VMware vCenter Server
The VMware vCenter Server provides companies with a scalable and expandable platform that can be used to easily and efficiently manage a wide range of VMware scenarios - up to a large number of virtual machines, storage or virtual networks.
vCenter Server from VMware is the powerful basic tool for managing vSphere-based infrastructures and their environment. The advanced server management software offers comprehensive functions to reliably automate and provision virtual data centers, virtual machines and virtual applications in a hybrid cloud, as well as to further customize or delete them. In addition, the functionality of VMware vCenter Server can be easily extended through various plug-ins, for example by integrating physical and virtual management tools, including those from other vendors.
For administrators, vCenter enables unified management of clusters, hosts and virtual machines from a single central location, including configuration and monitoring of performance and throughput of clusters, hosts, virtual machines as well as storage solutions - among many other components that can be used in a vSphere infrastructure, such as VMware vMotion and svMotion. In addition, they benefit from simplified, efficient and scalable management, as well as centralized visibility and extensibility into the hybrid cloud - all from a single console.
What features does vCenter Server 7 offer?
vCenter Server 7 provides both simple and comprehensive control, including visibility at all levels, through centralized management of virtualized hosts as well as virtual machines from a single console. The powerful tools of vCenter Server thus simplify the efficient management of vSphere infrastructures, while also offering extensive control options. In addition, vCenter Server enables live workload migrations using vMotion, full cloning and cold migration. Web services APIs also facilitate flexible integration of vCenter Server with existing systems management software.
This provides a single administrator with straightforward visibility into the configuration of all key components of an existing virtual infrastructure while managing hundreds of workloads, more than doubling the productivity of the vCenter Server solution compared to managing physical infrastructures. Because vCenter Server runs on Photon OS, patches and upgrades are performed independently of third parties, plus problem resolution times can be reduced with a free license for Log Insight.
Reliable virtual infrastructure deployment
vCenter Server provides proactive, automated management to dynamically provision new services. Resources can be allocated and optimized with maximum efficiency. For example, 15 vCenter Server instances can manage up to 70,000 virtual machines and 5,000 hosts. Through dynamic resource management including resource allocation, vCenter Server intelligently distributes available resources to the virtual machines. This enables service levels to be easily met in accordance with service level agreements (SLAs) for business-critical applications.
High scalability and extensibility in the hybrid cloud
VCenter Server also enables seamless extension of on-premises environments to vSphere-based public clouds such as VMware Cloud on AWS - up to 2,000 hosts and 35,000 virtual machines can be transparently managed with a single vCenter Server instance - regardless of which version of vCenter Server is running.
Other tools and features from VMware vCenter Server
Other features that can be deployed through vCenter Server include:
- VMware vSphere vMotion
- VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler
- VMware vSphere High Availability (HA)
- VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance
- VMware vRealize Orchestrator for creating best practice workflows
- VMware vCenter Server Converge tool for easier migration
- vRealize Log Insight for vCenter Server in the light version provides improved visibility as well as visualization of event trends for faster problem resolution
The key benefits of VMware vCenter Server 7 at a glance
As a centralized, extensible platform, VMware vCenter Server offers the following benefits for easy and automated management of virtual infrastructures:
- Easy deployment: vCenter Server can be deployed as a preconfigured virtual appliance in just a few steps.
- Centralized, user-friendly control: The HTML5-based vSphere Client enables vCenter Server to manage the entire vSphere infrastructure from any browser - responsively and from a single location. Assign individual roles to users, browse the vCenter Server inventory, or provision new virtual machines with a single click.
- Extensibility of vSphere Server via open plug-in architecture: IT administrators can integrate with and manage vCenter Server using vSphere Client plug-ins from certified VMware partners. The open vSphere Client plug-in SDK allows the implementation of backup, data protection, security management, networking as well as server functions directly via vCenter Server.
- High protection of vCenter Server instances: vCenter Server High Availability - protects the vCenter Server appliance and related services with native high availability and an RTO of less than 10 minutes.
- Easy Backup: Integrated VMwarebackup and recovery scheduler simplifies scheduling of vCenter Server Appliance backups, including management of the number of backups kept.
- Unified patch and upgrade management: VMware vSphere Update Manager simplifies and accelerates automated scanning and patching of active ESXi hosts. The vCenter Server appliance can also be deployed repeatably from a template using RESTful APIs.
- High security and availability of vSphere: Automated and proactive management features such as automatic load balancing and ready-to-use automation workflows ensure high availability.
