There’re a bunch of virtual platforms now available on the market, and Hyper-V is one on the most popular virtualization list. Developed by Microsoft, Hyper-V has been commonly used in many home labs and organizations.
Updated by Nick Zhao on 2022/08/23
There’re a bunch of virtual platforms now available on the market, and Hyper-V is one on the most popular virtualization list. Developed by Microsoft, Hyper-V has been commonly used in many home labs and organizations. To start with, one component that can’t be missed is SCVMM, if we want to better manage resources in a large Hyper-V environment in a more flexible way.
SCVMM is short for System Center Virtual Machine Manager. It’s a part of Microsoft System Center that contains a set of management features. Compared with the built-in management tools in Windows Server that cannot work alone (need other tools’ support), SCVMM is a more convenient tool because it not only allows you to manage a Hyper-V-only environment, but even hybrid cloud that has both Hyper-V and VMware VMs.
SCVMM consists of several components that work from different sides that together drive the tool’s best performance.
•VMM Database. The database keeps data of configurations, VM and service templates, and all the other necessary information for the tool’s normal functioning.
•VMM administrator console. The front-end interface where you do all the management-related operations. It will be automatically installed on the server when you deploy SCVMM.
•VMM Database. The database keeps data of configurations, VM and service templates, and all the other necessary information for the tool’s normal functioning.
•VMM library. Used to save necessary resources needed for VM creation.
•VMM self-service portal. Provide access for users who are in need to directly manage their own virtual environment. This component is not a must have but optional.
•Add, provision and manage Hyper-V hosts and clusters.
•Create VM templates for fast VM configuration.
•Centralized management of network and storage resources.
•VM cluster load balancing.
•Library resources. SCVMM keeps file-based and non file-based resources that can be used for VM or service deployment on hosts into a library. For instance, file-based resources like ISO images scripts, and virtual hard disks; Non file-based resources like templates and profiles for the creation of a standard virtual machine.
•Take a part of control over VMware ESXi hosts.
• Provide self-service access
Despite as that much features as SCVMM provides, there’re still some disadvantages that you should know before make up your mind using this tool. Among all, the most important factors that might drag its image a little bit down are the deployment cost and operation complexity: To get SCVMM licensed can be costly, and to fully experience the benefit of its advanced features requires high technical skills. Therefore, if you have the budget, qualified IT team, and aim to centrally manage a rather large Hyper-V environment, SCVMM can be an excellent choice for you.
SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager) is a useful tool for centralized management of large-scale Hyper-V environment. When making the decision of whether to have it in your own IT infrastructure, you need to take both actual operational needs and budget into consideration.
Also, don’t forget that data security is the basis of your business’ success, that’s why data protection is always important. You can use Vinchin Backup & Recovery to backup Hyper-V VMs in an agentless, image-based approach. Driven by the powerful SpeedKit (RCT alternative), faster incremental Hyper-V VM can be achieved. The same as SCVMM, the software also provides a centralized console to have you manage all the Hyper-V backup tasks at ease. 60-day full-featured FREE trial is available to download.
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