmark). |
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| Specialized VMware management tools often provide a myopic view of system and application performance and security. Unfortunately, identify and resolving complex problems requires a more holistic view of the technology stack, from the network to the ESX Server to the VM operating systems and applications. This can be achieved by:- Instrumenting and monitoring the performance of the hardware, hypervisor (ESX), operating systems, and applications
- Monitoring end-user experience through application response times
- Generating reports to support diagnostics, problem management, capacity planning and VMware tuning
NetIQ monitors and manages the hybrid physical/virtual environment by providing a consistent solution across the enterprise.
NetIQ Supporting Products: | | NetIQ AppManager NetIQ AppManager manages and monitors the entire VMware infrastructure from a single console, including VMware VirtualCenter, VMware ESX Server, and the server hardware, VM operating systems, databases and applications. | | | | NetIQ ResponseTime Modules NetIQ AppManager’s ResponseTime Modules monitor service performance by emulating and measuring the end-user experience through synthetic transactions via windows-based or web-based user interfaces. | | | | NetIQ Analysis Center NetIQ Analysis Center provides data warehousing, reporting and analytics for all data collected by NetIQ AppManager, supporting effective management of the hybrid environment. | | |
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| Virtualization adds a layer of complexity to the compliance and security challenge. Physical to virtual migrations open the door for compliance exceptions, even at the virtual machine level, by introducing changes to the original physical implementation. The hypervisor itself adds a potential threat vector, while the virtualized network hides some network traffic from traditional security systems (e.g., network IDS, gateways). These risks can be addressed by:- Evaluating the security configuration of both the hypervisor (ESX) and the virtual machines
- Comparing post-migration configurations to pre-migration configurations
Monitoring privileged user activity and changes at the virtual machines, avoiding the dependency on seeing network traffic
NetIQ’s solution support the latest standards for VMware security published by the Center for Internet Security and helps easily demonstrate compliance while improving security and control. | | NetIQ Secure Configuration Manager NetIQ Secure Configuration Manager automatically assesses and baselines the configuration of both ESX Server and the virtual machines (OS, databases, web servers, etc.), and leverages best practices such as the Center for Internet Security benchmarks (including the benchmark for ESX Server). | | | | NetIQ Security Manager NetIQ Security Manager monitors user activity, detects changes, and provides log consolidation and reporting of the ESX Server and virtual machine systems. | | | | Third Brigade Deep Security Third Brigade Deep Security provides host-based intrusion defense for Windows, Unix, and Linux VMs as well as Virtual Server hosts, helping to protect against both known and zero-day attacks and shield vulnerabilities in critical and hard to patch systems. |
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