Exploring the VMM Administrator Console

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

You can perform all administrative tasks in Virtual Machine Manager with VMM Administrator Console.

User interface of the VMM Administrator Console

The console enables you to perform the following operations:

  • Work with hosts, virtual machines, library resources, and reports; monitor jobs; and perform administrative tasks for Virtual Machine Manager.

  • Use the drag-and-drop method to migrate virtual machines to hosts and host groups.

  • View detailed status and an audit trail for jobs in Jobs view. View the date and time for all jobs in your local time on the VMM Administrator Console.

  • Centrally manage files on multiple library servers in Library view.

Console Views

Every view in the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) Administrator Console has its own navigation pane, filters, results pane, details pane, and actions for performing tasks. Every view provides work areas for major task areas in the VMM Administrator Console.

You can display the views in the VMM Administrator Console by using one of the following methods:

  • Click one of the view buttons—Hosts, Virtual Machines, Library, Jobs, Administration, Reporting or Diagram—beneath the navigation pane on the left side of the console.

  • On the Go menu, click the view that you want to display.

The following table summarizes the tasks performed in each view.

View Tasks

Hosts

Add, remove, and monitor the status of virtual machine hosts. Configure virtual networks, placement options, virtual machine paths, and custom properties on a host. Enable remote connections to virtual machines. Register existing virtual machines on a host. For more information about tasks performed on hosts, see Managing Hosts (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=163326).

Create and delete host groups for ease of monitoring and managing hosts. Configure host reserves and self-service policies for host groups. For more information about tasks performed on host groups, see About Host Groups.

Virtual Machines

Create, deploy, migrate, operate, connect to, clone, repair, store, and remove virtual machines. Create checkpoints so that you can restore virtual machines to a previous state.

Library

Add file-based resources to the Virtual Machine Manager library for use in creating virtual machines. Add library servers and library shares. Refresh a library share to immediately index its files in Virtual Machine Manager. (By default, all library shares are refreshed every hour.)

Configure guest operating system profiles, hardware profiles, and virtual machine templates for use in virtual machine creation.

For more information about tasks performed in Library view, see Configuring the VMM Library (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=125945).

Jobs

Monitor, cancel, restart, search, sort, filter, and group jobs. You can also view the changes that a job made to objects in Virtual Machine Manager. For more information about Jobs view, see About Jobs (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162787).

Administration

Overview—View graphical summary information of the environment (hosts, virtual machines, recent jobs, and library resources)

General—Configure global VMM settings, such as Remote Control and PRO.

Managed Computers—Manage Virtual Machine Manager agents on managed hosts and library servers. Update the agent, remove agent roles, and re-associate agents with the current VMM server.

Networking—View the MAC address range used by VMM across all managed hosts.

User Roles—View all existing user roles grouped by profile type.

System Center—View reports generated by System Center Operations Manager.

Virtualization Managers—View all available virtualization managers, such as Virtual Machine Manager and VMware VirtualCenter Server.

For more information about tasks performed in Administration view, see Administration (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162790).

Reporting

View and open reports. For more information about tasks performed in Reporting view, see Monitoring and Reporting (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162991).

Diagram

Diagram view is a hierarchical view that shows the health of the Virtual Machine Manager server, database server, library servers, hosts, virtual machines, and VMware VirtualCenter servers. Diagram view is only available if you have configured Operations Manager. For more information, see Configuring Operations Manager Integration with VMM (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120283).

Networking

Displays a graphical representation of the current network configuration.

To see hosts in the Networking view:

  • From Hosts view, click View networking in the Actions pane, or right-click a Host and select View networking.

To see a virtual machine in the Networking view:

  1. Click the Networking toolbar button.

  2. In the Select Objects to Display dialog box, select virtual machines.

See Also

Other Resources

How to Customize Your Views