System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal 2.0 SP1 Feature Comparison
Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
This document provides information about the differences between the existing VMM Self-Service Portal and the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 SP1 (VMMSSP 2.0 SP1).
Component and Feature Comparison
The following table compares specific components and features of the existing VMM Self-Service Portal and the VMMSSP 2.0 SP1.
Table 1. Component and Feature Comparison
Component/Feature |
VMM Self-Service Portal |
VMMSSP 2.0 SP1 |
Components. |
One component, a web application hosted on Internet Information Services (IIS) that works with VMM server. |
Three components, one of which is a web application hosted on IIS. All three components, the VMMSSP website component, the VMMSSP server component, and the VMMSSP database component, must be deployed. The VMMSSP server component works with VMM server. |
Requires a separate SQL Server database? |
No, it uses the database that is deployed with VMM 2008 R2. |
Yes, requires a dedicated SQL Server database. Installing the VMMSSP server component automatically creates the database and installs the VMMSSP database component. |
Works with SQL Server 2005 Express edition? |
Yes. |
No. |
Works with SQL Server 2008 Standard and Enterprise editions? |
Yes. |
Yes. |
Supports extending and customizing virtual machine actions? |
No. |
Yes. |
Provides configuration options and controls that an administrator can use to pool and allocate datacenter resources for virtual machines? |
No. |
Yes. |
Supports allocating datacenter resources according to business unit needs, and provides standard forms for registering business units (also called on-boarding)? |
No. |
Yes. |
Provides standardized forms for creating, validating, and provisioning infrastructure requests? |
No. |
Yes. |
Helps manage virtual machines across multiple hosts? |
Yes, the following actions are supported:
*The user interface uses Remove to represent the Delete virtual machine action. |
Yes, the following actions are supported:
*The user interface uses Delete to represent the Delete virtual machine action, and uses Remove to remove a virtual machine from VMMSSP without affecting the virtual machine in VMM. **The datacenter administrator can create up to five custom virtual machine actions. |
Supports creating or restoring virtual machines from checkpoints? |
Yes. |
No. |
Supports delegated administration (users managing other users or assets)? |
No. Administrative tasks require using the VMM Administrator Console. |
Yes. Two administrative roles are available: DCIT Admin (for the datacenter administrator) and BUIT Admin (for the business unit administrator). Members of the BUIT Admin role can use VMMSSP to manage other users in their business units and the infrastructures that support the virtual machines that belong to their business units. There are two default non-administrative user roles: Advanced Operator and Business Unit User. |
Supports creating or customizing user roles? |
No. Administrators must use the VMM Administrator Console to create copies of the user roles, and change their permissions. |
Yes. Datacenter administrators can create custom user roles, and edit the permissions of any role; business unit administrators can edit the permissions of the two non-administrative roles for users within the business unit. |
Allows users to manage virtual machines other than the virtual machines they own? |
No. |
Yes. Access to virtual machines depends on user role membership instead of ownership. A business unit administrator can manage all of the virtual machines that belong to the business unit, and can associate the Advanced Operator and Business Unit User roles with subgroups of virtual machines within the business unit. |
Supports creating virtual machines in bulk? |
No. |
Yes. |
Supports setting memory and storage quotas? |
No. Administrators must use the VMM Administrator Console to configure “quota points” on virtual machine templates and to configure quota point limits on user roles. These limits apply to individual users or to the whole user role. |
Yes. Instead of quota points, VMMSSP retrieves the actual memory and storage values from virtual machine templates for quota calculations. Business unit administrators request memory and storage capacity in GB, and VMMSSP uses the virtual machine template properties to calculate the memory and storage used by the business unit’s virtual machines. |
Supported Operating System Comparison
The following table indicates which specific editions of the Windows operating system and which Windows configurations are supported for the existing VMM Self-Service Portal and the VMMSSP 2.0.
Table 2. Supported Operating System Comparison
Operating System |
VMM Self-Service Portal |
VMMSSP 2.0 |
Windows Server® 2008 R2 with HyperV™ server role |
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions with HyperV server role are supported. |
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Datacenter editions with HyperV server role are supported. |
Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or previous service packs, without Hyper-V server role |
Windows Server2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions without HyperV server role are supported |
Windows Server2008 R2 Enterprise and Datacenter editions without HyperV server role are supported |
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter editions, Server Core installation |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Windows Web Server 2008 R2 |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter editions, with Hyper-V server role |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter editions, without Hyper-V server role |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2008 Standard (32-bit x86), Enterprise (32-bit x86), or Datacenter (x86) editions, without Hyper-V server role |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter editions with SP2 or SP 1, Server Core installation |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Windows Web Server 2008 |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter editions, with SP2 |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2003 R2 with SP2 |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition with SP2 |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition with SP2 |
Yes, supported |
Not supported |
Windows® 7 |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Windows Vista® with SP1 |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Windows XP Professional with SP2 or SP3 |
Not supported |
Not supported |
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition with SP2 |
Not supported |
Not supported |