Virtualization support

BMC Server Automation version 8.2 includes the following enhancements to virtualization:

New platform support

The following virtualization platforms are now supported in BMC Server Automation version 8.2:

• vCenter 5.0, ESXi 5.0
• Citrix XenServer 6.0
• RedHat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3.0 (beta)
• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)

Automatic creation of Virtual Guest Packages

You can use the new Virtual Guest Template Enrollment Job to automatically discover OS templates on VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, RHEV Manager, and Citrix XenServer systems, and create Virtual Guest Packages for the discovered templates.

The Virtual Guest Template Enrollment Job discovers all OS templates on the virtual entity managers that you specify, creates Virtual Guest Package for the discovered templates, and stores them in the Depot folder that you specify.

This new job can greatly reduce the amount of time it takes you to set up Virtual Guest Packages.

New support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualization environments

BMC Server Automation provides support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3.0 environments:

• Virtual Guest Package and Virtual Guest Job support for bare metal and template-based provisioning in an RHEV environment
• Deploy support for RHEV environments
  • Modification of memory and CPU of an RHEV virtual guest
  • Addition of new disk or network to an RHEV virtual guest
  • Deletion of an existing disk or a network from a virtual guest
  • Modification of the power state of an RHEV virtual guest 
• Auto discovery for RHEV templates and enrollment as Virtual Guest Package using the new Virtual Guest Template Enrollment Job
• Live browse support for the following RHEV objects:
  • Datacenters
  • Clusters
  • Hosts
  • Virtual Machines
  • Templates

Extended support for Microsoft Hyper-V environments

BMC Server Automation provides additional support for Microsoft Hyper-V environments:

• New Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) configuration object

  Note

  The Microsoft Hyper-V configuration object that was released in version 8.1 is now deprecated. BMC recommends that you delete the Microsoft SCVMM configuration object, because it has been replaced in version 8.2 with the new Microsoft VMM configuration object. You must also recreate any artifacts (such as Snapshot or Audit Jobs) that were created by using the 8.1 Microsoft Hyper-V configuration object.

• Virtual Guest Package and Virtual Guest Job support for bare metal and template-based provisioning in a Hyper-V environment
• Deploy support for Hyper-V environments
  • Modification of memory and CPU of a Hyper-V virtual guest
  • Modification of the power state of a Hyper-V virtual guest
• Auto discovery for Hyper-V templates and enrollment as Virtual Guest Package using the new Virtual Guest Template Enrollment Job
• Live browse support for the following Hyper-V objects:
  • Clusters
  • Hosts
  • Virtual Machines (VMs)

New Java-based VMware configuration object

In previous versions, you had to install a special vCenter agent when you set up the environment for VMware. In version BMC Server Automation version 8.2, the requirement for a specialized VMware agent is removed. There is a new Java-based configuration object for VMware, which provides significant improvments to performance when using BMC Server Automation in a VMware environment. This change results in the following differences from previous versions:

• You now install the basic Microsoft Windows agent on the vCenter server when you set up the environment for VMware.
• There is no longer a bl-vmware.log file. With version 8.2, all of the VMware-related logs are written to files named blcoserver_.log*. These files are stored in the installationDirectory\RSCD folder. For example, on a Windows system, the files would be in C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BladeLogic\RSCD, by default.

For more information about configuring BMC Server Automation for a VMware environment, see Setting up a VMware vSphere environment.

Improvements to Virtual Guest Package and Virtual Guest Job user interface

The following sections describe improvements to the usability of the Virtual Guest Package and Virtual Guest Job panels. 

Improvements for VMware virtual machines

Support for Thin Disk Provisioning has been added for VMware.

Improvements for IBM LPARs

• The basic settings needed to create a logical partition (LPAR) or Virtual I/O (VIO) server (such as partion name, processor settings, and memory settings) are now on the first panel (General panel). There is also a new checkbox on this panel where you can choose to manage storage automatically, or manually configuring storage.
• The assets are divided between the Storage and Network panels, based on whether they are used to configure the storage or network for a LPAR or VIO server. If you chose to manage storage automatically, the Storage panel provides options for:
  • Adding a virtual disk to LPAR
  • Attaching a physical volume to LPAR
• On the Physical I/O panel, you can configured which of the various supported physical devices can be attached to the LPAR or VIO server.
• The optional settings such as Boot Mode and Workload Group are now shown on the Advanced panel. This panel also includes a new option for specifying shared memory settings.

Improvements for Solaris zones

• The basic settings needed to create a non-global zone (such as zone name, zone path, target resource pool, processor settings, and memory settings are now on the first panel (General panel).
• The assets are divided between the Network and File System panels based on whether they are used to configure a network or file sytem for a non-global zone.
• The optional settings such as boot arguments, scheduling class, devices, custom attributes, and resource controls are now on the Advanced panel.