1.2 Virtual Machine Management

ZENworks Orchestrator enables you to manage and control data center jobs and processes through the application of rules, policies, scheduling, utilization, and billing data center resources. VM Management enhances the functionality of ZENworks Orchestrator Server, enabling it to control VMs in your data center.

The Orchestrator Server manages resources to perform work. It does this through automated jobs (written in Jython) that in turn are broken down into joblets that are distributed among multiple resources. For more information about ZENworks Orchestrator and Orchestrator Server operations, see What You Should Know in the Novell ZENworks Orchestrator 1.3 Developer Guide and Reference.

With VM Management, the Orchestrator Server is able to control and maximize the use of VMs in your data center. This lets you have fewer physical machines while giving your data center many additional resources. As with your physical resources, you use the ZENworks Orchestrator Console to manage the physical VM host machines and their VMs in your data center.

In addition, as calls for resources lessen and resources are released, the Orchestrator Server evaluates the capabilities of the active resources (VM or physical machine) and keeps the best resource for the job. This might include any of the currently running VMs.

The following figure shows how VM Management plugs in to the Orchestrator Server:

Figure 1-1 ZENworks VM Management Integration with ZENworks Orchestrator