VIRTUALBOY BLOG
Vizioncore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quest (the vWorkspace guys!), have released a free Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 which enables the monitoring of VMware virtual infrastructures. Now, before I get into the features and capabilities of what the MP gives you, it’s important to point out that this is the first free MP to deliver these capabilities, and may stir things up a little over at both Veeam and Bridgeways, who both have established MP’s for OpsMgr to enable monitoring of VMware environments. It’s important to say, both Veeam and Bridgeways offer trails of their solutions, so it would be important to compare the different MP’s for yourselves, however looking at a high level, one of the key elements that Veeam seems to have today, is that it’s PRO-enabled, thus provides more automated, dynamic and agile responses within the environment based on changing conditions. That’s not to say both Bridgeways and Vizioncore won’t evolve their technologies in the future, and bring in PRO capabilities, however today, you would have to classify it as a differentiator for Veeam. One you have to pay for however.
So, what are the key features of the Vizioncore MP?
There’s even more features here…
What’s nice from my perspective, is the growth of the ecosystem around the Microsoft virtualisation platform, from Partners that have, in the past, been quite VMware focused. That’s more Vizioncore than Quest, but still, it’s moving in the right direction.
If you’re interested, you can get all the info, and download the MP, from here.
*Disclaimer* I work for Veeam
I've seen all the announcements on the free MP but I can't seem to find anyone who's installed it yet. There also seems to be some question if it includes the QMX framework required for it to work. I've heard that once you download the "free" MP you then have to download QMX and you only get a 30 day key for that...is it really free?
I'm not trying to bash VizionQuest, I'm just trying to find an unbiased opinion on the installation, configuration and licensing of this free MP.
Thanks,
-doug
http://twitter.com/vmdoug
Great questions Doug - thanks for raising them. It would be great for someone from Vizioncore to answer them - I do have a contact at Vizioncore so I'll pop them a quick email and see if they can answer your question.
Cheers,
Matt
*Disclaimer* I work for Vizioncore
Hi Doug and Matt,
Valid question on the QMX base framework and to be honest the wording on the Vizioncore download page didn't make this completely clear. Based on the questions raised we added some additional information on this. (http://portal.vizioncore.com)
To summarize the info:
- The required base framework for QMX is always free
- The Various Management Packs (already 250+ different packs) are usually the licensed component
- The VMware Management Pack however = FREE
See: management-extensions.org/entry.jspa
For this management pack support can be purchased at a per CPU "licensing" cost which is very attractively priced :)
Regards,
Patrick
Doug / Matt
This has been our experience as well. I pointed a colleague to this blog entry - he downloaded the pack and came across the same issues.
We logged a call with our rep and we have been given the same answer - i.e. it needs the QMX management framework which obviously has a cost associated.
Its VERY misleading particularly when the product is touted as a "native" management pack.
It will be interesting if someone from Quest\Visioncore fesses up to this and if so then it changes the whole point of your blog post...
Phil
*Disclaimer* just as a followup - I dont work for any vendor, work in IT Service Delivery for underfunded UK NHS organisation so anything marked as free comes to my attention VERY quickly ;)
Guys, thanks for the very useful comments.
Patrick, thanks for clarifying the requirement around QMX, and updating the documentation accordingly!
Phil - I hope Patrick's information helps to clarify the situation for you. Don't hestitate to get in touch if you need more information.
Thanks all,
Hi Philip,
I am sorry to hear your experience has not been as it was supposed to be.
I hope to earlier information in my comment has helped you in the right direction.
If not please do not hesitate to reach out to me via:
patrick dot van dot der dot veen dot @ vizioncore dot com
Thanks for clearing things up Patrick. It's always difficult to get the right answer when you combine technology from 3 different companines and marketing gets ahead of the technical details ;-)