Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
While VMware has a number of other products, vCenter is generally the central integration
point tying them all together. Software such as vCloud Director, vCloud Automation Center,
Site Recovery Manager, and vCenter Operations Manager all depend on an instance of vCenter
Server. Not only this, but as you will see, much of the advanced functionality that vSphere offers
comes only when vCenter Server is present. Specii cally, vCenter Server offers core services in the
following areas:
Resource management for ESXi hosts and VMs
◆
◆
Templ ate m a n ageme nt
VM deployment
◆
VM management
◆
Scheduled tasks
◆
◆
Statistics and logging
Alarms and event management
◆
ESXi host management
◆
Figure 3.1 outlines the core services available through vCenter Server.
Figure 3.1
vCenter Server
provides a full spec-
trum of virtualiza-
tion management
functions.
Resource
management
ESX/ESXi
host
management
Template
management
vCenter
Server core
services
Alarms and
event
management
VM
deployment
Statistics
and logging
VM
management
Scheduled
tasks
vCenter Server can be installed in one of two different ways: The more traditional approach
is an application installed on a Windows server; the newer format is as a Linux-based virtual
appliance. You'll learn more about virtual appliances in Chapter 10, “Using Templates and
