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Living SectionApple Sales is in love with the Dock. You can't go into an Apple store without seeing it splayed across the bottom of the screen, in the very configuration least conducive to computing on a Macintosh. Why? Because it's sexy and it sells. It makes that bright, shiny new Apple look simple, approachable, and beautiful. It makes for a great demo, but not a great product.
Who's talking?Bruce Tognazzini was hired at Apple by Steve Jobs and Jef Raskin in 1978, where he remained for 14 years, founding the Apple Human Interface Group and writing the first five editions of the Apple Human Interface Guidelines.
The problem does not lie with the Dock itself—if it makes a great demo, leave it in—but with Apple's apparent belief that it is a complete solution. The Dock is akin to a brightly-colored set of children's blocks, ideal for your first words—dog, cat, run, Spot, run—but not too effective for displaying the contents of War and Peace.
Contrary to my previously-held position, I no longer believe Apple should get rid of the Dock. It's just too pretty there in the store, and it does help set Mac apart from the more utilitarian appearance of Windows (although Windows grows more attractive with every release). You want that in sales. You want a visibly-apparent manifestation of the personality of the underlying technology. That's why automakers spend milliions making the outside of the car project an image of what's underneath the skin.
A certain class of Apple users—those who check their email once or twice a week and sometimes need to print an attached photo—may need nothing more than the Dock. 
The rest of us need more powerful tools, so, 
 Apple, leave the Dock as the smashing demo it is, but also supply some serious, information-dense tools. You have the talent and wherewithal to make such tools as attractive as the Dock if only you will cease seeing this one single object as a complete solution.
Apple has made a few improvements to the Dock in the last three years. Items no longer jump around seemingly at random, although the size of the Dock continues to 'wheeze' in and out without user control.. Items also act like buttons, so clicking anywhere within their confines will open them. Apple also quickly gave us the ability to turn off magnification, a major improvement in day-to-day usability.
The other good news is that independent solutions now exist for getting around every limitation of the Dock. Read Make Your Mac a Monster Machine to learn how to turn your Mac into a high-productivity, but still fun workhorse. Meanwhile, here are eight continuing problems with the Dock, plus a new one, a decided lack of color. Most of these are inherent, and the solution is more and varied tools. A few can be directly addressed by design tweaks.
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9.The Dock is big and clumsyThe Dock by default sucks up around 70 pixels square minimum, more than four times as much vertical space as either the Windows task bar or the Macintosh menu bar. (Yes, you can set it much smaller, but then you make it progressively more difficult to identify an icon without 'scrubbing' the screen with your mouse to reveal its label.) Couple that with Apple's move to 16:9 wide screens (read: short screens), and you have a real problem. For good measure, add in the Dock's habit of floating on top of working windows, and you have little choice but to hide it.
8.Identical icons look identicalThis was originally entitled 'Identical pictures look identical.' I pointed out that the Dock's use of thumnails in small sizes made all normal text documents look pretty much alike. Apple has now dumped thumbnails in return for identical icons. My original advice still holds: 'We need information on data types, file sizes (as represented by the thickness of the icon), age, etc.' They've now given us data type. We need more—any attribute that can help differentiate one object from another. The better solution to this and many of these other limitations is to supplant the Dock with additional objects that are designed for representing groups of non-application objects, so that people aren't even attempting to put folders and documents in this already overloaded single object.

7.Dock objects have no labelsThe objects in the dock do not have labels. That works fine in the demo, since every object shown is completely unlike every other object. However, put in three or four folders next to each other and the user becomes clueless.
Yes, the user can 'scrub' the length of the Dock, forcing one label at a time to appear as they root around for the right folder. However, that takes time and, when dragging a document, ensures a high rate of serious error.
Again, the best solution is to provide something other than the Dock specifically designed to show such objects.
6.Dock objects need colorHere's a different set of Word documents. (Well, you knew that from the picture, didn't you?) I have applied to each a different, bright color. (I particularly like the green one.) One attribute newly (re)introduced for objects in OS 10.3, Panther, was user-settable color. In OS 9, this color was applied to the icon. Because of limitation in the algorithm, it produced mixed results, doing well with most icons, but failing badly for icons that had one strong predominant color already. Instead of addressing this problem, the OS X Finder team instead colored the text. Well, more precisely, they colored the general area around the text.
The Dock team apparently did not hear about any of these goings-on, because color is completely ignored by the Dock, both in the icon and the text, eliminating yet another attribute.
Color needs to be restored, with a more sophisticated algorithm, to the icons in general, and the Dock icons in particular.

5.The Trash Can belongs in the cornerThis decision was so wrong that several replacement desktop trash cans have appeared to address it. Dock diehards point out that they always use Command-Delete anyway. Of course they do! That's because having a hidden, constantly-shifting trash can sucks!
4.The Dock's locations are unpredictable Apple's solution to the early fire storm of protest over the Dock was to allow the user to hide it. That way, it doesn't float over all your applications. Slide below the screen with your mouse and the Dock appears.
This Windows copy job, unfortunately, suffers from the same defect as the Windows Task Bar: You can't predict where a given object is until you reach the bottom of the screen and cause the Dock to appear. Worse than with Windows, your job is not over. Now, you begin the task of scrubbing the length of the Dock, trying to force the labels to appear, hoping you won't go far enough out of range in the process to cause the bar to disappear on you. (The Dock is linear; the human hand was designed to move in an arc. We don't do well with scrubbing.)
3.The Dock is a sprawlerThe corners and edges of the screen are proven by Fitts's Law to be the most easily reached targets. The low-information-density Apple Dock takes up a variable, but large measure of one entire side of the screen, leaving little or no room for high-density docks, such as those of DragThing. It's target region sprawls even beyond, covering one entire side of the screen.
This excessively-large target also ensures many mistakes, where people are simply sweeping the mouse too far while engaged in their application, suddenly triggering the hidden Dock.
The Dock needs to have a visible target. Hit the target and the Dock opens. Miss the target and the Dock won't open. Then supply a very slight delay, measured perhaps one twentieth or one tenth of a second to prevent accidental triggering. (The Dock, at the time of 10.3's release, has an excessively long delay, probably in response to the invisible, unpredictable sprawl problem herein discussed.)
This tab could be dynamic, one or two pixels deep and running the full length of the Dock, with the Dock acting much as it does now except in a more predictable manner. Or the user could elect to set a labelled tab of user-defined width, freeing up a lot of precious edge space. Still another option might have the Dock triggered by throwing the mouse in a corner. This could relieve much of the frustration of the variable-location trash can. Throw the mouse in the lower right-hand corner to grow the Dock up the display from that point, leaving the trash can in a consistent, predictable location.
 (This by the way, is the way the Windows XP task bar should be triggered, instead of having any touch of the bottom of the screen display it.)
2.The Dock replaced better objectsBoth OS 9's Tab Menus and the Applications Menu are being forced into the dock. Tab menus were formed by dragging a Finder folder to the bottom of the screen, where it turned into a multi-level hierarchical menu. Tab menus in OS 9 had problems, not the least of which was that, every few weeks, the Mac crashed in such a way that they all moved to the center of the screen, opened as normal windows in random positions, and each had to be dragged to the bottom of the screen and placed in the desired position again.
A Dock-like device would be of great value in upgrading the current tab menu scheme. Unfortunately, while you can now drop a Finder folder in the Dock, then right-click on it to reveal it's contents in a Tab Menu style, it remains fatally flawed, since every one of your Tab Menu folders will have the same name displayed—namely, none. 
Fortunately, however, actual improvements on the old Tab Menu do exist, even if Apple has lost the ability to make them. You'll find one discussed in, Make Your Mac a Monster Machine. In the old days at Apple, when we saw something like DragThing on the market, we would go buy it and incorporate it into the system. Let's hope someone at Apple is still watching out.
(We once had a couple of Berkeley students come down on the bus to Apple to demo what was to become Multifinder, the first instance of the modern Finder we've all come to love. We sent them back to Berkeley in a nice, shiny limo, along with a big, fat check.)
The Applications menu, in OS 9, sat in the upper right hand corner of the screen, giving people reasonable access to running applications. It had its problems; for example, it neatly avoided high-speed access by not accepting a click from the absolute corner of the screen. Nonetheless, it worked well enough and took up little space.
When we invented pull-down menus for the Lisa computer, back in the late-seventies, the concept was that you wanted to create information-dense objects that took up minimal screen space. The result was a single label that would instantly reveal a whole bunch of objects when touched. The Applications menu did that. The Dock, on the other hand, is as big when 'closed' as it is when 'open,' unless you have magnification turned on, which causes some of us to become sea-sick. (Again, a great demo, but a poor daily performer.)
The Dock is also throwing the application menu's items in with everything else in the Dock, forming just one big jumble. (The applications are now arranged on one end, but that doesn't seem much of a win; it is still one big jumble.) Again, as revealed in Make Your Mac a Monster Machine a solution once again exists: The Applications menu is back, though from a third party. Apple needs to incorporate it once again into the interface, making it triggerable from a corner touch.
1.The Dock adds bad behaviorThe Dock adds a whole new behavior: Object annihilation. Drag an object off the dock and it disappears in a virtual puff of smoke. This is the single scariest idea introduced to the Macintosh since the original bomb icon. How would you feel if you spent eight hours working on your first Macintosh document, only to have it disappear entirely when you try to move it from the dock to the desktop? Pretty disorienting, no? This is a completely unnecessary concept for the user to have to learn, particularly in such a painful way. Makes for a 'hot demo' though, doesn't it?
ConclusionsThe Dock's sole positive attribute lies in its improving the Mac's 'curb appeal' and demoability.
Apple would appear to be after two separate and distinct market segments. First, the naive consumer who isn't going to do much with his or her computer anyway. OS X, with its suite of simple apps would appear to be a good fit. 
The other extreme they appear to want are self-identified power users. Why else all the talk about the UNIX underpinning, about 'munitions-grade' computing power?
OS X is a powerful operating system. It deserves a top-level interface that matches. The old Mac handled both sets of users handily. OS X, with its powerful underpinnings and slick graphics support has the potential to do much better. However, the focus on this single object to the exclusion of the kind of information tools power users need must stop. Keep the Dock as long as it helps close sales, but provide the real tools needed by people with serious work. 
Companion ArticlesSprawl (necrosaint) Mac Os CatalinaMake Your Mac a Monster Machine. 'Tog lays out how to equip your Mac today with a handful of simple shareware add-ons to turn it into a Monster Machine. Learn from Apple's pioneer human/computer interaction designer how little it takes to make a Panther machine into a real productivity monster.' Read on...
Panther: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly An in-depth look at Apple's OS X 10.3 release. What's working, what's not, and what Apple needs to do about it. Read on...
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Contact Us:Bruce Tognazzini
Copyright Bruce Tognazzini. All Rights Reserved
Virtualization technology is rapidly spreading, with many enterprises having infrastructure heavily comprised of virtual machines, servers, and storage. These kinds of virtualization are created with technology called a 'virtual machine manager' or a 'hypervisor,' and this technology can (and should) be monitored and managed with other software. Using monitoring software like SolarWinds® Virtualization Manager or APTARE IT Analytics for managing your virtual machine is something all administrators need to consider, because it can take a huge amount of work off your shoulders and help address some of the common challenges virtualization presents.
What Is a Virtual Machine?
What Is a Virtual Machine Manager?
Why Monitor Virtual Machines?
5 Virtual Machine Management Best Practices
Best Virtual Machine Management Tools
What Is a Virtual Machine?A virtual machine (VM) is an abstracted instance of a computer system capable of acting like a real, physical computer. Several virtual machines can run separately in parallel on a single underlying device. (You can also virtualize servers, applications, and various other IT components.)
Virtual machines have many uses. For instance, VMs can be used to change operating systems, like using a Windows guest operating system on a Mac OS host machine. In addition, you could also test software on this guest operating system the host OS can't use, or test programs on operating systems to ensure they work the same on every OS. Virtual machines can also be used as security buffers and can be used to execute malicious code or check out suspicious files without harming other parts of your system.
What Is a Virtual Machine Manager?The definition of 'virtual machine manager' can be a bit ambiguous, as this can be used to refer to different pieces of software. In some cases, people will use this term to mean a hypervisor, which can create virtual machines and allocate hardware resources to them. A virtual machine manager in many cases also refers to a tool or piece of software managing your hypervisors, virtual machines, or virtual environment generally. When we're thinking of the kind of tools administrators need, virtual machine monitors and programs to track the performance of your virtual environment are incredibly vital. I'll briefly explain how hypervisors work, then go through why you might need software to manage your hypervisors and virtual machines.
Hypervisors come in two forms: hosted hypervisors and bare-metal hypervisors. Hosted hypervisors are installed on the host operating system, such as Microsoft Windows. You can then open them like any normal computer application, and in most cases, these hypervisors use a kind of 'setup wizard' for you to easily create virtual machines and change their settings as needed. Bare-metal hypervisors are installed directly on the hardware, which can make things a little more complicated if you're not familiar with more in-depth computer management.
Hypervisors can virtualize many different parts of your infrastructure and systems, including creating virtual desktops, applications, networks, storage, servers, and even data. A hypervisor is a layer between the hardware and your virtual machines, or between your host operating system and the virtual machines. Enterprises often use them to increase storage capacity without needing to buy more hardware, or to virtualize desktops so employees can access standardized workstations. The virtualization of infrastructure allows cloud providers to provide infrastructure as a service, and virtualized applications mean you can access the same application anywhere, regardless of device. The use of hypervisors and virtual technology is extremely useful for both individuals and businesses.

Both OS 9's Tab Menus and the Applications Menu are being forced into the dock. Tab menus were formed by dragging a Finder folder to the bottom of the screen, where it turned into a multi-level hierarchical menu. Tab menus in OS 9 had problems, not the least of which was that, every few weeks, the Mac crashed in such a way that they all moved to the center of the screen, opened as normal windows in random positions, and each had to be dragged to the bottom of the screen and placed in the desired position again.
A Dock-like device would be of great value in upgrading the current tab menu scheme. Unfortunately, while you can now drop a Finder folder in the Dock, then right-click on it to reveal it's contents in a Tab Menu style, it remains fatally flawed, since every one of your Tab Menu folders will have the same name displayed—namely, none. 
Fortunately, however, actual improvements on the old Tab Menu do exist, even if Apple has lost the ability to make them. You'll find one discussed in, Make Your Mac a Monster Machine. In the old days at Apple, when we saw something like DragThing on the market, we would go buy it and incorporate it into the system. Let's hope someone at Apple is still watching out.
(We once had a couple of Berkeley students come down on the bus to Apple to demo what was to become Multifinder, the first instance of the modern Finder we've all come to love. We sent them back to Berkeley in a nice, shiny limo, along with a big, fat check.)
The Applications menu, in OS 9, sat in the upper right hand corner of the screen, giving people reasonable access to running applications. It had its problems; for example, it neatly avoided high-speed access by not accepting a click from the absolute corner of the screen. Nonetheless, it worked well enough and took up little space.
When we invented pull-down menus for the Lisa computer, back in the late-seventies, the concept was that you wanted to create information-dense objects that took up minimal screen space. The result was a single label that would instantly reveal a whole bunch of objects when touched. The Applications menu did that. The Dock, on the other hand, is as big when 'closed' as it is when 'open,' unless you have magnification turned on, which causes some of us to become sea-sick. (Again, a great demo, but a poor daily performer.)
The Dock is also throwing the application menu's items in with everything else in the Dock, forming just one big jumble. (The applications are now arranged on one end, but that doesn't seem much of a win; it is still one big jumble.) Again, as revealed in Make Your Mac a Monster Machine a solution once again exists: The Applications menu is back, though from a third party. Apple needs to incorporate it once again into the interface, making it triggerable from a corner touch.
1.The Dock adds bad behaviorThe Dock adds a whole new behavior: Object annihilation. Drag an object off the dock and it disappears in a virtual puff of smoke. This is the single scariest idea introduced to the Macintosh since the original bomb icon. How would you feel if you spent eight hours working on your first Macintosh document, only to have it disappear entirely when you try to move it from the dock to the desktop? Pretty disorienting, no? This is a completely unnecessary concept for the user to have to learn, particularly in such a painful way. Makes for a 'hot demo' though, doesn't it?
ConclusionsThe Dock's sole positive attribute lies in its improving the Mac's 'curb appeal' and demoability.
Apple would appear to be after two separate and distinct market segments. First, the naive consumer who isn't going to do much with his or her computer anyway. OS X, with its suite of simple apps would appear to be a good fit. 
The other extreme they appear to want are self-identified power users. Why else all the talk about the UNIX underpinning, about 'munitions-grade' computing power?
OS X is a powerful operating system. It deserves a top-level interface that matches. The old Mac handled both sets of users handily. OS X, with its powerful underpinnings and slick graphics support has the potential to do much better. However, the focus on this single object to the exclusion of the kind of information tools power users need must stop. Keep the Dock as long as it helps close sales, but provide the real tools needed by people with serious work. 
Companion ArticlesSprawl (necrosaint) Mac Os CatalinaMake Your Mac a Monster Machine. 'Tog lays out how to equip your Mac today with a handful of simple shareware add-ons to turn it into a Monster Machine. Learn from Apple's pioneer human/computer interaction designer how little it takes to make a Panther machine into a real productivity monster.' Read on...
Panther: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly An in-depth look at Apple's OS X 10.3 release. What's working, what's not, and what Apple needs to do about it. Read on...
View and add to reader responses on SlashDot >
Previous AskTog Columns >

Don't miss the next action-packed column!
Receive a brief notice when new columns are posted by sending a blank email to asktoglist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Contact Us:Bruce Tognazzini
Copyright Bruce Tognazzini. All Rights Reserved
Virtualization technology is rapidly spreading, with many enterprises having infrastructure heavily comprised of virtual machines, servers, and storage. These kinds of virtualization are created with technology called a 'virtual machine manager' or a 'hypervisor,' and this technology can (and should) be monitored and managed with other software. Using monitoring software like SolarWinds® Virtualization Manager or APTARE IT Analytics for managing your virtual machine is something all administrators need to consider, because it can take a huge amount of work off your shoulders and help address some of the common challenges virtualization presents.
What Is a Virtual Machine?
What Is a Virtual Machine Manager?
Why Monitor Virtual Machines?
5 Virtual Machine Management Best Practices
Best Virtual Machine Management Tools
What Is a Virtual Machine?A virtual machine (VM) is an abstracted instance of a computer system capable of acting like a real, physical computer. Several virtual machines can run separately in parallel on a single underlying device. (You can also virtualize servers, applications, and various other IT components.)
Virtual machines have many uses. For instance, VMs can be used to change operating systems, like using a Windows guest operating system on a Mac OS host machine. In addition, you could also test software on this guest operating system the host OS can't use, or test programs on operating systems to ensure they work the same on every OS. Virtual machines can also be used as security buffers and can be used to execute malicious code or check out suspicious files without harming other parts of your system.
What Is a Virtual Machine Manager?The definition of 'virtual machine manager' can be a bit ambiguous, as this can be used to refer to different pieces of software. In some cases, people will use this term to mean a hypervisor, which can create virtual machines and allocate hardware resources to them. A virtual machine manager in many cases also refers to a tool or piece of software managing your hypervisors, virtual machines, or virtual environment generally. When we're thinking of the kind of tools administrators need, virtual machine monitors and programs to track the performance of your virtual environment are incredibly vital. I'll briefly explain how hypervisors work, then go through why you might need software to manage your hypervisors and virtual machines.
Hypervisors come in two forms: hosted hypervisors and bare-metal hypervisors. Hosted hypervisors are installed on the host operating system, such as Microsoft Windows. You can then open them like any normal computer application, and in most cases, these hypervisors use a kind of 'setup wizard' for you to easily create virtual machines and change their settings as needed. Bare-metal hypervisors are installed directly on the hardware, which can make things a little more complicated if you're not familiar with more in-depth computer management.
Hypervisors can virtualize many different parts of your infrastructure and systems, including creating virtual desktops, applications, networks, storage, servers, and even data. A hypervisor is a layer between the hardware and your virtual machines, or between your host operating system and the virtual machines. Enterprises often use them to increase storage capacity without needing to buy more hardware, or to virtualize desktops so employees can access standardized workstations. The virtualization of infrastructure allows cloud providers to provide infrastructure as a service, and virtualized applications mean you can access the same application anywhere, regardless of device. The use of hypervisors and virtual technology is extremely useful for both individuals and businesses.
You should also be aware of the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, a standalone program. The Microsoft System Center is a suite of tools from Microsoft allowing system administrators to create and manage virtual machines on Windows Server operating systems. It works with Microsoft Hyper-V (a bare-metal hypervisor) and is primarily designed to manage virtual servers created by Hyper-V and Microsoft Virtual Server. When you see the term 'Virtual Machine Manager,' it could be referring to this Microsoft product, so be careful when looking up documentation or information on this topic.
Sprawl (necrosaint) Mac Os DownloadFor a virtual machine manager, Linux also has options. In some cases, 'Virtual Machine Manager' could also refer to the Red Hat Virtual Machine Manager. The Red Hat Virtual Machine Manager for Linux allows you to set up virtual machines and monitor their performance. Some other pieces of software made by other third-party vendors are also called Virtual Machine Manager.
We'll focus on virtual machine manager software generally, including hypervisors and why you might use them, and then performance monitoring and management tools for hypervisors and virtual machines. For administrators, this kind of toolkit and a solid understanding of virtual technology is important for ensuring your business virtual environment is functioning efficiently and performing well.
Why Monitor Virtual Machines?Virtual machines need to be managed and monitored for numerous reasons, including:
Resource management. First, while virtual machines act as if they're connected directly to the computer's hardware, they're not. There can sometimes be mismatches between what the virtual machine 'thinks' it has access to and what the physical hardware can provide. For example, when using thin provisioning, the administrator can make it appear to virtual machines as if they have access to more physical resources than are available on the physical hardware. This can allow virtual machines to function more efficiently, but you can run into problems with slowed performance or crashes when too many virtual machines require resources the hardware can't provide.
If one of your virtual machines malfunctions or has been infected with malware, it could start consuming more resources than expected and affect other virtual machines as a result. Monitoring software can detect a rapid change in performance, particularly if one virtual machine quickly starts consuming more resources than it should.
The configuration of your virtual machines may change at various times, and you need to always ensure configuration changes don't break or affect something else in your environment in a bad way. With virtualization, the configurations and settings of virtual machines can be easily changed, which means someone can inadvertently change a setting. Monitoring software can alert you to any unexpected changes and can let you know if a change has resulted in performance problems. There are also several processes and operations that can occur in the virtual environment, such as live migration, backups, disaster recovery, or machines powering on and off.
5 Virtual Machine Management Best PracticesWhen you're managing virtual machines, it's important to follow a set of best practices.
Evaluate Your Environment. You need to be aware of what your virtual environment looks like, so you can keep tabs on the most important devices and metrics. If you aren't sure which virtual devices are powered on or off, or whether your virtual servers are functioning properly, you won't be able to quickly and efficiently fix problems when they occur. Troubleshooting slowdowns relies on being able to pinpoint an issue and if you haven't mapped out your environment completely you might not even know a slowdown is occurring until your users start complaining.
Take a regular inventory of your virtual environment to keep on top of things before it affects your customers or business. You can use a tool to map your virtual environment, and it may be much more efficient and accurate than trying to attempt this process manually. Using a tool with a centralized virtual machine manager console is important so you can see aspects of your entire environment in one place.
Stop Sprawl. Virtualization sprawl happens when you have so many virtual machines in your environment you have trouble keeping track of them, or you have redundant or unnecessary machines. Because it's easy to create virtual machines (much easier than getting new hardware), it can be easy to over-provision virtual machines where you don't need them. This can end up undoing some of the consolidation and efficiency benefits virtualization is supposed to achieve.
Ensure you take steps to control virtualization sprawl, and power off or remove any unnecessary virtual machines. By doing an appropriate evaluation of your virtual environment (as in point 1 above), you can see where sprawl is occurring and take steps to reduce it.
Manage Security Risks. Security risks to your virtual environment can come in many forms. First, if you haven't kept on top of sprawl, as I just mentioned, this leaves more machines and points where an attacker can gain access to your network. While virtual machines are isolated from each other, it's still possible for attackers to gain information about your network structure or setup by looking at individual machines.
Second, when you store sensitive data or information in a virtual machine, hackers can access it if they gain access to the machine. It's important to ensure your virtual environment has appropriate security and anti-malware tools in place. Finally, don't underestimate the possibility of internal risks, both malicious and accidental. Unknowing users can change virtual machine configuration or access settings, accidentally uninstall something, or intentionally access data they shouldn't be able to. Keep access privileges for your virtual environment as tight as you would for any physical environment.
Stay Updated. When you haven't kept your software or operating systems updated, this also leaves potential vulnerabilities open for attackers to target. Bugs in software, hypervisors, or operating systems can allow intruders access to your systems, even if those systems are virtual. Ensure your virtual machine software is always updated, and applications and programs installed on your virtual machines are also regularly patched.
Make a Backup Plan. Ensure you have a management plan in place if virtual machine performance rapidly drops off, or if you have a problem with your virtual environment affecting your users. You need to have a clear team in place, so you're aware of who will deal with what issues, particularly security issues or major issues with service levels. Having dedicated staff and teams in place for each potential problem, along with a clear plan of escalation and resolution, will help you if you need to fix something in your virtual environment quickly.
Best Virtual Machine Management ToolsHypervisors themselves include basic monitoring tools, and tools to help you interact with the virtual machine from the host machine, such as shared clipboards, date and time synchronization, integration with other management software, SNMP trap capabilities, and resource access configuration.
Even with the tools included with many hypervisors, you also need third-party virtual machine management tools to ensure your virtualization software is functioning correctly. For a virtual machine manager, VMware or Hyper-V will also need to be integrated. These are the most common hypervisors and using a virtual machine manager administrator console integrated with your hypervisor means you can easily keep on top of your entire virtual environment. Here are a few of the top tools I think do a good job at managing and monitoring virtual machine performance.
My top recommendation for virtual machine management tools is SolarWinds Virtualization Manager as it has several key features for managing virtual machines and environments at an enterprise level. It includes tools to help you analyze your virtual environment, stop sprawl, and monitor the performance of your virtual machines.
It's highly compatible with Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments and has built-in dashboards and an integrated virtual machine manager console to show you performance and health. It also allows you to remedy many virtual machine or environment issues without needing to log in to your hypervisor at all.
Sprawl (necrosaint) Mac Os XConfiguration changes in Hyper-V can often cause performance issues, but the exact change or problem can be hard to pinpoint. Virtualization Manager includes configuration management tools, which means you can much more easily track and remedy any host, VM, application, or OS configuration issues. Finding the root cause of the problem in this way is much faster and can bring your systems back to functionality much quicker than trying to troubleshoot on your own.
For virtual storage, Virtualization Manager includes capacity monitoring and planning tools, so you can keep tabs on how much storage you're using and how storage is allocated between virtual machines. You can even predict your CPU, memory, network, and storage needs.
With its visibility across the entire application stack, Virtualization Manager can give you broad insights into your whole virtual environment. It includes visualizations and color-coded dashboards, so you can see the health of everything in one glance.
You can try a free trial of Virtualization Manager for 30 days.
APTARE IT Analytics
The APTARE IT Analytics tool is another good option, as it provides unified monitoring for your entire network, regardless of whether your network is on-premises, in the cloud, or comprised of a mixture of physical and virtual machines. The console allows you to see insights into storage and capacity, which allows you to provision new virtual machines if need be or purchase more physical storage.
It also examines network and device performance and performs risk analysis to let you know where you can mitigate risk, with the intention of smoothing out issues before they affect your SLAs.
This tool is a little more focused on storage, rather than virtual machine security, but it includes features such as special backup compliance measures and tools to ensure backups have completed successfully. You can request a demo of IT Analytics on their website.
Veeam ONE is another well-known virtual machine management tool for monitoring and analyzing your virtual and physical environments. It has real-time monitoring, reporting, and alerting, and includes reporting tools so you can maintain compliance.
It also allows you to set up alarms to let you know if your critical applications running in VMs aren't performing as expected. It also includes tracking tools for resources, so you can chargeback to appropriate usage centers. It even includes a few automated resolutions to common problems, so you can set it up to respond on your behalf if you wish to do so. You can download a free trial from their website.
Finally, I'll also quickly highlight WhatsUp Gold. This is a network monitoring tool, but it includes various add-ons if you want to focus on specific areas of monitoring. The Virtualization Monitoring Add-On is useful for also monitoring your Hyper-V and VMware infrastructure. It allows you to track and measure performance, as well as resource consumption and server availability. If you already use WhatsUp Gold, you can purchase this add-on separately. If you're looking for a general network monitoring solution but want to try out some features to look at your virtual machines, you can give this add-on a try. It's generally more suitable for small and medium-sized businesses rather than large enterprises.
At the end of the day, you need to ensure you have a set of clear best practices you follow in your organization, as well as a good understanding of how virtual machines work, why you need to monitor them, and which tools you need to do so efficiently and accurately.