Computer Science Essay Example: Virtual Machines and vCenter Server

By definition, a virtual machine in computing is said to be an emulation of a computer system, based on a computer architecture to provide the functionality similar to that of a physical computer. On the other hand, vCenter Server is a centralized management application that offers a central platform for the management of your VMware VSphere environments. With vCenter Servers, the user can confidently automate and deliver a virtual infrastructure. This being said, with, VMware, a virtualization and cloud computing software provider, it is possible to run a vCenter Server in a virtual machine (Kusek, Van & Daniel, 2012).

More fundamentally, a user can install a vCenter Server in say a virtual machine for Microsoft Windows running on an ESXi/ESX host. Thus, in this regard, there are various advantages associated with deploying a vCenter Server in a virtual machine. Some of these advantages are such as;

There is a high availability of vCenter System with the use of Vmware HA.

It is possible to migrate the virtual machine that has, deployed in it, the vCentrer Server system from one host to another. This, in essence, enhances the maintenance and other activities.

It is possible to install vCenter Server in a virtual machine which is registered to an ESXi/ESX host in the environment. The deployment of vCenter Server enables this to happen, instead of dedicating a physical server to the vCenter Server application.

Similarly, the deployment of vCenter Servers in a virtual machine offers the ability to use snapshots for Virtual machine-level backup utilities and for restoration points prior to the installation update packages.

The deployment of a vCenter Server on a virtual machine requires that the VCenter server is installed in a virtual machine. The following is the procedure of the installation of a vCenter Server in a virtual environment.

i. Install ESXi/ESX on a standalone server.

ii. Install the vSphere Client on any machine that has network access to your ESXi/ESX host.

iii. With the use of the vSphere Client, access the ESXi/ESX host directly to create the virtual machine for hosting vCenter Server.

iv. Finally, install the vCenter Server in the virtual machine.

Software developers contend that to clearly understand the possibility of having a vCenter Server deployed in the inside of the virtual machine environment; it is crucial that one understands that VMware service requires a working vCenter Server. In a similar regard, a user also needs to understand the location of their Database server. The reason why it is essential to understand the location of the Database server is owing to the fact that, if one loses their Database connection, the chances are that the vCenter Server service will stop (Krzywdzinski, 2012).

With regard to the databases that ca be used for vCenter Performance as a virtual machine, Kevin (2010) contends that these vCenter Servers can use SQL, DB2 or Oracle for a database. Besides, in the tests, the vCenter server would support a virtual inventory or rather the populated tables of 8, 000 VNs across 500 hosts and subsequently compare a number of performance metrics between the VM version as well as the native version. Based on this regard, it is, therefore, possible to manage virtual machines with the use of Vcenter server owing to the fact that, in VMware vCenter Server, virtual machine templates offer a preferably secure way of creating new, standardized virtual environments.

References

Kevin. (2010, November 26). Should You Virtualize vCenter Server (and everything else?) | Blue Shift. Retrieved from http://www.blueshiftblog.com/?p=1206

Krzywdzinski, A. (2012, June 29). vCenter server on VM - good practice - VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix. Retrieved from http://vmwaremine.com/2012/06/29/vcenter-server-on-vm-good-practice/#sthash.xDCy34zB.OQgoQhoX.dpbs

Kusek, C., Van, N. V., & Daniel, A. (2012). VMware vSphere 5 administration: Instant reference. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley.