Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
resources are allocated to a VM or group of VMs. You would not, typically, create your logical
administrative structure in the Hosts And Clusters inventory view. This would be a good place,
though, to provide structure around resource allocation or to group hosts into clusters accord-
ing to business rules or other guidelines.
In VMs And Templates view, though, the placement of VMs and templates within folders is
handled irrespective of the specii c host on which that VM is running. This allows you to cre-
ate a logical structure for VM administration that remains, for the most part, independent of
the physical infrastructure upon which those VMs are running. There is one very important tie
between the VMs And Templates view and the Hosts And Clusters view: Datacenter objects are
shared between them. Datacenter objects span both the Hosts And Clusters view and the VMs
And Templates view.
The naming strategy you provide for the objects in vCenter Server should complement exist-
ing datacenter design and management. For example, if you have qualii ed IT staff at each of
your three datacenters across the country, then you would most likely create a hierarchical
inventory that mirrors that management style. On the other hand, if your IT management was
most profoundly set by the various departments in your company, then the datacenter objects
might be named after each respective department. In most enterprise environments, the vCenter
Server inventory will be a hybrid that involves management by geography, department, server
type, and even project title.
The vCenter Server inventory can be structured as needed to support a company's IT manage-
ment needs. Folders can be created above and below the datacenter object to provide higher or
more granular levels of control that can propagate to lower-level child objects. In Chapter 8, we'll
discuss the details around vCenter Server permissions and how you can use them in a vCenter
Server hierarchy. Figure 3.17 shows a Hosts And Clusters view of a vCenter Server inventory that
is based on a geographical management style.
Figure 3.17
Users can create
folders above the
datacenter object
to grant permis-
sion at a level that
can propagate to
multiple datacenter
objects or to create
folders beneath a
datacenter to man-
age the objects
within the datacen-
ter object.
Should a company use more of a departmental approach to IT resource management, then
the vCenter Server inventory can be shifted to match that management style. Figure 3.18 rel ects
a Hosts And Clusters inventory view based on a departmental management style.
