Layout of the VMM Administrator Console

VMM taskbar

Beneath the command menu is the VMM taskbar, which displays the following command buttons:

• Actions—Display or hide the Actions pane. All actions also are available on the context menu for an object (displayed by right-clicking the object) and on the Actions command menu.
  
• Select Columns—Select columns to display in the current view, and change the order of the columns. You can add as many as 10 custom properties to Hosts view and to Virtual Machines view, and you can add library groups to Library view. Use Group by in the search area to group objects by any displayed column. For procedures for changing columns and changing the order of columns, see How to Customize Your Views.
  
• Jobs—Display or hide the Jobs window, which allows you to monitor the progress of your current jobs while you work in any view.
  

Navigation pane

The top-left pane is the navigation pane, which is used to navigate through the namespace of the current view to determine which objects are displayed in the results pane. For example, in Hosts view, the navigation pane displays host groups; selecting a host group displays the hosts in that host group in the results pane. In Virtual Machines view, you navigate through host groups and hosts to display the virtual machines deployed on a selected host in the results pane.

Results pane

The large pane in the middle of the console, known as the results pane, lists the objects selected in the navigation pane, allowing you to search for specific objects in the set, group the objects by any column, sort the objects by any column, and add or remove columns.

• Use the search area at the top of the results pane to look for and group entries in the results list:
  
  • Use Look for to search for specific objects based on text strings. Objects are filtered automatically as you type. Click Clear to clear the text and remove the filter.
    
  • Use Group by to group objects by any column in the current display. To expand or collapse groups, right-click any group header and select the appropriate option.
    
• The following features are available for the results list:
  
  • Change the columns and the order in which they appear, and sort the objects by the values in any column. For more information, see How to Customize Your Views.
    
  • Double-click a selected object to perform the default action. For most objects, double-clicking the objects opens the Properties dialog box.
    

Actions pane

The right column, known as the Actions pane, displays the actions you can perform in the current view.

The top group of actions are available in all views. Additional action groups are added to the Actions pane based on the node selected in the navigation pane and the object selected in the results pane.

The same actions are available on the Actions command menu. The actions on the Actions menu also change based on the displayed view and the selected node and object.

If an action cannot be performed on a selected object, the action is grayed and unavailable. For example, the Repair virtual machine action in Virtual Machines view is available only when the selected virtual machine is in a Failed state.