Comments on: Virtual Machine Sprawl: What Does It Cost You? http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7119/ Open Source, Open Standards Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:12:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: Ken Hess http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7119/#comment-1579 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:05:56 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7119/#comment-1579 The difference is that when you have physical machines, you can see them, touch them, and inventory them by several different methods: Visually, ping, management application, etc. Virtual machines that are off can't be inventoried so easily. It's also easy to remove them from a VM inventory but have them still exist and burning a license. VM management is a real problem, especially in larger environments where you have multiple people creating and maintaining them--possibly in different parts of the world. Spreadsheets or text files are not a good solution unless you have only a couple dozen systems. The difference is that when you have physical machines, you can see them, touch them, and inventory them by several different methods: Visually, ping, management application, etc. Virtual machines that are off can’t be inventoried so easily. It’s also easy to remove them from a VM inventory but have them still exist and burning a license.
VM management is a real problem, especially in larger environments where you have multiple people creating and maintaining them–possibly in different parts of the world.

Spreadsheets or text files are not a good solution unless you have only a couple dozen systems.

]]> by: mysteriousplanet http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7119/#comment-1575 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:28:28 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7119/#comment-1575 If people manage there servers properly then there will be no problem. All servers should be treated the same as regards to management. A virtual server is a real server, from a logical perspective, the host server is too, it's just an application hosting machine. People should always keep records of there systems and track the licensing correctly. If they don't they are not really managing their environment very well, so this is really a complete non-issue, virtual or otherwise makes no difference. I can't understand why people seem to fall into the marketing crap of inventory systems when they can do it all for free themselves by just keeping a record of a build when they build or change it... keep a record of the licenses and the hardware setup, even in something as simple as a text file or spreadsheet... it's not hard and it's free! If people manage there servers properly then there will be no problem.

All servers should be treated the same as regards to management. A virtual server is a real server, from a logical perspective, the host server is too, it’s just an application hosting machine.
People should always keep records of there systems and track the licensing correctly. If they don’t they are not really managing their environment very well, so this is really a complete non-issue, virtual or otherwise makes no difference.

I can’t understand why people seem to fall into the marketing crap of inventory systems when they can do it all for free themselves by just keeping a record of a build when they build or change it… keep a record of the licenses and the hardware setup, even in something as simple as a text file or spreadsheet… it’s not hard and it’s free!

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