Virtualization!

Virtualization Documentation

As the pressure on costs increases in an organization, management has a closer look at the cost-benefit balance of the IT department. One possibility to improve the cost efficiency while simultaneously increasing the flexibility emerges from the consolidation of the server infrastructure by introducing system virtualization. The Virtualization feature of Docusnap has been designed to inventory and document VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and XenCenter environments which, as a Gartner study reveals, are among the most widely used products for server virtualization.

Standard Interfaces

The Virtualization feature exclusively uses standard interfaces and protocols, enabling Docusnap to retrieve information without the installation of software agents. In the case of VMware, Docusnap uses an existing web interface for inventory scans, and when inventorying Microsoft Hyper-V environments, it relies on the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface.

Information

The Docusnap modules retrieve properties and information on the following:

• VMware host information
• Hyper-V host information
• XenCenter host information
• Virtual machines including hardware, resources, options, configurations
• Snapshots
• Virtual and distributed virtual switches
• Information on licensing
• Data stores
• Virtual networks
• Physical networks
• Resource information

For a detailed list of all values scanned by the Virtualization module of Docusnap, please refer to the linked PDF file or the sample documentations.

Easy Inventory Process

A Docusnap wizard helps you with inventorying your Hyper-V and VMware environments. Moreover, Docusnap enables you to create a scheduled task to be sent to the Docusnap Server for execution at a later time. Docusnap is thus able to perform the inventory process in a fully automated manner and at user-defined times.

Graphical Output

A powerful feature of Docusnap is the generation of coherent graphical plans based on the inventoried VMware or Hyper-V information. These plans include the following:

• VMware Global Overview
• VMware Host-to-Virtual Machines
• VMware Host-to-Data Store
• VMware Host-to-Network
• VMware Virtual Machine-to-Network
• VMware Virtual Machine-to-Data Store
• Hyper-V Host-to-Virtual Machine
• Hyper-V Host-to-Network
• XenCenter Host-to-Virtual Machine
• XenCenter Host-to-Network
• Virtual Machine-to-Network

Exporting all plans to Microsoft Visio for further processing requires only a few steps. A special Docusnap highlight is the representation of VMware and Hyper-V hosts including the virtual and the distributed virtual switches in the Network Topology plan.

Documentation

Besides the graphical representation in the form of Visio plans, you can have Docusnap generate a variety of meaningful reports. With a few clicks, you can adapt your reports and plans to the corporate design of your company.

By default, Docusnap includes the following standard reports:

• Data stores
• Networks
• Virtual machines (Overview)
• Virtual machines (Details)