It’s clear that many organizations are looking for solutions to managing their virtualization environments.  Numerous vendors have entered this market, and leading enterprise management vendors have added virtualization support to their products.  Microsoft’s entry – System Center Virtual Machine Manager – helps to address some of the most common problems related to deploying and managing VMs.  While there are certainly limitations in the first version of the product, Microsoft will soon be adding supporting for VMware. 

I recently wrote an article on SCVMM for SearchServerVirtualization.com.  From the introduction:

Is it really possible to have too much of a good thing? When it comes to virtual machines (VMs), that often seems to be the case. More is not necessarily better from the standpoint of systems administration. The issue of VM sprawl – the rapid proliferation of virtual machines in a production environment – can present a challenge. Apart from the larger number of operating systems and application stacks to manage, the entire process of IT systems management can be upended.

For most IT departments, automation is a necessity for managing more than a few systems, whether physical or virtual. In this tip, I will offer a solution: Microsoft’s System Center application suite. While this software package is only one option, I’ll use it to illustrate how automation can help resolve real issues.

You can access the entire article, Managing virtual machines with Microsoft System Center for free online.