Saturday | 22 November, 2008
7 side effects of sloppy virtualization
Virtualization can cause as many problems as it solves if left unmanaged, according to Gartner.
Denise Dubie (Network World) 25/06/2008 11:27:20

6. Virtual machine sprawl. The most documented side effect to date, virtual server sprawl results from the combination of ease of deployment and lack of life-cycle management of virtual machines. The issue could cause consolidation efforts to go awry when more virtual machines crop up than there are server administrators to manage them.

"The virtualized environment is in constant flux," he said.

7. May be habit forming. Once IT organizations start to use virtualization, they can't stop themselves, Coyle said. He offered tips to help curb the damage done from giving into a virtual addition.

"Start small. Map dependencies. Create strong change processes. Update runbooks. Invest in capacity management tools. And test, test, test," he said.

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Comments

Assumptions - bite you if you don't pay attention

Points 1 & 2 assume that you virtualise to consolidate / compress instances.
WRONG
You can, and in fact many do, just have a single VM on a single Host. WHY?
To take advantage of the other bits of virtualisation - like in-flight live migrations, DR etc whilst maintaining performance and resource independence.
Shame on you.

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